Note from David Churchill, editor of Exploring God’s Word --
     The Bible is quite clear about what a person must do to become and to be a Christian.  Sometimes when we ask people to leave their denominational backgrounds and to follow the Bible’s instructions, they accuse us of being closed-minded, of being inconsiderate of their beliefs.  If anything, as Christians we definitely should be open-minded, ready to consider the truth wherever we find it and ready to admit our genuine mistakes whenever brought to our attention.  In that light, it seems only reasonable that before we might expect others to listen to our corrections, they might need to hear us speak of their correctness.  For example, in the Book of Acts, often when the apostle Paul begins preaching to a group of people, he first acknowledges what they are already doing right, and then persuades them to correct what they are doing wrong.
     “With an Open Mind” is different from the other feature columns where the articles are prepared by faithful Christians experienced at studying the Bible.  This column’s selected articles were written by either denominational men who blatantly practiced a broader definition of Christianity than the New Testament teaches or else by men whose membership was not identified to me.  Therefore, presentation of these articles does NOT mean this congregation or I agree, completely or even partially, with everything the authors express here or in their other writings or with their denominations’ doctrines or with their opinions of themselves as being Christians.  These particular articles ARE presented here because, in them, each author demonstrates an open-mindness towards God’s Word and a willingness to think for himself even if he must disagree with some portion of his denomination’s “official” teaching that he sees as opposing clear Bible teaching.
     As you read these articles, look for how each of these authors shows rare courage to study the Bible for himself, to think for himself, to understand for himself, and to stand firmly on that understanding until reasonably persuaded of some correction he needs to make.
     A word of caution:  Many of these authors did record some mistaken understandings.  Please consider the example they tried to set … search the Scriptures for yourself to determine if what they taught is correct.  Also, remember that some of these authors wrote their articles during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s … what they wrote concerning their particular denominations may or may not represent those denominations as they are today.