"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."
--Isaiah 5:20-24
NO amount of reasoning will sink into some heads... or hearts, and with it the understanding that God has declared standards inwhich we are to live if we wish to be accepted by God. God seeks to reason with us-- desires us to see the world as He sees it, but we are too often caught up in ourselves to see and hear what He has to show us... what He wants us to hear. For as much as He desires we see and hear his will He will not force us, for what need has God of slaves? Instead, He has declared that we must either accept His truth of our own free will, or we will be barred from His presence for all eternity... separated from God. It's as simple as that.
The Bible, from beginning to end, is a story about God working to save mankind from his sin-- God Himself utters the first prophesy in Genesis 3:15 --and throughout the thousands of years of history that follow, the story ends with all things made right... the wheat and tares separated at last... the Bride redeemed.
But for as long as God has been working to make all things according to His will and word, Satan has worked to prevent His will in the minds of men, and pervert His word. Satan has crafted many religions to take man's eyes off of God... MANY religions. And to keep as many of God's people from being effective workers in the Great Harvest, he has sown confusion through numerous translations of God's word, even going so far as to create whole new "holy" books out of thin lifeless air-- the Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, the Veda Scriptures-- To say nothing of the numerous translations of the Bible itself. How anyone can say they all share the same truth is beyond reason.
It then stands to reason that some have the faith and some do not. Now, far be it from me to say who is and who is not saved, but I can, with great confidence, say which religions are true and which are false.
As to True Religion. There is only one... Christianity, which in its purest form is as James described it: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." [James 1:27] Or, in effect, to "love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" [Deuteronomy 6:5], and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Everything else is false. Every other faith, every other religion... anything outside the living word of God is false. Which means everything else is at odds with Christianity. But this should not be particularly surprising-- we are, after all, at war, though many refuse to either see it, or admit it... And both tacks are dangerous courses.
To say we, as Christians, are not at war with the forces of evil, is to say it doesn't matter what one believes so long as one is moving steadily toward God. But that is what Satan wants us to believe, and sadly, many do. So what if in end the god one has seen on the horizon and dilligently strove to reach turns out to be nothing more than ghost-light, and not God at all? Does such a one earn points for being a devoted follower of whatever? Who followed the teachings of Jesus without realizing it? Surely following the teachings of Jesus is enough to earn a walk through the heavenly turnstile, right?
No. And that is the saddest fact of this war we're currently engaged in, for the hearts and minds of untold millions who will die without Jesus and be forever separated from God. It is not enough to believe... "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble..." [James 2:19] Nor is it enough to follow Jesus' teaching, whether one has heard of Jesus or not. What IS enough is accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and earnestly believing that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and that God raised Him from the dead. Simply put, Ye must be born again... Plus nothing, minus nothing.
Some churches claim to follow Christ and His teachings, but offer membership into the congregation of saints to those who are not saints. These churches preach a gospel of tolerance, and acceptance while steadfastly denying any need for an individual member to separate himself from the unrighteous, or repent of sin, claiming that if God has made a man so, his sin is somehow not sin. And these members are welcomed fully; excluding them from nothing, for not only are sinners welcomed to communion, but their sin as well. This is not to say the doors of the Church are to be barred to the sinner-- were this the case our churches would never see a single soul pass through their doors --but everyone is welcome to the service; everyone is welcome to pray at the altar, everyone is welcome to hold a hymnal and sing with the congregation, everyone is welcome to open the bible provided in the back of every pew... but not everyone is welcome, or free, to partake of the Communion of Christ.
Matthew 7:6 says, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." In other words, the ordinances of the Church are for believers alone. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" Many say this applies only to marriage, but it also applies to friendships and fellowships. The unbeliever is welcome in the pews, and the saints of God are commanded to love them as themselves, but just as believers are often hard on themselves for personal sin, so too must the congregation be uncompromising on the sin of the unbeliever. Uncompromising but not cruel. Uncompromising but genuinely welcoming, with a true concern for that soul's eternal well-being.
As if all this weren't enough, Some churches accept sinners into their folds without requiring repentance... or salvation... teaching their new "converts" by example that this is right and acceptable to God. These churches make no effort to secure the souls of their members, thinking they are doing the will of God by being loving and kind.
Which brings me to Isaiah 5:20-24. What is the reward for such churches? Those who call evil good, and good evil? For all that these people believe they are following God's will, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23...
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So where are we today?
A Church that is in disarray. Liberalism has crept into the pews. But Liberalism, for all it has sought to be loving, accepting, and altruistic-- to be all things to all people --it has ended up confused, incoherent, and ineffective... And a poor excuse for sainthood.
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[typos will be dealt with later]
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The universe is huge. Man in relation is atomic. The bible however describes the whole point of creation as centered around humanity. If you look in the sky you can see about 3000 lights. Most of those lights are galaxies. Collections of millions of other stars. The bible sees all those lights as only candles. Put there by a stern, disciplinarian, so it could better watch its pets in the night. How does the bible address medicine? What does it have to say about physics? Bacteria? Birth control? If the bible doesn't understand the real universe, then it isn't an accurate reflection of the universe's creator.
But you don't question you religion. You have "faith". You "know" what God thinks about homosexuality, heterosexuality, birth control, marriage, feminism, racism and multiculturalism.
You just keep on fighting over whether your martini is shaken or stirred.
Let's constrast the two. With Christianity, and to a large extent Judaism, there is a depiction of a God who sacrifices himself for his followers. Islam describes a god for whom its followers must sacrifice themselves. Christianity and Judaism love life and they seek to love their neighbors, while Islam loves death-- courts it with every suicide bomber, and every infant raised to hate non-Muslims. Christianity specifically and Judaism by extension seek to make the world a better place by loving their neighbors and demonstrating to a dying world the infinite love of God. Islam seeks to bring peace by the sword; conquering, killing, maiming, beheading, stoning, oppressing....
Christianity can trace its roots all the way back to Adam [Genesis 3:15] Islam can trace its roots back to idol worship; specifically, the moon god.
On the top of every mosque is a cresent moon and star. God warned the Hebrews of such practices in Deuteronomy 4:19, but for context let's begin with verse 15...
"Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."
Jeremiah 19:13 also speaks of this practice...
"And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods."
The same rites practiced by the Muslims at the Kaba in Mecca before Muhaddad co-opted much of that faith and called it Islam. And as Jeremiah pointed out, even the Israelites fell into this sin.
There is, right this moment, a spiritual war being waged in the heavenlies, and here on earth. It is a spiritual battle we are in; though it seems at times we war against flesh and blood. Turning our hearts to Islam in an effort to understand and somehow establish a peaceful dialog is impossible-- Anything that is not OF God, is at odds [enmity] with God, including the hearts and minds of otherwise good and reasonable people. But how do you reason with a religion whose adherents worship death, whose ultimate goal is peace via subjugation? You don't.
"...what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"
None.
Anyone whose reads the Bible and believes knows with complete certainty who is and is not damned for eternity. This is knowledge that GOD possesses and has shared with us through His word. I also possess this knowledge-- if not the specific state of each individual man's soul. I CAN say with complete certainty that Islam and it's worshippers DO NOT worship God or His son Jesus, nor do they recognize Jesus as God incarnate, and therefore cannot be saved, and WILL inheret eternal damnation, unless someone convinces them of the truth and they repent.
I visited your site, and your assertion and fears that this world is facing a nuclear winter are founded in truth, but I feel your focus is not where it should be. Focus instead on hiding the word of God in your heart and turning your hopes for the future over to Jesus. Let HIM be your savior and provider, then point others to the cross. In this way you will avoid the worst of it, as will those you pull from the fire. For if every Christian in the world pulled just 5 people from the fires of hell, we could change the world.
Narrow is the way of the churches which open their doors and allow God's grace to pour over all, to effect repentance.
Broad is the way of churches who judge others so quickly and so harshly because they have it all figured out, based on a Bible they venerate to the point of worship, which is idolatry of paper and glue, and who lean on their own understanding, which is worship of self.
And this is perhaps the greatest failing of the modern church.
"If you have seen me, you have seen the father"
"I and my father are one"
"Before Abraham was, I AM"
It doesn't get much clearer than that.
And I am neither being (overly) critical nor scoffing.
Do they still call themselves Christians? Why?
Some believe in transsubantiation and some do not, yet both are called Christians.
Some believe in tongues and some do not, yet both are called Christians.
Some take the Bible literally, as if God spoke into a Dictaphone, and some do not, yet both are called Christians.
Some believe the Bible is the "World of God" and some, myself incouded, reserve that label for the Logos, that is, Christ himself, yet both are considered Christians.
Some follow Jesus. Some worship the Christ. They are *not* the same thing. Yet both are called Christians.
Sorry. I went off a little bit. It just chars my gristle when any Christian looks at another group of Christians and wonders "Why" they call themselves "Christians."
In a nutshell, mom2, I'd put it this way: It is not necesarry to believe that Jesus is God. What *is* necessary is to trust that God, through Jesus, has somehow made it possible for me to have a relationship with God. Where you see hard-and-fast doctine, others see an opportunity to embrace the mystery -- yet both trust in the Cross, and therefore both are Christians!
Web definitions all agree... "Christ" is synonymous with Jesus of Nazareth.
Strictly speaking "Christ" in Greek means "Annointed One" --equivalent to the Hebrew "Messiah". Dude, they are one and the same.
I take issue with a few other statements of yours but time doesn't allow me to even to address them. Perhaps someone else.