The Presiding Bishop, Katherine Schori, finally stated outright her answer to the question of whether she thought that Jesus is the only route to salvation or are there other ways. In the past her reply as been that she “does not keep God in a small box” but this time she answered in a manner that squelches any speculations about her beliefs. She said the she believes that there are other ways for man to achieve salvation. She claimed that she could not elaborate on the mechanism and that how it worked did not concern her, she was simply positive that there are multiple avenues to salvation, that God would not create just one path (I guess that this is regardless of what He actually says).This statement follows on the heels of her comment at the opening of General Convention 2009 that salvation was not for individuals and that it was arrogant for an individual to claim a personal relationship ship with his or her creator. I ask now, as I asked then, “now who’s putting God in a small box?”

I have to wonder where she comes up with these views. They are not found in scripture no matter how liberally you wish to interpret the Bible. Just as Jesus (God incarnate, remember?) teaches us that salvation is granted on an individual basis to those whom God gifts with His precious grace, Jesus (God incarnate, remember?) tells us explicitly that

“No one comes to the Father except through me”
(John 14:6).

In making her statement she denies not just Holy Scripture but the words of Jesus Christ himself. She is not simply setting aside the authority of Scripture she is implying that Jesus (God incarnate, remember?) is at best not telling us the whole truth and at worse he is bold face lying to us. I’m sure she won’t see it this way but if one honestly reviews her words how else can they be taken and still truly reflect what she claims to believe?

Is Presiding Bishop Schori proclaiming heresy or is she only guilty of misinterpreting and misunderstanding the intentions of God as He has revealed His intentions to us in scripture or is she deliberately ignoring the Word of God and replacing His plan for the salvation of man with her own? That is a question I would like to explore and share with you, gentle reader, my thoughts. First lets us start with her belief that salvation and a relationship with God is not about the individual. Her words:

“The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”
“That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention.”
“We are our siblings’ keepers and their knowers (sic), and we cannot be known without them – we have no meaning, no true existence in isolation”

In Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” That bit of scripture sure sounds like Abram had a right, individual relationship with God. Not only did Abram have a right relationship with God but God credited Abram as righteous because Abram believed the LORD. Admittedly, Abram is a special case in that God had called him away from his home and leds him to a land that God promised to give to the offspring of Abram. What about the average Joe? Does the average believer need to be concerned about his individual sins or with the sins of the group or clan he belongs to? Scripture answers this for us as well.
The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.

“But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live.
(Ezekiel 18:20-22)

Here we have God dealing with the individual not the group or the clan. The sins of the father are not visited about the son. The father is held accountable for his sins on an individual basis and the son is held responsible for his sins. If either should turn from their sins and call upon the name the Lord they will be accounted as righteous. These are two of many quotes from scripture that completely dispute the Presiding Bishop’s declaration of “the great Western heresy” God dealing with me as an individual does not put “me and my words in a place that only God can occupy” It puts me and my choices in the exact spot that God wants them to be, where he can judge me based on my individual faith for my sake and my sake alone. Is the god that Presiding Bishop seeks to have us follow so limited that he cannot be with all men at once? Is the god of Bishop Schori incapable of being infinite and omnipresent? That does not sound like the God of the Bible who knows all things and is everywhere and every when. How can the God who tells me that

“even the very hairs of your head are all numbered”
(Matthew 10:30)

be so limited in his dealings with his creation that he cannot take time for me, one on one? How can a God who knows that level of detail about every human being that lived, lives and will live not deal with his creation individually? How could God be a just God if he judges based on the group? Did not Abram barter with God to spare Sodom if 10 righteous people (individuals) be found and did not God agree to spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people?

Perhaps Bishop Schori worships a different god than the God of the bible. Perhaps she pays homage to a god who is neither omnipotent nor omnipresent but is instead a limited god who is incapable of being with his entire creation at once. Perhaps her god is not even a creator god but one who wishes to be a usurper god and a destroyer of creation?

Of course One True God deals with us individually and offers salvation to us on an individual bases. To suggest otherwise flies in the face of scripture as it is read. To suggest otherwise denies the revealed plan of God for the salvation of man and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. To deny God’s ability to save individuals and to have a right relationship with individuals slams shut to door to the Kingdom of God. It slam shuts the only door to the Kingdom, Christ Jesus.

Bishop Schori would have us believe that there are more avenues to salvation and the Kingdom of God in defiance of the Word of our savior Jesus Christ. How can she claim to be a Christian when she disputes the Word of the one upon whom our faith is based? If there are other ways to salvation then it would be completely unnecessary for Jesus to be crucified in the first place. His atoning death upon the cross would have had no meaning and his resurrection would be reduced to astonishing parlor trick and nothing more. What would it say about a god who sends his only son, perfect and sinless, to filled with the all sins of mankind, to order his obedient son to be beaten and humiliated and then to suffer an agonizing death upon the worse instrument of execution ever devised by man, all for absolutely no reason. Who would wish to worship such a god as this?

For that reason and that reason alone Bishop Schori is guilty of heresy and perhaps of even worse. Her words reduce the kind and loving Creator God who seeks to heal His creation in to a sadistic monster who finds amusement in the torturing and killing of his only Son, presumably for His own entertainment and no other reason. This is the god that the Presiding Bishop is offering her church. The gospel she has concocted is no gospel at all but the promise of certain damnation for anyone gullible enough to accept her words at face value. Just stop for a minute and think of what her words imply and what promises are held forth in them.

She is distorting the truth of the gospel to appease some unknown force that motivates her. Sadly, she may even believe the words she speaks and does not realize the implications of her “new thing”. Perhaps she should sit down and read a little more closely at what Christ tells us.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
(John 14:6)

That seems cut and dry to me. It does not end with “or one of these other ways.”

She wonders how she can tell a Buddhist or and Muslim that they are facing eternal damnation because God only created one way to salvation. Since she claims not to be concerned with the mechanism, perhaps she should be equally unconcerned about God’s reasoning for creating only one way to redemption. Besides, the offer of redemption is open to everyone. Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or atheist need only to reach out to Christ and accept his atoning death upon the cross to be given the gift of salvation and the right to call oneself a child of God. God is not excluding anyone. When Christ died upon the cross for the sins of all mankind, the invitation to each individual in the world was extended to join with the resurrected Son of God as the people of God. The only requirement was the RSVP of belief.

Bishop Schori, however, views this as an example of the intolerance of Christian belief. It is ironic that in her quest to be seen as an accepting and tolerant person of God who will show everyone the real way to salvation she is in fact putting up a detour sign on the narrow path that points to the broad road that leads to destruction. She tells us that the belief that Christ is the only way is a work and that salvation is by faith along but this is self-contradictory. Belief in Jesus as mankind’s only hope is not a work because one can only believe this if the One True God calls that person to belief with his gift of grace. If the Muslim does not believe then it is because God has not called him. This is the word of the Lord:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. (John 6:44).

Bishop Schori recognizes that one must have faith in something so is she implying that simply believing that we are saved gains us salvation? Can we believe just any old thing and that is good enough to see the Kingdom of God? Can I commit any sin I want just as long as I believe that I’m going the heaven or are the specific sins that it is ok for me commit and others that I cannot. If this is the case where do I find the list? How do know what is acceptable and what is not. If it feels good can I just do it? What if it feels good to walk in to a crowded café with a bomb vest on and set it off so that I kill about twenty or thirty innocent people? Will I still be saved because I have faith that I am being saved?

Her whole view of spirituality and Christianity is a contradiction and an appeal to be all things to all people. It is truly a postmodern theology that deconstructs itself upon closer examination and offers no true salvation. All it gives to the believer is faux sense of rightness with something other than themselves and a false validation that their sins are not really sins but gifts from God. As long as one does not delve to deeply into questions that those who promote this false doctrine do not want to be asked, a follower of Schorism can sleep at night with a false confidence that everything is going to be okay. If you love your sin so much that you are unwilling to cast it away for an eternity of bliss then I guess this is the way to go.

If anyone would bother to spend a little time examining the Schori Doctrine of Salvation they will quickly come the conclusion that it really leads nowhere, especially to salvation and the Kingdom of God. It has no basis in scripture or in any Christian tradition. It is nothing more than some feel good ideas strung together on gossamer threads. At best it is Gnostic but probably it is more demonic than Gnostic. I remember John Lennon telling us that whatever gets us through the night is alright, alright. From my current perspective I do not believe that this is true. Eventually a night will come in which the darkness will never go way but there will be a large contingent of people waiting for the dawn. Waiting and waiting and waiting. Thank you Ms Schori.

In a previous article (The Renewing of Our Minds), I kind of implied that the lack of good Biblical education and quality Bible study habits by many in the Church laity was in large part at fault for the heresies being introduced and practiced in many of the traditional mainstream protestant churches. I think now is the time to say it out right. If every day, average Joe Christians had been picking up and reading their Bibles daily, taking God’s word to heart and then living out those commandments it would have been a lot harder for the invaders from secular society to infiltrate the Church. By not truly knowing or understanding what Christ’s message is and relying solely on someone at the pulpit to educate the masses then the curse of false doctrines taking hold within Christianity was inevitable. The divide that we now see between those who adhere to the gospel as it came down from Christ Jesus though the Apostles and those who claim that God is doing some previously unannounced “new thing” was inevitable.

Those of the secular liberal clergy who lead many of the churches realize that anyone who has or gains an understanding of Biblical teaching and principles will be able to challenge the authority of the minister’s words using sound Scriptural arguments. Paul verified this when he wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16). To counter this, the first thing that worldly Church leaders tend to do is question the true authority and authenticity of Scripture and when they deem that the time is right they replace Scriptural authority with Church traditions which are open to a more ambiguous interpretation by clergy. Once again in Scripture the apostles warned of this the author of Jude reminds us, “They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the spirit.” (Jude 1:18-19). What these supposed servants of the Lord are saying is “the Bible got some stuff wrong and we will tell you what it really means based on what the Church believes.” Because many Church goers have been relying on the pulpit to explain things to them for so long they do not question this heresy or even see it as a heresy. It is just the status quo to them. Just sit in the pews and let the minister tell them what is and is not God’s will.

Now this is where the worldly fun begins as the liberal clergy starts looking around at society and examining what is going on. Their efforts here are to make the Church conform to societal norms and worldly behavior. When the world decides that killing the unborn is a good thing then the worldly church leaders jump on the band wagon. Many farfetched claims are made to justify what many consider out and out murder. They claim that it is better to terminate the child than to have it grow up unwanted in an abusive environment. They claim the mother will have a better life if left unimpeded by a child that will bring her standard of living down.

One I hear a lot is that the fetus is in reality just a parasite in the woman’s body. It is a simple clump of cells that use the woman for nourishment and development and are doing this against her will. Funny but I’ve never heard of a parasite that contained half of the host’s DNA and the other half being generally a voluntary donation to the mother’s reproductive system. I am no biologist but I don’t think that this fits the true definition of a parasite. Anyways, they cannot have a bunch of pious Christians running around talking about sin and damnation and pointing out to everyone that abortion is an abomination in the eyes of God. It is murder of the innocent and anyone who has any honest understanding of Scripture will know this.

How a Christian Church, a place where God’s word should reign sovereign, could consider this abominable doctrine a valid Christian belief and then preach it to its members as something acceptable to God is beyond me. Even more astonishing is that many people who claim to be members of the Body of Christ can accept this deviation from God’s law as a valid exception to the “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) commandment. Admittedly I’ve only been studying the Bible for a couple of years but I have yet come across any exceptions or mention of extenuating circumstances in which God will authorize the breaking of one of the commandments in the Decalogue.

Another area where the Church has looked over society and said this is good is the area of same sex marriages. When society seeks to establish same sex marriages then the secularly led Church must seek to do the same and looks first for ways in Scripture to justify this. The Lord, however, is very specific when it comes to marriage. He tells us in the opening chapters of Genesis, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Since that will not work they look to science and genetics and tell us that since people are genetically predisposed to homosexual behavior then God the Creator must approve. After all He created the DNA that caused someone to become a homosexual. We are told that if Moses had known about genetics when he wrote Leviticus then he never would have put the prohibitions on same sex sexual relations in the law. Moses may not have known about genetics and DNA but I’m fairly certain that the Holy Spirit did as He guided Moses in the writing of the Pentateuch and moved Moses to include restrictions on this type of behavior.

Still many mainstream Churches are telling us that we are not behaving as Jesus would have us behave. We are not being tolerant of our homosexual brothers and sisters and we should welcome them into the Church with open arms and tell them that it is just fine and dandy if they want to participate in an act that God has strictly forbidden. They do not have to repent from such behavior because even though God told us that it was wrong He apparently was only kidding because He genetically made them to desire this sort of activity. I hate to break the news to the heretics but science it determining that God seems to have made alcoholics and drug addicts genetically predisposed to over indulging in alcohol and drugs but they are still expected to repent, ask forgiveness of their sins and renounce the sinful behavior. I do not think that the Holy Spirit would be able to live and function in a practicing alcoholic. Once the alcoholic repents and renounces his sin the Lord removes the urge to drink and strengthens him to remain alcohol free.

God seems to have created all of us with various difficulties in our nature that He expects us to overcome in order to show Him our love and to bring Him glory. For some it is lust, for others it is alcohol and drugs and for others it is homosexual desires. God is not telling homosexuals that they are barred from the gates of Heaven. He is simply telling them to renounce their sinful nature, give it to God for Him to deal with and “go forth and sin no more”. The Lord expects the same thing from all sinners who seek the grace and forgiveness of God. No one is exempt for this, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If any man would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Mark 8:34). Christ is telling us that we (the Church) must be more like him.

Somehow the liberal clergy got things turned around. Instead of the Church being a example of Christ’s virtue and a witness to the world, the Church decided that its views and behaviors should closely reflect that of society at large. The Church was supposed to remain separate from the world even at the risk of persecution. Christ told us “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19). Lately, however, the Church’s response to this seems to be to pull away from Christ and seek for the love and adoration of the world. This is a true heresy and the path damnation. Unfortunately an uneducated laity does not know any better and responds to the liberal Church’s heresy with acceptance and approval.

Now what is left to do? It will be difficult of not impossible for even the regenerate to change the direction that the visible Church is now taking. Many have accepted the heresy and pronounced it good. The liberal clergy have embraced the very things that the Lord our God warned them not to and now teach that these things are in harmony with the will of God. However they cannot produce the Scripture that validates this interpretation. They tell us it is ‘a new thing’ given to us by the Holy Spirit but Paul warned us about new things that have no Scriptural basis. He reiterated, “As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned” (Galatians 1:9). If it were just the teachers of heresy who were bringing eternal condemnation upon themselves that would be one thing. Unfortunately a lot of people will be taking the fall with them. Oh for the want of a desire to read and study the Bible, the souls that could have been saved.

What is left to do? We regenerate are limited in our abilities. God, however, is not so constrained and may have ideas of his own…

The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Isaiah 29:13-14

How much time does the average Christian spend revering our Creator, the Lord God almighty? I know that we do it when we go to church on Sundays but how often do we do it in our homes or at our jobs or even in the car driving to what ever destination we seek? When we do take the opportunity, how long do we spend in reverence to our Lord? Is it just a couple of minutes at the start of prayer so we will not seem greedy by jumping straight away to the petitions? Do we really think that we are fooling God?

I try to revere the Lord at the start of every prayer. Sometimes my prayers contain nothing but honoring and worshipping God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It seems that I have so much to be thankful for that I just can not bring myself to ask him for anything for myself other than forgiveness of my sins. God is wholly good and deserves all the recognition and love we can offer him. He forgives us for our sins though we are unworthy of that forgiveness. He blesses our lives ignoring the fact that we are sinful by nature and as long as we live on this world we will harbor sin at our core. He knows this and embraces us with His love anyways. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8.

Can you imagine sending one of your loved ones to die for someone who constantly defies you and holds you in contempt and may even refuse to recognize your existence? God did just that for us because He loves us and He wants to restore the relationship that He had with man in the Garden of Eden. He seeks to give us that which we could not obtain on our own, the righteousness that comes from faith in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. What an amazing and generous thing that our Creator has done for us. He holds out His hand grasping our salvation and even though some slap it away, others reach out to humbly accept what the Lord is offering. Praise be to Jesus the Savior of the world.

I find it most saddening that some will never know the goodness and love that God offers to us. Some just can not accept that love because by doing so they would have to face the fact that there are things bigger and more important than they are and that they do not control their own existence. What a blow to the prideful to face the truth that someone else is running the show that they call their lives. What can not be accepted, however, will be denied regardless of the facts that lay before them. It seems the illusion of self autonomy is preferable to the freedom offered by recognizing who you live for and who you serve. It is an illusion for the prideful to believe that they are not the slave of another. They are slaves to their vices or their ego or to material things. We are all slaves to something but only those who realize this and break the yoke of sin and accept the yoke of Jesus can truly know freedom. And though the prideful may be slaves to their sinful nature all things, in the end, serve the Lord.

So, recognizing that the Lord has freed me from my sinful state, I take upon myself servitude to the Lord Jesus Christ and I give Him thanks and praise for all that he has done for the world, believers and me. Sometimes my prayers can be summed up as nothing more than “I love you God” because I do love the Lord with all my heart and soul. How often do we just tell God that we love Him? Lately I find myself saying it all through the day. I have yet to find a place that is so hectic and distracting that I could not bow my head or look up to the sky and say “I love you Lord.” When time allows I say much more.

In my quiet moments I speak to God words of praise and delight. The Father has no need for such words but it does please Him to hear them and they are a joy for me to say. How much thanks and praise can I give the one who freed me from my sins and forgave me for all my discordant behavior and have it be enough? I could praise and honor Him for all eternity and it still will not come close to making good on the debt for which He has put behind Him. I recall the words Jesus when told Simon the Pharisee about loving much for being forgiven much (Luke 7:36-50) and I realize just how much the Lord God has forgiven me and I know just how much I love Him for His sacrifice upon the cross.

When things get busy and there seems little time for prayer and honoring our Lord, just envision Christ upon the cross at Golgotha and mediate upon the reasons that He is dying there. The daily grind of the world will seem a little less important. When one truly understands the depths that he or she has been forgiven, reverence of the Father becomes an easier thing to do. Just look around and see the beauty of his creation. Just look at this world and see his handy work. Get some pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and gaze at the Master Artist’s cosmic master piece. Michelangelo’s canvas was the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel but God’s canvas is the heavens above us and the earth below our feet.

Look on these glorious signs of a creative and loving God and remember that God’s Word brought them in to being. And while he was busy creating all these majestic wonders in the heavens and earth he took the time to create such little things as you and me. Though we are little things in the eyes of God and other men, He thinks so much of us that he has offered us eternity as a gift and time out of time to be in His blissful presence. As an act of gratitude, the least we should do is to return to him one of the gifts He has given us… eternal love.

Sometimes I just do not know how to say things in a way that does not come across as offensive to some. Since this is one of those times I guess I should just come right out and say it. There is a decidedly anti-intellectual mind set in much of the Christian Church and I believe that it is responsible for a lot of the angst that the Church is experiencing today. It is almost like being personally familiar with the Bible and the writings of Church theologians are bad things. I am not sure why this is, but it seems to have a greater effect on how the world views Christians than one might expect. I was surprised to find out just how many people that I know who are good Christians but have not bothered to pick up and read a Bible in years. I was shocked to find out how many Christians have not read the Bible at all. They may have picked it up and turned to a passage that they heard in Church or they may have earnestly started to read the Bible and gave up after the first few chapters in Genesis. Some will even tell you that the Old Testament does not matter; it is what Jesus said in the New Testament that counts. Even then many of these people have not bothered to read the New Testament either.

The only deviation of this is that it seems like everyone has read the book of Revelations and generally more than once. Why is that? It is kind of like reading the last chapter of a fiction novel to find out what happens and then never bothering to read the rest of the story and discover what leads up to the conclusion. Every likes all the damnation and hell fire and the sinners really getting it in the end but no one is much interested in why Christ told us to pray for our enemies and forgive them when they trespass against us. I guess this is akin to slowing down to look at the crash on the side of the road. Reading Revelations gives us the Biblical version of gapping at an accident and thinking ‘That sure looks bad. Boy I’m glad that didn’t happen to me.’

Anyways, why do Christians shy away from reading the Bible and other good sources of information that may help them understand what God is saying to them? Most every Church member has heard of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, Saint Augustine and John Wesley but very few people have actually read any of their works to see what they had to say about Christianity and faith. That is really sad considering the fact that those are the very people who established the theology, liturgy and beliefs that are the basis of most every Christian Church in the world. In fact if it was not for the bravery and moral conviction of Martin Luther it would have taken the Bible a lot longer to get in to the hands of average people and there may have been no reformed theology to become the basis of the Protestant Reformation. There are theologians who gave their lives in order for the common man to be able to obtain, read and interpret them Bible for themselves.

Think of these martyrs and then consider what their legacy has become. Instead of people reading the book that these brave men and women died to put in our hands, some people opt to have their total exposure to the Bible via what their Priest, Minister, Pastor or Reverend reads to them every Sunday and possibly (for those really dedicated learners) on Wednesday night Bible study. The Bible was wrestled from the hands of a very dogmatic Roman Catholic Church and translated from its Latin and Greek forms in to the common vernacular of just about every country on Earth and now almost five hundred years later the average Joe Christian rarely bothers to read it. To say that the run of the mill congregant is ignorant of the beliefs that he or she professes to follow is being somewhat optimistic. In reality it is probably the vast majority of those sitting on a pew on Sunday mornings.

I am sure that every Christian household has at least one Bible in it. I am also sure that most non Christian households contain at least one Bible. Now with all these Bibles lying around one would think that Christians would do a lot of Bible reading but this does not seem to be the case. In fact some of the most astute Bible readers seem to be the atheists and agnostics who read the Bible in order to debate Christians on their beliefs. It is heartbreaking to watch someone who professes a strong faith lose an argument with an atheist mainly because the atheist had a better knowledge of Scripture than the believer.

This is why so many Christians can not defend their beliefs when confronted by even the simplest argument of an agnostic or atheist. Eventually things break down to heated words and name calling and this behavior does not cast Christianity in a good light to any bystanders who might be observing. All this does is play in to the hands of the antagonistic unbeliever. His arguments are predicated on getting the Christian to lose his temper and appear ignorant to anyone watching. This is easy to do if a Christian does not possess a rudimentary understanding of his beliefs and a basic knowledge of Christian history.

It seems that we have lost the meaning of what Paul was telling us in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” How can someone test and approve what God’s will is if they do not even know if the book of Romans is in the New or Old Testament? Paul is basically telling believers to wise up and learn what God’s will is so that they will not be fooled by false teachings or lead astray by false prophets. If believers don’t know what Christ’s teachings are then how can they defend the faith when it comes under attack? How can they know when they are being lied to or being lead down the wide path to destruction?

Unfortunately all this leads to the misconception of many unbelievers that Christians are just ignorant rubes, being lead by their noses through a fairy tale story that they can not and will not understand. One can attempt to make the argument that it does not matter what others think because believers know the truth. I do not think that is a very good or useful point of view. How can a Christian effectively witness to an unbeliever if the unbeliever feels that he or she is hearing from someone who is uneducated in their own faith? The unbeliever is immediately prejudiced against God and His saving grace and is not receptive to the Gospel message. Might I suggest that when we put on the armor of God that we also educate ourselves in its usage?

The Lord wants us to read His word and to study it. He needs us question it and put it to the test because when we discover that His word is true it glorifies Him and prepares us to be good and useful servants to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we witness we will know of what we speak and that too will glorify our Creator as well as assisting in turning the view of Christian ignorance in to a myth. In all we do we should seek glorify our Father in Heaven. We should know and understand His word and be ready to share it with anyone who crosses our path and seems to be in need of hearing the good news. If we plant a seed and water it with an accurate understanding of the faith then should God cause that seed to sprout it will be well nourished with a righteous understanding of God’s good and perfect will.

The anti-intellectual attitude with in the Christian Church must be done away with in order to preserve the true gospel that Jesus Christ gave us. We most know and understand God’s word so that those who would invade the body are recognized for what they are and rejected for the over health of the Christian community. Look at the liberal changes that are happening with in most of the major protestant denominations today. Sin is being redefined and what is abhorrent to the Lord is being taught to new congregants as being something that is good and pleasing before God. Liberal leaders of the visible Church feel that lowering the bar of sin will attract new members, but what point is there to attract someone to the Church if the convictions of the Church will damn them to hell? Could the motivation be more money in the coffers?

If more worshipers where aware of what the Bible teaches us then these types of heresies would not be as easy to perpetrate on the modern Christian Church as they seem to be. Christ’s commandments have not changed in two thousand years and the God’s word is the same as it always has been, but because of the lack of Christian education, discernment of the truth is a lot harder than it use to be. All members of the body of Christ must pick up the Bible and educate themselves. It should become a daily habit to read a few chapters and then think upon them. Christians should be reading books explaining the history of their faith to them and why we do what we do for our Lord and Savior. Only then will we as Christians stand firm against the misconceptions of our beliefs by the outside world and against the heresies that arise from within. God be with us and bless us all!

Another Pilgrim

Reading through the Gospels and the book of Acts a person cannot help but be astonished at the nature and volume of miracles that were performed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Some of the miracles were utilitarian in nature such as the incident where Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11) or when the Apostles spoke at Pentecost and those attending could hear the words spoken in their own languages (Acts 2:1-12). Other miracles were merciful and kind as when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44) or when Christ healed the demon possessed man who lived in the tombs of Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-20). No matter what the nature of the miracle, however, each was done with one purpose in mind, to bring glory to God the Father. The blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, the lepers were made clean and the lame could walk. The items on the list of miracles that Christ and the Apostles performed seem almost countless. Many of the people who witnessed these miracles came to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God. The miracles were proof of the divine nature of the Lord. Since the Ascension of Christ and the passing and martyrdom of the Apostles miracles seem to be less common. Also science has come along to make miracles seem less miraculous. There is, however, a miracle that happens daily and no one seems to mention it.

Not only is this miracle not mentioned but many do not see it for the miracle that it truly is. Some of the unregenerate even call it a delusion and a sign of ignorance. This miracle that I am referring to is the miracle of belief. It happens daily as new members are accepted into the Body of Christ and hardly a soul realizes the true power of this miracle. Christ understood this when after proving to Thomas that He was indeed the risen Lord, Jesus said “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). No believer today was there at the crucifixion and watched Christ’s redemptive blood seep from his hands and feet. Not a soul alive heard Jesus saying “It is finished” (John 19:30) as he relinquished his life on the cross. There are not witnesses still alive who can say that they saw the Lord being removed from the cross and laid to rest in his tomb. I dare say that no one, man or woman, who walks the Earth can claim to have seen the risen Lord immediately after his resurrection and release from the tomb. Not a person alive can say that they have seen any or all of these events but all believers have no doubt that they took place.

What a miracle we have here and hardly anyone acknowledges it as being the miraculous occurrence that it is. Is not this an amazing thing that mere moments before we come to know the Lord Jesus we are doubters and scoffers (to say the least) and in the precious moment that God’s grace descended upon us we understood perfectly the truth of Christ on the cross and we felt completely assured as to what He did for the sake of our souls. God blesses us with the miracle of belief as part of bestowing grace upon us. With the gift of grace comes not only belief but faith, forgiveness and the desire for repentance. It is belief, however, that is the key to unlocking the door to our salvation. Without the miracle of belief then of what use is faith to us? We would have nothing in which to have faith in if we never came to believe in the forgiveness and salvation that Christ offers us with his sacrifice upon the cross.

I have heard people say that they could easily believe in Jesus had they heard Him teach and witnessed the miracles he performed. But that option is not available to us. What we have instead is a gift from God to believe the stories that are written about Him and to accept the salvation that He offers us. They should pray to God that He grants them the grace to believe in these things and if He does their doubts will seem frivolous and they will wonder why it took them so long to come to this understanding. From my vantage point as one who has been blessed with faith and salvation I can see the miracle of belief. I can still remember a time when I did not believe and today I ask myself, with everything that I know how I could have been so ignorant and blind to the glory and majesty of God. As a believer I see it everywhere, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3b). Nothing around me changed, God just blessed me with belief and then I changed. All these miracles are about glorifying God and we can glorify the Lord our God every time that we acknowledge the miracle of belief when it is given to a new believer.

We must never forget what a miracle belief really is. Just look around and see all the people who have heard the Word but have not believed. Generally they have heard the same message that believers have but they have rejected the possibility of Christ being God and of His dying upon the cross to pay the debt that humanity’s sins have incurred. They are no different than you or I for we were once unworthy sinners unable to believe in the mercy and forgiveness of God. For the most part we did not even realize that we where sinners and that we needed forgiveness. Then the miracle started and the Lord’s grace began working on us. First we were made aware of our sinful nature and given a desire to do something about it. Then we were shown the revelation of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. Finally the key to freedom was miraculously handed to us and we believed. At last we were truly free…

Another Pilgrim