This article pertains to how believers see themselves and God. Too often people will say they are Lutheran Christians, others will say that they are Liberal Christians, and still, more will say they are evangelical, orthodox, conservative, and so on.
But as we read the Bible we do not see these divisions in the body of Christ. In fact, when you read 1 Cor. 12 the only divisions you see are the offices each one of us holds or can hold. Those come in verses 4 to 11. Starting at verse 12 we read the following words
12 For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
There are not all of these divisions we find in ‘the church’ today. There is only ONE body of believers, not 40,000 (the last number quoted to us by unbelievers) of Christian denominations.
And as you know, there is only one body,. one Christ, one Spirit, and ONLY ONE truth. In the gospel of John, Jesus tells us that we will find that one truth. And it agrees with the Bible. Throughout its pages, we also find out that God is a black and white God.
You either believe or you don’t, you either follow Christ or you don’t, you either believer God’s words or you don’t. You do not find any gray area in God’s word or who God is. That means there is no theistic evolution, no progressive creationism, and no evolution.
Those are not taught in God’s word and either you believe God about creation or you don’t. We have run into far too many people who claim to be believers who do not believe God when it comes to the content of the Bible and Genesis.
We do not consider them believers unless they are new to the faith. That is the exception to this rule. New believers are just beginning to learn the truth thus they can be excused for not being 100% in line with biblical content.
As they learn, they put off the false teaching and embrace the truth. False teaching is anything that disagrees with the Bible and says God is wrong. That includes science. That research field and all of its sub-fields are false teachings when they say God is wrong and the Bible is in error.
Science is not an authority over God and there is no gray area here either. While science can be useful, it cannot study the past or say what did or did not take place. This is how we can tell who is a false teacher and who is not. When they start bringing in false ideas, say that God erred, and so on, you know they are not of God or Christ.
Since God is a black and white God, we have a line that tells us where the truth is and where false teaching is. That means we know who are the true and false teachers. Here is what Peter had to say on this topic:
But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their indecent behavior, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; (2 Peter 2:1ff)
Keywords are in bold and you will see those false teachers will hide the truth as they do not want to be stopped nor have their teaching stopped. We have many false teachers even in the Church today and they are in our Christian schools, our pulpits, and in our Sunday school classes.
We have seen top Christian schools accept false teaching and that saddens us. They were once great, and we even went to one 40+ years ago, until they and our alma mater let in false teachers who said God is a gray God. Once they did they have been going downhill ever since.
There is no gray area in the Christian faith because there is no gray area in God. John said
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
In other words, just because they say they are Christian does it mean that they are or that they have the truth. How many athletes and ‘celebrities’ have claimed to be Christian yet when you look past their claims, their lives embrace false teaching and use proof text bible verses to support their acceptance of those who bring false teaching under the name Christian.
Far too many and many unsuspecting people have been misled into false beliefs because of their failure to test the spirits. They are either following God or they are not. There is no gray area here.
If they are following God, they will bring the truth. Upon hearing their words, you will recognize that those words are truth. Then you can accept them. Those words will be in line with scripture, not words that contradict what God has said.
If they do not follow God, or Jesus, then their words will contradict the Bible, and call passages allegories, metaphors, and fairy tales or myths. Those are the people you need to put out of your churches, Christian schools and other Christian leadership positions.
There is no room for them in the church. There is no such thing as Lutheran, Methodist or liberal, evangelical, and so on, Christian. You are either a Christian who believes God and follows his commands or you are an unbeliever who does not.
There are not 40,000 Christian denominations. There is only one and as Jesus said ‘my sheep hear my voice’. When you are saying the Bible is wrong, etc., you are not hearing Jesus’ voice as he did not correct one thing in the OT (or Hebrew Bible).
All the words in the NT are Christ’s words not Paul’s, Peter’s. James’ and John’s words. The words they wrote came from Jesus via the HS and ultimately from God the father. There is no gray area in Christianity or God.
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