Who was the first to insist one should follow him to the truth? Not too surprisingly, Satan was the first to come to a family claiming to have the truth in religion, twisting God’s word. He was a liar. What about today? Will we fall for the lie as Eve did? Today Satan may use people who come to our door saying they can show us the way to the truth? Usually when people come to us in this way, they will have the Bible in their hands; with the idea we are to follow them to the truth. If they are able to show us the way to the truth they should read to us Matthew 16:18 where Christ said he would build His church, church of Christ. They should teach us from Acts 2 and teach us about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how that we are buried with Christ and raised with him into his body where there is forgiveness. They should teach us that Jesus is both Jehovah and Messiah sitting on the throne at the right hand of God according to the promise to David, Daniel 7:13-14, Acts 2:22-47. They should teach us that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share the personal name Yahweh (Jehovah). Jehovah is the same yesterday, today and forever, Hebrews 13:8. They should show us from the letters written by Paul, Peter, John, Jude and James, the church is called churches of Christ, Romans 16:16, which is His bride. Since Christ is God, 2 Peter 1:1, the church is also called the church of God, I Corinthians 1:2. The church was also called the kingdom, Matthew 16:18-19, the bride of Christ, Ephesians 5:23ff, Mount Zion, Hebrews 12:22, the temple of God, Ephesians 2:19-22, etc. The church in the Bible in the First Century did not have any of the names that men place on the doors of churches. Men will ask, “What denomination do you belong to?” Why do we do this? The apostles and the Christians in the first century did not need to ask or justify such a question. The church is the bride of Christ, Ephesians 5:22ff, A bride should have the name of her husband. The name should be one that the husband has. The church or bride is bought by Christ, the loving creator, 1 Corinthians 6:20, John 1:1-3. The reason for so many different kinds of churches is that men wish to sit in God’s seat as lawgiver and judge, 2 Thessalonians 2:3ff. They are in the image of the man of sin. The truth will restrain any one that is a “man of sin”. The second reason is that men fall in the trap of following human traditions, Jesus said of them in Matthew 15:9, “in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” Men cannot turn loose of the teachings of the reformers in the Protestant movement, who disregard that God gives grace by the blood through the resurrection express in being buried and raised with Christ by baptism, 1 Peter 3:21. The third reason why men will change God’s New Testament law is that they can become rich through their ministries in their own names. They will teach that we must give money to get money. They will sell their books, and many other things for gain, Titus 1:11. A fourth reason is that these men are glorified by others through powers they claim from God, which God does not give today, such as restoring arms, legs etc. that are missing, Mark 3:5. Why is it that we do not understand what we are reading in the Bible? The first problem with most of us is that we read a verse here and a verse there without ever understanding the context. For example, people will quote Acts 16:31 and ignore the context of the conversion of the Jailer and the rest of Acts. We also do not understand the Bible when we give up our right to think and then we let others tell us what to think because we do not take the time to study the Bible ourselves, 2 Timothy 2:15. If we continue in this way then on the day of Judgment we will have no excuse, no Savior, only condemnation, Matthew 7:21-23. We are taught by God’s Word that Jesus Christ will use the word of God to judge us in the last Day. Jesus said in John 12:48, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge.” It will not be our family, teachers, preachers, village, school, community, friends, and enemies etc. who will judge us on the last day so we must be strong enough to obey God and not fear man. We cannot plead ignorance for we have time and intellect to know how to be saved, serve and worship God. We need to know and obey before it is too late, John 12:48-50. Jesus said in Mark 16:16, “The one who believes (in the resurrected only begotten Son) and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.” Philip went into Samaria, Acts 8:3-13, teaching and confirming the gospel as expressed in Mark 16:15-20. What will we do with the Word of Christ? Someone says, “no one is perfect” but God will not let us use that excuse. Let us be thankful that we are still living and we still have time to obey the truth. Love from Don
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 10:42:03 +0000
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