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In response to "Whatever" Christianity (Part 1)

14 November 2006 23:25, by Walt G

I, for one, appreciate your attitude toward the complete scriptures as we now have them. I emphasize "complete" because they contain the complete body of God’s Truth sufficient to instruct us in the necessary knowledge of how we can please our God and Father, and realize salvation by the blood of Christ. What we have available in the literally translated versions of the Bible is complete and without real error. If one sees error or contradiction there, it is a product of one’s own lack of understanding, or inability to see the big picture, the whole context. Or, perhaps, the personal misinterpretations of different assessments of what is taking place by the various witnesses to the same events, some of which included details in their writings that added to the overall report, not really contradicting one another at all. That’s why we have four accounts of the Gospels rather than just one by a single writer. Each writer added some facts from observations seen from his own vantage point that are not necessarily in the other three. (So stow that 'bull' about the Bible being contradictory, people!)



What IS contradictory to Scripture is the apostate doctrinal teachings of the various so-called "orthodox" denominations, and sometimes the ideas of people within the SAME denominations, as they promote their own personal interpretations.



As to orthodoxy: what is viewed as "orthodox" today was not at all orthodox Christianity to those in the first century congregation. We know, if we are serious Bible students, that the Bible writers predicted a great apostasy after their passing. They said that the "man of lawlessness" was already at work behind the scene, even before they all died off from the earth. And after their passing, that composite "man" would rise up and draw many of the Christian brothers off after themselves. With the passing of John, close to the end of the first century, the front line guardians of the true, healthful Christian teachings were gone, and that composite "man of lawlessness," the many "antichrists" John spoke of as already at work while he was still alive, sprang up from men in their midst, out into the open in the person of the so-called "church fathers" and led the weakened Christian congregation into apostasy, just as prophesied. That apostasy became official doctrine of the "Church" when Constantine made it so by putting his personal blessing and approval on the church as it then existed, and giving it political clout and "respectability." Now they no longer needed to "search out the deserving ones" as per Jesus’ instructions, and teach original doctrine with convincing arguments. They had only to force masses of people to become nominal Christians at the point of the state sword.



So. what had been apostasy did then eventually become the "orthodoxy" of the age; the "New Paradigm" with which to judge all other ideas, practices and teachings. Because of that, if those faithful men of the first century could come back here and walk the earth once more, they would be hard pressed to find much in Christendom today that would be familiar to them!  The New Apostates of the second century on, came to view Truth that is in harmony with the written record, the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, as apostasy!  With that new paradigm, the teachings and practices given to the apostles and disciples by Christ and Holy Spirit have now become viewed by today’s Christendom also, as apostasy!



I wonder how Jesus, with his friends and brothers such as Peter, Paul, John, James, Jude and the rest, having been resurrected to heavenly immortal life and able to observe the goings on in the earth, feel about being inadvertently considered apostate by today’s "Christian" leaders and their flocks!



I’m personally pleased to find myself among a group who, from early in the last century, began to search out and expose the old apostate teachings dragged into Christendom, and with much painful effort to please God and Christ rather than themselves, stripped them away from themselves as a Christian organization, distilling away from the body of true Christian teachings and practices all that can not be justified in Scripture. Then they proceeded to take Matt. 24:14 and Matt. 28:19-20 seriously as a commission from Messiah Jesus for his foot-step followers to accomplish. That would be the preaching of the Good News of the KINGDOM, not simply of the Good News of Salvation through the blood of Christ, which is good and is necessarily a part of the overall Good News, but not the most important part, from God’s revealed viewpoint.



As I said earlier in another post: It’s time for a re-awakening. God IS talking to ALL of us. Everywhere! Right now! But few are LISTENING!  (Which I suppose should be expected.  The teachings of Christ have never been embraced by a majority of any group.)



Probably, with most, it’s the same as when Jesus was walking the earth as a man. The message from his Father that he was obediently delivering was not the message the people, at that time steeped in the apostasy of their contemporary Jewish religious leaders, wanted to hear. And the nature of modern man, steeped in the current apostate views, is not much different. If the message doesn’t meet their preconceived expectations, doesn’t filter through their twisted paradigm in a form that they find to their taste, they might not even SEE the message, let alone accept and apply it. The message is out of harmony with their false doctrines and practices that they love and embrace, based on their "theology" dredged by their "church fathers" from the ancient religious sewers of Babylon; given a "Christian" facade, and installed in the church as "Christian" teachings, practice and doctrine. Or, maybe they simply find the means of delivering the message distasteful.  So, whatever the case, the message is rejected!



Open your spiritual eyes, people! The answer to that prayer you have been mindlessly repeating (as per Matt. 6:9-10) for nearly two thousand years is about to overtake you! How many will like the answer? The fulfillment?  As usual, not the vast majority, I fear. Which group will you be in? The vast majority? Or the small minority? Hmmmmm? When some one you consider a contemptible source tries to talk to you about some Bible based subject, or about the fulfillment of the Lord’s Prayer in this "time of the end," consider what they have to say. Don’t pass them off as did Celsus of the first century:

"Celsus, the first writer against Christianity, makes it a matter of mockery, that labourers, shoemakers, farmers, the most uninformed and clownish of men, should be zealous preachers of the Gospel.”



Think, people!  What sort of people, for the most part, found the teachings of Jesus appealing?  Who other than those Celcus found contemptible, did Jesus teach as apostles and disciples?  Preachers of his Good News?



Wake up! Lift your vision beyond national borders and see the approach of God’s Kingdom as per Daniel chapter two, in answer to contents of that daily Matthew 6: 9 and 10 prayer of all Christians. Like it or not, it's coming, unexpectedly by most.  Unwelcome by many.  It's coming on a global scale and without regard for national boundaries!