¿Por quién deberíamos Votar los Cristianos?

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Glory Full of Truth John 1:17

His Glory is Full of Truth

This is our third look at John 1:17. “The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We looked first at the emphasis placed on God’s glory in the Bible. Last week, we emphasized that there cannot be divine glory without grace. This week, we emphasize there can be no glory without truth.

God's Grace cannot be Separated from His Truth.

God’s Grace cannot be Separated from His Truth.

Grace Without Truth Can Lead to Lewdness

There was a major problem in a doctrine which threatened the early church. When men heard of grace, false teachers forgot that grace cannot exist without it being tied to truth. Jude 1:4 described them as “…ungodly men who turned the grace of our Lord into lewdness.”  They really thought that moral purity did not matter, believing they could teach and practice immorality and still be saved. Tragically, that same problem exists in our world by Christians who fail to exercise restraint in their dress, their actions and their entertainment.

Grace Without Truth Can Lead to Disobedience

When the Word described the final judgment, He described an attitude of religious individuals who thought that as long as they were doing notable works in the name of Jesus, God’s grace would cover them. Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:22-23). What a vivid description of the attitude of many leaders of denominations today. Ignoring what Jesus teaches about worship, the Lord’s supper, salvation, baptism and Bible authority, they feel justified thinking that God’s grace will cover these “small” matters. Jesus clearly says they will be lost.

Grace Without Truth Can Lead to Infidelity

The practice of ignoring truth and teaching that God’s grace will be given to all who serve the Lord in any way is the basis of the religious division which permeates religion in America. The night of Jesus’ betrayal, He prayed fervently that all who believed on Him might be one, just like He and the Father were one. What did He see as the result of all believers being dedicated to the one truth He had given to the apostles? “That the world may believe that You have sent Me” (John 17:21). Why are there so many unbelievers in our land? Read His prayer again—religious division among believers creates infidelity!

Grace and Truth Must Be in Us

When we are the light of the world, it will see our light and glorify the Father (Matt. 5:16). Jesus’ glory was full of grace and truth. Both of these must be in us!

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Authority of Scriptures

The Authority of Scriptures and the Unity of the Body

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:11-14).

Is congregation organized according to scriptural authority?

Is congregation organized according to scriptural authority?

The authority of the scriptures must be primal as we seek to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  All authority comes from Christ (Matthew 28:18).  Christ has given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the church to remain united under His authority.  The roles of apostle and prophet produce the authoritative scriptures.  The roles of pastors and teachers hold us accountable to the scriptures.  Evangelists bring others to the scriptures.  With these roles fulfilled, we have unity with one another in the body of Christ.

However, when we dismiss the authority of the scripture, we bring disunity and division to the body of Christ because we will no longer have one standard by which to determine what is right or wrong.  We will be children tossed and carried by every wind of teaching.  We will be prey for the sleight and craftiness of men, and we will succumb to their deceit.  What happens when we dismiss the authority of the scriptures?  We lose our anchor to Christ and His church.May we respect the authority of the scriptures.God bless you, and I love you.

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A True Dichotomy

A True Dichotomy

Demagogues, when they make arguments, frequently employ a logical fallacy called a false dichotomy. That is, they will present two choices and tell you that if you do not choose one, then you must be choosing the other of necessity. Frequently, when making such an argument, one of the choices presented is so unreasonable as to make most people instinctively move to choose the other.

False or True Dichotomy?

False or True Dichotomy?

We see this in politics all the time. A supporter of Candidate X will tell you that if you do not vote for Candidate X then you are of necessity supporting Candidate Y. They frequently fail to mention Candidates A and B, wanting the entire process to be viewed through a binary lens. Support Candidate X, they will say, or you are throwing away your vote. As if all voters who supported a losing proposition were wasting their time by not being on the side of the winning issue.

A false dichotomy is fallacious because the choice presented as binary is not. There are very few true binary decisions in life. Frequently you have a multitude of valid options to choose from, and failing to pick one of them does not mean that you must be supporting another. If you don’t want to eat beef, you don’t have to choose chicken. Pork is always a possibility. Or fish. Or any one of a number of other possibilities, including going meat free.

We understand this.

But there is one important choice in life that really is binary: to serve God, or not to serve God.

As Joshua, the leader of the Israelites who had led God’s people across the Jordan and into the promised land, realized that his time on earth was drawing to an end, he called together the nation he had led and he gave them a choice to make.

Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” (Joshua 24:14-15a; NKJV)

The first choice Joshua offered was the preferred choice: fear the Lord, serve the Lord, and be faithful to the Lord. Choosing God and being faithful to God, would require that they put away all other “gods,” but it was the right choice. Therefore, it was the choice Joshua urged.

If the Israelites decided not to be faithful to God, then Joshua made it clear that it did not matter what believe system they replaced it with – it would all be the same. They could choose the Ammorite gods; they could choose the Egyptians gods; either way they would be choosing a path other than the one path that led towards Jehovah God. By not making the only right choice, they would be making a wrong choice.

Years later, Jesus would present a similar lesson: ““Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14; NKJV)

There is one path that leads to life. It is a narrow path because it is an exclusive path. There is a broad path that leads to destruction and it’s a wide path because there are so many entrances onto it. The path of life is the path of God. The path of destruction is every other path that does not involve God. So while it is true that if one does not serve God there are a variety of flavors of not choosing God, when we stand before God on the last day, those subtleties of distinction won’t make a lot of difference, because the end result will be the same for each.

When men present dichotomies, they are often false because they are not true absolutes. There are alternatives which must be considered for an actual informed decision to be made.

But choosing whether to serve God or not serve God does present an absolute choice. There is only one Creator, one Father of all who has loved us and sent His Son to die for us. He is the only God who can save you eternally and offer you an eternal home. All others are a lie. You can choose, like Joshua did, to serve God. (cf. Joshua 24:15b) This is the choice which Jesus taught leads to life.  This is the choice you should make. It is the only choice that leads to life.

 

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SUPER BOWL LII

SUPER BOWL LII

As I sit down to pen this article, Super Bowl LII is but a few days away. This was made all too sadly and tragically apparent by the sign outside of the large, local, denominational church building which I passed by just yesterday. It read:

Youth outreach, couples outreach, financial outreach, Super Bowl out reach... had enough yet?

Youth outreach, couples outreach, financial outreach, Seniors outreach, Super Bowl outreach… had enough outreach yet?  How about worship and service as we are drawn by God?

How sad is that? If that isn’t sacrilegious to say the least, then I don’t know what is. By the way, the fourth edition of Webster’s New World College Dictionary (© 1999 by Macmillan USA), defines the word ‘sacrilege,’ in part as:

Temple robber… 1 the act of appropriating to oneself or to secular use, or of violating, what is consecrated to God or religion 2 the intentional desecration, or disrespectful treatment of a person, place, thing, or idea held sacred.

 SYN. – sacrilege implies a violation of something sacred, as by appropriating to oneself or to a secular use something that has been dedicated to a religious purpose; profanation suggests a lack of reverence or a positive contempt for things regarded as sacred; desecration implies a removal of the sacredness of some object or place, as by defiling or polluting it.

And so, here is a congregation of the man-made Protestant denomination born of men in 1607, appearing at least to me, to be sacrilegiously ‘taking a page out of the pre-medieval Catholic Church’s playbook’ (the Catholic Church which this denomination was later, supposedly formed in protestation of), when they confiscated, sought to re-make, and absconded with the pagan celebration of Estra, the false goddess of fertility, seeking to take advantage of and capitalize on its popularity amongst the masses by re-forming it into something that might supposedly help their particular brand of ‘Christianity’ to become more popular, appealing, and/or widespread as well. How so? Here’s how…

Apparently, the grace-laden, life-giving, soul-saving gospel of the living God and the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer good enough, pure enough, or powerful enough in the eyes of many of the man-made denominations all around us, to attract the lost and sin-ravaged souls of the masses any longer anyway. Some now appear to believe that they have to resort to the partial replacing or perhaps supposedly ‘enhancing’ or ‘improving’ of its sacred attractiveness – with such things as a sporting event?!? INCREDIBLE! But certainly not unbelievable… Tragically, it’s all too believable. After all, it is this particular man-made division or denomination (1 Cor. 1:10) which also routinely hosts rodeo-style events in the arenas on their premises in yet another sacrilegious and foreign to scripture event, known as “Cowboy Church”; once again appealing far, far more to the fleeting and adrenalin-driven entertainment mentality of the fickle and misled masses, than to the divinely-inspired and all-authoritative directives of almighty God (Psa. 19:7-11;Matt. 28:18-20Tim. 3:12-4:4).

But what else should one expect? After all, did not Jesus indicate that if anyone truly loves Him, they would then submit themselves to His will – the will and word of almighty God (Jn. 14:15)? And if anyone really does that, then they could not refer to themselves by any name or term foreign to or not found in God’s word; nor would they preach, teach, or practice any other doctrine than that which is found in the New Testament in places like Acts 2:38-4122:16Eph. 4:4-6Gal. 3:26-275:4Peter 3:21; and/or many others to begin with, would they?

But, back to the whole Super Bowl/gospel ‘attractiveness/enhancement’ thing… Do you remember almighty God’s fiery revulsion for, and utter and complete rejection and condemnation of, all of the idols, idolatry, and idolatrous worship practices which the people repeatedly resorted back to, instead of worshipping Him in spirit and truth as He commanded in the Scriptures? It was constant, consistent, continual, and catastrophic! Condemning idolatry (or the worship of false gods) and idolatrous worship was the first, top, and utmost priority of the Ten Commandments (Deut. 5:6-11), as well as the Apostle Paul’s top priority to address in his oratories to the pagans in places like Athens (Acts 17:16-31).

And yet, here we are today, with at least one group of religious people – and God forbid that it should ever be joined by one of the congregations of His Son’s one, New Testament church as seen in the Scriptures – still idolatrously seeking to superimpose the ‘worship’ of the ‘false gods’ and ‘idols’ of sports entertainment, over and above (or at the very least, to somehow, at least in their minds, ‘enhance’ or improve the attractiveness of) even any half-informed attempt to perhaps try to practice some semblance of first-century, scripturally-demanded, spirit and truth worship! What a shame.

Now; for anyone who might possibly wish to judge me and/or this article for being too ‘judgmental’ or ‘unloving,’ might I humbly and lovingly suggest that they first go back and read the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Jn. 7:24; and then look up what John, the so-called ‘apostle of love’ had to say as it relates to this article’s contents in 1 Jn. 2:15-17 & 4:1-6?

And so, in conclusion… do you know what God’s faithful people will be doing on the Sunday of the so-called Super Bowl?  The same thing they’ve been doing every Sunday since the first century church of Christ (Rom. 16:16) came into existence! Gathering to worship God in spirit and truth at each and every opportunity of course – and not needing any extra or added incentive from sports idols and/or worldly sporting events to spark or enhance their worship service’s attractiveness, attendance, or their worship service experience. God is still enough and more for them – and that is exactly what makes them the kind of worshippers the scriptures clearly tell us that the Father is still seeking (Jn. 4:23-24)! After all, that is what makes every Sunday ‘super’ to them!

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