V
What I posted in another thread:
The Bible is God's Word. There are about 30,000-40,000 Christian denominations in this world with about 40 major divisions of belief. Those who believe in God's Word and follow it, although they don't dot every i and cross every t, are going to be honored for how they've lived and what they've done in life if they were in Christ and obedient to God to the best of their ability.
I thought we were past the days of Fundamentalism? Jesus said of Herod, "Go and tell that fox..." No one thinks Jesus was actually referring to Herod as a literal fox, but when it comes to other areas of the Bible, it all has to be taken literally line upon line precept upon precept. When God gave the Israelites the Law of Moses, it was line upon line and precept upon precept. It was very ordered and direct and was to be followed perfectly. When God came to Earth as Yeshua Hamashiach, he spoke in parables and with illustrations. It was vague and metaphorical. The people hearing it at the time did not have it expounded to them and Jesus said it fulfilled Isaiah's words that they had eyes to see and ears to hear yet they didn't see or hear or understand what He was talking about.
Now, 2000 years later, we have 40+ major divisions of Christianity and all of them saying they have the truth. We should definitely go back to the Bible for the truth, but how we interpret that may divide us more than unite us. Is it more important to God that we have perfect religion than godly fellowship? This gets to the heart of the matter. Those who Paul condemned in his letters were preaching a different gospel. Want to know what that different gospel was? It was the gospel of "you have to be circumcised" "you can't eat unclean animals" "you have to keep a certain day for the Sabbath". He denounced all those things in favor of "My grace is sufficient".
When Paul would write to the Gentiles and preach to them, he kept his list of commands very simple: don't eat things sacrificed to idols, abstain from sexual immorality, etc. Those who think we have to go back and repent all over again every time we break the speed limit or say a cussword are going to waste a lot of their lives trying to be perfect when God's more interested in us following Him, trusting in Him, being saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves but it is a gift from God, being overcomers of the world, loving thy neighbor as thyself, taking up our cross, etc. Not starting a new religion and DEFINITELY NOT berating our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because they believe differently than us - that is not the Holy Spirit's desire for His church. He wants us to be clean and full of love and full of grace and full of joy. This hateful spiritual cannibalism is usually caused by people who aren't out there in the world preaching the Gospel. Try getting off your internet high horse and go do some ministry in the real world and you'll find enough trials and tribulations that seeking spiritual perfection through absolute obedience to every letter of the law will be seen for the waste of time that it is. We aren't Levites.
I thought we were past the days of Fundamentalism? Jesus said of Herod, "Go and tell that fox..." No one thinks Jesus was actually referring to Herod as a literal fox, but when it comes to other areas of the Bible, it all has to be taken literally line upon line precept upon precept. When God gave the Israelites the Law of Moses, it was line upon line and precept upon precept. It was very ordered and direct and was to be followed perfectly. When God came to Earth as Yeshua Hamashiach, he spoke in parables and with illustrations. It was vague and metaphorical. The people hearing it at the time did not have it expounded to them and Jesus said it fulfilled Isaiah's words that they had eyes to see and ears to hear yet they didn't see or hear or understand what He was talking about.
Now, 2000 years later, we have 40+ major divisions of Christianity and all of them saying they have the truth. We should definitely go back to the Bible for the truth, but how we interpret that may divide us more than unite us. Is it more important to God that we have perfect religion than godly fellowship? This gets to the heart of the matter. Those who Paul condemned in his letters were preaching a different gospel. Want to know what that different gospel was? It was the gospel of "you have to be circumcised" "you can't eat unclean animals" "you have to keep a certain day for the Sabbath". He denounced all those things in favor of "My grace is sufficient".
When Paul would write to the Gentiles and preach to them, he kept his list of commands very simple: don't eat things sacrificed to idols, abstain from sexual immorality, etc. Those who think we have to go back and repent all over again every time we break the speed limit or say a cussword are going to waste a lot of their lives trying to be perfect when God's more interested in us following Him, trusting in Him, being saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves but it is a gift from God, being overcomers of the world, loving thy neighbor as thyself, taking up our cross, etc. Not starting a new religion and DEFINITELY NOT berating our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because they believe differently than us - that is not the Holy Spirit's desire for His church. He wants us to be clean and full of love and full of grace and full of joy. This hateful spiritual cannibalism is usually caused by people who aren't out there in the world preaching the Gospel. Try getting off your internet high horse and go do some ministry in the real world and you'll find enough trials and tribulations that seeking spiritual perfection through absolute obedience to every letter of the law will be seen for the waste of time that it is. We aren't Levites.
