let's be realistic for just one tiny second.
what fills the collection plates is the ((very much mainstream)) teaching of works based salvation. give money or else you are not obeying God because we are still under Law. give money or else you are not really saved. we can tell who is really righteous because they write checks.
that lie - which is in fact the mainstream - that lie that having begun by the Spirit you are perfected by the flesh, that is the lie that makes merchandise of salvation.
salvation is free: the just shall live by faith
Yes, the Just shall live by Faith. But what is Faith?
You have determined that giving money to Mainstream Christian franchises isn't Faith. I agree.
Is creating or acknowledging images of God in the Likeness of man exhibiting Faith in the True God?
Is rejecting God's instructions and creating your own, exhibiting Faith in the true God?
Is stealing exhibiting Faith in the True God?
Is refusing to Glorify God exhibiting true faith?
Is creating or observing religious High Days and man made "Feasts unto the Lord" exhibiting Faith in the True God?
Is Transgressing God's Commandments by religious traditions of man exhibiting Faith in the True God?
How about preaching the falsehood and out and out lie that the Pharisees were trying to earn Salvation by following God's Commandments. Is preaching falsehoods about God's Word exhibiting Faith in the True God?
So let's be realistic here for one minute.
Every person on the planet has works. Even you Post.
And the Bible says we are all judged by our works.
So I don't believe in the (very much Mainstream) religious doctrine that we need do nothing, change nothing, that Jesus does it all for us because "Salvation is free".
Salvation is God's Mercy. It is a gift God has offered to some and withheld from others. This is Biblical fact.
It isn't free because a man was tortured then murdered to provide it for you. You didn't do anything to provide this gift, but someone else did.
It is a free gift in as much as you did nothing to create it, provide it, administer it. Nothing you do, can do, or ever have done contributed to the creation of this Gift.
But God from the very beginning, has placed conditions on those who can Claim this gift. These conditions are His, not religious mans.
Gen. 4:
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Ex. 20:
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them
that love me,
and keep my commandments.
Matt. 8:
34 And when he had called the people
unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them,
Whosoever will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up
his cross,
and follow me.
John 14:
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Luke 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but,
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
So as I said, the preaching that you don't have to change, that Jesus changed for you, is popular in the religious franchises of the land, but the Word which became Flesh exposes this teaching as false as He exposed the teaching of the Mainstream Preachers of His time.
"Many" on this forum spend great amounts of time ridiculing anyone who would suggest following the Bibles teaching that Claiming this Gift of Salvation requires some action on my part.
They boast of their religion and call the conditions the Christ placed on Claiming His gift, "works based salvation" and they preach against following the instructions of God as Jesus taught for us to do. Calling those who do "Legalists, Pharisees and a number of insults. And when confronted with scriptures that reveal their error, they simply post another scripture they claim makes it void, or deflect, etc. (What about Titzit?) It's an age old game religious man has been playing with God since the beginning. "Am I my Brothers keeper"?
WE have many examples of voices teaching against following the instructions God gives us, written for our admonition. The serpent and Eve is one such example.
Gen. 3:
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (You can claim the free gift)
5 For God doth know that
in the day ye eat thereof, (Reject God's instructions)
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
We have examples of folks who Claimed this "free gift" apart from following the conditions the Word which became Flesh placed on it. (denying our self, repenting, taking up our cross, etc.)
Matt. 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity.
We have all these examples of men who claimed the Word as their God, yet refused to follow His instruction, and we have all these examples of Faith of men who trusted God enough to follow His instructions even at the point of death, of themselves, and of their own children.
Heb. 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,(other voices) and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and
let us run (Not let Jesus run for us) with patience the race that
is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;(For our instruction and our Salvation) who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.