Tag Archives: True follower of Christ

by Guestspeaker | 2023/10/30 · 1:23 pm

Taking a dog by the ears

When we browse the internet to find interesting articles, we come across a lot of junk that we ignore further. But there are also sites that touch us because of the attitude they dare to adopt towards other people.

A multitude of articles are placed on the net against believers, be they Christians, Jews or Islamists. Certain people are not afraid to adopt an ugly and sometimes degenerate attitude towards believers.
People seem to be ugly, especially against Christians. Bad enough, those who speak very negatively and even go too aggressive towards other Christians can also find people who call themselves Christians.

Of course, the ex-Christians are the most Christian-hating group, which are underpinned and encouraged by atheists, who don’t like anything else to ridicule Christians. It doesn’t bother them, even if they have a business to do such a thing. Strangely enough, they often do like to get as much money out of people with religious traditions to sell their products based on such occasions. Take the South African Ark, for example, which takes every opportunity to ridicule Christians, while she does not even seem to bother, to get to know those people’s thinking on a religious level, plus also on a political or civil level and would like to have her readers to follow her business site. When you take only that one site with articles like:

you can get a fairly good picture of such a shameful attitude to other thinkers and human beings. What is also striking about negative judges of Christianity is that they mainly look at American evangelical Christians and do not look further at what other Christians believe or how they practice their life of faith.

Ark herself points her finger rightly to the biggest cause of problems. She writes:

…if, as kids, we were each given a KJV bible as part of our school curriculum and told to read it …. ”there will be a test!” {I wonder ….}

The biggest problem of those that criticise Christianity and/or Christendom (them not even seeing the difference between it) is that they never have taken enough time to read the most important Book of books which should be the basis of such faith and for society. In case several believers actually take up the Bible and read the entire book, many more people would leave a certain group of faith because they will have insight into the many false doctrines in that faith community.

Another question some could have asked.

would any of us have believed what we read or become Christians simply on the strength of being told we were reading the ‘Divine Word?’ {I wonder ….}

But we also notice that a lot of atheists and critics of certain faith groups even do not bother to look carefully what those groups believe. Some who call themselves Christian even attack other Christians and tell all sorts of lies about them. One such blog has even as title “The Bible & Exposing Cult Error Darkness Into Light” were the writer wants his readers to believe he exposes errors of others, but in fact does nothing more than presenting his own errors, ignorance or lack of knowledge. For certain groups, like Christadelphians calls them a cult, without really having studied their teachings. Others prefer to stay anonymous. We also can find so-called Christians who hate Jews and preach anti-semitism.

Several of those so-called Christian sites even do not let readers reply on their articles or in case they do they delete all reasonable answers shedding a true light on the Bible or do not allow reply which are not according their idea or oppose the sayings in the article.

From some articles we can find on the net we would think the blogger conciders the other the enemy, though he does not dare to talk nicely to that enemy, what he better would. Desmond Tutu once said;

“If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends, You talk to your enemies.”

Also the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi could not understand why there was so much hatred by Christians against other Christians whilst in case they would follow the example of the master teacher they say they follow, there would be much more peace in the world.

We may not forget that most wars originated from greed, often people using religion or a gruesome event that happened before as an excuse.

There is quite honestly probably no country or emirate or society that has not, at one time or other in their history (including any country that has made a concerted effort to wipe out indigenous peoples) done the very same thing, mostly for greed or revenge or because their god commanded them to do it. {Judy Thompson‘s reply to Islam: Can you feel the love?}

The blogger Nora Marie has been been on both sides…both sides of the grass… and has experienced rejection from God’s people as well as the people closest to her. She looks at the problem of false accusations or people not looking at the matter closely.

She writes:

Now, why would he believe anything the person said as gospel when he himself caught the person on a false accusation? Because we humans tend to be drawn to and believe the negative, especially with people we don’t like or are in competition with. Betrayal and getting stabbed in the back hurts when the falsehood comes from an acquantience, crushes when it comes from a friend, and destroys when it’s a relative. Gossip destroys. {Grab a Dog by the Ears?}

Several name Christians do forget that a Christian should be a real or true follower of Christ, having the same God as Christ, and trying to become like Christ.

Instead of loving other Christians, some make it a sport to blacken others and even incite people to hate those other Christians.

Nora Marie writes:

Why do we (yes, especially so-called Christians) stick our noses in other people’s poop?

Why do Christians feel the need to spread stuff around that they know will hurt others? {Grab a Dog by the Ears?}

and gives a good answer:

Two reasons:

1. Pride and arrogance in thinking they are more righteous than others, and

2. Revenge, thinking they will straighten out the person, not realizing that God will always put the gossiper in their place! {Grab a Dog by the Ears?}

It is often because they cannot tolerate something from the other party that they go against it so much. Most vehemently they go against non-trinitarian Christians and their churches because they cannot stand up to the dignity of those God-loving persons who base themselves totally on the Bible and not on the doctrines of certain popular churches.

Much too often, certain Christians forget the words of the Bible concerning their attitude against others and worse in their way of living go far away from the essence of Scriptures.

We are fools when we fly far from God’s precepts, when we are lazy, and when we use our tongues to hurt others in order to build ourselves up. {Grab a Dog by the Ears?}

correctly reminds her readers.

God has given His Word to anyone who wants to hear, to provide instruction and insight so that one can build a perfect life full of respect for others.

God’s word is genius. God’s word flows together into every area of our lives. Yes, it is possible to live right with only the Ten Commandments, but thankfully, God gave us a whole Cannon to explain to us dumb sheep how to treat others, and more importantly, to draw closer to the Lord! {Grab a Dog by the Ears?}

Naive or inexperienced and gullible persons are easily misled and believe every word they hear, but the prudent man [is discreet and astute and] considers well where they are going, sifting and weighing every word. Therefore, let’s think carefully about some bible texts like these:

He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own
Is like one who takes a dog by the ears. ~Proverbs 26:17

“The simpleton believes every word he hears, but the prudent man looks and considers well where he is going.” Proverbs 14:15

Remembering also

“You are not mature if you have a high esteem of yourself. He who boasts in himself is but a babe in Christ, if indeed he be in Christ at all.
Young Christians may think much of themselves. Growing Christians think themselves nothing. Mature Christians know that they are less than nothing.
The more holy we are, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves” { Charles Spurgeon}

And

Let’s live in love instead of arrogance. {Grab a Dog by the Ears?}

Preceding

Confrontation by people telling lies to force others to avoid the targetted groups

The written, the spoken, and the audible a part of the soul and a blessing to humanity but also the trigger to those who love Crusades and the Inquisition

Need to reject an archaic, racist inspired interpretation of the Bible and animosity against other believers

Are Christianity and Capitalism Compatible?

How Many Gods?

When does your day begin and when begins God His day

This is Church Unity?

Preaching as Public Speaking

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

Passover 7 days of meditation opening a way to conversion

Culture War Christianity in American history

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #3 Cyberwars and prophesy

Responses to Radical Muslims and Radical Christians

Seeds from the world creating division and separation from God

Preventing conflicts and war

Contemplation for the month of April……Falsehood darkens the pure knowledge of God!

Additional reading

+++

7 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters

Tagged as 10 Commandments, Aggressiveness, Aggressiveness against Christians, Anti-Christ cults, Anti-Christian act, Anti-Semitism, Arrogance, Atheists, Attitude to others, Basis of faith, Believers, Bible reading, Charles Spurgeon, Christendom, Christian faith, Christian-hating group(s), Desmond Tutu, Ex-Christians, Faith, Faith-groups, False doctrine, False doctrines, Falsehood, God’s Word, Judges of Christianity, Life of faith, Mahatma Gandhi, Negative judges of Christianity, Perfect life, Pride, Proverbs 26:17, Revenge, to Draw close to God, to Ridicule Christians, True follower of Christ, Word of God

by Guestspeaker | 2023/03/01 · 2:34 pm

Preachers belonging to the Whore of Babylon calling Judeo-Christians the anti-Christ

Preachers giving false ideas

On the net, we do find lots of people who claim to be Christian but belong to the Whore of Babylon, according to the Scriptures.

Fritz Berggren writes about the real Bride and a False Bride (the Great Whore).

Too many “Christians” — Judeo-Christians —have joined themselves to the wrong body.Like Eve, they are deceived. {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

The writer of the site Christian Nations notices

This is the False Wife, the Whore of Babylon who believes she cannot be touched and falsely claims to be the Bride, the Chosen people, when in fact she is the whore who sits on many waters (is in many nations) {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

When we look around us, everywhere we can see and hear people who claim to be Christian, but who do not follow the teachings of Christ Jesus and do not worship the God of Jesus, but have made Jesus and other human beings in their gods.

For him

The False Wife is like those call call themselves Jews, but are not, and are rather of the synagogue of Satan. {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

by which we do hope he sees those Christians who are not Jews but call themselves Messianic, though do not worship the God of the Messiah, nor God of the Jews, because those Messianics worship the Trinity. We have the impression Berggren does not see the difference between the Messianic Gentiles, Trinitarians who call themselves Messianics, Jews who call themselves Messianics, Jews for Jesus and Jeshuaists.

On the other hand, we do hope he does not have it about the Messianic Jews who do not adhere the false doctrine of the Trinity or does not point the finger to the Jeshuaist Jews, who are Jews who accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

Strangely he writes

the Great Whore of Babylon, the harlot, the antiChrist, those who murdered Jesus Christ

as if it were the Jews who killed the Jew, Jesus.

and those who persecute His Church, those who call themselves Jews (but lie) are all manifestations of their true father Satan, who was a liar and deceiver from the Beginning. {The False Bride (the Great Whore)}

Giving with that last bit the impression he really has it about the Jews who came to accept Jesus as their saviour. He seems to live in the same sort of groups which are indentified by the Bible messages as the Whore of Babylon, like the Roman Catholic Church.

We are also living in a time the Bible spoke about, when we would come to see a drying up of support for Christendom and/or Christianity, along with other religions, in our day.

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” (Re 16:12 KJ21)

“And he saith unto me, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues.” (Re 17:15 KJ21)

The King of the North or Gog has started the invasion of Ukraine. But the Scriptures also foresaw that some would abandon false religion not merely because of dissatisfaction or disillusionment but because of a positive purpose. Them leaving the main churches let those who belong to the Whore being angrier. The of away church members makes those churches rise and go even more against those who worship the True God. The Bible prophetically urges:

“Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins.” (Revelation 18:4)

Getting out of “her” refers to the Biblical symbolic religious whore, “Babylon the Great,” which embraces all the religions of the world, including those of modern Christendom. The “my people” are sincere seekers of truth who leave Babylon the Great because they want to serve God in the way Jesus taught. Christendom has strayed so far from true Christianity that sincere people must get out in order to serve God acceptably.

Though in Fritz Berggren his introduction page the author of that blog seems to be an American who has everything against what smells like a social entourage, or the friendship and peace Christ taught. As such, he considers Marxism, socialism, social justice progressivism to be more than a faith. He writes

it is a hard core religion; it demands total, faith, submission and obedience. It is worse than wrong — it is evil. It dehumanizes those within it. {About}

clearly not seeing that the Nazarene Jesus was a communist avant la lettre.

We do not have any idea where he gets it from that

The Left has a faith. Part of their faith is to deny that it is a faith. They claim their thoughts are “scientific,” and based on “material” facts. But it is neither scientific nor materialist except when it is convenient for them. {About}

That saying betrays his conservative fundamentalist beliefs that give no room for the social attitudes Jesus observed. Politics are not a faith or religion. There might be political parties that demand total, faith, submission and obedience, but that is not so by Marxists or several leftish groups. That is why there is so much variety in Left Wing groups.

He does not explain why his argument would be right, when he consider such people and their believes

worse than wrong — it is evil. It dehumanizes those within it. {About}

That Marxists would dehumanise people is just the opposite what they do. For a Marxist has the person to come in the first place, and not the material, like we see happening so much by the Capitalists.

We notice that in the United States of America there are a lot of very conservative Christians who hate everything that brings something social to the foreground. They do not want to share anything with others. Unlike a Christian should be open to help others, they are not willing to pay for the sick and the poor. Christians who dare to ask to be more social, are then called ‘Communist’ and shunned, being seen as the anti-Christ or devil.

It looks like the writer of the above-mentioned blog wants to see bloodshed, instead, like any Christian should do, aiming for peace, and avoiding bloodshed. But he writes

Blood is primary. Without blood there is no present, past or future. There are no ancestors, no self, no progeny. {About}

For him, the left being against bloodshed and against killing people, even when they have murdered someone, makes him say

The goal of the Left is to destroy blood and faith so that (Marxist) religion alone becomes master and enslaver of all. {About}

which is strange, because most left people want nobody to be a slave of one another. The Communists and Marxists as well as the Socialists are continuously fighting against modern slavery. They are aiming for equality under all people, no matter what sort of culture, race, colour or sex. Fritz Berggren not seeing this, probably because he is so breath in the American Capitalist culture he is blind for reality and probably places himself before all others, calling on the so-called amendments and free rights, not willing to give freedom to others (like asylum seekers, handicapped etc.). The American healthcare system, and how Trumpists and American evangelists are against ObamaCare and other social measures, says it all

He wonders

Why do many Christian hide their name and face on social media? {Anonymity and the Christian}

The problem is there are many name-Christians, people who say they are Christian, but often do not believe in God or have Jesus as their god. It are people who prefer to walk after the flesh instead after the spirit. The majority who call themselves Christian are really not worthy partakers of the Body of Christ. It is mostly people who do not let themselves be guided by the Hand of God, nor by the Word of God, but stick to the human traditions of Church fathers and continued false teachings. They forget that the righteous man runs into the Tower of God and follows the Jewish master teacher Jeshua ben Josef, Jesus Christ from Nazareth.is safe. It are people who might be thirsty but do not go to the Spring of living water.

The blog writer thinks

Nothing has changed in two thousand years, same tactics, same enemy, same self-righteous hypocrisy of the New Pharisees like the ADL — those who call themselves Jews but lie, and are of the synagogue of Satan. {Anonymity and the Christian}

We do not know if with ADL he means the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the international Jewish non-governmental organisation based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. They not being a religious organisation as such, but certainly no church. But here we can see why the writer is so much against that non-profit organisation, becaus they too try to take up one of those social teachings of Jesus.

The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens. {“Our Mission”. Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on October 30, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2019.}

He does not want to believe that many Christian claim to want genuine New Testament Christianity as revealed in the book of Acts. He thinks he does not live in a free country any more. He claims that he served his country, which according him is taking over by the church, the children of Satan, who are evil. In one of his podcasts he agrees that all those standard established American churches reduced the gospel of Jesus Christ to the scope of the anti-christ.

He wrongly says that

It was Jesus Christ who gave us the Ten Commandments, He is One with the Father and is the Creator. {Sunday: The Ten Commandments and Christian Nations}

Saying this he goes in against the sayings of God that there is only One God and taht Jesus is His beloved son. Telling people that Jesus gave the ten commandments whilst he himself does not keep to those commandments is making him an anti-Christ and an anti-God. He should know that

The Then Commandments are eternal; {Sunday: The Ten Commandments and Christian Nations}

and that they should also be the foundation of Christian Nations.

He, in one of his podcast, says that when one wsays to be a Christian, that means you have to swear leageons by the words of Jesus Christ. So why does he not keep to the words of Jesus Christ, we wonder, when he is so against Judeo Christians and Christians who do not wordhip like him that threeheaded god?

In that American PhD writer’s attack, we can very well notice how he wildly rants against those who do not adhere to the Trinity doctrine. As an anti-Christ, he goes wild, or rants, like a lion and wants others to believe that those true followers of Jesus are the evildoers in this world. According to him, they are devils when in reality they are children of God and follow the teachings of Jesus.

Let us be fully aware that there have been and still shall come many deceivers who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. They say God has come into the flesh, instead of believing that God provided His beloved son and accepted his ransom offer. The majority of churches we see today, as well as the church where that writer seems to belong to, do not keep to the doctrine of Christ, but prefer to keep to the human traditions and false teachings.

“7 For many deceivers have entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we may receive a full reward. 9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed; 11 for he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds.” (2Jo 1:7-11 KJ21)

Therefore let us be aware what others say about those who want to be in and with Christ. Coming closer to the endtimes we see how many raise their voice against the true followers of Christ. We should not be sad, but rejoice, because true Christianity is alive and flourishing all around the globe. All over the world we can find true followers of Jesus Christ, who worship the Only One true God. In spite of their imperfections, those non-trinitarian Christians, Judeo Christians and Jeshuaists are following Christ’s teachings and practices.

In case you believe that Jesus is the son of God, the sent one from God, who came to liberate you from the chains of this world, let yourself not be captivated by those who are calling you an anti-Christ, because most of the time they are the ones who are the anti-Christ, or belong to an anti-Christ cult the ones warned for in the Scriptures.

You are not expected simply to accept that assertion. Why not examine the beliefs of those who really follow Christ, them being Brothers in Christ or Christadelphians or Jeshuaists, in the light of the Bible, and see for yourself. Learn from God’s Word the Christianity of Jesus’ apostles, as opposed to what Christendom’s churches have taught and practiced for centuries. This will, as the apostle Paul explained, bring you benefits for “the life now and that which is to come.”

“For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1Ti 4:8 KJ21)

Preceding

A vital question for believers

A Theology of Culture War Christianity

Culture War Christianity in American history

Hitler and Christianity: Some Trends in Interpretation

Looking at an American nightmare

About a fleshless diet

Submarine ‘treason’ shows Britain is vassal state of US, say fuming French

Knowing The Truth and Loving The Truth

Additional reading

+++

2 Comments

Filed under Crimes & Atrocities, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Tagged as 1 Timothy 4:8, 2 John 1:7-11, American Capitalist culture, Anti-Christ, Anti-Defamation, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Christendom, Christian Nations (website), Christianity, Conservative Christians, Doctrine of Christ, False teachings, Fritz Berggren, Fundamentalists, Gog, Jeshuaist(s), Jews for Jesus, Marxism, Marxist(s), Messianic Gentile(s), Messianic Jews, Messianic(s), Name Christians, ObamaCare, Revelation 16:12, Revelation 17:1, Revelation 18:4, Roman Catholic Church, Seeker(s) of truth, Social attitude, Social justice, Socialism, to Serve God, True follower of Christ, United States of America, Whore of Babylon, Whore of Babylon = Great Whore

by Guestspeaker | 2022/11/17 · 3:52 pm

Culture War Christianity in American history

In this article, you might find our comments on our previously published articles about Culture War Christians

What Are The Culture Wars?

A History Of The Culture Wars

A Theology of Culture War Christianity

Beyond the Culture Wars

Jared Stacy writes

What are the Culture Wars?

Think of “culture” as a way of life. It is the sum total of all values, beliefs, and practices making up a communal existence. When God commissions newly formed humanity in Genesis 1 to “fill the earth and subdue it”, he sets men and women into the world with a cultural mandate. His plan was for a human society, united under his rule in the world, ruling with him over the Cosmos as his vice-regents. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

Karl Marx saw how main religion tried to lure people in the ban of the church by false doctrines. It is because the majority of people did not take the time to read the Bible that so many religious groups were able to get people following their false doctrines.

Regularly, people were so prayed for by those doctrines of those churches that they no longer faced the real thing because they preferred to float on those ideas of those churches. It had become so bad that Marx also realised that for many, religion was like an ‘opium for the people’. In lots of Christian and Islamic denominations, their church leaders managed to have their followers, following and worshipping a wrong god and not following the real Christ. since his time still not much has been changed, and there are still lots of false teachers and false prophets around. Marx was disturbed by the knowledge that he saw so many people around him falling for those false human teachings and giving their money away to those churches when there were so many people around them suffering. Marx also noted few dared to question, let alone challenge, church doctrines.

It also bothered several thinkers in the 19th century that the church made no attempt to defend the majority of their churchgoers or parishioners, and did not stand up against the exploitation of parishioners. For far too many centuries, the Roman Catholic Church itself had done everything possible to trot out money from the poorer population.

The German revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist, Karl Marx and his closest collaborator, the German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels’ answer to the ills of society was according to some, just the opposite of the utopian dreamers’ answers. Mainly this, because the ideas of utopists (like Mr. Ampe) seem for many too far-fetched and unreachable. Though Marx and Engels found enough people who, like them, believed that one could change the way people lived and could come to a better world with less inequality. They, too, went for a better world.

Since World War I the world has evolved incredibly on all levels. Politically it was a time of trying out several political systems, getting more than once in a lot of problems and crises. The Western world clinched at the industrialisation and experienced mixed economies floating between all kinds of political thoughts. Even as the western world became less religious and the church got less of a grip on its citizens, the rich continued to control everything and did everything they could to maintain their power.

For Jared Stacy we have come into a Culture War Christianity where elections are consistently framed He looks at legislation, movies, businesses, etc. as affecting the survival of Christianity itself. For him such

hyperbolic rhetoric is typical. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

For him it is clear that Christ should be at the centre of Christianity. But he also expects something for those who call themselves Christian. He writes

When Jesus prayed,

“on earth as it is on heaven”

he was indicating his expectation and desire that the culture of Heaven becomes the culture of Earth by way of his Church. But does Culture War Christianity, the sort launched in the ’70s, contradict the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom? {What Are The Culture Wars?}

So many people had looked forward to the 20th century, hoping that because of all the new inventions, brought forward by the Industrial Revolution, they would be able to create a world where everything would be much easier and giving them more time to relax. The century opened with great hope but also with some apprehension, for the new century marked the final approach to a new millennium. For many, humankind was entering upon an unprecedented era. The English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian H.G. Wells’s utopian studies, the aptly titled Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) and A Modern Utopia (1905), both captured and qualified this optimistic mood and gave expression to a common conviction that science and technology would transform the world in the century ahead.

Already before the seventies of the previous century there was something going wrong in the industrialised world. Even though many countries were allowed to offer independence back to their colonies, they continued to exploit people in their own countries. Even when churches wanted to present God in different ways over the years, people should know That God never changes. He will always be the same and keep to the same Plan He had already from the beginning of times.

The American pastor and current PhD candidate in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Jared Stacy
wants to call our attention to this basic theological ethic:

The work of God’s rule spreading throughout the world in individual lives and communities will never contradict who God is. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

We would have loved that, but reality shows something totally different. For centuries, the main Christian churches have chosen another path than the disciples of Christ. The majority of people preferred to keep to their heathen traditions and festivals and the Catholic and several Protestant churches followed them and made Jesus Christ (the Messiah) their god. As such, we must say there is a lot of contradiction in what people say God is. For many, He is not the God of Christ, Who is the God of Israel, but is a god who is part of a three-headed godship, the Trinity.

It is not just that difference of who God is and who Christ is that has brought division in the world of believers. The diversity of religious groups has also brought both confusion and discord. Coming closer to the 21st-century tension or strife resulting from a lack of agreement came to bring even more separation between the true followers of the Nazarene Jewish masterteacher Jeshua ben Joseph (Jesus Christ) and the name-Christians who worship Jesus as their god and do not shy away from also worshipping all kinds of people they call saints, this while the One True God desires full recognition and worship.

We have the impression that the blog writer who also writes for platforms like NPR, the BBC, Current, and For the Church, does not see (or does not know) the multiple camps in Christendom. He only mentions two of them. He writes

To speak generally, mischaracterizations come from two camps. Let’s call one group “conscientious objectors” and the other, “vocal advocates”.

Some accuse conscientious objectors to the Culture Wars of believing that Christianity should have no influence in the public square. They slander these conscientious objectors as faithless & godless, or misrepresent them as conspiratorially hypocritical, secretly harboring a progressive political agenda.

On the other end of the spectrum, some conscientious objectors accuse vocal advocates of conflating Christianity with cultural power. This often leads them to slander vocal advocates as compromising sell-outs, or mischaracterize their advocacy & well-connected influence as grounded in an inherently complicit conservative agenda. No doubt, I believe there are instances of legitimate criticisms from boths sides in Christian spaces. But polarity abounds. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

For him the polarizing gap between vocal advocates and conscientious objectors reveals a vast “no man’s land” in American evangelicalism. This is why he believes his series has pastoral and personal implications for all of us.

Because either you or someone you know is wandering the no man’s land as a refugee from the Culture Wars. {What Are The Culture Wars?}

Many American evangelicals are proud that they (so-called) keep to The 10 Commandments, though all of them already sin against the first commandment, not keeping to The Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah of hosts, the God above all gods.

David Hansen correctly says

“The majority of Americans will tell any pollster that they believe in the Ten Commandments. But only a small percentage of those people could even recite the Ten Commandment; and even a smaller percentage have any genuine interest in following them.” {The 10 Commandments in American Culture}

Lots of North Americans should seriously think about their religion and their faith. About that faith Stacy says there is a danger.

On a day of hope, we need a fresh reminder of the danger inherent in an embrace of Christian faith. {The Danger of Faith}

He points out the trap many Americans have fallen into.

It is American consumer Christianity that invites us to “make Jesus Lord of our lives”. This pitch makes Christ a commodity, leaving us—the consumer—with control. The resurrection and ascension is a coronation that happens apart from our consumer choice & control. {The Danger of Faith}

1909 painting The Worship of Mammon, the god of material wealth, by Evelyn De Morgan

The great part of the US population, as well as in other developed countries, is that believers have deviated from Biblical truth as well as become wedded to matter and thus actually honour the god Mammon. Several denominations in the United States make clever use of asking people for money all the time, pretending that they will then have a better life. It has also become so ingrained in people that one can only be successful if one has acquired a lot of money. Consequently, many do everything possible to be as rich as possible (on the material plane) while completely neglecting spiritual wealth. Many have forgotten that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Stacy writes

It is hard to deny today that for many, the supposed downfall of America is synonymous with the collapse of Christianity. Jesus confronts this idolatry with his Kingdom. {The Danger of Faith}

Lots of Americans are even not aware of how they participate in idolatry, which they prove by continually clinging to pagan festivals such as Candlemas, Easter, Halloween and Christmas, to name only the main ones, and to cling to money and material gain.

He reigns over a Kingdom that cannot be shaken through the rising and falling empires of this world. {The Danger of Faith}

And throughout history, many kingships or kingdoms and principalities as well as republics have risen and fallen. Never before has man succeeded in creating a nation or empire in which everyone was comfortable and where justice was done to everyone. Several Christians, in imitation of Christ, have tried to make people understand how best to live in unity with fellow human beings, plants and animals.

The 1963 March on Washington participants and leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, as mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s.

When we look at the German culture struggle of the 1870’s (kulturkampf) it’s clear that the American Civil Rights movement was a “Culture War” too. King’s commitment to non-violence laid a distinct Christian foundation for the Civil Rights movement. But white evangelicals of the time either distanced themselves from King, or denounced the Civil Rights movement entirely, with calls to “just preach the gospel.” {A History Of The Culture Wars}

writes Stacy.

But not many white Americans were really willing to go to preach what was really written in the gospel. They prefer just to take some phrases out of context to repeat them so that people come to believe them.

The forty odd years from this origin point until today witnessed the end of the Cold War and an insurrection at the US Capitol. Between these bookends, Culture War Christianity made itself known & felt in American society through movements. (See, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne; Stan Gall, Borderlines: Reflections on Sex, War, and the Church; Frances Fitzgerald, The Evangelicals; Tim Gloege, Guaranteed Pure; historical treatments on these movements) {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Stacy reminds his readers:

The arguments and relationships in the antebellum South were transported via Lost Cause theology 100 years into the future, seen in white evangelical responses to the Civil Rights Movement. But these leaders could not ignore the impact of King’s kulturkampf. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

He assures his readers that

Culture War Christianity started after the Civil Rights Movement, not before. It borrows the playbook of the CRM. Ironically, it thrives on a sort of “persecuted minority” mindset, borrowed from the Civil Rights movement, but not actually indicative of the communal experience in its main constituents: white evangelicals. A minority mindset is a prominent characteristic of God’s people in the Scriptures. However, this mindset is not characteristic of evangelical experience in the United States. Race relations and evangelical’s historic participation in the moral establishment offer two historical keys that present a necessary critique of modern Culture War Christianity. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

He believes it is impossible to understand the history behind Culture War Christianity apart from race relations in the United States. So, we begin where we left off, with this statement:

The Culture Wars began when white American evangelicals took the activist playbook from the very Civil Rights leaders they opposed, to advance a moral agenda they could support.

…

Some were overtly political, like the Moral Majority or Christian Coalition. Others would serve the notion of family values, yet retain political influence, like Focus on the Family or Promise Keepers. Local churches and expansive media (books, radio, television) formed the local grassroots communities made these movements possible.

While this all may seem quite familiar, especially if you inhabited spaces within white American Christianity during the last 40 years, a history of the Culture Wars would be best served by going back 2 centuries to look at the phrase “Culture War” itself. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

In his blog he then goes back to the 19th century, across the Atlantic Ocean where the Germans provide us with a glimpse into a framework upstream to both the Civil Rights Movement and “Culture War Christianity” at a time when a new world order was being born. In that era, he recognises the central position of the Catholic Church, facing new threats to its grasp on power.

From the political power of the nation- state to the intellectual frameworks of liberalism and Darwinism, the winds were shifting. In response, the Church produced a flurry of theological statements and denouncements meant to stem the tide of ideas that threatened its hold on the Old World Order. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Portrait of Pope Pius IX circa 1864

The Holy See under Pope Pius IX on 8 December 1864, brought an appendix to the Quanta cura encyclical, with a syllabus where the church wanted to have the people see that it was with the times and recognised 80 of the

“principal errors of our times.”

As the errors listed had already been condemned in allocutions, encyclicals, and other apostolic letters, the Syllabus said nothing new and so could not be contested. Its importance lay in the fact that it published to the world what had previously been preached in the main only to the bishops, and that it made general what had been previously specific denunciations concerned with particular events. Perhaps the most famous article, the 80th, stigmatising as an error the view that

“the Roman Pontiff can and should reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and modern civilisation,”

sought its authority in the pope’s refusal, in Jamdudum Cernimus, to have any dealings with the new Italian kingdom. On both scores, the Syllabus undermined the liberal Catholics’ position, for it destroyed their following among intellectuals and placed their program out of court.

The Church denounced religious liberty, the nation-state, and other consequences stemming from the “threat of liberalism.” {A History Of The Culture Wars}

For some time there had been bumbling or difficulty in having a good relationship with the Catholic Church. More thinkers also came to speak out about the huge profits the Church was making on the backs of the faithful. Increasingly, there was also the idea of going back to the basics of Christ’s teachings where simplicity was preached and people were taught how to stand up for and care for each other. In the gospel, Jesus set a good example of how not only Christians should live, but actually every human being.

In the 1870’s, the German people, specifically within the Kingdom of Prussia, found themselves in conflict with the Catholic Church over their own Reformation roots and a rapidly secularizing order. This conflict had ramifications for both the Church and the separated German states. As a result of this conflict swirling around the German peoples, individual German States united along highly Protestant lines under Otto Von Bismark of Prussia. (See, Helmut Walser Smith, editor, The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History) This period of conflict and change was given a name: Kulturkampf, or “Culture Struggle”. This German kulturkampf shows us how struggles between competing visions for human existence are sparked by complex reactions between religion, politics, and power. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

It is the clash between people of the common people, as well as philosophers and political thinkers, with the church, that caused very animated conversations in several places in the German Empire about faith, church, and the way we as human beings should choose to arrive at a better world.

After World War II several American religious groups tried to have the power over the American people. They tried to convince them that they were the sole church which preached the truth. Some even went so far to tell the people they were chosen by God and that their church is the only one that can bring them in heaven. For those churches, it is certain that one can only be accepted by God if one follows their rules. Of course, such a saying is absurd, but a large majority of Americans follow that false statement. In the life of faith, it is also certain that no particular church by Jesus was ever designated as the only one to follow.

By studying German kulturkampf, we can begin to see the American Culture War’s false claim to exclusivity and authority by claiming itself to be the sole representative and defender of orthodox Christianity. When we realize this — that American Culture War Christianity is not the single defender of the faith — it trains us to adopt a healthy critical filter every time a Christian leader describes the “very survival of Christianity at stake” as a smoke screen for unChristian agreements with power. On the other hand, conscientious objectors to Culture War Christianity would do well to consider how “culture struggle” might be a positive expression of Christian faith. There is space to consider positive “culture struggle”. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

King’s kulturkampf was rooted in Christian principles, and sought to dismantle the injustices of racial segregation, subjugation and discrimination within America. With the upcoming of the more conservative Christians, and/or conservative evangelicals, the position between coloured people worsened again and nationalism and (far) right-wing ideas came to the forefront in the States, the same way they did in the 1930s in Europe. Thus, from Europe, we could see the very dangerous development of right-wing rule and the glorification of such despots as Donald Trump, who is a danger to the world.

What would come to define and shape Culture War Christianity in 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s in the US is not at all what King and several serious preachers had in mind. The growing conservatism by the Americans brought forward people who are against equality and who find the white man is the pure race. Even Billy Graham came to criticise segregation but also denounced the non-violent demonstrations as contributing to further violence.

Others denounced calls for desegregation entirely. Back in 1960, Bob Jones Sr. took harder lines at Christians supporting an end to segregation by referring to them as “religious infidels”. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Several pastors of mega-churches, especially in white neighbourhoods, succeeded in shifting all the faults of the system onto the backs of the blacks and refugees who just’ came and invaded America’, without the government doing enough to stop them. One would think the religious leaders would have their moral reasoning to flow from a theological calculus, but it (for sure) did not come from Biblical teaching.

Stacy writes

Charles Ivory’s masterful Proslavery Christianity examines the white evangelical relationship with black evangelicals before the Civil War. He looks at how these interactions between white and black Christians, slave and free, actually came to shape the white evangelical theological defense of slavery. If we want to understand the Culture War Christianity of Falwell, and other white evangelicals, we need to examine their response to the Civil Rights Movement. I believe their response has its source in the theological calculus of white evangelicals in the antebellum South. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Ivory writes it was not uncommon for white and black evangelicals to worship within the same church. Indeed, the revival of the late 18th century did not discriminate on the basis of cultural background. But the theological conflict in evangelical churches pre-Civil War centered around conversion. Namely, does Christian conversion necessitate manumission? Today, Christians would argue chattel slavery is indefensible regardless of a slave’s conversion to Christianity. Humanity is not property. However, the historical context of the time made the question of conversion and manumission the frontline theological conflict regarding chattel slavery within evangelical churches. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

In West Europe the people had gone already through that process, knowing that slavery was something one could not accept in a civilised society. On this, several speakers came to draw attention to a system to bring more equality among all people. The road to socialism and communism was thus promoted by several enthusiasts.

Culture War Christianity has long since ossified into the de facto expression of faith for many white American evangelicals.

But those white American Christians have come to love themselves more than someone else and consider themselves as the only ones worthy to govern America. They do not have an eye at all for the indigenous people, because they consider themselves as the rightful founders and owners of America.

For 200 years, white evangelicalism has been an insider. No where has the minority mindset been more pervasive in our modern conception of Culture War Christianity than rhetoric. Phrases like “drain the swamp”, “make America great again”, and “take back America for God” in evangelical politics go right next to “that’s too political” and “just preach the gospel” in evangelical churches. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

We can wonder from who those evangelicals have to take back ‘their country’! Those evangelicals seem not to have any idea what the ‘founders’ of America had in mind and why they wanted religion and government separated.

While separation of church and state was federally enshrined in the Constitution, it did not play out in those strict terms in state and local governments. This changed in the early 20th century, when the Scopes trial, New Deal politics, and internal theological warring between fundamentalists and modernists left a vacuum in American society that evangelicalism used to fill in common culture. Neo-evangelicals like Billy Graham emerged in this vacuum. But for the long of American history, Christians have not only been influential, but privileged.

How can a privileged majority come to see itself as a minority? Culture War Christianity accomplishes this in part by dressing itself in the Biblical and theological concept of a remnant. A faithful few of God’s people who remain loyal to God and his ways in a foreign, godless land. But this theological adaptation does not line up with the historical participation of white evangelicals in the moral establishment of the United States. Yet, the drums of Culture War for white American Christians implied a greater enemy beyond its borders. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Though the big problem of those Tea Party and conservative or fundamentalist evangelicals is that they are not at all remaining “loyal to God and his ways in a foreign, godless land” they even have betrayed God and His son on several levels. They have created some three-headed god (or three-une being) and political leaders such as Trump as their gods, and consider their American flag as their religious symbol^{even a Christian symbol}. For sure they can not belong to the faithful few of God’s people, because they do not believe in the Only One True God and because they do not act like People of God. They themselves are part of that ‘dark world’ the Bible is talking about. And now in those times that darkness and of gloominess can be seen everywhere, they also do everything to create division and spread hate, instead of spreading the love of Christ and his great message of a world full of peace. Those evangelicals with other name Christians have made it a sport to make fun of, blacken and curse true Christians. They do everything possible to get people away from those true worshippers of God. They also have some sort of paranoia and consider all people from abroad as dangerous suspects. They fear those coming from outside America would destroy their freedom.

Stacy remarks

the drums of Culture War for white American Christians implied a greater enemy beyond its borders. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

and also see what happened under the influence of certain political figures.

The Culture Wars of white American evangelicalism was not the reaction of the minority against the majority, but the majority against a imagined majority. It is hard to avoid this conclusion given overwhelming support for President Trump. {A History Of The Culture Wars}

Stacy continues writing

In the place of Jesus’ active reign today, we find American Christians given to other reigning power structures: nationalism, racism, misogyny, and bigotry. They are discipled by political—not resurrection—power. This is partly the reason why Culture War Christians took greater issue with Kaepernick’s supposed desecration of the flag than they might with his concerns over police brutality against image bearers. They operate in a power structure other than the Kingdom of Jesus. {A Theology of Culture War Christianity}

Stacys wonders

What if Culture War Christianity long ago bowed the knee to a nationalist, secular conservatism? One with its law & order politics, reticence on issues of race, and idolatry of country? {Beyond the Culture Wars}

Ans says that he has argued this in his series.

Long before white evangelicals told MLK to “just preach the gospel”, there has always been a Christianity domesticated by, and deployed in defense of, the status quo in this country. Frederick Douglass called it before any of us. And in this sort of Christianity, “make disciples” has too often been code for “make people like us” not “make us like Jesus”. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

There lies one of the biggest problems in American Christendom. The majority of Americans does not take time enough to seriously study the Scriptures. For most of them the Bible also only means the New Testament. Lots of those evangelicals also do not understand what that sacrificial offering of Jesus, letting himself be nailed at the stake, means. For them it is very difficult to grasp how a man of flesh and blood could give himself as a lamb for whitewashing the sins of many.

Some of those white evangelicals living in the United States of America are convinced they are the only ones who can Make America Great Again and build up the most correct state. They forget how so many people before them have tried already to construct an ideal state. They should know it shall only happen under Jesus Christ that we shall be able to live in a perfect world.

Let us also not forget Niebuhr’s saying,

“any good worth doing takes more than one lifetime.”

According to Jared Stacy

This should give us pause before we entertain pragmatism to bring about change in our lifetime. It was Jesus who said,

“what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?”

This should give us pause as we count the cost of pragmatism to reveal the Kingdom of God. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

He ends his article series by saying

After all, the cross is not a symbol of cultural superiority for white America, but of surrender and sacrifice in the Kingdom of God. We must measure our motivations by the Cross, and our methods. Take it from me. A millennial. The generation who was born in and shaped by the ‘Jesus & John Wayne evangelicalism” in its prime. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

And recognises the problem

Culture War Christianity allows you to have a Christian worldview and reject the Cross. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

By which he hopefully means: rejecting the ransom offering of that Jewish Nazarene master teacher, Jeshua ben Josef, or Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

It substitutes other, more pragmatic means to really get things done. But in the Kingdom of Jesus the only strategy available for implementing a Christian worldview is the Cross. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

We have to do away with the false teaching in Christendom and have to go back to the Biblical teachings and keep to them, adhering to Biblical Truth and not human doctrine.

We should recognise the danger of that growing conservative evangelism.

For all it’s posturing about the morality of America, Culture War Christianity has stopped its ear to calls for ethnic & economic justice. Has tied its hands in response to sexual scandal and abuse in its ranks. Yet expresses incredulity when the world fails to take its sexual ethic seriously. Culture War Christianity can only provide more entrenchment, more combat, and more pragmatism. But crucified Christianity is growing the world over, and—as it has always done— turning the world upside down. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

Writing from Scotland, the author of the mentioned articles, wants to suggest a simple but humble invitation to venture into the wilderness as an act of faithfulness. For him,

the wilderness meant stepping out of the American pastorate, and out of America. This was my move made in faith. An attempt to combat the rise of cynicism in my own spirit, channeling it into meaningful, faithful action. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

From Moses, to Elijah, to Christ. Perhaps the wilderness is the place for those disenchanted and disillusioned, those disowned and disinherited from Culture War Christianity, to begin to see the Cross not as a symbol storming the US Capitol, but again as a place where our power grabs go to die. And where there is death to our ability to bring about change, God brings resurrection that changes everything. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

The Austrian philosopher and Roman Catholic priest known for his radical polemics arguing that the benefits of many modern technologies and social arrangements were illusory and that, still further, such developments undermined humans’ self-sufficiency, freedom, and dignity, Ivan Illich illumines what it is to be in the world, but not of it — just like Jesus.

Jared Stacy offers his words as a simple reflection in the conclusion to his series:

It is astonishing what the devil says: I have all power, it has been given to me, and I am the one to hand it on — submit, and it is yours. Jesus of course does not submit…Not for a moment, however, does Jesus contradict the devil. He does not question that the devil holds all power, nor that this power has been given to him, nor that he, the devil, gives it to whom he pleases. This is a point which is easily overlooked. By his silence Jesus recognizes power that is established as “devil” and defines Himself as The Powerless. He who cannot accept this view on power cannot look at establishments through the spectacle of the Gospel. This is what clergy and churches often have difficulty doing. They are so strongly motivated by the image of church as a “helping institution” that they are constantly motivated to hold power, share in it or, at least, influence it. {Beyond the Culture Wars}

Please also do find to read

+++

7 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Economical affairs, History, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Tagged as 1870s, 1930s, 1970s, 19° Century, 21° Century, American Civil Rights movement, American Culture War, American evangelicalism, American evangelicals, American society, American society - Society of the United States, Antebellum South, Better world, Biblical truth, Bigotry, Billy Graham, Black evangelical(s), Bob Jones Sr., Charles Ivory, Christian Coalition, Christian Coalition (Am. pol. org.), Christian conversion, Christianity, Christians, Church doctrine, Churchgoers, Civil Rights movement, Cold War, Colin Kaepernick (Am. civil rights activ. + football quarterback), Coloured people, Communal existence, Communism, Confusion, Conscientious objectors, Conservative Christians, Conservative evangelical(s), Cultural mandate, Culture of earth, Culture of heaven, Culture struggle, Culture War, Culture War Christianity, Culture War(s), Darwinism, David Hansen, desecration of the flag, Discord, Discrimination, Diversity, Division, Donald Trump, Economic justice, Empire(s), Equality, Equality of all people, Ethnic justice, Europe, Evangelicalism, Exploitation, exploitation of parishioners, Faithful few, False doctrines, Focus on the Family (Am. org.), Friedrich Engels, Fundamentalists, German Empire, German people, German states, God of Christ, God of Israel, grassroots community, Herbert George Wells, Human teachings, Humanity, Idolatry, Idolatry of money, Ills of society, Imitation of Christ, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Industrial Revolution, Industrialised world or developed countries, Ivan Illich, Jared Stacy, Jerry Falwell, Jesus Christ, Karl Marx, Kingdom of Christ Jesus, Kingdom of Prussia, Kingdom(s), Kingship(s), Kulturkampf, Liberalism, Main Christian church(es), Mammon, Manumission, Martin Luther King Jr., Mischaracterisation, Misogyny, Modernism (Evangelism), Modernism (Roman Catholicism), Modernist(s), Moral Majority, Moral Majority (Am. org.), Name Christians, Nation(s), Nation- state, Nationalism, Neo-evangelical(s), New Deal, New World Order, Non-violence, North Americans, Old World Order, Orthodox Christianity, Otto Von Bismark, Pacifism, Parishioner(s), People of God, Poorer population, Pope Pius IX, Principality, Promise Keepers (Evang. Christian parachurch org. for men), Race relation(s), Racial subjugation, Racism, Ransom offer, Religious fundamentalists, Religious groups, Republic(s), Rich people, Right-wing ideas, Right-wing movement, Roman Catholic Church, Scopes trial, Segregation, Separation of church and state, Sexual ethics, Simplicity, Socialism, Spiritual wealth, Stand up for each other, Stand up for the weak, Syllabus of Errors, Tea Party (American political movement), Teachings of Christ, to Preach, Trinity, True Christians, True follower of Christ, True worshippers of God, United States of America, US population, utopian dreamer(s), Utopian society, Vocal advocates, Way of life, West Europe, Western World, White Evangelicals, World War I, World War II

by Guestspeaker | 2022/06/15 · 12:13 pm

Who Am I That I Could Hinder God?

“For as much then as God gave them a like gift,
as he did unto us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I, that I could let God?” (Ac 11:17 GenevaBible)

All of those who call themselves “Christian” need to ask themselves not only who they are, what they want to do, and what they want to reach, but also if they are following God’s path or even if they do not hinder God.

Often we find Christians praying for things which go against the Plan of God. So you could wonder how they look at God and really want His Plan to come into fulfilment.

We have Jews and Gentiles, or goyim having become under Christ, having become children of God.

God may have tried to tell Peter to not keep people out of the church that God has already welcomed. Though gentiles should not forget who are the first chosen People, and which rules or commandments are still to be followed by them if they want to enter that Body of Christ, the Church.

Too many people think they may “bypass all the rules” the church set up to determine who is in and who is out by providing the Spirit to the gentiles.

All important is that those who want to be part of the Body of Christ, should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and should try to become like him, loving all people around them, whatever they might be.
We hear from John what is important to be truly a follower of Jesus, by how (and who) we love. And too many Christians do forget that we hear from James that belief is not enough, actions are what follows, by the faith belongs the works. One of those works or specific actions is the treatment of the underprivileged people around us with great care and generosity.

Too often Christians take an attitude to others, Christ unworthy. Certainly in the U.S.A. we can find lots of fundamentalist Christians who do damaging things to other human beings. Several Christians act improperly to people who are different than them. In several countries, homos and transgenders have difficulties walking around and being accepted in the community.

Many Christians would do well to look into their hearts to see how they really want, like Jesus, to be open to people who are different from themselves!

Abnormal Anabaptist

The title of this post is a question that I think all of us Christians need to ask ourselves when we gather in our communities for regular worship and practice. And it’s not a question that I just came up with off the top of my head. This is a Biblical question asked rhetorically to prove a point. And what is that point? I’ll tell you.

View original post 1,100 more words

3 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Questions asked, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Social affairs, Welfare matters

Tagged as Acts 11:17, Apostle Peter, Attitude, Being Christian, Being part of Body of Christ, Being under Christ, Body of Christ, Christianity in North America, Christians, Commandments of God, Cornelius Tacitus (Roman Centurion), Crossing boundary lines, Faith and works, Followers of Christ, Fruit of the Spirit, Fruitage, Gathering, Generosity of man, Gentile convert(s), Gentiles, God's rules, Goy or Goyim (Gentiles), Homosexuals, Inclusion, LGBTQ people, Not hindering God, Plan of God, Purity, Reputation, Transgender(s), True follower of Christ, Underprivileged people, Western Christianity, Who belongs, Who belongs not

by Guestspeaker | 2022/02/14 · 5:08 pm

Many looking for the church of the world instead of the Church of God

Looking for the church

Someone has said,

“I looked for the Church, and found it in the world. I look for the world, and found it in the Church.”

The word ICHABOD has been stamped on many a local church door, but only spiritual eyes can see that the glory of the Lord has departed. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

That is the problem of our world or the problem of our nation … human beings always looking for other human beings and believing in human beings more than in the Word of the Highest all-knowing eternal God above all gods.

Coming face to face with God

Mankind is afraid to come face to face with God. It is impossible for man to see God, though man wants to have something they can refer to, see and feel or touch. They also want to have a god who has similarities with them, and therefore they took themselves a godhead they can grab. Of that god they created for themselves, a male figure, they can take pictures and statues. Even when the Bible tells mankind that he may not make any graven image of God, man prefers to ignore such demands and has made himself many images of their god.

The Holy Scriptures or Infallible Word of God – Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Too many people do forget or do not want to see that God promises to work through His Word and that This Word of God gives all the knowledge that we need to come to find God and to come to know what God wants from us. God wants to have a relationship with His creatures. He did not create them to be against Him, in the same way, He did not give them commandments of which He knew man would be able not to keep them.

Sinful people

By the first sinful act of Adam and Eve, sin came into the world. All those coming after them were sinful people. Still today it is like that. It would be very difficult to find someone who is without something doing wrong or without having sinned. We are all taken up by sin.

“As by means of one man, sin entered into the world, and, by means of sin, death; and so death passed upon all the sons of men, inasmuch as they all have sinned: — ” (Ro 5:12 Murdock)

“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.”” (Ge 4:7 KJ21)

“”If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and Thou be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;” (1Ki 8:46 KJ21)

It is that sinning that is standing in the way to have a good relationship with our heavenly Father. To come to a better relationship God provided means. One of those was by creating a possibility for man to show his submission to God and his desire to please God by offering sacrifices to God. Later in the history of mankind, there came special places to bring such offerings to God and as such temples came into existence, where also special people took care of the services for God. Those priests were at first anointed by God Himself, though later man took care of themselves to appoint priests and to decide for themselves how those services to God and sacrifices were to be carried out. In a way such services would later become churchservices.

Houses of worship for the Only One God Jehovah

At first Jesus and his apostles went to those houses of worship. In those temples, they praised not Jesus but the God of the Hebrews, the God of Adam and Eve, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who is the Only True God. Jesus and his apostle were very well aware of that Name of That God. They worshipped Jehovah as the Only One True God.

“that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps 83:18 KJ21)

“2 And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, “I am the LORD. 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” (Ex 6:2-3 KJ21)

When Jesus was gone the apostle did not change their mind about Whom they had to worship and about Whom they had to pray to and call His Name.

“For “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”” (Ro 10:13 KJ21)

“and in that day shall ye say: “Praise the LORD! Call upon His name! Declare His doings among the people; make mention that His name is exalted.” (Isa 12:4 KJ21)

The way of worshipping did not change in the first century. It was customary for them to continue to go to the temple and to praise and glorify God there, as well as to continue to study the Hebrew Scriptures. They were convinced that such worship of God should come from deep within the heart and not be a mere passing fancy.

“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”” (Joh 4:24 KJ21)

“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)

Yes, not Jesus was their god, but the Divine Creator of heaven and earth was their God. To them, it was as pure as a lump of sugar or clear as water, that this God is only one.

“”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (De 6:4 KJ21)

One God and His beloved son opposite a god the son

They felt that they had become one in God by the sent one from God in whom they came to believe as that promised one from old times, who they now recognised as their saviour or that promised Messiah, by whom they now got the opportunity to get a new life.

“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)

It was several years after Jesus had died that certain people started taking Jesus as their god, forgetting the words Jesus himself had spoken.

“Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”” (Joh 20:17 KJ21)

Today there are still many people who do not hear or want to understand those words of that son of man, who gave his life for many, so that we can have hope for receiving a new life in the Kingdom of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1Pe 1:3 KJ21)

Those who claim that Jesus is God, should better think about the fact that Jesus more than once prayed to Whom he called God. He did not pray to himself, neither cried to himself, or did not ask himself why He had abandoned him. (How would a person abandon or forsake himself?)

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”” (Mr 15:34 KJ21)

“1 These words spoke Jesus and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, “Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, 2 as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. 3 And this is life eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” (Joh 17:1-3 KJ21)

The apostle Peter might be one of the first apostles who publicly professed who Jesus Christ was.

“16 And Simon Peter answered and said,

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him,

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 KJ21)

A son of man as a way to God

It was such confession that the apostles required also from those who wanted to go in the footsteps of their master teacher. This way started of a group of followers of Christ. People who were convinced that Jesus was the way, like he more than once told others.

“Jesus said to him: I am the way, and truth, and life: no one cometh unto my Father, but by me.” (Joh 14:6 Murdock)

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1Jo 4:15 KJ21)

The apostles also wrote down how they came to understand who Jesus Christ was and how the world had come to see that he is the son of man and son of God. By writing it all down, those writings should give a clear picture of Whom God is and about whom Jesus is.

“And the angel answered and said unto her,

“The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Lu 1:35 KJ21)

“And I saw and bore record that this is the Son of God.”” (Joh 1:34 KJ21)

“29 Jesus said unto him,

“Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name.” (Joh 20:29-31 KJ21)

Accepting Jesus as son of God

That life which may come over us is by accepting who Jesus is, the son of God, and not by going all the fancies of the world. It are not the human doctrines we should take for the rules to follow, but the Biblical doctrines we should take for granted and to go by. It are those sacred writings that tell us that Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of God, being a mediator between God and us.

“5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 KJ21)

For those who continued to follow the apostles of Jesus it is clear that there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and that newt to This God there is the one Who God Himself declared to be His only beloved son, Jesus Christ the Messiah. (1Co 8:6)

Followers of false teachings and false teachers

Up to today there are people who want to follow the teachings of those false teachers who claimed that Jesus would be an incarnated God. Some of the present teachers or pastors even want to twist the historical truth and come to say that it were the non-trinitarian preachers who would have followed Greco-Roman philosophy, though it are the Trinitarians who took all sorts of believes of those philosophers in their teaching, like incarnation, separate souls who would leave the body after death, hell as a burning place of eternal torture, etc. . Instead of bringing people on the right path to God, they mislead their churchgoers and having them worship a false god.

Already in the first century, the apostles warned against such false teachers who violated the Word of God and often came to deceive people with things they liked to hear. Such a God made flesh appealed to many, and still does. Hereby lots of people forget how often in the Bible is told that Jesus is the son of God (something totally different as “god the son”) and how Jesus himself spoke about his heavenly Father, from Whom he came and to Whom he went again.

“Jesus said to her:

Touch me not; for not yet have I ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (Joh 20:17 Murdock)

Those teachers claiming that Jesus would be God destroy the value of Jesus’ act of sacrifice and make God a great comedian who repeatedly told lies to deceive people, let alone called Himself a “God of no lies” when He did see mankind as lying creatures. Those Trinitarian preachers seem to neglect that The God of no lies said Himself that Jesus is His beloved son.

“And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying,

“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”” (Mt 3:17 KJ21)

“God forbid! Yea, let God be true, though every man a liar. As it is written:

“That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”” (Ro 3:4 KJ21)

Not only minimalise those preachers the self-sacrifice of Jesus the also make the resurrection of Jesus as a joke, because God can not die (Him being an eternal Spirit) and when Jesus is God we are still left with no proof at all that man would be able to step out of the dead. As such those trinitarian churches take away our hope for a resurrection, because we can not become God and do like Him, but are then still bounded to the grave (sheol or hell). The real followers of Christ continued teaching the Gospel or Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, by which there is the hope in the resurrection of the man Jesus Christ, as an example of what can happen to us.

“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who in his great mercy hath begotten us anew, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, to the hope of life,” (1Pe 1:3 Murdock)

Not a schizophrenic God

Jesus was or is not a schizophrenic God Who came to pray and cry to himself. Jesus prayed sincerely to his heavenly Father, Whom he considered to be the Only One True God.

“And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said: [Il, Il, lemono shebakthone;]that is: My God, my God; why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mr 15:34 Murdock)

“1 These things spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said: My Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 2 As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he might give life eternal to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, that thou art the only true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Messiah.” (Joh 17:1-3 Murdock)

It might have taken some time before the apostles really came to see who their master-teacher really was and how they should behave and go into the world as his disciples and workers for God. It can well be that the apostle Peter was the first one to recognise for the first time in public Jesus real position.

“16 Simon Cephas {Greek: Simon Peter} answered and said:

Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

17 Jesus answered, and said to him:

Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonas; for flesh and blood have not revealed [it] to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 Murdock)

The religion of Old Testament not passing away

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

After that Jesus was taken into heaven by his heavenly Father and after Jesus promised helper came over the apostles they dared to come out in public again and started off their great preaching work.

Those who heard and/or saw Jesus preach and/or heard the apostles, could not believe that the religion of the Old Testament, revealed by God Himself, should pass away. They indeed regarded Jesus as the Saviour of Gentiles as well as Jews. We could say that Judaism was for them considered the necessary introduction to their group (which we call today Christianity). Several people from all sorts of rang came to join the apostles. Their Jewish movement was called “The Way“.

But by joining more non-Jews the matter of circumcision and the observance of the whole Mosaic law came under discussion. The question was the sole condition of an interest in the Messianic salvation. And, offensive as Judaism was, rather than attractive, to the heathen, this principle would have utterly precluded the conversion of the mass of the Gentile world. The apostles themselves were at first trammelled by this Judaistic prejudice, till taught better by the special revelation to Peter before the conversion of Cornelius.
But even after the baptism of the uncircumcised centurion, and Peter’s defence of it before the church of Jerusalem, the old leaven still wrought in some Jewish Christians who had formerly belonged to the rigid and exclusive sect of the Pharisees, to which the apostle Paul also belonged to.

Difficulties around gentile converts

The churches of Jerusalem and Antioch resolved to hold a private and a public conference at Jerusalem. Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas as commissioners to represent the Gentile converts. Paul, fully aware of the gravity of the crisis, obeyed at the same time an inner and higher impulse. He also took with him Titus, a native Greek, as a living specimen of what the Spirit of God could accomplish without circumcision. The conference was held C.E. 50 or 51 (fourteen years after Paul’s conversion). It was the first and in some respects the most important council or synod held in the history of Christendom, though differing widely from the councils of later times. It is placed in the middle of the book of Acts as the connecting link between the two sections of the apostolic church and the two epochs of its missionary history.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

In the beginning, the people from The Way, like all the Jews, went on the Sabbath to the gathering in the temple. But after more goyim or non-Jews had joined that movement which confessed that Jesus is the son of God (Lu 1:35 ), and as such also came to abide in God (1Jo 4:15), they were not so welcome anymore in the temples and synagogues. Those non-Jews by their baptism in Christ being taken up in the group, which grew fairly quickly, and made others look jealous at them but also did not want those non-Jews in their prayer houses. Therefore The Way started also to come together in private houses and as such creating the first house churches.

Seeing and not seeing the man of flesh and blood

The apostles had after some years got a very clear picture of Jesus and with them many others had seen this man of flesh and blood (remember that God can not be seen by man). They testified that their master is the Son of God (Joh 1:34) and never said that Jesus would have claimed such a position, to be God. The amount of false teachers grew and began to argue with the true followers of Jesus who held to the sonship of Christ Jesus and did not wish to enter into the false teaching of Jesus’ Godhead.

In ancient time people could see and hear Jesus. We do not have such an opportunity anymore, though we should go by the material which is handed over to us in the Books of the New Testament. They provide enough information to learn about the man Jesus from Nazareth and his disciples. In connection with the Books of the Old Testament one should clearly come to see what Jesus role is in the history of mankind. Not having seen Jesus Christ, there were loads of people who came to believe in the son of God, that man of flesh and blood. Not having been able to see Christ we have to believe in him and accept him as the mediator for us by his heavenly Father the Only One True God.

“29 Jesus said to him: Now, when thou hast seen me, thou believest: blessed are they, who have not seen me, yet believe. — 30 And many other signs did Jesus before his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that when ye believe, ye may have life eternal by his name.” (Joh 20:29-31 Murdock)

“5 For God is one; and the mediator between God and men is one, [namely] the man Jesus the Messiah; 6 who gave himself a ransom for every man; — testimony that arrived in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 Murdock)

Jerusalem consultation

The object of the Jerusalem consultation was twofold: first, to settle the personal relation between the Jewish and Gentile apostles, disciples and preachers, and to divide their field of labour; secondly, to decide the question of circumcision, and to define the relation between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. On the first point (as we learn from Paul) it effected a complete and final, on the second point (as we learn from Luke) a partial and temporary settlement. In the nature of the case the public conference in which the whole church took part, was preceded and accompanied by private consultations of the apostles.

Constantine period

In the fourth century the division between the real followers of Christ and the followers of those false teachers who mixed those teachings of Christ with other human teachings, had become so big that they called for a council to decide how the church would continue.

Constantine I (the Great) the founder of Constantinople and the Byzantine empire, and for someone of the most gifted, energetic, and successful of the Roman emperors, was the first representative of the imposing idea of a Christian theocracy, or of that system of policy which assumes all subjects to be Christians, connects civil and religious rights, and regards church and state as the two arms of one and the same divine government on earth. This idea was more fully developed by his successors, it animated the whole middle age, and is yet working under various forms in these latest times; though it has never been fully realised, whether in the Byzantine, the German, or the Russian empire, the Roman church-state, the Calvinistic republic of Geneva, or the early Puritanic colonies of New England. At the same time, however, Constantine stands also as the type of undiscriminating and harmful conjunction of Christianity with politics, of the holy symbol of peace with the horrors of war, of the spiritual interests of the kingdom of heaven with the earthly interests of the state.

He was the man who gave those preachers the choice to come with the world or to stay by their ideas of not being part of the world. The majority choose to be befriended and to walk in fellowship with the world.

Unquestionably every age produces and shapes its own organs, as its own purposes require and as such the Jewish movement of The Way had seen many people going astray and going their own way. Constantine I did put himself at the head of the age, and was annoyed by the differences and discussions there were by those who claimed to be the followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua ben Josef, Jesus Christ. He also clearly saw that idolatry had outlived itself in the Roman empire, and that Christianity alone could breathe new vigour into it and furnish its moral support.

Donatists and Arians

From the year 313 he placed himself in close connection with the ‘bishops’, made peace and harmony his first object in the Donatist and Arian controversies and applied the predicate “catholic” to the church in all official documents. The Donatists argueing that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving the issue, which led to the 313 commission.

Many non-trinitarians are often called Arians by Trinitarians, though often those Christians do not follow Arius his teachings but simply the Biblical teachings. The Christian priest Arius, whose teachings gave rise to a theological doctrine known as Arianism, also followed the apostolic teaching that God is One and that Jesus is His son and not God Himself. What makes Arainism so different with what many non-trinitarians are still following today, is that those real followers of Christ (including us) do not integrate Neoplatonism, nor are we inspired by Plato’s ideas or by pre-Socratics (who interpreted the world monistically in terms of nature as such), from the relativism of the Sophists, and from the correction of Platonism in a this-worldly direction carried out by Plato’s greatest pupil, Aristotle.

It is a very big misconception of Trinitarians that nonTrinitarians, or those who do not wish to accept Jesus as God, would be Arians, whereas they do not follow the teachings of Arius at all. The teaching those present non-Trinitarians follow is simply the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.

The only similarity in Arius and the present non-trinitarian denominations is Arius’s basic premise of the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God.

“”There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun ^{[a poetic name for the people of Israel, meaning ‘upright people’]}, who rideth upon the heaven to thy help and in His excellency on the sky.” (De 33:26 KJ21)

“33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?” 35 Or, “who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” 36 For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Ro 11:33-36 KJ21)

Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated according to Arius. Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of nothing and has had a beginning. Moreover, according to Arius the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father, since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence. For the real followers of Christ there is the knowledge that Jesus was placed in the womb of that young girl and as such coming directly from God must have some DNA from God. Jesus was born in that very devout Essene family of the tribe of King David and had got a very thorough religious upbringing with the Word of God as an inspirational source.

Name change

Badly enough, most of the clergy wanted to come to an agreement with Constantine the Great in order to keep the peace and not to be persecuted anymore. This was done by the clergy to bring their religion more in line with the Greek Roman religion and their triple deity Zeus who was then the main deity worshipped by Constantine and his followers. In order to equate Jeshua (Yeshua) with that deity Zeus, his name was transformed from Jeshua to Issou or Yai_Zeus > Je-Zeus which means Hail Zeus. Since then, the false name (Jezus – Jesus – Chesu) has become fully accepted and in time it was also used by the non-trinitarians to make clear that they were talking about one and the same person as the Trinitarians.

Constantine was praised and censured in turn by the Christians and Pagans, the Orthodox and the Arians, as they successively experienced his favour or dislike, but the real followers of Christ saw in him a very dangerous despot who could easily subdue the false teachers and in unity oppose the true followers of Christ.

The ones coming under agreement with each other about the deity of Jesus and the wishes of Constantine, became the Roman Catholics, who claimed to be the only true church and continued to grow by making sure people from all sorts of tribes could find themselves at home, because many of their traditions were taken in or integrated into that religion.

The real followers of Christ Jesus did not like the name change but had to do with it. for many centuries they tried those who worshipped Jesus as their god to come to know the real Jesus from the Bible.

The groups which accented the absolute oneness of the Divinity as the highest perfection, with a literal, rationalist approach to the New Testament texts sought their way in the world. That point of view was publicized about 323 through the poetic verse of his major work, Thalia (“Banquet”), and was widely spread by popular songs written for labourers and travellers.

The non-Trinitarian aspect and the other Arian teachings (of Arius) and papal positions (Ursinus) brought forth further disputes and conferences, synods or councils. The Ursinians became established in Milan and rekindled their opposition to Damasus.

Damasus I presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He encouraged the production of the Latin Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome.
He spoke out against other groups of Christians that had grown in popularity and denounced several major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism). In two synods (368 and 369) the unorthodox teachings of Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople and of Bishop Apollinaris (the Younger) of Laodicea were condemned. Among Damasus’s literary remains are 24 anathemas against various 4th-century heresies. Apollinaris The Younger and his father (Apollinaris the Elder) had reproduced the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry and the New Testament in the style of Platonic dialogues after the Roman emperor Julian had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.
Apollinaris the younger denied the existence in Christ of a rational human soul, a position he took to combat Arianism. Skilled in logic and Hebrew and a teacher of rhetoric, Apollinaris also lectured at Antioch c. 374. Their different ideas also brought forth several schisms.

Current Churches in a Torn Church World

It would not remain at all with these few schisms in the church community; in each century several schisms occurred. Today, many even regard certain breakaway groups as churches of the commons, such as the Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican Churches. They now belong to the generally accepted Protestant churches.

Lots of churches sought ways to get as many followers as they could, claiming that they are the only church by which people can be saved. They forget that it are no other human beings, than Christ Jesus who saves people of all races and people of all persuasions or from all walks of life. They claimed and still claim that their sacraments, religious signs or symbols, are the way to be saved. Many of those churches are convinced that their liturgy is the best one to prepare people to receive those sacraments, as visible symbols of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God’s grace and helps to understand what they are doing. Their liturgy is used to give the sacraments context and is there to allow folks to see them in action. Outside of the liturgy, the sacraments lose direction and application. For some that is the reason why a private baptism or communion is a sacrament without purpose or meaning.

It is a sacrament that is cut off from its intended goal. {The Role of the Church}

For non-Trinitarians, like the Christadelphians, there does not have to be a set of liturgical rules and order. Each church service can be done in a different order or different way. but what is most important is that the service is built upon the Word of God, and as such most time of the service should be spent on that Word, or readings from the Holy Scriptures and not on readings from human beings. Next to that Word of God people should be able to find, feel and see, that love of God and love of Christ present and shown by those people of that church.

The church is tasked with loving the Lord and loving its neighbor. The church takes what it receives from God and shares it with the world. Taken together, this means God acts through even-broadening layers to bring His grace into the world. {The Role of the Church}

Receiving God and being united with His son

But to receive God and to be united with God and His holy son, people have to do away with pagan or heathen teachings and traditions. In the Church of God, there can be no place for pagan rituals and false worship, like praying in front of pictures or sculptures. So, there has to be no place for crosses, paintings or portraits and statues of gods and saints, no idolisation taking place in the liturgy. Done away with a “Hail Zeus” or calling unto “YaiZeus” or JeZeus – Jezus or Jesus as a figure that would be three in one, a God the Father, a god the son and a God the Holy Spirit.

In case we want to hold on to that changed name of Jeshua, namely Jesus, that hopefully would be not too bad and shall be accepted by the Elohim Hashem Jehovah (That we can only hope and pray for – that he forgives us to use that name so that we shall be able to get others to get to know the Name of Jesus his God.) Better would naturally be that by the years coming closer to the end-times, people shall come to use more the real names of the Biblical characters and especially of Jehovah God, Whose Name is holy, and of the son of God, Jeshua ben Josef.

Sin is the opposite of God’s will, so to be a sinner means to be one who is opposed to God, who is an offense to everything God is. Sin is intolerable to God and so God destroys it, even if that means destroying the one who commits it. {Face to Face with God}

Having idols and false gods is “sin” because it goes in against the Will and Commandments of God. Real lovers of God have to keep tp those Commandments of God and not to the commandments, human doctrines or will of human beings.

Active in the world

In this picture, from a Lutheran pastor his site, you might see how far the church is gone away from God’s Word that forbids such pictures or reflections of people they call their god.

It is true that the Church or the community of believers has to be active in both worship and in the world so that God’s grace can reach those who need it.

This becomes the central work of the church and everything God does for His people is designed to facilitate that work. {The Role of the Church}

Though that does not mean the church has to think and act like the world! It is totally wrong to think you should be part of the Church of the world, because people have to be part of the Church of God of which Jesus is the foundation. Jesus should be the man whom we follow and whom we take as the cornerstone of our community.

“Jesus saith unto them,

Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Mt 21:42 ASV)

“being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;” (Eph 2:20 ASV)

Loving Christ is not only loving his word, it is living by his word that one fully accepts as a truthful word. And as such that one does not think when Jesus says God is greater than him that he (Jesus) is the greatest and that he can do everything because he would be God. all the thing Jesus did, we should appreciate and understand why he did it and how he wanted to be a faithful servant for God the same as he requires from his followers to be servants for man and for God.

Servants not doing bad things

Those who call themselves servants of God have to do their best to live according to the Will of God. In the last few decades, people should have had enough opportunities to see how many in those so-called churches of God have gone astray. In several Trinitarian denominations, being them Catholic or Protestant, we have seen that there were priests who used little children (boys and girls) to have sex with. Some churches thought that they could cover those paedophile acts by transferring those paedophiles to another church in another village. For centuries the Catholic Church has been a male bastion where male domination and tyranny were giving opportunities to defile the Name of God.

They thought to clean up the cesspool of sin in that religious structure, but the roots have gone very deep.

Furthermore many churches do not dare to speak out about certain Rules of God.

Sung Mass with the ordinations of two deacons and seven priests by the Bishop of Stockholm, in St Nicholas’s Cathedral (Storkyrkan)

In Europe’s largest Lutheran denomination, hundreds of clergies, staff, and congregates of the Church of Sweden, have declared, in an open letter that it is now a trans-inclusive institution.
While the hearts of the faithful Christians are broken, while heaven weeps, while the demons of hell dance in delight, the modern-day church is changed. Why? Because it is easier to change the local assembly than the eternal Word of God, which lives and abides forever. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

After all those centuries the Catholic church did not change one hair.

In Rome, the Vatican is now home to a woke Pope, who allowed South American animistic religious rituals in the opening of the recent pan-Amazon Synod. Kathy Clubb writes in the conservative Catholic publication, The Remnant:

“Idol worship was on full display in preparation for the Pan-Amazon synod, with the tacit approval of Pope Francis. Although the Synod hadn’t yet started, the celebration of pagan ceremonies added weight to the concerns being voiced by prominent prelates and laymen that the Synod will be a vehicle for apostasy.”

{It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Strangely enough, when the Pope says something which comes closer to the Biblical truth, all the hairs of Catholic and Protestant (Trinitarian) priests raise up to heaven.

To embracing idol worship, Pope Francis is said not to believe in the eternal divinity of Jesus as the Son of God. Instead,

“Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once he took flesh, Jesus ceased to be a God and became a man until his death on the cross… {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Pope Francis has said to Eugenio Scalfari: ‘There is proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even a man of exceptional virtue, was in no way a God’.” (Mark Powell, CALDR@N POOL on the web; see also, Fatima Perspectives #1343) {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Several priest think wrongly that it would be changing Catholic dogma because the non-Trinitarians are gaining field in this world.

Why is the woke Pope Francis (b. Dec. 17, 1936), head of the Catholic Church, and sovereign of Vatican City, changing Catholic dogma?

Because it is easier to influence and change a vast religious institution than to change the Word of God, which says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Yes, the Bible is very clear about That! One may not have other gods before the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

Lots of those learned people do not want to see how a person can be divine but not God. (Perhaps you might have a divine wife, though we hope you would not worship her as a god.)

There is no such verse in the letter of Paul to Timothy that would say

Concerning the eternal divinity of Christ, the Bible says, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:18). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

The Bible words are as follows in the last verses of that letter:

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” (1Ti 3:16 ASV)

giving an indication that Jesus is one way to come to “see and understand God“. Him being manifested in the flesh is the son of God who “gave himself for us.” Truly they are in harmony. The love of the infinite God could neither be created nor purchased but it could be and is been shown through the work of His son. The Spirit of the Father was manifest in Jesus and by the inspiration and power given by God, Jesus was able to speak wise words and to do many miracles.

All those things which are clearly notated in Scriptures are not to confuse us, but to bring us light. Jesus should be such a light for us, a beacon or a lighthouse in the surf.

When looking at churches we should check how those who call themselves leaders of that church, behave. We should check in which way a church has its teachings in accordance with the Bible and how the leaders of that church live according to those Bible Words.

For sure we should not choose for the church that wants to be fully in line with the world and its traditions. From the Bible, we can learn that most of those traditions are not in line with God’s commandments and as lovers of God we should want to go fully doing the will of God in the same way Jesus put his own will aside to do the will of God. (Naturally, in case Jesus would have been God he would never have put his own will aside. … Is it not?)

“And he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Mt 26:39 ASV)

“And again he went away, and prayed, saying the same words.” (Mr 14:39 ASV)

It is not Christ his will that shall be done on earth as in heaven. Also, Jesus prayed and learned others to pray that this Will of his heavenly Father would be fulfilled.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” (Mt 6:10 ASV)

Even in difficult times, Jesus asked his God that not his will was going to be fulfilled, but God His Will

“And he said,

Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mr 14:36 ASV)

We should know that like Jesus could not do anything without God, we too cannot do the important thing without our heavenly Father. (Though in fact even the little things we are only able to do because God allows them to happen.) Let us therefore not do our will, but have the courage to do like Jesus, going for the One Who had sent him, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, God His Word, God His Will and for God His Chuch, doing God His Will.

“I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 5:30 ASV)

“For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 6:38 ASV)

Preceding

A vital question for believers

The rock on which we stand

As near to God as you want Him to be

Religion and the essence of devotion – Necessary parts in the daily walk with God + Christians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, and other followers

Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation

After darkness a moment of life renewal

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

Christians saying Jesus is God giving food for atheists to prove there exist no God

Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters

Additional reading

+++

Why does the Bible need 66 books? Part 2
Exquisite Uniqueness of God
“The Eve of Christmas,” Matthew 1:18-25
In the Incarnation, Humanity Received a New Dignity
The Incarnation
Incarnation and all that…
The Mystery of Godliness: The Transformative Power of the Incarnation
Incarnate Love
Truth-less “grace,” or grace-less “truth”?
Mystery and Clarity
John 1:1-14 Sermon: Love Incarnate, Love Divine
Adoption, incarnation, and growing in grace and truth (Growing Deeper with John 1:6-18)
John’s Gospel and the Word made flesh (Growing Deeper with John 1:1-5)
The Word Became Flesh. II: The Word Was God
God the son, Part 1
Epistle Reading for Sunday, January 30, 2022
Hebrews: Superiority of the Son
Creed // Jesus God’s son (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Today’s Scripture – November 15, 2021
All that he is triune
Trinity – Trilogy – Triplet
Definition of the day: Trinity
Trinity
Why a Triune God?
God Who Is—is Triune
Beyond Belief – What the Heck is the Trinity? Is God Three or Is He One?
There are certain Christian preachers who want people to believe that all Christians would believe in the Trinity. Why do Christians beleive in the Trinity? Such a question let us see that the writer of that article either is not aware of other Christians who only believe in a binary god and neglects the most important group which worship only the God of Jesus and not a god the son, namely the unitarians and non-Trinitarians.
Your Divine D.N.A. [Sermon]
Am I headed in the right direction? [Sermon]
The Incarnation in the Life of the Church
He Was, He Is, and Forever Shall Be
“The Word became Flesh,” John 1:14
“Simeon’s Song,” Luke 2:22-40
Statue Of Zeus At Olympia
False Gospels: On Blindness > Antics > Compromise
False Gods by Graham McNeill
Reenacting the Way of Jesus
Loving Christ Really IS Loving His Word
Poetic faith
How can Jesus be considered sinless when the Bible describes his anger
“Jesus in the Temple,” Luke 2:40-52
“Jesus, the Son of God,” Luke 4:31-44
Know Jesus, Know God
Hebrews: The Fulcrum
Direct Access to the Father
Do Denominations Divide Us?
Does Denominationalism Blind You to the Truth?
Nuanced beliefs
Deceived
Throwback Thursday ~ Finding a New Church- Starting from Scratch
Law; Is It For The Rich Or The Poor?
Division Among Christians
From One Religion To Another

7 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Quotations from Holy Scriptures, Religious affairs, World affairs

Tagged as 1° Century, 313, 4° Century, Anglican Church, Animistic religious rituals, Apollinaris the Elder, Apollinaris the Younger, Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, Apostolic church, Apostolic teaching, Arian controversy, Aristotle, Barnabas, becoming One in God, being a Servant, Biblical doctrines, Byzantine Empire, Calvinist Church, Child abuse, Christian, Christian denominations, Christian theocracy, Christianity, Christians, Church of Antioch, Church of Jerusalem, Church of Sweden (Svenska Kyrkan), Circumcision, Clergy, Commandments of God, Constantine the Great, Council of Rome (382), Damasus I, Denominations, Divine Creator, Donatist controversy, False teachers, False worship, Followers of Christ, Gentile convert(s), Glorify God, God of Abraham, God of Adam and Eve, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God the son, Graven images, Greek Roman religion, House church(es), House(s) of worship, Human beings, Human doctrines, Humankind, Idol worship, Idolatry, Idols, Issou - YaZeus - JeZeus or Hail Zeus > Jesus, Jehovah, Jerusalem Council, Jesus Christ, Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, Judaistic prejudice, Kathy Clubb, Liturgy, Lovers of God, Lutheran Church, Man of flesh and blood, Mankind, Mediator Jesus, Messianic salvation, Neoplatonism, New life, New life through Jesus Christ, New Testament, Non-trinitarians, Not part of the world, One God, Only True God, Paedophile priests, Pan-Amazon Synod, Part of the world, Platonism, Pope Francis I, Praise God, Prayer house(s), Preaching work, Priests, Promised one from God, Relationship with God, Roman Catholics, Roman Empire, Sacrifice, Saviour Christ, Self-sacrifice of Christ Jesus, Sent one from God, Sin, Sinning, Son of man, Sonship of Christ, Sophists, Studying the bible, Submission to God, the Way, the Way to God, the Way to Kingdom of God, the Way to life, the Way to salvation, to Deceive people, to See God, to Step out of the dead, Traditions, Trinitarians, True follower of Christ, Uniqueness of God, Ursinians, Word of God, Workers for God, Worship of God, Worship of idols, Worshipping

	Reden genoeg om je t… on Bedenking: Geloof in Jezus lat…
	Reden genoeg om je t… on Religieuze feesten in mei…
	Reden genoeg om je t… on Neem afstand van heidense…
	Reden genoeg om je t… on Christenen die andere christen…
	Reden genoeg om je t… on Hoogdag voor vele protest…
	Waarom mochten katho… on Oor die afwagting van nuwe…
	Why were Catholics n… on Is rebaptizing necessary
	Why were Catholics n… on Ideas about Religiosity
	What a bad air it mu… on How far does one wants to go s…
	What a bad air it mu… on Wildfire smoke making people t…
	Een tocht vol vragen… on De Almachtige God der goden, g…
	Een tocht vol vragen… on Niet op het probleem focussen…
	Een tocht vol vragen… on Donkere tijden, droge plekken,…
	Een tocht vol vragen… on Zoektocht door het donker
	A journey full of qu… on Yahweh Forever Our Refreshing…

Tag Archives: True follower of Christ

Additional reading

Further related

Share this:

Preachers giving false ideas

Additional reading

Related

Share this:

The Culture Wars began when white American evangelicals took the activist playbook from the very Civil Rights leaders they opposed, to advance a moral agenda they could support.

Related

Share this:

Share this:

Looking for the church

Coming face to face with God

Sinful people

Houses of worship for the Only One God Jehovah

One God and His beloved son opposite a god the son

A son of man as a way to God

Accepting Jesus as son of God

Followers of false teachings and false teachers

Not a schizophrenic God

The religion of Old Testament not passing away

Difficulties around gentile converts

Seeing and not seeing the man of flesh and blood

Jerusalem consultation

Constantine period

Donatists and Arians

Name change

Current Churches in a Torn Church World

Receiving God and being united with His son

Active in the world

Servants not doing bad things

Additional reading

Related

Share this:

Guestspeakers and guestwriters

Translate – Vertaal – Traduction

Welcome

Please find to read about our aims and aspirations:

Authors presenting articles - Artikelen voorstellende Auteurs

Looking for something? Fill in your word or phrase. – Zoekt u iets, vul hier een woord of zin in en vindt het in één van de artikelen

Follow Blog via Email

Volg dit Blog via Email

Help us to continue our publications on this and our other websites - Help ons om onze publikaties op deze en onze andere websites te verwezenlijken

Or give non-binding - Of geef vrijblijvend volgens uw keuze

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Categories – Categorieën

Tags – Specifieke onderwerpspunten

Recent articles by author - Recente artikelen per auteur

Recent comments – Recente commentaren

Our greatest hits – Onze huidige hits

Top Clicks

Community – Gemeenschap

Archive – Archief

Messengers of Peace and Positivism – Boodschappers van Vrede en Positivisme

Club members their own blog-writings – Clubleden hun eigen persoonlijke blogs

Articles by Guestwriters members – Artikelen bij Gastschrijvers leden

Thoughts by and a Look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Marcus Ampe's Space

An other look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Some View on the World

Recent Posts on the other Lifestyle Magazine: Stepping Toes

Recent Posts: Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven

Recent Posts by the Brethren in Christ: Broeders in Christus

Recente Postings: Belgische Broeders In Christus

Recent Posts by: Messiah For All

Recent Posts: Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten

Recent Posts by bible Scholars: Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher

Recent Posts at: Relating to God

Recent Posts by: Immanuel Verbondskind - עמנואל קאָווענאַנט קינד

Recent Posts by: Jeshuaisten / Jeshuaists

Recent Posts from a: Jeshuaist