Of course not what the world offers but what "christian" religious institutions have to offer. For instance remember this story?:
John 5 (New International Version) John 5 The Healing at the Pool 1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" 7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." 8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." 11But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' " 12So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" 13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
My whole life I was taught this man and his pallet was a hero of faith. Just in the past two weeks did I find out he was a fleshy person. When I found out it was a neat light bulb moment of revelation. I did not let my boxed in assumptions win.
I am confused by this response. If I am understanding you correctly, then we are to accept “what christian religious institutions have to offer”, even if it doesn't line up with scripture? Let me explain why I am confused...you quote a portion of scripture and then tell me that “My whole life I was taught”...and then follow up with...”Just in the past two weeks did I find out”...your “boxed in assumptions” did not come from the scriptures that you quoted but from what somebody taught you by adding into the scriptures that this man was a “hero of faith”. I would guess, and it would only be a guess, that what you where taught your whole life was probably from a “christian religious institution”...hence, EVERYTHING that we are taught needs to be tested through the lens of Scripture.
1 Peter 1:22-25 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, BY THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.