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The operative word in this discussion is impenitence. When a person trusts Jesus as his Savior, he's declaring that he's turning his life over to the lordship of Jesus and that he now wants to see things as God sees them. If God declares something to be a sin, the alive-in-Christ new creation doesn't try to evade the truth and give excuses for continuing to sin. He repents of it and asks for God's help in not succumbing to the temptation to do whatever God has declared to be sin. He may yield to the temptation again and sin, but he goes to God in repentance every time he does. He doesn't try to justify his sin by playing semantic games with the Bible. (Paul: "How can we who have died to sin still live in it?")
The problem is compounded when pastor-shepherds, who are supposed to preach the Word, start adulterating it by claiming it really doesn't say what it plainly says. Both Paul and Jesus (the latter in Matthew 7, the chapter whose first verse is the only one liberal pastors and mainline denominations seem to remember) warned believers to "beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
Great post!
My brother’s fiancee’s ex-husband is the youth minister, president of a Christian adoption agency and overall upstanding outward Christian.
But he often makes comments like: “Who’s to say that the Christian way is the only way to heaven”?
Ummmm Christ Himself said it! Christian: follower of Christ and His teachings.