Posted on 05/04/2006 10:07:53 AM PDT by Gamecock
I started to call this “Everything I needed to know got screwed up by what I learned in Vacation Bible School.” But I never went to Vacation Bible School, so that won’t work. Actually this is a listing of some truths I intuited when I first became a believer in 1972. In studying the Bible since my baptism, these points have been confirmed over and over again, but I was shocked when I found the opposite was being taught in the churches I visited. Over the years, the shock has turned to dismay. Here’s a short version of the list:
God doesn’t love the human race and doesn’t have a wonderful plan for our lives. At least, not in the way love is usually understood. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade who died a few months ago, introduced the Four Spiritual Laws as an evangelism tool. I interviewed him several times over the years, and believe he has done great service for the Kingdom of God. But his famous evangelism tract has always seemed somehow disengenuous. If God loves humans so much, why is there suffering, misery and death? Why did he allow Eve to taste that forbidden fruit in the first place? (If Bill Bright had included the whole book of Job, maybe I’d like that tract better). But in fact, since the Fall, God hates the human race with perfect hatred, and the human race hates God. The word is “enmity” in Romans 5. The only plan for the human race is to die, to be buried in baptism so a new thing can take its place—the bride, His church. And that is love. He created us to become a bride for His son.
The human race is already dead, in fact. II Cor. 5:14-15 says, “If one died for all, then were all dead.” Jesus Christ was the last Adam. Then who are we? The human race died on the cross. That means “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
The Old Testament is all about Jesus. The Law, the prophets and the writings were fulfilled in Christ. When you read what Jesus said, it’s clear: “These are they which testify of me.”
Take no thought for yourself. The essence of sin is self-seeking. The rivers of living water won’t flow because you’ve created a dam. That dam is you. To “deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me” means to abandon yourself, to take absolutely no thought about yourself in any dimension.
Taking the name of God in vain doesn’t mean saying “goddamn.” At the 1975 National Religious Broadcasters Convention I told the audience taking the Lord’s name in vain had nothing to do with cussing. It meant taking the slightest bit of glory for yourself. None of the early believers called themselves Christians. They called themselves People of the Way. They were too humble to put the name of Christ on their own flesh. I posed a question: “Can you imagine the Saul of Tarsus Evangelistic Association?” That was the last time I spoke at a national Christian meeting.
Eternity doesn’t mean a long, long time. It means outside of time. God exists outside of time. When the mystery of God is completed, “time shall be no more.” Time is, well... temporal. People usually study scripture from their own personal viewpoint—what does this mean to me? But the only way to understand the scriptures is to read them from the standpoint of eternity.
God doesn’t care who wins an election. We are to pray for all leaders no matter who they are. And yet all nations are “as a drop in the bucket,” including the United States of America. They’re meaningless to God. Whether it’s a Republican convention or a Shiite funeral in the Middle East, it becomes a spiritual feeding frenzy of idolatry. When I ran for the Texas Legislature, I went to bed on election night flying high—I had apparently won the race by 15,000 votes. When I woke up, I had lost the election. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat— both are idolatry. If you feed on those kinds of things, you forget “Thou shalt not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The Word is Jesus Christ, and He alone is our sustenance.
Jesus Christ is in you. “The kingdom of God is within you,” He said. It doesn’t come by observation, i.e by sensory perception. What you feel or see happening around you is meaningless in this regard. If you don’t know this, then you’re “reprobate” and incapable of repentance. He is not going to teach you the truth, He is the truth. He is not going to show you the way, He is the way.
I am the chief of sinners. There was a point I realized I was so bad that I couldn’t be saved. And yet even so, there was nothing else I could do but continue to live and preach this doctrine of Christ. I am left out of the picture completely. Each one of us has to come to this realization in one way or another. That leads to the next point.
You’re perfect. “By one offering we’ve been perfected forever.” Wait a minute! We’re perfect? The study of the offerings in Leviticus shows that Christ’s sacrifice has met every possible condition we can ever be in. We don’t have to sweat it. And it is when we present ourselves a living sacrifice that we become of use to God.
Repentance doesn’t mean having to say you’re sorry. It means to totally leave all of yourself behind. If you try to improve yourself, you’ll resurrect the antichist, raise him from the “deadly head wound” that was inflicted on the Cross.
It is finished. Christ’s last words on the cross tell me that if I think there’s something left to do, I don’t believe His sacrifice was sufficient. Our “mission” is to tell people that their mission is over. It has failed, whatever it is. We can’t sell the mystery of Christ, we can’t try to attract people into the kingdom. We believe, therefore we speak. And God’s strength is perfected and manifested in our weakness.
Now that you’ve read this list, tear out the page and throw it away.
Because if these points have resonated with you, you might be tempted to make these into modern-day phylacteries and wear them on your wrist and forehead as some kind of guide to living or religious tract. The only thing we need is the living Christ... within us.
Maybe the authors should change their site to the "Witlessburg Door'.
Actually...
I agree with you 100%
;-)
The works of those in Christ are holy, prepared by Him to be brought forth in us (Eph 2:10). They are the fine linen of the bride of Christ, which He has permitted us to cloth ourselves in. Without those works, we would be an unworthy bride.
Gamey did correctly qualify his statement by saying "works as regards their salvation". I think we have a little communication failure, not a fundamental and radical disagreement.
But we did some fun crafts projects.
Oh, don't get him wrong. God LOVES the real estate. He just hates the miserable people He populated it with. Kinda the way I feel when driving through Vermont. :-)
I will say that God calls certain leaders who, in such cases, often get elected against all odds. I opinined on a Patton thread that God created this man for one very unique mission, which he fulfilled, after which God called him to his reward. I also think that God raised up Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thather, and JPII during the 80's for a particular purpose. And, yes, despite the whole borders and spending thing, I believe God called GWB for a particular purpose.
The Door, the Door, all the truths that's fit to print. Next to my Scofield Annotated Bible with up to date notes and the Larkin Charts appended, it's the Door that reveals things the way they are (or should be). The Door, the Door! manna for the church.
Re. # 20.
They are still HIS works, and not our own. From that post:
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are "His workmanship", and He prepared them beforehand. We walk in them, but they are still of Him. Neat, huh?
The "not our own" part doesn't make sense, sorry. We are his, and therefore those works are ours, and also his, because everything that is ours is also his.
And learned to make gestures with all our little songs.
"But the only way to understand the scriptures is to read them from the standpoint of eternity."
Very, very, very good...
"God hates all workers of iniquity."
"Jacob have I loved, Esau I have hated."
Like it or not, God does not love everybody.
"Like it or not, God does not love everybody."
Apparently that can be changed...
As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,'and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'"
"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,'there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"
A poor translation. A more accurate translation reads, "The kingdom of God is in your midst." Jesus, speaking to the rulers, was referring to Himself and his disciples standing in the midst of the crowd.
THANK YOU!!!!
/Paging Mr. Santorum, Mr. Rick Santorum...
I saw an evangelical series that asked "christians "what if they could go back to Sept 9, and they could evangelize the people in the WTC would they have told them that "God has a wonderful plan for your life" , they all looked puzzled and said they would have to say something else :)
monitor.
Eternity with Him sounds like a wonderful plan to me.
Is that a wonderful PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE or eternity ?
God has a plan that sends men to hell , is that a wonderful plan?
Salvation by grace through faith is wonderful. Without engaging in a discussion over semantics, it sounds like both to me. Of course the wonderful plan is contingent upon receiving the Lord Jesus as Savior. The alternative is, well, less than wonderful.
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