The actual number of Christians are few in America

Christian Post ^ | 10/26/2020 | Robin Schumacher

[SeekAndFind]

RE: You have read ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ How many ways to hear the Word?

I have no issues with the above. If a person hears the word of God and comes to Jesus BY FAITH ( I capitalize it to emphasize the word *FAITH* ), then he is saved by God’s grace through his faith.

The issue in this thread is WHAT KIND of faith?

The Apostle James tells us that you can only be saved by the kind of faith that produces good works (James 2:14). It does a person no good to proclaim to others that he is saved by his faith when it does not show in his personal life.

Here is the question — if a person claims to be a follower of Christ ( a Christian ) and then insists on the following ( for example ):

1) I can pick and choose which parts of the Bible I will accept. If a particular teaching does not suit me, I’ll discard it as irrelevant in my life.

2) I can pick and choose what morality I believe is suitable for myself. If the Bible for example states that fornication is sinful, or that homosexual sex is wrong or that marriage is ordained by God between man and woman, I can ignore these since it will affect the way I live my life or the way my friends live.

Can one believe a person’s profession of faith in Christ if that person believes the above?

These are not simply theoretical questions. I see them everyday as I deal with church goers who come to worship and then go home and act as if scripture has no bearing on their lives.

[backwoods-engineer]

A very thoughtful reply. Thank you. I have read that TJ -> BR quote before, but thanks for the perspective that it originally applied to religious tyrants. I am reminded of 1 Peter 4:17: “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

[Joe 6-pack]

I agree with much of what you say. I firmly believe in the simple truth of John 14:6, Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That said, I think the way some denominational leaders try to browbeat people into their way of thinking has probably driven more people away from Christianity than it has brought into the fold.

Yes, Christianity confronts us with some very hard, stern truths, and there are those who will simply refuse to accept them because, as Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

C.S. Lewis referred to Christians as underground partisans in occupied territory. I think this is a profound observation. IMHO, many younger people want to be rebels and when Christianity is portrayed as a religion of conformity and obedience, they find it, "uncool." The fact is, with regards to the world in which we live, those who choose to live as Christians are the rebels who stand against the temptation to conform with worldly ways.