One God & One Lord

Believe in God and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. “Believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1).

To believe in “the name” of Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23, 1 John 5:13) is, I believe, to recognize Christ as Lord in your heart and of your life (1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 4:5), believing that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

The commandment of God is to believe in His Son, and the commandment of the Son is to love one another. It’s as simple as that.

• 1 John 3:21-23 NASB
  (21) Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
  (22) and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
  (23) This is His (God’s) commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He (Jesus) commanded us.

Simplicity and Purity of Devotion to Christ

• 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 NASB
  (3) But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
  (4) For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

Did you ever consider that all the different doctrines that are out there, and the emphasis on what one must believe in order to be “right,” that very mess of confusion itself is a deception leading us away from the simplicity of Christ?

The commandment of God is to believe in His Son, and the commandment of the Son is to love one another. It’s as simple as that.

The following is quoted from The Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, Vol. 1—No. 1, January 1830. The text itself is quoted from “the late Bishop Watson.”

“What!” he exclaims, “shall the church of Christ never be freed from the narrow-minded contentions of bigots; from the insults of men who know not what spirit they are of, when they would stint the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, and bar the doors of heaven against every sect but their own? Shall we never learn to think more humbly of ourselves, and less despicably of others? to believe that the Father of the universe accommodates not his judgements to the wretched wranglings of pedantic Theologues; but that every one, who, with an honest intention, and to the best of his ability seeketh the truth, whether he findeth it or not, and worketh righteousness, will be accepted of him? …

“If different men,” he afterwards adds, “in carefully and conscientiously examining the scriptures, should arrive at different conclusions, even on points of the last importance, we trust that God, who alone knows what every man is capable of, will be merciful to his that is in error. We trust that he will pardon the Unitarian, if he be in error, because he has fallen into it from the dread of becoming an Idolater, of giving that glory to another which he conceives to be due to God alone. If the worshipper of Jesus Christ be in an error, we trust that God will pardon his mistake, because he has fallen into it from a dread of disobeying what he conceives to be revealed concerning the nature of the Son, or commanded concerning the honor to be given him. Both are actuated by the same principle—THE FEAR OF GOD; and, though that principle impels them into different roads, it is our hope and belief, that, if they add to their faith charity, they will meet in heaven.”

This one ties in with my earlier article, “Ecumenical Thoughts,” so I’ll end it with the same words in which I ended that one:

Faith working through love, serving Jesus Christ, living in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit: this is the kingdom of God. Instead of bickering, biting, and devouring one another, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).

Is there not another class who may properly be named speculative Christians? Christians who profess to have attained a correct religious faith, but who do not exhibit a truly christian practice; whose evidence of discipleship proceeds from their lips, and not from their lives? If so, they do not comply with the injunctions of Christ Jesus. He has no where required a belief in any enumerated set of opinions as a condition of divine acceptance. Sincere obedience is his only test of a christian profession. “Ye are my disciples if ye do whatsoever I command you.” A good life is the only scriptural evidence of a saving faith. The only scriptural heresy is immoral conduct. Continual reference is made by him to the actions of men, and not to their speculative opinions. We are directed to judge of persons by their characters, and not by their creeds. And we are assured that God will render unto every man according to his deeds, and not according to his religious sentiments. A correct faith is indeed valuable. It is of great value, because it is more likely to produce correct conduct; and for this reason we should search for truth as for hidden treasures. But a correct practice is infinitely more valuable; because this is the sum and substance of the gospel requisitions; and this can be secured where the faith is erroneous. For every candid person will allow that there are obedient Christians in every sect; and no man can allow that all religious opinions of every denomination are true. Unreserved obedience is therefore the test of discipleship required by Christ; and without this, a belief in all the creeds in creation will not entitle us to his approbation and acceptance.

Quoted from The Unitarian Advocate and Religious Miscellany, Vol. 1—No. 1, January 1830.

I never thought I’d be having them, but I am. Ecumenical thoughts. I’m not talking about a universal ecumenism among religions of the world, to include Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and Muslims. No, I’m talking about only within the realm of Christianity: those groups who believe in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Those who proclaim Christ as Lord and the only way of eternal salvation.

I participate in online Christian discussion forums and it is truly sad to experience groups of people, all who call on the name of the Lord, accuse one another of the most vile blasphemies, declaring them not to be Christians or not to be saved, or that they belong to a “cult,” with disgust oozing from every letter of the word, even though both sides serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Each group, whether they be Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Christadelphian, Lutheran, Baptist, Biblical Unitarian, or even your generic “nondenominational Christian fellowship,” they all believe that they are the true church, the group that has the majority of the truth, the remnant church, the group most certainly headed for heaven. All the others are viewed as apostate or lost or pagan, but with the right teaching can be brought into the fold. And they all think the same thing about each other. It’s a jungle out there, folks.

Why all this diversity of belief? Part of it can be blamed on the accepting as scripture the writings of men and women who came well after the apostles and disciples of Christ, sometimes claiming to be prophets themselves, sometimes not. Even those who never made a claim to being a prophet or inspired of God, their writings have been elevated to that status by those who came after. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their Watchtower Society, the Mormons have their Joseph Smith, the Seventh Day Adventists have their Ellen G. White, the Presbyterians and other Reformed groups have their John Calvin, the Catholics have their Pope. All of those groups also accept the canon of Scripture, the 66 books of the Bible, as the inspired Word of God. An amazing giant leap toward unity would be seen simply by forsaking ALL non-biblical sources of guidance. Phrases like “but according to Calvin’s Institutes…..” or “it says in the Desire of Ages that…” or “the Vatican council declared…” or “the prophet Lehi said…” or “according to the Nicene Creed….” Away with all extra-biblical pronouncements! If it is not in the Bible, you have no business enforcing it as a necessary doctrine for all believers or quoting these people as spiritual authorities.

Get back to the Bible and stay there. Yes, there will still be differences of interpretation, but at least everyone will have an agreed upon source of truth for productive discussion. And if we don’t see eye-to-eye on some things, we can still love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, because when everything else is put aside, we recognize that we are all desiring to please God by serving His Son Jesus Christ.

But some will say, “but their conception of Christ is different than ours!” That may be so, and all cannot be right. If their conception is derived from the Scriptures alone, their intent is noble even if their conclusion is faulty.

• Mark 9:38-41
  38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.”
  39 But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.
  40 “For he who is not against us is for us.
  41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
• Romans 14:17-19
  17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
  18 For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
  19 So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

Let’s look here not at what the kingdom of God is NOT, but at what it IS: Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who serves Christ in that way is acceptable to God.

Is Christ formed in you? (Galatians 4:19) Or do you bite and devour one another?

• Galatians 5:13-16
  13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
  14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
  15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
  16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

The brethren who constantly bicker and make accusations back and forth because they don’t believe the same things about baptism or communion or hell or spiritual gifts or end time prophecy, I think they have turned their freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. It is the desire of your flesh that wants to war and bite and devour. You are using the Word of God as bait for your flesh. However, in the Spirit, love should be manifest always. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24).

With the variety of beliefs out there, just those based solely on the Bible, I believe we are all pretty much on our own about searching the scriptures and coming to a knowledge of the truth. We can share what we’ve learned with one another. Some may be persuaded, some may not. But why do we judge one another over such matters? I’m not talking about sin, because we are to correct one another regarding sin. But regarding our understanding, to our own Master we will stand or fall. As my friend Paul Kelly says,

At the end of the day God knows who’s right and who’s wrong. We don’t. All we know is that we act and believe on what we read and what we’re told….and we try to make sense of that to the best of our abilities. Whether we’re right or wrong, apart from God, who can say? We just try to do what’s right in the best way we can.

Faith working through love, serving Jesus Christ, living in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit: this is the kingdom of God. Instead of bickering, biting, and devouring one another, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).

It has been over two weeks. This is the longest I’ve gone without posting anything here, so I thought I’d just comment a little bit on the things that have been swirling around my head over the past couple of weeks.

Pride

I’ve been looking into the unitarian group called the Christadelphians. They are a rather small denomination with unitarian beliefs. Of course they don’t consider themselves a denomination, but rather the restoration of the original first century church. So what else is new? I guess that should have been my first clue, warning flag number one.

They have some beliefs that I do not hold, such as when you die, you are completely unconscious/unaware in the grave until the resurrection. Nor do they believe in eternal punishment of the wicked. These beliefs are sometimes referred to as “soul sleep” and “annihilation.” I’ve studied it and I don’t buy it.

On the positive side, they are unitarian and they also believe that full-immersion adult baptism is a necessary step in God’s plan of salvation.

They also hold an uncommon belief that surprised me because it matches a study I did on my own, along with the conclusion that my study was leaning toward. I did not complete the study thoroughly, so I cannot say that I hold this belief; a belief that I thought to be unique since I have never heard of anyone else even considering the possibility. Then, lo, I find an entire denomination that holds to it! Or at least something extremely close to it. That belief is that only believers are resurrected and judged (since only believers receive eternal life). The disobedient believers go to eternal punishment; the obedient to eternal life. There is disagreement within the Christadelphian church, which has actually caused a split in the church, based on the significance of baptism in who will be resurrected. It’s too much to get into here. Someday I may post my own study on this topic, just for information, but baptism was not an element that I addressed when I studied it.

But why did I title this section Pride? In my discussions with Christadelphians, the subject of baptism was brought up. I found out that someone joining their church would have to be re-baptized by them. Warning flag number two. When I asked why, I was told that they needed to ensure that the person believed and understood the correct things. And if someone is unsure of what they should believe, they can attend classes before being baptized. Hello? Where is this in scripture? If you preach the gospel to someone and they tell you they believe, who are you to judge whether or not they truly believe? Perhaps churches need to start using lie detectors before baptizing people. And, by the way, what they require you to believe before they will baptize you is their 30-point statement of faith. Wow.

Anyway, it is arrogance and pride that requires someone to have precise knowledge of specific beliefs, the way they think it should be understood, before allowing someone to be baptized. There are very clear and simple examples in scripture that show us what someone needs to believe before being baptized (Acts 10:34-48 is one example). Any “requirement” beyond that is an addition to what God requires. To think that you (whether a person or a group) know better than the apostles what someone needs to believe in order to be baptized is to place yourself above them, and even above God who inspired the holy scriptures. It is the epitome of arrogance.

Does It Matter?

Some things don’t matter. In an earlier entry (Nativity Tales), I commented on the number of inaccuracies in the story of the birth of Jesus; for example, that it is commonly taught and portrayed that there were three wise men or magi. Someone commented (verbally, it’s not in the comments), “Does it really matter how many wise men there were? No, it doesn’t.” With that I completely agree! It doesn’t matter. If it did, scripture would reveal how many wise men there were. But the fact that we are not told how many wise men there were and whether it matters or not was not the point of my post. The point was that we should not make things up that are not in scripture! This kind of inaccurate information gets passed on in the form of tradition and ultimately gets believed, over what is actually contained in the Bible. The number of wise men and the other false nativity traditions are only examples. Is truth important? Yes! Don’t propagate known falsehood. That’s lying. It is a lie to say there were three wise men when you know full well that we don’t know how many there were.