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.

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.

• Luke 16:16-17 NASB
  (16) “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
  (17) “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

Verse 17 speaks of the difficulty, the unwillingness, of the Jews to depart from the Law to which they were married and enter the kingdom of God, the very thing to which the Law and the Prophets pointed: the coming of the Messiah, ushering in the kingdom of God. Jesus here was addressing the Pharisees specifically, who John tells us are “lovers of money” (Luke 16:14).

“But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away” is an exageration to mark the difficulty the Jews would have. Jesus here is basically saying the same thing that he said in Luke 18:

• Luke 18:24-25 NASB
  (24) And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!
  (25) “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

“For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…”
“But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away…”

Both describe the difficulty of leaving one and entering another.

Note also that in Luke 16, Jesus follows up with a word about divorce and adultery:

• Luke 16:18 NASB
  (18) “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

Every transgression is a betrayal of the Law; unfaithfulness to it and dishonoring to God. (See Romans 2:23-25, James 2:10.)

Likewise, he also follows up the same in Luke 18 with a word about leaving things (divorcing) to follow him (enter the kingdom):

• Luke 18:28-30 NASB
  (28) Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.”
  (29) And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,
  (30) who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

The old must be completely left behind in order to fully embrace the new. They cannot be mixed without disaster:

• Matthew 9:16-17 NASB
  (16) “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.
  (17) “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

And to leave the old only to long for it and turn back to it is equally as disastrous:

• Luke 9:62 NASB
  (62) But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

• 2 Peter 2:20-22 NASB
  (20) For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
  (21) For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
  (22) It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

For Jews, it was life under the Law that they had to choose to leave and follow Christ. For Gentiles, it is life in the world, a life ruled by the desires of the flesh. Both are wide paths to condemnation. Only in Christ, the narrow path to Life, can we be redeemed from the sins committed in the past. And all of us have sinned, there is no denying it.

• Romans 3:23 NASB
  (23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• 1 John 1:8 NASB
  (8) If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Do you want your old sins forgiven and forgotten? Do you want the power to deny the temptations of the world and of your flesh, the power to live righteously in this life?

• Titus 2:11-14 NASB
  (11) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
  (12) instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
  (13) looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
  (14) who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Do you want the promise of eternal life?

• John 3:16 NASB
  (16) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

• John 14:6 NASB
  (6) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

If you are a Jew following the Law of Moses, do not turn your back on your Messiah, sent to you by God the Father. Read his words for yourself; let him speak to your mind and to your heart. If you are not a Jew, but just someone wondering about God, if he exists, pick up a Bible and start reading. The words of Jesus, who proclaimed the very words of life given to him by God, are contained in the four gospel records: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read and pray. Ask God to lead you to the truth.

Jesus said that if you continue to learn about him through his word, if you believe him and follow him, then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:31-32).

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.