We are no longer Christians

 We are no longer Christians

Acts 11:26c (KJV)

… And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

 

I didn’t say we are no longer a Christian nation. That places the problem on someone else’s doorstep. I said that we are no longer Christians. We do not have the character of Jesus Christ.

• We are not salt. 
• We have lost our savor. 
• We are not light
• We run from the darkness instead of to it

We are no longer Christians when we behave in a manner that Christ would not.

We may be saved, on our way to heaven, our sins are forgiven, and the Holy Ghost of God lives in us, but we are no longer Christians if “the life that I now live” is not Christ living in me.[1]

 

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

A video copy of this is available at, Rumble. Click here.

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[1] Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The Advance of Faith without Truth is Meaningless

The day of the crucifixion.

Why argue about the difference of opinion. Wouldn’t it be better to just rejoice in what we agree about, He arose?

With Easter Sunday just a few days away, this week has been filled with articles, memes, and various information surrounding the final week of the life of Jesus Christ. At issue, most of the time, is the day of His crucifixion.

·       Catholics and the majority of Protestants accept it as Friday and, in a weird twist, refer to the day as “Good Friday”.

·       Bible students of the evangelical and (they believe) enlightened sort claim it is Thursday. I had a professor at college, a very well-educated man, who took this position.

·       Extremists of the Baptist sort embrace Wednesday as the day of the crucifixion. 

I agree with this position. I am certain that the events of the week and Jesus’ claim of three days and three nights, requires a Wednesday crucifixion.

Then comes the question, “Why argue over which day the crucifixion happened? Why can’t we all just celebrate the thing we all agree about, Christ arose?”

It’s a sentiment that is echoed many times within the community of Christendom. It is the anthem of ecumenicalism. It is essential in a universal, invisible church, and it is the foundation of virtually every para-church organization. 

·       Promise Keepers three decades ago chanted “Breaking Down the Walls of Doctrine.”

·       Everything from Bill Gothard’s Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts to Child Evangelism 

·       Fellowships survive in an atmosphere of fellowship around the things agreed upon and avoidance of those areas of disagreement.[1]

It’s a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words, 

John 13:34-35 (KJV)

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

And

John 17:21 (KJV)

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

I would simply want to point out that Jesus and His Father were one in essence. They would not have been vague about their doctrine. Their fellowship is in unity of truth.

“He is risen” is the only the most important part if the Bible is true because it is from the Bible we learn that He has risen. The Bible is only true if it is true in every part. One mistake, one error, one failure to be true and there is nothing, including the most important parts, that can be trusted.

Is it possible that we have made an error in our understanding? Of course. But to claim those areas of disagreement are unimportant and unworthy of debate,[2] leads to a powerless, conviction-less Christianity destined to be worthless to the world and to those who claim to possess it.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields (while safely sheltered at home)

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[1] My opinion is that this is what led to the disintegration of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. From its inception it existed around the drive to support missionaries. All that was necessary for participation was agreement to a particular, but vague enough doctrinal statement that allowed churches, mostly Baptists, to work together. With the internet came discussion groups and preachers became familiar with the huge differences among them. These differences quickly drove them apart.

[2] I said debate, not fighting.

Thirty-nine Years Ago

I was baptized December 16, 1979. Thirty-nine years ago this year.

The days of month happen this year to fall on the same days of the week that they did back in 1979.

It was either this week, or next, back in 1979, that I attended the services of an Independent Baptist Church for the very first time.

I made my made a profession of faith that day and presented myself for believer’s baptism. Pastor Scudder came to my house to visit me the following Thursday to confirm my salvation and to plan my baptism.

Cornerstone Baptist Church in Kennewick had only had its first service the Sunday before I attended. They did not have a baptistery so arrangements had to be made at another Independent Baptist Church, Riverview Baptist in Pasco.

That took a couple of weeks[1]and was, as I said, performed December 16, 1979.

I had gotten saved April of 1977 but had not gone to church since then

When Mike Riggs invited me to go to church with him in 1979, I was serious about going to church, but I am not sure how serious I really was about being dedicated to the Lord.

I do remember I wasn’t thinking church would consume my life.

• I was interested in a girl who lived 35 miles away[2]and the weekends were my chance to spend lots of time with her
• I had parents who lived 60 miles away and I still wanted to see them as much as I could
• I had a job as an apprentice ironworker and I LOVED it

It just never worked out that way for me.

As soon as I attended that church, it pulled me tighter and tighter in.

When I got baptized, it was on the birthday of that girl I was interested in. I skipped being with her on her birthday so I could be baptized.

Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesdays – they all got taken over by church.

Even Christmas that year was on a Sunday.

I worked an overtime shutdown on my job, drove up to see my parents Christmas Eve, and then drove back home to be in church Sunday morning.

Once Anita and I were married, we dedicated ourselves quickly to serve the Lord and have never looked back.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

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[1]Explaining why I can’t remember if my first service was November 25 or December 2. I know I was baptized December 16^thbut I do not recall for sure how many weeks it took pastor to make those arrangements.

[2]We celebrated our 38^thanniversary back in September.

Madeline Albright a Muslim?

Did you see the AP article entitled, The Latest: Albright says she’ll register as a Muslim[1]? She claims, "I was raised Catholic, became Episcopalian & found out later my family was Jewish. I stand ready to register as Muslim in #solidarity."

Albright’s position of faith is wrong on so many levels!

I notice she never once says she is a Christian. To be raised a Catholic is something that has been done to you. To become an Episcopalian is not much different from moving from New York to New Jersey; nothing’s changed but your address. To find out later that your family is Jewish should be of no consequence, so was Jesus’. So was all of the first Christians. Christians, whether their families are Jewish or Gentile, are instructed to leave those cultures behind for the Biblical culture of a New Testament Christian church.

Now she stands ready to register as Muslim. This statement is truly telling. Was she merely registered Catholic or registered Episcopalian? At some point then did she register as Jewish?

Mrs. Albright needs to take the time to check into the Muslim system of belief. According to their religion when one converts and becomes a Muslim, to leave that faith is punishable by death. I don’t imagine that’s what she plans to “register” in to.

Ok, here is the real concern. Albright, like so many people today, assume that being religious, or having been baptized into a certain denomination, or attending a particular church or even believing a particular creed is what makes one a Christian. It does not.

There was once a man who came to Jesus with much the same misunderstanding.

John 3:1-18 (KJV)

There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Nicodemus could not wrap his head around Jesus’ teaching of the new birth. How could he? Only those who have been born can know what it means to be born. Only those who have been born again can know what it means to be born again.

(Photo from pixabay.com)

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[1] http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/01/26/latest-albright-says-shell-register-as-muslim.html

No Proof God Exists, Really?

It is a significant fact that the Bible begins with a pronouncement, In the beginning, God.

God did not explain Himself or prove Himself, He declared Himself. He is a fact. 

It is innate in mankind to believe in God. Various cultures have developed differing concepts about God, but the belief in God is universal, ubiquitous. 

True, there are, and likely always have been atheists or at least agnostics, but when one begins to look into the mindset of these, we learn that they too have a god. They are no different than anyone else, they merely attempt to define their gods in such a way that they appear to be no gods.

I cannot prove the existence of God. I do not believe I have to because I am convinced that everyone, absolutely everyone, even those who most loudly protest, believe in God.

The question that I think matters most is, which god? Of the multitude of religious systems and “non systems,” which is the true representation of God? I present a case for the God of the Bible.

There is the Bible itself

Though some argue that we can’t use the Bible to prove the Bible because it is one book proving itself, that is far from accurate. The Bible is, in fact, a series of books, independent of each other yet miraculously bound to one another. 

The Bible is composed of not one but sixty-six individual works. There are more than forty different writers working over a period of four thousand years. Each book expresses, to a high degree, the personalities, backgrounds and educational make-up of each writer. Yet they are remarkably unified. They serve as multiple witnesses testifying to the veracity and divine nature of the whole.

There is the character of the Bible

Nothing in the Bible has ever been proven to be false. It is not a book of science, but its science is accurate. It is not a book of history but its history is accurate. More than one quarter of the Bible was written prophetically, in other words, it predicts the future. More than three quarters of those prophecies have been fulfilled with absolute accuracy. There is no reason to believe that those prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled with not be fulfilled accurately in God’s time.

Most importantly is the resurrection of Jesus Christ

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is irrefutable. There is simply too much evidence that Christ lived, died and rose again to deny these events with any sort of credibility.

There is more contemporary evidence of the gospel of Jesus Christ than there is that Alexander the Great ever lived, yet no one questions the historical veracity of Alexander the Great. Why is that? I suggest that it is because there is no great consequence to believing in Alexander the Great. Whether he did or did not live makes no difference now or in the future. Not so with Jesus Christ.

If Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again as the Word of God says he did, then He is God. Jesus made astounding and substantive claims concerning Himself and eternity.

• He said that there is a literal hell and people go there

• He said that God the Father is real and that no man comes to God except by Him

• He said that God’s expectation is perfection

• He also said that whosoever believes in Him could have everlasting life.

Every man and woman has a right to believe according to the dictates of their own conscience. I only plead that, before anyone settles what they believe, they do so with eyes wide open. 

Jesus said that to deny Him was to be condemned to eternal torments, “...where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” Jesus said that there is no other access to heaven except through faith in Him. I beg that you make a full and unbiased study of these claims (being led by one competent to help you) before you decide not to believe.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields