THE ILLUSION OF CHRISTIAN AMERICA

"Rather than acting as resident aliens of a heavenly kingdom, too often we sound (and act) like resident apologists for a Christian America. … Unless we reject the false reliance on the illusion of Christian America, evangelicalism will continue to distort the gospel and thwart a genuine biblical identity."  ~John Seel, The Evangelical Pulpit

There are Christians in America, but there is no Christian America. Ours is a nation of many religions… there is one group that worships the true God in the only Way… and then there are all the others. I know the argument that Christian forefathers founded this country on Biblical principles and under the direction of the Holy Spirit because God wanted a Christian nation. I vigorously disagree with that, as a generalization, but let's say for the sake of argument it is true. 

FALSE TEACHERS, FALSE PROPHETS, FALSE BRETHREN

Do You Know the Difference?

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8

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Commandments and Concessions

Do You Know the Difference?

We are looking at 1st Corinthians on the subject of what are strictly the commandments of the Lord, as they are called, and what Paul states to be concession or permission, as it is in the King James Version.

Have you ever noticed and considered the mention of these  two very different matters in this letter, which is often called the Charter of the Church by many? I personally believe that very little attention is given to either one of these very interesting subjects and they often go unnoticed and disregarded as well in the Church today.

THE STRUGGLE IS SPIRITUAL

The more I read my Bible and listen to the “news” the more I “see” the Bible “IN” the news. The Bible… the Word of God, written by men chosen and inspired by God, is full of prophecy – some fulfilled… some not yet fulfilled. The Bible is a self-revealing book. And what it is revealing is what is “happening” in the news. The “news” is ALL political, and the world is being consumed by the politics of a collective degeneration and collapse of the mind, body, soul, and spirit.

Belief in False Beliefs

There is a sin of unbelief. Paul, speaking to the Jews in Heb. 3:12 said,
Take heed, brethren (Jews), lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
It is indeed an evil heart which refuses the Truth and Promises of God.

Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest (in which we cease from our own works, vs. 10), lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" Heb. 4:11-12. 

THE SALVATION OF THE LORD

"Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord."-Exodus 14:13

Most all of us know the story of Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea. 

With the whole army of pharaoh pursuing them, and their backs to the Red Sea, God parted the waters so that they crossed on DRY land. But later, when all the Israelites were SAFE across, the waters came back and utterly destroyed pharaoh’s army.

“So the Lord SAVED Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw THE GREAT WORK which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.” -Exodus 14:30-31

RELIGIOUS ENTERTAINMENT

Religious Entertainment!

(A.W. Tozer - 1955)

A great company of evangelical churches have already gone over into the area of RELIGIOUS ENTERTAINMENT, so that many churches are tramping on the doorstep of the theater!

The tragic results of this spirit are all around us:

  shallow lives,

  hollow religious philosophies,

  the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings,

  the glorification of men,

  trust in religious externalities,

  quasi-religious fellowships,

  salesmanship methods,

  the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit.

These and such as these, are the symptoms of an evil disease--a deep and serious MALADY OF THE SOUL.