This post today is going to hit on several topics, all from a biblical point of view. How will you line up with God's Word when it is all said and done? People will get mad at me and do a lot of name calling towards me but I know that it is not me that they hate, it is God and His Holy Word. The bible tells us that is so.
Luke 6:22
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
John 15:18
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.
The Pharisees hated Jesus so much that they wanted Him dead. He was a threat to their power hungry religious life. Jesus exposed them as the frauds that they were. We are called to expose frauds too. Those false prophets, pastor and all other so called "christians" who are not teaching and living a life truly for the One and Only God, need to be exposed. Why? Because the bible tells us so.
Ephesians 5:11
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove [them].
So now as I go about talking of sin, see if the sin you love is covered here and check to see if your life and devotion to God lines up with His Word. If it doesn't then you need to repent of your sins. People say that God is a God of love. That is true. But He is also a God of wrath and that is the God that people refuse to believe. If they believed it they would not live and enjoy their sin so much. If they truly loved God and believed in His holiness and in His power, they would have a healthy fear of Him. You can see the lack of fear that people have for God by the way they speak, or by the way they act. They say they "believe" in God but only to the point of believing. Unfortunately, they do not know that believing in God is not a ticket into heaven.
James 2:19
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
Now, if the devils believe AND tremble and we know they will not enter heaven, then what makes you think that "your" belief alone will get you into heaven. The bible tells us that without repentance -- THERE IS NO SALVATION!
Luke 13:2-5
And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."
So here is the problem we have today. We have false prophets, teachers and pastor who refuse to preach the true Word of God. They only tell half of the story. Why? Because they want large mega churches. With mega churches, you get lots of people and with lots of people you get lots of money. Those people refuse to properly teach God's Word because they know enough of the bible to know that if they did teach it the right way, people would become offended. If they become offended by God's Word, they will leave the church and their money will leave with them. That is why you see churches entertaining people now. They blast their music real loud, the pastors try to look "cool" by wearing jeans with holes in them (so he can relate to the lost sinners), he has earrings and tatoos and he is not scared to use cuss words as shock value. He will show entertaining videos and have people come up on stage doing stupid, supposedly funny things in order to get people laughing. He tells jokes to make people feel good. He tells them "God loves you" and sends them home. And look what happens when they go back home...
The following are true stories.
An elder of the church goes home and beats on his wife and kids. He threatens his wife in front of the kids and tells the kids that if a man held a gun to their heads, and told their mom to stop reading the bible or he would kill them, their mom would let them die. She would rather read her bible than save their life.
After finding out that a son of an elderly woman was going to visit a church, the pastor of that church changed his sermon. He found out the boy was gay and he did not want to offend the boy by talking about homosexuality, so he changed his sermon.
After hearing what the bible says about tatoos, a person purposefully goes out and gets more tatoos and says she does it for God's glory. Knowing full well what the bible says about sex outside of marriage this person goes church hopping in hopes of finding a man. She sleeps with several different guys, saying she loves them only to find out later they were not good christian men like they profess to be.
Getting drunk and lying in the road, a "christian" says that God forgives him because he only gets drunk once in a while.
A group of christians from work go out drinking, smoking and cussing up a storm and in the very next breath they will praise God because He is love.
A pastor commits adultery with one of his members in the congregation and says God forgives him. But he keeps on without repenting.
Let's see...
homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, adultery, drugs, alcohol, cussing.
Do those look like the traits that Jesus wants His followers to have?
NO
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Fornicators --
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
The Greek word for fornicator is "pornos" and we all know how bad that is in God's eyes. It has to do with sex outside of the bounds of marriage.
Idolaters --
An idolater is anyone who worships a false god.
This is one where so many people are guilty. A false god is not just worshipping a bronze calf. It is not jsut worshipping a god of a cult, like mormonism. It is worshipping a god that they have created in their minds. It is worshipping a god that is not the God of the bible. Too many people worship a god that looks the other way at their sins. They feel God will not punish them for living in habitual sins. Is that you? Do you know that God will judge the unrighteous person and that person will be found wanting and be cast to hell for all eternity. Their will be millions of people cast into hell and out of those millions of people, the majority of them would consider themselves to be christians. But just because "you" call yourself a christian, does not mean that God calls you His child. The bible tells us that you are either a child of the devil or a child of God.
Acts 13:10
And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, [thou] child of the devil, [thou] enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
Again this all comes down to repentance. If you are not willing to cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord, then you are a child of the devil. And as a child of the devil, you only have hell to look forward to. There won't be card playing and drinking in hell. It will not be one big party as some like to joke about.
Revelation 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Many of you who profess to be christians and teach others to sin or participate in sin with them are guilty of deceiving people about who the true God of the bible is. Hell is a very real place of fire and brimstone. It will go on for all eternity. You will never be able to escape the pain and torture.
Adulterers --
Sex with another married person. But Jesus said that any one who lust after another is guilty of adultery. See, God looks at our hearts, not just our actions.
Matthew 5:27-28
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Here is a shameful example for you. A girl meets a boy (he is married, separated but in GOD'S eyes, he is STILL married). She claims to be a Christian and yet she sleeps with this boy. In fact, before his divorce is even finalized, the two of them are engaged to be married. In fact, just one week after the divorce, the two of them are getting married. Their total amount of time of knowing each other? As of now, it is about 6 weeks. The marriage takes place in two days in a courthouse and not in a church. Did I mention that he smokes and drinks and calls himself a christian?
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Time to go to church. I will finish this article when I get home from church. Please take time to examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith. If not, you need to repent and turn to God for forgiveness. Then do the sin no more!
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5 comments:
I see you haven't mentioned about what Jesus says about people who divorce for reasons other than unfaithfulness committing adultery if they remarry? As I am sure you know better than I the verb in Greek is in the present continuous and so is not just 'the commit' adultery - but they are committing adultery if the remarry. Mind you, looking at America’s record on divorce (ironic given America has the highest rates of church attendance in the western world) – I can see why it is best to pick on the ‘easy’ morality of queer-bashing!)
Similarly is there anything in the Bible about drugs? Jesus set his whole memorial sacrament - holy communion - around the ritual act of drug taking (drinking wine... that is).
It would be nice, if instead of concentrating on what people do with their wing-wangs, you wrote something about what the Bible says about economics or care for the environment or self-righteousness. But no - always the same soft targets and a post that doesn't really talk about 'The Bible' - just the things that make you feel better about yourself...
But then isn't that Christianity? Or Religion per se?
I was debating with myself as to whether to allow you post to be posted or not. I just returned from a caribbean cruise. So since my post is not even finished yet, I will reply to your comments. You seem to miss the whole idea that GOD HATES DIVORCE! Regardless of the situation. That was never His plan. It is because of the hardness of man's heart that He even allowed it. So before you hide behind one word in the bible and make a whole argument over it, you need to understand what God's Word says not only in the context of the verse, the chapter, the book but also the Bible as a whole. There can be no confusion, NONE whatsoever.
Now about attacking queers. You must be one of them so I will try to not come across as attacking you. The bible is VERY CLEAR when it comes to homosexuality. IF you want to create a god that is pleased with your sins, then go ahead, just realize that the God of the bible will hold you accountable for your sins!
And to say that Jesus was on drugs by taking wine, is about as close to blasphemy as you can get and I really feel sorry for you soul. You need to repent. The wine according to the bible is good for the stomach. It is when it is taken in excess and causes drunkenness that it becomes sin. I know what the bible says about economics but you prove my point by your very comments that I need to keep talking about sin since many and most churches refuse to do so.
I do feel good about serving God and if that offends you then it is obvious that your anger is actually towards God and not towards me. You need to understand that hell is a real place and you are headed there unless you repent. My prayers are with you.
I hadn't viewed your response to my comments until today.
I feel sorry for you, inwardly you can't be very happy as you need to fixate on other people’s behavior. There are some 30,000 odd verses in the Bible and yet you become fixated on the one’s that don’t challenge your own ‘righteouness’ – and the verses which are often incorrectly translated as ‘homosexuality’ are incorrect, because no such word appears in either Hebrew (a language I don’t know) and Koine Greek (a language I know very well).
It is interesting to note that the focus of Jesus’ anger and condemnation is not the homosexuals and those outcast or looked down on by the religiously upright. His condemnation was towards those who knew their Scriptures well and lived outwardly righteous lives – indeed, by the standards of the day they DID live very righteous lives. Reading blogs like your own I reminded of this condemnation, because of the fixation on the ‘sins’ of others and the usual American obsession of believing ‘sin’ is something found in certain communities or groups. Whereas, as Jesus notes, the problems of the world are found in our own hearts – drop the transference and you might just catch a glimpse of the Gospel. It is interesting to note how much effort, as your blog demonstrates again and again, is put into the condemnation of others – with very (if any) mention of your own failings or those of the fat, contented, materialistic, money worshiping, individualistic world that is much of American Evangelical culture (not all, I know, but the greater part, nevertheless). If you think immorality is purely concerned with living a certain lifestyle or the behavior of others then you have missed the point. We are all immoral and are saved only by the Grace of God. The fact you spend so much time condemning others demonstrates that really you have missed the point... My little, Pharisaic friend...
P.S. I'm not angry - I just think the you and your kind need challenging from time to time...
and yet God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sinfilled lifestyles. God destroyed all of the people who were against His word.
and yet when the bible says in the NT that man is not to lie with man, you ignore that. Go ahead and rationalize your sins now, but be warned that God is not mocked and you will bow down to Him someday. Unless you repent of your sins, you will face Him as Judge and not as Savior.
Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 again and tell me that God looks the other way when it comes to sin. Unrepentant sin!
"with very (if any) mention of your own failings or those of the fat, contented, materialistic, money worshiping, individualistic world that is much of American Evangelical culture (not all, I know, but the greater part, nevertheless)."
The whole purpose of this blog is to expose what kind of pastor I "used" to be. I was not saved. It is also to get churches back to being biblical away from the entertainment mine fields that are out there. So to say that I never mention those things, you are out of line with that comment.
so you feel that my kind (Christians, true christians at that) need to be challenged. No problem here. I live and I will die for Christ. You are not the first person to want to defend your homosexuality and you won't be the last. Just remember, God has the final say in the matter and hell awaits those who do not repent of their sins (whatever the sins might be!)
Anonymous wrote to me and I have removed the last part of his comment as he was promoting his own blog and seeing how he teaches and believes contrary to biblical standards, I am only posting the first part of his comment. Here it is...
And are you able to decide the mind of God..? 'A real Christian' like you..? I would be careful here. Much of Jesus' concern in the N.T. is with those confident of the own righteousness. We are saved by the mercy of God and no other reason. There is nothing either you or I can do to 'win' salvation. As sinless as someone might think they are, they are still vile and corrupted in the eyes of God. Hence it is not wise to start setting oneself up as a 'real Christian'; it smacks of conceit and we all know where that ends...
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Okay mr. anonymous, first off you asked if I am able to know the mind of God. I have God's Word in front of me and HE has told us WHO HE is, He has told us what HE desires from each of us, so YES, we can know the mind of God. The middle part of what you said is EXACTLY what I preach about. The last part where you said, Hence it is not wise to start setting oneself up as a 'real Christian'; it smacks of conceit and we all know where that ends...
gotta wonder sir, when sin is preached and not just grace you seem to get very offended. Why does it bother you so much to have a pastor or anyone for that matter, to preach judgment along with grace? The bible tells us who His children are. We can know with certainty because HIS WORD shows us that those who are obedient to His Word ARE His children. By their fruit you will know them. Please do not post your own blog again. I will remove it.
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