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June 25, 2006 “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished.” (2 Peter 2:9 KJV) There has been a lot of Christian bashing this past week and I suppose a lot of that is deserved. There are certainly many charlatans out there pretending to be Christian in some way, shape or form. I didn’t read Pat Robertson’s comments and I don’t pay much attention to televangelists in general. I believe many of them suffer from some type of “fame complex” where they begin to think of themselves “more highly than they ought to think”. God will judge that. Yet, those who have things to speak against Christians and Christianity aren’t exactly making their case. They speak against the religion and this is proper. Religion has no real good purpose other than to promote rules and regulations and dogmas that men have tapered to their own whims. How many religions garment their clergy in long and very expensive garments and conduct services with vessels of gold and silver and preach sermons that consist mostly of extolling the virtues of giving more money to the particular organization represented by that church or congregation? Jesus and his men had a moneybag attending their travels, but what money didn’t go into the personal pocket of Judas was dispensed from that bag to help the unfortunate souls that attended the sermons of Christ. Churches should never be organizations of “profit”. I am reminded of many of the State Lotteries in America. Each of these lotteries was formed to raise funds for schools, the elderly and the general populations as a substitute for raising taxes. We have yet to see any state of the union lower taxes against increased revenue from any casino. School taxes rise, and the elderly are still struggling on their fixed incomes. Many church organizations are like this too. They build elaborate structures and then need hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to maintain the buildings and the grounds. They hire contractors and caretakers that require salaries for workers. They hire choir directors and assistant clergy into paid positions. There is no end to the monetary needs of the organization just to maintain the organization. I understand the chagrin of those who speak against religion. True Christianity resides in faith. That faith is in Jesus. We who hold the Christ as Lord understand we do not need elaborate buildings or television contracts. We do not need rock and roll band music or Christian “rap” or public displays of “faith” healing to do what needs to be done to expand the numbers of those who desire Christ. Jesus said when you need to pray, go into your closet. When you need to testify, don’t worry about the words or the time of opportunity. He said when you go into the world take the word, some cash and your sandals so you are not burdening someone else with personal needs. He said that a laborer is worth his hire and if God can care after flowers in a field he can certainly care for one of his children. I do not understand the unreasonable lumping of all Christians into the same moldy basket of “religion” as all the so-called Christians who depend on their church, their clergy, their works or their own hands for salvation. The True Christian depends only on Christ. Jesus is the Lord and the Savior and there is no deed or other source that can apply the standard of salvation to the individual soul. The Lord knows. He knows the godly and he knows how to keep the godly away from the errant religionist who depends on works or human rules for eternal life. He also knows the “unjust”. The unjust are the ones who lay in judgment of those who hold the truth. Jesus was condemned bitterly by the religious leaders of his day because he was the only “rabbi” speaking the right against the wrong. There are teachers today being ignored by the major denominations because they call for returning to the Word of God. They call for returning to Jesus as the source of faith and life. The unjust refuse to see that there are men and women of faith who ignore the ranting of deranged men like “Fred Phelps” and his miniature cult of religious zealots. There are men and women of faith who do not read or listen to Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson because that is not the relationship that the person of faith is to desire. The true desire is a relationship with Jesus. He is the only teacher that matters. Yet, the unjust refuse to see that relationship too. When the Day of Judgment arrives there will be many so-called Christians who stand before the Lord and suggest that their “many wonderful works” will entitle them to eternity and Jesus will tell them “depart from me” for “I never knew you.” Salvation is knowing Christ. Salvation is being known of Christ. You really should not wait until that last day to try to figure that out. ------------ Email Skip: skiptoomaloo@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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