IS CHRISTIANITY JUST ANOTHER RELIGION? 9-28-13
Are we in Christ or do we have just have religion?
A few days ago I was waiting in a waiting room for my wife to come out of her visit to the doctors office, there was an elderly gentlemen there sitting next to me waiting to see his doctor, after sitting there for about two hours and chatting with this man he ask me a question, he ask me if I was a bible scholar and I told him no, he ask me where the scripture was to do with the "prodigal son" that he wanted his daughter to read it, I told him it was in Luke chapter 15:, he ask me to find it for him, there was a Gideon bible there as well as other literature for folks to read.
I found it for him and then he said that he was an Episcopalian, and that the bible wasn't read where he attends church, he went on to say that he wished it was, he said they had a book of poetic sayings taken from the bible, and I respectfully told him that if he was not hearing the teaching and preaching of Gods word that he was wasting his time, that he ought to find him another place to worship. --- his reply was that his father always went to the Episcopal church and he grew up in the Episcopal church, and that was all he was familiar with.
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As I though about what happened in our talk together I realized that this dear old gentleman had religion, not salvation.
How sad it is that folks can become so comfortable in a religion, the devil is happy with people having religion; he doesn't want to disturb that arrangement at all, just enjoy your religion, just don't dare get saved.
This gentleman said he was 83 years old, and here is was in a doctor's waiting room, so evidently he had health issues, he is in great danger.
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I looked up some of what Episcopalians believed, and I found that though Episcopalians believe there is a literal heaven (that is attained by living a moral life) they do not teach a literal hell.
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~ Christianity is more than a religion; it is more than a creed. It's a way of life for all who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christianity is unique; it is based on Jesus Christ, the only Savior and Mediator between God the Father and sinful humankind.
Most religions emphasize the life of the founder of that particular religion, but Christianity is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus is unique for it was prophesied in --
Gen. 3:14-15 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: -- 15And I will put enmity* (hostility) between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise HIS heel. --Jesus Christ is from Geneses, through the book of Revelation.
~LISTEN, Jesus is found in the 1st verse of the Bible.
>Gen.1:1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
* He is the Creator.
>John 1: 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
* Jesus is found in the middle two verses of the Bible, since the KJ Bible has even number verses, 31,174- there is no single middle verse, so the two center verses are PS.118:8-9.
Psalm 118: 8It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. 9It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
* And Jesus is in the last verse of the Bible.
Rev. 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
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~So the prophecy about Jesus in Gen.3:14-15 came to pass in the New Testament age thousands of years later. Not only is the death of Christ absolutely essential to Christianity, so is His resurrection, His death alone would not have been sufficient; He had to be resurrected as well.
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"Religion" is a particular system of faith and worship, it is the outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having power over their destiny.
~A person can believe in any number of things, and proclaim to believe in god, all people don't believe in Jehovah God, they say that they believe in the real God, they have their own idea of what or who God is, they have a religion. -- Most of the time it's a religion that pertains to works.
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Lately there has been a program on TV, called, "snake salvation".
It's up in the W. Virginia mountains, it shows the people jumping around handling poisonous snakes, the pastor there said he would never leave that religion and go to another one, these people, I believe are sincere in what they believe, I've watched several of their telecast to learn about it, and I have yet to hear one word read from the bible, their emphasizes is on the scripture in Mark 16: about taking up serpents, which is taken completely out of context.
Paul was bitten by a viper in Acts 28:, the Apostle Paul could do that but not people today, and let me say, that Paul didn't intentional pick up the snake. -- That scripture in Mark 16: also tells about drinking deadly poison as well, for some reason they don't do that.
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~All as such as this is nothing more than WORKS, it's also tempting God, and let me say, the pastor there in that church in the Appalachians, his Dad was the pastor before him, and he was bitten and died there in that same church is what was told by a commentator.
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~LISTEN dear heart God is not within a country mile of such nonsense, works does not count with God. --- The fact of the matter is we as lost sinners have broken God's laws, all people have to do is break just one of God's laws and we're guilty of breaking all of them.
~ What is sin in the 1st place? -- sin is breaking Gods Law.
>Rom. 3: 20 Therefore by the deeds *by deeds- by works) of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law was there to make known the fact that people could not keep God's law, it revealed to man that when we broke His Law we had sinned, and that Jesus was the only remedy for sin, when we become saved we keep God's Law through Christ, when we're in CHRIST we're made perfect. We're in good standing with the FATHER once again.
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~Listen to this simple illustration of abiding by the laws of the land; and the same is true of Gods Law, it's a matter of justice.
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We have written laws in this country that people are to abide by and when these laws are violated and you're caught, most of the time there is a penalty to pay, and you can go to any court on earth and you don't get off by doing yoga.
~~You don't get off by obeying the law perfectly from then on.
~~ You don't get off by some ritual, such as walking the yellow line, or standing on one foot and touching your nose.
~~You can't even get by of a parking ticket by promising the judge you won't misbehave as far as parking is concerned, or that you have really parked legally more times than you haven't.
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~And then there are the catholic people, many of these people think that Mary will get them in.
~They're praying to Mary, asking Mary to obtain for them the salvation that Christ obtained on the cross, as if Mary could tell Jesus what to do.
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~ It makes about as much sense as a man doing 120 mph in a school zone of 20 mph with children present and the police catch the man, and now he's going to be in front of the judge next week, but he's not worried about it because he knows the judges mother.
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~There's as much difference in religion and salvation as day and night.
~There was no religion in Eden and there won't be any in heaven.
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~Religion is a human attempt to anticipate what God in His revealed will is going to do and does do. --- It is the attempted replacement of God's divine work by human efforts.
Man in his attempt to be religious has placed himself against Gods forever settled truth by providing for himself a substitute, which is never the truth. It is a complete fiction.
~ No religion can stand before the grace of God as true religion.
* Jesus did not say,
I came that you might have religion, and practice it more faithfully.
Or "I came that you might have religion, and stick to it more commitedly," or "I came that you might have religion, and define it more dogmatically," or "I came that you might have religion, and defend it more vigorously," or "I came that you might have religion, and thus behave more morally."
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* What Jesus said was,
>John 10:10 I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.
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~ The life that He came to bring to us and put within us is His life.
>John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
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* The apostle John said in;
>I John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
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>Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
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Christianity is not "religion," but the life of Jesus Christ manifested in all that will accept Him.
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* Christianity is God's plan to restore mankind to Himself.
~2 Cor. 5:17- 21 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19To wit,* (to testify) that God was in Christ, reconciling* (to change from hostility to friendship, to reconcile--bring back into fellowship)
the world unto himself, not imputing*(not counting) their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (We're to tell it, win back)
20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21For HE hath made HIM to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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* Christianity is a relationship which has fellowship with God and His Son; fellowship is a spiritual union of the believer with Christ.
>John 14:20-21At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
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* God makes His permanent home in each believer's heart; fellowship with God is the goal of the Christian life.
I John 1:2-3 For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
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~Christianity has a God who became human, literally died for His people, and was raised again in power and glory to rule His church forever.
~Many people in the church today are religious, they enjoy the social part of fellowshipping with each other, yet they do not know Christ.
~Our relationship to God is made possible through Jesus. ~After Jesus' resurrection, any believer could approach God directly; talking with God personally. --- We can approach God, not because of our own merit, but because Jesus, our great high priest, has made us acceptable to God.
>Heb. 10:19-23 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated* (to make new) for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21And having an high priest over the house of God;
22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised ;)--
~ So we that are Christians don't have a religion of works, the FOUNDER of our faith has already did every thing there is to be done, man made religion is sending folks to hell. -- Jesus said in John 19:30- It is finished:
