| I know them, and they follow me.... |
Christ knowing the believer means they have accpeted His free gift of salvation. Following Him is to do what has been told of us.
To many doctrines have become fire insurance only. Which is salvation without commitment or responsibility. And this belief holds many problems for those who are on the outside looking in. Even hear a non-believer say: Why should I be like you Christians, your life is no different from mine? I see no change in your life. Your only holy one day a week, and then you do just what I do for the next six days.
What we believe should reflect to others our faith. But why are so many falling short of that goal? The doctrines that teach that responsibility is not needed, make the believer feel secure, so therefore why bother?
God's love is also balanced by His judgement. To many believers think and preach more love, and practicaly no judgement. It's like God the Father has spared the rod of correction to only spoil His children with sin. Is God a God of sin to allow His children no correction? If so, ask yourself this question:
| Why will Christ have to rule and reign with a "rod" for a 1000 years? |
What do you think that rod is for? Love taps?
The deception for salvation, commitment, and responsibility will be so great. That even though we have the love of Christ in our hearts, we will need to be corrected before we can enter heaven for eternity. This correction is what the "rod" is for.
| How is this deception working? |
The fire insurance doctrines classify all works as working your way to heaven. Even though God's word mentions many types of works for the kingdom. But here is what is not understood, and where the deception is:
1)
To work your way to heaven means that your are unsaved, and believe in the golden rule. Why?
When you are saved, you are already heaven bound. The works required in the word of God are kingdom works, not golden rule works (flesh and carnel works which mean nothing). But in the fire insurance doctrines, all works are evil. So anyone who would even slightly mention them are evil as well.
2)
That fire insurance doctrine with kingdom works (no-osas), believes in no security.... Not so.
The believer who's core belief is strongly set in a foundation of God and His word, would be considered secure because it would be hard to shake that foundation. But those who have a weak foundation (new in Christ, or just weak faith) can be led astray, or lose faith. And we have all heard of those who have turned their back on God because something like a loved one dies, or is killed. Why God why...They ask. And when the whys turn into doubt, faith is weakened, and they can choose at that point what they want to believe, or reject.
For if salvation were really secure, the choice by these people could never be made to turn away. It would not even enter their mind. Becoming a new creature would make us into people who are mind controlled. But that's not what we see around us is it?
For if what you believe has a contradiction, then either your wrong, or there's something your not understanding. Like a special situation etc... Every verse, in the word of God, has to work together or it means nothing.
I found that when I believed the fire insurance doctrine, that I could not explain the verses the opposing side kept bringing up. Nor could I explain them away. And I found that most explainations by my peers were personal explaination that often were not written in the word of God. So I found myself believing doctrine over the word of God. This, plus a couple more things, made me go search for truth. And I found That finding it required me to do two things.
1)
Humble myself before God, and pray for wisdom.
2)
Wipe the slate clean on the subject and allow God to guide me.
I wanted truth so bad, I was willing to wait as long as it took. And that in itself was a lesson. For God works in His own time to bring wisdom and rightousness. Because His time is perfect. So my want of wisdom in 30 days, turned into 6 months. But I'm glad I endured. Wisdom from God is priceless, and is worth waiting an eternity for. Why? It answers all questions. For God does not do something halfway.
