Are you thankful? The thankful give thanks. Are you wise? The wise seek Jesus. Are you following Jesus? True followers of Jesus follow all that He said, doing just as He said to do, and nothing else, nothing more.
Wayne Jackson wrote, “It has ever been a mystery to reflective people. How can millions professing an identity with the Christian religion be so hopelessly divided?” The only answer can be because of the great deceiver, Satan, who has deceived multitudes into accepting what the Bible does not say, elevating their traditions above the word of God.
Alternative is especially written for the honest soul who is seeking for the truth and unity for which Jesus prayed. It presents an alternative to the divisions created by men through following the Bible alone and doing just what it says, nothing else.
It presents the teaching of Jesus who said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” instead of the teaching of post modernism that says that we cannot really know the truth.
Are you a believer in Jesus? A true believer in Jesus believes what He said and does not contradict Him with his own feeble ideas. If you would truly like to follow Jesus, we invite you to investigate what we present further. We would like to hear from you.
Don’t be satisfied in following those who are hopelessly divided because they follow their traditions instead of the word of God and so do things that the Bible does not say to do.
“We do not understand differently; we either understand or we misunderstand. Neither is it true that we hold different interpretations which are each correct; we either interpret correctly or we misinterpret. We can see this truth when applied to simple arithmetic; why can we not see it when applied to religion?” –Brandon Renfroe. ~ A
In Hosea 14:9 the prophet of God wrote, “Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them” (New King James). The wise walk in the ways of the Lord. The transgressors (sinners) who remain unwise, stumble in His ways.
An excellent illustration of this truth is seen in 1 Corinthians 1:20-31. Those of the world thought themselves wiser than God and rejected the gospel, which was preached to save those who believe. Now don’t read verse 21 as if it said, “preached to save those who believe only.” We must take all that God’s word says on any point. God’s word does not contradict. 1 Peter 1:22 is a verse that must be taken into consideration here. It tells us that our souls are purified (made pure and cleansed from sin) through obeying the truth. The truth must not only be believed but it must be obeyed. Any verse that is interpreted in such a way as to contradict 1 Peter 1:22 has been misinterpreted. One must also repent of their sins as we see from Acts 17:30 and be baptized (immersed) for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38).
It has been said that 42% of Americans are not certain as to whether there is a being such as God. They are skeptics or Agnostics. But there is more hope for such than for an Atheist who denies outright that there is a God.
In the late 60’s or early 70’s a theological professor in a school in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote a book titled, “The Christian Atheist.” There is no such thing. He is now no longer a “Christian” but an out and out atheist.
Another name for an atheist is a Humanist. A humanist is one who believes in the religion of humanism. In short, a humanist is one who believes that man is his own God. Many humanists deny that humanism is a religion but the Supreme Court ruled that it is. And so we have evolution being taught in our public schools as a “scientific fact,” and evolution is the foundation of humanism. That means, the Christian religion, and the Jewish scriptures cannot be taught in our public schools but the religion of humanists is, though it is the opposing religion of humanists. And this is heavily supported by activist judges, all over the country, who do not believe in God.
Then there are those “Christians” who do not believe that the Bible is the word of God, and so do not believe what the Bible says. They do not believe in the miracles of the Bible and so do not believe in the Creation story, the flood of Noah’s time, the parting of the Red Sea, the story of Jonah, etc., etc., etc. They are but myths, fables, or allegories to them; made up stories with spiritual applications. Many because they do not believe in the miracles of the Bible do not believe in the virgin birth of Christ, or in the literal physical resurrection of Jesus.
I said they do not believe the Bible is the word of God. They do in a strange sort of way. They believe that God somehow used those who made up these stories to interpret what they felt was God in their lives. They certainly do not believe in the Bible in the way that Jesus did, who repeatedly referred to many of the things mentioned as being true. Jesus said concerning God that His word is truth. He also said, “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35) (rendered of no effect or set aside, Adam Clarke).
And then there is the “Christian” who believes in evolution and perhaps speaks of “Theistic evolution.” Simply speaking this means that evolution was the means that God used to create the things of the world, including man. Of course one who believes in Theistic evolution or any other brand of evolution for that matter, does not believe in the Creation story of Genesis One. But Jesus did. When he was questioned about divorce by the Pharisees, He said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’” (Matthew 19:4).
Wasn’t it convenient that in the supposed evolution process, both male and female evolved, until finally they evolved into a man and woman, and got together to procreate? Scientists say that all humans came from one woman, verifying what the Bible says. But those who do not believe in the Bible refuse to believe it could be right. So guess what; of all the supposedly predecessors evolving into humans, only one evolved into a woman!!! We don’t find Jesus interpreting scripture like that.
When you come right down to it, those who claim to believe in the Bible, but interpret the Bible in such ways, do not believe in the inspiration of the Bible either. We cannot expect those who do not believe that the Bible is the word of God to believe it is inspired. Neither can we expect those who believe that the Bible is just the words of men to believe that it is inspired. However, the apostle Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The writers of scripture were inspired of God by the Holy Spirit. The revelation of God that they were to write was given to them by the Holy Spirit in the words they were to write, choosing from the vocabularies of the writers the words best to use.
We see the apostle Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things [the things given to us by God] we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but [in words] which the Holy Spirit teaches” (NIV, McCord). The things they wrote did not come from their own thoughts. Neither did they write their “opinions.”
It is but the opinion of men that the writers of the Bible wrote their own opinions. Your opinion is as good as mine, but I don’t offer you my opinions. I offer you what the scriptures say and tell you where it is said. Read it for yourself and accept it because the scriptures say it, not because I say it.
We can’t expect Atheists, skeptics, those who don’t believe the Bible is the word of God, those who believe in theistic evolution, and those who do not believe in its inspiration to agree about the Bible, but those who claim to believe that the Bible is God’s inspired word can agree on what the Bible says.
There would be a much better chance of doing that if more people knew what the Bible says. But instead, most take what someone else says about the Bible instead of trying to see for themselves. And it seems that many are more comfortable upholding things the Bible does not say to do than in upholding what the Bible says to do. They want to continue doing things the Bible does not say to do, because that’s what they want to do, rather than doing just what the Bible says and doing that.
IS IT RIGHT? Is it right to teach and practice all these different things or is it right to just teach what the Bible says without changing what is said?
IS IT RIGHT? Is it right to preach the gospel just as it is written, without addition or subtraction? Yes. Is it all right to add to or subtract from what God has said? No, read Deuteronomy 4:2. Is it all right to change what God has said and teach and practice something else? No. Read Galatians 1:8, 9.
Common sense shouts NO! Only the Bible is treated in such a fashion. Only in the interpretation of the Bible with this type of thinkers is it acceptable to allow things to contradict. Any secular schoolteacher would be fired in doing so. But not so the teachers in many religious schools. Does this make any sense? And so truth is argued and “reasoned” against and divisions continue. All who claim to be Christians are not, just as Jesus said it would be. ~ A.
Happy Holidays to all. End the year seeking Jesus. The Jesus revealed in the New Testament, not the Jesus of modern day Christianity. If we follow our own paths of thought, we wind up finding only one who is not the real Jesus. Don’t be deceived by the wisdom of the world or the many who have substituted their wisdom for the wisdom of God and follow the traditions of men instead of God’s revelation. God’s revelation to us in the Bible is the only place you will find the real Jesus. If what you hear or read is not what God’s word says, it is but a perverted gospel.
It is our aim to advance the cause of pre-denominational Christianity, just as established by the apostles under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Denominational Churches are the result of men adding to, taking from, changing or contradicting what God said in His word. Any who point out to the Monticello Church of Christ that we have done anything like that are our best friends. We are not perfect, but we sincerely seek to follow God’s word just as written. There is an alternative to denominationalism. It is doing just as God word teaches and only what it teaches instead of doing things that God’s word does not teach. ~ A
We earnestly seek the interest of all who seek the truth of God’s word and the unity for which Christ prayed. Visit the Monticello Church of Christ, 1866 Hwy. 212 West. 706-468-8499. Visit soon.