What does it mean that God draws us to salvation?

 

Answer from Got Questions . . . . . 

The clearest verse on God’s drawing to salvation is John 6:44 where Jesus declares that “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Greek word translated “draw” is helkuo, which means “to drag” (literally or figuratively). Clearly, this drawing is a one-sided affair. God does the drawing to salvation; we who are drawn have a passive role in the process. There is no doubt that we respond to His drawing us, but the drawing itself is all on His part.

Helkuo is used in John 21:6 to refer to a heavy net full of fish being dragged to the shore. In John 18:10 we see Peter drawing his sword, and in Acts 16:19 helkuo is used to describe Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace before the rulers. Clearly, the net had no part in its being drawn to the shore, Peter’s sword had no part in being drawn, and Paul and Silas did not drag themselves to the marketplace. The same can be said of God’s drawing of some to salvation. Some come willingly, and some are dragged unwillingly, but all eventually come, although we have no part in the drawing.

Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come. Jesus explains that no man can come unless the Father draws him (John 6:65). The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is hard and his mind is darkened, the unregenerate person doesn’t desire God and is actually an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). When Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing him, He is making a statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that condition. So darkened is the unsaved person’s heart that he doesn’t even realize it: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved. In the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind (Ephesians 1:18), inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is involved in the drawing process.

There is a sense in which God draws all men. This is known as the “general call” and is distinguished from the “effectual call” of God’s elect. Passages such as Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 attest to the fact that God’s eternal power and divine nature are “clearly seen” and “understood” from what has been made, “so that people are without excuse.” But men still do deny God, and those who acknowledge His existence still do not come to a saving knowledge of Him outside of His drawing them. Only those who have been drawn through special revelation—by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God—will come to Christ.

There are tangible ways in which those who are being drawn to salvation experience that drawing. First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinful state and our need for a Savior (John 16:8). Second, He awakens in us a previously unknown interest in spiritual things and creates a desire for them that was never there before. Suddenly our ears are open, our hearts are inclined toward Him, and His Word begins to hold a new and exciting fascination for us. Our spirits begin to discern spiritual truth that never made sense to us before: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Finally, we begin to have new desires. He places within us a new heart that inclines toward Him, a heart that desires to know Him, obey Him, and walk in the “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that He has promised.

Jesus Is Not A Rebel

 

So many people (mainly Christians) want to say Jesus was a rebel. No, he was not a rebel - he was holy, he was perfect, he was and is our plumb line. WE ARE THE REBELS. We have rebelled against God and to say God is rebellious is ridiculous. Jesus didn't come to earth to rebel against the government or religion. He came to show us how to live and that the only way to have a relationship with God, the Father was through Christ, the Son. How can God rebel? Who is he rebelling against? It doesn't even make sense.

If someone commits a crime (or a sin) then they are being rebellious. Jesus never committed a crime nor a sin so how can anyone call him a rebel? He came here to show us how it was supposed to be – the correct way we are to live – and then give us the ability to run the race toward that goal. Those who chose to ignore Jesus are rebelling against the God who created everything. Should God rebel against Himself? Ludicrous!

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) If you want to stop rebelling against the holy God of the universe, accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today. Repent(turn away from your sins) and turn toward the Holy One, Jesus.

CHRISTIANITY IS NOT ABOUT FEELING COMFORTABLE

 

by Bill Muehlenberg

PostedJun 11, 20How many times have you met professing believers who tell you they are “comfortable” – or “not comfortable” – with something related to scriptural truth or biblical morality? They seem to have decided that truth and error, right and wrong, are to be decided solely on the basis of how they feel – if they are “comfortable” about it or not.This is what passes for Christianity today in far too much of the West. The Christian life is now all about feelings – about emoting. If something does not pass your emote-o-meter, you reject it. And if it passes, you embrace it. This is the tragedy of contemporary Christianity.How many times have you met professing believers who tell you they are “comfortable” – or “not comfortable” – with something related to scriptural truth or biblical morality? They seem to have decided that truth and error, right and wrong, are to be decided solely on the basis of how they feel – if they are “comfortable” about it or not.

How many times have you met professing believers who tell you they are “comfortable” – or “not comfortable” – with something related to scriptural truth or biblical morality? They seem to have decided that truth and error, right and wrong, are to be decided solely on the basis of how they feel – if they are “comfortable” about it or not.

This is what passes for Christianity today in far too much of the West. The Christian life is now all about feelings – about emoting. If something does not pass your emote-o-meter, you reject it. And if it passes, you embrace it. This is the tragedy of contemporary Christianity.

I encounter this all the time, and it grieves me greatly. Imagine how much more it grieves Almighty God. He designed us to walk in truth, to believe truth, to celebrate truth, to align ourselves with truth, and to speak truth. Yet most of us couldn’t give a rip about truth, and only worry about if we are “comfortable” with something.

Never mind the words of John when he said, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4). If John were alive today he would have to write, “I have no greater grief than to hear that my children are walking in their emotions.”

Since when are we to base our lives as believers on how we feel about something? Since when is something to be accepted or rejected based on how “comfortable” we are about it? This has absolutely nothing to do with biblical Christianity. It is always better to be hurt with the truth than to be comforted with a lie.

Yet so many Christians today do not operate this way. They are running on an emotional autopilot. Whatever gives them happy feelings they run with, and whatever gives them icky feelings they eschew. No wonder the church is in such a mess today.

And we find examples of this all around us. For example, on many occasions Christians have spoken with me about the biblical doctrine of hell. They ask me what my feelings are about it. I first remind them that my feelings have absolutely nothing to do with the matter.

What does matter is what God has spoken about this issue. And given that he has spoken much about this throughout the Bible, we all better stand up and take notice. And even more importantly, given that Jesus spoke more about the realities and terrors of hell than anyone else in the entire Bible, then we really better take heed to this.

Here we have all these Christians who claim to be followers of Christ, yet on one of the themes he spoke about the most often, these Christians have decided that they will not agree with Jesus, simply because they are not comfortable with the teaching.

Their emote-o-meter is running off the charts, and therefore they have effectively decided to put their own feelings ahead of the clear teachings of Jesus. They sin doubly here: they trust in their own fallible feelings instead of the infallible Word of God, and they shake their fists at Jesus Christ, the one they claim to be a disciple of.

Yet they still somehow think they are great Christians! Go figure. I guess they are “comfortable” with that. It gives them a warm, spongy feeling inside, so it must be right. How can their feelings lead them astray? How can their emotions ever be wrong?

And it is not just clearly defined doctrinal issues they assess with their mere feelings. Matters of biblical morality are also decided in this fashion. What is right and wrong is determined entirely by how they feel about things at a given moment. The homosexual issue is a clear case in point.

Forget all the explicit teachings in Scripture about human sexuality in general, and the sin of homosexuality in particular. They have decided – based only on how they feel about all this – that sodomy is peachy, gender is fluid, marriage and family can be anything you want, and sexual sin really does not exist.

All that based simply on one’s emotions. I have chatted with so many of these people. They are “comfortable” with homosexuals and homosexuality. They have no problem with these things because of their lousy emote-o-meter. Instead of testing everything by the inerrant Word of God, they simply feel their way through life.

And these same folks have told me how “comfortable” they feel about having moved on from the faith of their fathers. They actually celebrate the fact that they no longer believe what their Christian parents believed. They have moved on. They are “progressive”. They are going with the times. In other words, they are running on emotions.

It is always easier to run with your deceptive and fleeting feelings than with the unchanging, solid rock of the Bible. These Christians have simply forgotten about – or more likely, completely ignored – warnings such as found in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

The deceitful and misleading emotions have now become the defining means by which most believers today live their lives and establish their convictions. Truth means nothing to them, but feelings everything. They are so far bound by their fleshly emotions that they in fact end up suppressing the truth in unrighteousness as Paul warns about in Romans 1.

They become excellent evangelists – for secular humanism. Thus they have become enemies of the gospel. Instead of helping people and aiding them to be set free by the truth, they keep people imprisoned in their sin. But hey, at least they are “comfortable” with all that!

By running with emotions, they have rejected the living God as revealed in Scripture, and invented a god in their own likeness. This is a god who accepts everyone, loves everything, hates nothing, and is stirred by nothing. This is the polar opposite of the God we read about everywhere in Scripture. As I just read the other day in Psalm 5:4-6:

For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
with you, evil people are not welcome.
The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
you, Lord, detest.

This God – the one true God – would not make these progressive Christians feel very “comfortable”. Indeed, such a description of God would trouble them greatly. Their emote-o-meter would crash and burn over such truths. They would reject such a God immediately because he does not line up with their worldly feelings.

So truth is spat upon. This means that the God of truth is spat upon as well. Emotions trump everything. ‘Sorry God, but you need to get with the times. Don’t you know that God is only about love? A love that accepts everything and everyone and never is disturbed about anything?’

That of course is not real love. Nor is it real Christianity. One’s comfort levels have nothing to do with real Christianity. As Doug Groothuis once said: “Since the truth may not be what we would prefer. It is revealing that so many people today express approval by saying, ‘I’m comfortable with that,’ and disapproval by saying, ‘I’m not comfortable with that.’ Comfort is important when it comes to furniture and headphones, but it is irrelevant when it comes to truth.”

Quite so. Or as Adrian Rogers put it: “It is better to be divided by Truth, than to be united in error. It is better to speak the Truth that hurts and then heals, than to speak a lie that will comfort and then kill. It is better to be hated for telling the Truth, than to be loved for telling a lie. It is better to stand alone with the Truth, than to be wrong with a multitude. Better to ultimately die with the Truth, than to live with a lie.”

Comfortable Christianity is really a contradiction in terms. There is nothing comfortable about carrying your cross, denying yourself, crucifying the flesh, and running against the ways of the world. The truth of the gospel is always uncomfortable. The sooner we learn that lesson, the better.

As C.S. Lewis rightly said: “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”

Or as he said elsewhere: “I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

Avoid the Victim Mentality

 By Elizabeth Prata

Do you have a victim mentality? Photo by Alice Alinari on Unsplash

I was saved as a 40-something adult, never having attended church or had been involved in religion or ‘churchy’ things. I spent 18 months following Joel Osteen then rejected him when I actually got a Bible and began comparing his teachings to it. I moved to Georgia and began listening to Woodrow Kroll in “Back to the Bible”, Adrian Rogers, then John MacArthur. Solid men. I was grateful for this time of firming up my faith before I started attending church, because when I got there…

The first ‘Bible study’ I was exposed to in church was “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. I was told “It will completely change me…” “Powerful…” and all the hype. Nope. Here is a good review of that ‘study’ from Critical Issues Commentary. Blackaby was the one who in modern times of the Southern Baptist Convention church (SBC) set the course toward mysticism and contemplative prayer. I praised the Lord he had given me time & space to develop discernment before I was thrust into the soup of rotten Bible studies.

The second one was a Kay Arthur inductive study which at the time (2007-2008) was good. But the next one I was exposed to, heavily and pressingly, almost forced, was Beth Moore. I was attending a SBC church and at the time (2010-onward) Moore was reaching Everest heights of popularity. There was no escaping her studies, books, simulcasts, retreats, and conversations about the latest thing she said or did or taught. She was everywhere. Like Blackaby, Moore’s studies focused on self.

I was surprised and dismayed by the constant emphasis on self by Moore and Blackaby, and other studies I saw people doing or did myself. I’d spent 42 years before salvation studying myself and I was thoroughly sick of myself. I wanted to know about Jesus.

Along with the emphasis on self, as time went on, these studies inevitably drew a focus on our injured self. Sin was described as ‘messiness’, not sin. We know messes can be cleaned up by ourselves. Maybe that was why the term caught on. Sin needs repenting to God for, but if I’m a mess, or my life is a mess, or I’m in a mess, just clean it up, no Jesus needed.

And further away from the Godly terms of sin and repentance, we went not only in studies but also in conversation, from messiness to victim. My life is a mess because I’m a victim, not a sinner. It’s all someone else’s problem, not my fault! You see how the drift away from Biblical standards of behavior, from commonly understood terms, and from His commands to stay close to the word have gone from ‘mortifying sin’, to ‘my life’s a mess because I’m a victim.’

Here is one example of the victimhood mentality from recent days. Lysa TerKeurst wrote-

@LysaTerKeurst: “Your heart is much too beautiful of a place for bitterness. They made choices that hurt you. And chances are, those choices are an indication of their brokenness, not yours. Remember, it should be God’s words, not their words, that reveal the truth of who we are.”

The heart is not beautiful. Mark 7:21-23 says

or from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Meg Basham commented on TerKeurst’s tweet, saying: “The heart is deceitful above all things, & desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart'” Jer. 17:9-10 Bitterness is bad, but so is soft-focus spiritualism that teaches women to see themselves only as victims, only as sinned-against rather than sinners.

I don’t know TerKeurst’s work well at all, but quick perusal of recent posts showed many in same vein—women’s great struggle is dealing with pain others are inflicting ON them. Hence my comment. Only one post in 2022 about dealing with your own sin. Only one the year before…

thinking further, if you’re gonna weight these things for general audience, how much should focus be on teaching how to deal with sins in our own lives vs how to react to other people’s sins hurting us? Because for Christian women’s books, breakdown seems 75% their sin, 25% mine. –end @MegBasham

So these days, a commonly understood state of woman, even after conversion, is not having to constantly deal with our own sin, but rather its watered down definition-change to messiness. This diminishes sin’s potency. Then the word changed to victimhood, meaning other people are the problem, not us. Then enter the latest iteration- misogyny, defined as dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. The mentality now is we are the way we are due to everyone else’s hatred of us.

If you listen to these modern women who craft Bible studies, you soon get the idea that all men hate all women and all institutions are prejudiced against the female sex. That, it’s everywhere. And every time you encounter something distasteful against you, just call it “misogyny” and it’s the reason you’ve been hard put by- rather than probably your OWN sin nature as the root cause of your current issue.

It never occurs to these women Bible teachers who teach soft victimhood, that everyone is hard put by at some point in our lives. Everyone has something happen to them that is distasteful or worse, a crime. Everyone has something they can claim victim status about. Sadly these days, many women do claim it, whether it’s real, exaggerated, or sadly, just made-up.

That is because everyone is a sinner. Sometimes what happens to us is our own sin being reaped against ourselves. If you’re disobedient at work, or fail to produce, or a rule-breaker, you’ll be fired. That’s not misogyny, that’s the natural consequence of your own sin. Other times it’s pure injustice for no reason. A drunk driver rammed your car and someone died. It’s an injustice but nothing to do with anything you did or chose or said. That’s the world- it’s evil. It’s under the temporary dominion of the evil one. (2 Corinthians 4:4).

But if you have a victim mentality, you will see your entire life through a perspective that things constantly happen ‘to’ you. Victimisation is thus a combination of seeing most things in life as negative, beyond your control, and as something you should be given sympathy for experiencing as you ‘deserve’ better. At its heart, a victim mentality is actually a way to avoid taking any responsibility for yourself or your life. By believing you have no power then you don’t have to take action. 

Source

If you believe you’re a victim, then you think you don’t have to take action. If don’t have to take action, you don’t have take Godly actions like resisting temptation, repenting, pursuing holiness, and the like.

No, resist the victim mentality and avoid ministries that focus on the ‘something bad’ that happened to you. You’re not a victim. You are a trophy of grace, a person made in the image of God who has been given the gift of mercy because you’re saved from His wrath against your sin.

We are all sinners. We all have a past, we all do wrong things, and we’re all totally depraved. Once we are born again, all those sins are forgiven AND they are forgotten by Jesus.

A Bible study is not an extended therapy session about yourself, your wounds, the ‘toxic relationships’ holding you back. It is an opportunity to learn more about the triumph of Jesus on the cross and His ongoing gracious ministry to His people.

On The Chosen: Jesus Is Not the Law of Moses. He is Far Better.

 by Grayson Gilbert  

Recently, The Chosen posted an image of the actor who plays Christ with a line from season 3 that is supposedly a “mic drop” moment for the show’s producers. It shows the character responding to one of the Pharisees by saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” While many flocked to the post in support of the “mic drop,” many others expressed how flatly unbiblical this is. They rightly said that Jesus is not the Law, but that the Law instead reveals the righteous standard of our thrice holy Lord. Likewise, they were right to say that Jesus came to fulfill the Law in His perfect, active obedience to it all His earthly life.

Contrary to the expression of infamous pastors like Steven Furtick, the active obedience of Christ means that He in no way “violated the Law” out of love. More importantly, the active obedience of Christ is a vicarious obedience. We think of the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, meaning that He died in our place as our Substitute, and paid the wrath that we deserved. In the vicarious obedience of Christ, Jesus lived in perfect obedience, likewise, on our behalf. He fulfilled what we could not do: Jesus obeyed the Law, and due to His active obedience, and His passive obedience on the cross, we actually gain the benefit of being counted righteous before God. This is the doctrine of imputed righteousness, which is an alien righteousness—a righteousness not of our own, but Christ’s. This is important, so hang with me.

As we come back to the “mic drop” moment of season 3 in The Chosen, this becomes all the more nefarious. In fact, nowhere in Scripture does Jesus say to anyone, “I am the Law of Moses.” In the book of Mormon, however, you will find such a statement in 3 Nephi 15:9, “Behold, I am the Law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.” That alone should give people enough pause on the show, owing to the fact that Mormonism is a false religion that teaches a contrary gospel to the gospel of our Lord. In short, Mormon doctrine holds that it is your active obedience that will please God in the end, and earn your salvation.

2 Nephi 25:23 states, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (emphasis mine). Often this verse from 2 Nephi is used in conjunction with Moroni 10:32 to give clearer meaning, which says, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (emphasis mine). It is quite important to notice the all-important temporal modifiers to these Mormon scriptures, because they explicitly teach that grace is a commodity earned only after one has exhausted their own spiritual muster.

The LDS Bible Dictionary puts it like this:

“This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, ‘It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Ne. 25:23)” (p. 697).

But what does the Bible say of all of this? It is bupkis. Rubbish. Ultimately, it is damnable doctrine. Romans 3:10-20 lays out the plight of mankind so incredibly clearly that it leaves anyone without a source of comfort in their own ability to earn grace. Likewise, Ephesians 2:1-10 displays not only the hopelessness of those born under the dominating power of sin—but it lifts up the reality that we are saved “by grace through faith…and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The good works which we walk in were prepared beforehand for us by the Father (Eph. 2:10), meaning that even our good works are a production of this grace in us. In other words: even our active obedience to Christ is a display of the riches of God’s grace. They are not what produces salvation, but a production of salvation.

The lynchpin of my argument today though is not the tie The Chosen has to Mormonism, which is without dispute at this point. That should be enough—but for many, it is not. What I want to do then is simply take this “mic drop” moment from The Chosen and show just how flatly unbiblical, and truly sad it actually is. The reason for this is quite simple: Not only does Scripture simply never say in any one of the great “I AM” passages that Jesus Christ is the Law of Moses, Jesus is far better than the Law. Here’s why.

The apostle Paul begins in Romans 7 by describing the plight of mankind before the Law of God because of the dominating power of sin. The problem is not the Law. The Law, as Paul says, is “holy, righteous, and good” (Rom. 7:12). The problem is us. The Law is spiritual, but we are not; we are sold as slaves to sin, bound under obedience to the Law, but unable to keep the Law in perfection as it demands—and the result is that the Law produces death in us. Ultimately, we are caught up between the power of sin and death—we are bound by the flesh, and it is so bad that Paul tells us four results of being bound by the flesh, according to Romans 8:5-8:

The mind set on the flesh is death.


The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.


The mind set on the flesh does not subject itself to the Law of God because it is not even able to do so.


Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is the fundamental problem of the Law. As holy, righteous, and good as it is, it cannot free man from this body of death we bear under the weight and power of sin. The Law was never designed to do this. Even if one takes into account the threefold use of the Law—all should recognize that the Law was never designed to be a means by which sinners are freed from the power of sin and death—but Jesus is powerful enough to deliver us from sin and death. This is why is it so heinous that The Chosen depicts Jesus Christ saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” It equates Christ with the Law, rather than with Him being the second person of the Trinity, who is far greater than the Law.

The Law could not set you and I free from sin and death—but Jesus did. The Law was powerless to free one from the condemnation they deserve—but Jesus is not. This is why so many find comfort in Paul’s argument in Romans 8:1-4:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

What rendered death in us before and bound us all under the power of sin—is no longer binding us. We’ve been freed, not only from the power of sin and death, but from the judgment to come, and this is particularly why the gospel is such good news. The hopelessness of being bound by the flesh in death, hostility toward God, our inability to subject ourselves to God’s Law, and our utter inability to please God, has been replaced by a renewed hope under the law of the Spirit. The Spirit dwells within us (Rom. 8:9), gives us life (Rom. 8:10-11), enables us to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:12-13), allows us to be called “Sons of God” (Rom. 8:14-15), and testifies that we are His children (Rom. 8:16) and heirs to the promises of God (Rom. 8:17). The Law does none of these things.

Perhaps greatest of all though is that the Law was powerless to cleanse us from the stain of sin, but Christ’s sacrifice was not. Hebrews 10 speaks of this wonderful reality, showing that the Law was merely a shadow of the glorious things to come through Christ. It could never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to God in worship (Heb. 10:2). But Jesus can. Instead of a continual reminder of the power of sin and death, we have a perfect sacrifice found in Jesus Christ, who satisfied the wrath of God and rendered us pure and blameless before the Father. In other words, we are truly counted righteous.

And this is where the vicarious obedience of Christ comes full circle—because it is only through the active obedience of Jesus Christ that we have come to be counted righteous (Rom. 5:19). It is only because the Son lived in perfect obedience to the Law that He could offer up His life in our place, and truly satisfy the wrath of God. To tie that all together: Christ proved that He was not only greater than the Law by this, but showed He was greater than the power of sin and death. Sin might take advantage of the commandment and produce death in us (Rom. 7:8), but it could not in Christ.

Did the producers of The Chosen intend to knock against all of this? Perhaps not. It is difficult to say, simply owing to how steeped in Mormon doctrine the show is—but I am inclined to not give them the benefit of the doubt as so many wish to do. This is their “gotcha” moment. This is their proverbial “mic drop.” But this isn’t quite the mic drop they believe it to be. Rather than showing people a genuinely biblical portrayal of Christ and His power over sin and death, they display an impotent Jesus, who is powerless to actually save people from their sins. Instead, they show a Jesus who is mastered by the dominating power of sin. That’s what truly gets communicated in one little line, because that’s what the Scriptures say about the Law. When you equate Jesus with the Law of Moses, that’s what you get.

Unfortunately, many don’t see this, but have fawned over the mic drop and been reduced to tears. They have, in other words, been profoundly impacted by the show—but in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons. The sad reality is that until professing Christians start to pick up their Bibles and critically examine shows like these, those of us who do so will continue to be labeled curmudgeons, and “fun-ripper-outers.” In part, I’ll take that because I am sardonically asking along with Maximus Decimus Meridus to the blood-thirsty crowd who watched him dispatch of another in the gladiatorial arena, “Are you not entertained?” Things should not be this way, but they are.

What the show relies on is an ignorance of what the Scriptures actually teach, which is to say precisely why it is so popular. It offers much of the same style of Christianity pervading the Evangelical world currently, where the inch-deep, mile-wide preaching of the Word, the “At the Movies” canned sermon series, and the vapid emotionalism brought on by manipulative “worship” music laden with sentimental musical prompts, are commonplace. Indeed, it brings people to see Jesus—just not the biblical Jesus; but it is highly entertaining, is it not? The problem is that we keep asking the wrong question. The question isn’t if it is entertaining, but why so many are entertained at the expense of biblical truth.

Be Careful What You Consume

                                   from the blog Breaking The Chains Biblical Recovery Ministry . . . . . . .


June 4, 2020 | BtCBRM | Make A Comment | Red Flags and Warning Signs

The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps. (Proverbs 14:15)

Every Spring we have problems with ants and once our peonies bloom, they become more of a problem. A few days ago I noticed several very small ants in our kitchen behind our faucet, scouting for food. I went to the cabinet and pulled out an ant bait. I laid it on the area behind the faucet and dripped some onto that counter and continued with my work. Periodically I’d come back and see that they were checking it out and eating some of it. By the next morning, I saw a few ants laying around the area like they were in a coma while the others must have gone back to the nest. I left both the ant bait and the ants alone and continued on with my day. At night I poured a little more out as there were now more ants coming around it and then I went to bed. By yesterday morning there was an army of little ants all over the poison. I even watched some walk around the ones that were now dead and laying there. As I watched the ants eat the poison, and knowing that I had a few plates sitting right beside the sink that had some crumbs of good food left on them, I thought “they are distracted from finding the good food and are eating the bait without even realizing they are being poisoned”. If the ants would have scouted a bit further, they would have found the proper nourishment that could have kept them alive, but they ate the sweet poison instead. The ants were drawn to the bait because it appealed to them through their senses. It’s sweet and easier to consume and bring back to the nest and share it with the other ants. This bait is very effective and the ants will leave a trail of the bait for other ants in the colony to follow to the new food supply. In the meantime, the main poisonous ingredient is messing with their digestive system and slowly killing them. Due to its delayed effect, it gives the ants enough time to bring the poison back to their home, their colony, and share it with the other ants. Even when some of the ants die, their bodies will still emit the poison, further causing the living ants to be poisoned and eventually die. Instead of the ant having control over my house, the bait I used allowed me to have control over the ant colony without even going outside to look for it. I simply had to use something that appealed to their senses and they did the rest by sharing it with the other ants. At this point, I probably sound like an evil person, but I’m not. I just don’t want ants overtaking my house.

The ant really is a remarkable creature. They are hard workers, planning and preparing for the future. They store or invest what they have gathered through the summer to supply them for the winter (lean months). They work together to accomplish the mission. However, the one flaw they seemed to have (which I’m sure there are others) is that they couldn’t detect the poison in the ant bait. The liquid looked good, smelled good and tasted good to them, therefore appealing to what they like through their senses, but it was poisonous. Because they thought it was good food, they shared it with other ants in their colony, therefore poisoning the rest of the ants. They simply could not detect the difference between good food and poisonous food that was being given to them and by not knowing the difference, it cost them their lives and the lives inside their colony.

If this can happen to ants, how much more can it happen to us? Are you able to detect when you are being “fed” something good or something poisonous both spiritually and in your day to day life? Can you tell the difference? Can you tell if you are being baited by a person, a situation or the enemy? Proverbs 14:15 states:

The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps.

Proverbs 22:3 states:

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

The word, simple, means one who is naïve or lacks wisdom. A prudent person is one who is wise, careful and cautious. We are called to be wise, careful and discerning. Where do we find wisdom and discernment? From God!

James 1:5-6:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

When we ask God for wisdom and discernment, this will eliminate the chance of following our thoughts and flesh or a direction others wish for us to go into that could harm us or those around us. We must be careful not to consume anything that may be false which can lead us in a wrong direction and possibly take others with us. This can happen through false teachings, media, gossip, opinions, etc. We must investigate what we are being fed and compare it to the Word of God. Is it godly? Is it considered gossip? Does it promote good change or destruction? Is it safe or dangerous? It’s imperative that we bring what we hear or see before the Lord and seek His wisdom and discernment on it when we are unsure. We must seek Him for guidance and truth.

Psalm 32:8:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

We must realize that the enemy will take every opportunity to draw us away from God and jeopardize our walk with Him. In 1 Peter 5:8 we are warned of this and to be alert for it:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

He will try to entice us, or bait us, through our senses by what we see and/or hear. He knows how to manipulate through utilizing our environment because he knows what buttons to push in us that will cause us to react. In other words, he knows how to get to our flesh. He can do this utilizing our surroundings, our weaknesses, people, and what we like or dislike. He can utilize other people or situations to tempt us away from doing what is right which can eventually cause us to justify our incorrect thoughts or actions.

We must walk with two feet in the spirit, not one foot in the spirit and one foot in the world. By doing the latter, it will be difficult for us to know truth from lie because we are ingesting worldly views, causing us to be double minded, which will slowly kill us.

Galatians 5:24-26:

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Take a moment to think about what you are feeding upon and consuming. Is it Godly or is it worldly? How is it affecting you? Does it cause you anger and misery or joy and peace? Will it produce a good outcome or harm to yourself or others? Does it fall in line with the Word of God or the world?

Whatever your concerns are, take it to the Lord and ask for His wisdom, guidance and truth on the matter. Then be patient and wait for His answer. You won’t be disappointed.

Just What Is a Remnant Believer?

 

by Jan Markell  June 8, 2021

 

You have heard of the word "remnant." Some people are called "remnant believers." There are "remnant churches." Perhaps you know of some or attend one. I often say that I do "radio for the remnant."   The most frequent e-mail I get is from people who make up the “remnant”. But what is that? I write about this often and even do radio about it as I’m trying to understand the phenomenon. Here are a couple of e-mails.   "Jan, I feel the remnant is getting smaller every day as the time approaches for the Lord's return. The world seems to be getting darker and more evil. I know I am not alone as a member of the Body of Christ but at times it is easy to feel isolated. No one gets it and no one wants to."   “If I did not have access to you and a few others online, I would be so isolated! I try to talk to people about issues that are important, including end-times, and they look at me like I am an alien. A few of you help me celebrate my alien status. I feel like a lonely gold fish in a bowl. Prophecy is coming true right before our eyes. You and a few others are making a huge difference with all of us aliens in the world.”   Based on a lot of interactions, including people at my annual conference, I have concluded this about "the remnant."   ·     It is made up of people longing for a solid church and a pulpit that will address issues of the day as well as the nearness of the Lord's return. The remnant wants a church that will not fear offending with the truth and that will confront apostasy.   ·     Remnant believers have offended friends and family simply by telling them the truth of our times or for sharing information that is relevant to our times. This will often bring on mocking and scoffing. At the least, it results in irritated indifference. This doesn't daunt a remnant believer and such a tragic response doesn't keep them quiet!   ·     Enthusiastic remnant believers will travel across town or across the country to attend events that present information about which the church is silent.   ·     Remnant believers often feel isolated and misunderstood even though they have the truth and the naysayers are clueless! This is what is so frustrating. Remnant believers want everyone to be tuned in and informed. They just want to spread around a wealth of information about which few are interested!   ·     Members of the remnant church see our times darkening but remain enthusiastic that this is but a herald of His coming -- not signs of doom and gloom. Yet they will be told they are spreading bad news.   ·     When a remnant believer finds someone who is a kindred spirit, it is like discovering a gold mine!   ·     Such believers often had a very solid church but in many cases, it went haywire. A little leaven came in and ruined the whole loaf. They then begin a long journey of searching for a new church which can take years.   ·     Very often these believers approached their church leadership to talk to them about these things but they are most often shut out or even considered to be troublemakers.   ·     Understand that the end-time church is racing towards Laodicea and is more interested in conforming than transforming. Many churches and leaders will focus on “your best life now.”   ·     The Bible suggests an end-time church will be small. In Luke 18:8, Jesus asks if He will find any of faith when He returns. Many will have fallen by the wayside.   People who make quilts use a wide variety of mismatched remnants. Such professionals discard sections of fabric from garments that were no longer usable but they were then sewn into an unbelievably elegant quilt! The tossed aside remnant became an object of creativity and beauty!   If you are a remnant believer, take heart and remember that you, too, are a creative and colorful quilt. Eternity may reveal that you broke through to more people than you thought. And remember that such mocking and scoffing are fulfilling end-time prophecies as well. Hang on and don't grow weary in your well doing!   Bouncing from church to church is likely not the best idea. But sitting multiple times a week under bad theology, music with spiritually unhealthy lyrics, or leadership that is just dysfunctional, is also not an option. Cutting yourself off from fellowship is no better.   Our assignment is to be "watchmen" (Ezekiel 33). We're to be sounding an alarm. Trouble is ahead. The nations of the world seem moved, as though by a hidden hand, into exactly the right positions on a global chess board. Amazing things are happening before our eyes. How can we be silent?   So, remnant believers, let's not be silent. Go tell it on the mountains. The King is coming, perhaps today!

Who Do You Stand With?

When there is something I want to say and I discover someone else has already said it and has said it with clarity and conviction, why do I need to reiterate?  Here is a perfect example.................

Three Types of Churches Will Appear in the Last Days

Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
— Revelation 2:16

Today the Church is facing a crisis of morals. More and more, society has no stomach for spiritual or moral absolutes. Pastors and spiritual leaders who decide to “take a stand” and preach the Gospel in its pure, unadulterated form are derided as irrelevant and intolerant hate-mongers.

The public reaction to biblical truth is often so adverse that many pastors are hesitant to take strong positions on issues of morality, even though these truths are clearly stated in the Word of God. Rather than answer difficult moral questions, they are tempted to dodge the questions and skirt around the issues in an attempt to avoid conflict.

This same issue plagued the Early Church nearly 2,000 years ago. Toward the close of the First Century AD, there was a group of spiritual leaders who intentionally “watered down” the message of the Gospel to make it less demanding and more accommodating to other points of view. Because the culture couldn’t stomach the idea of a strict exclusionary faith that claimed to be above all others, this group of spiritual leaders attempted to entice Christians to make their faith more inclusive of everyone else’s beliefs.

The problem grew so rampant at the close of the First Century AD that Christ issued a strong rebuke to the people who were spreading this toxic doctrine when He supernaturally appeared to the apostle John. Addressing these erring spiritual leaders, Jesus sternly warned, “Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16).

The word “fight” is in this verse is the Greek word polemos, a well-known Greek word that describes a full-scale battle that is fought until victory is achieved. This emphatically means that Christ is not willing to surrender His Church to anyone, and He will fight for His Church until it is solidly back in His hands. He refused to stand idly by and let these individuals   His Church. If errant spiritual leaders did not repent of their active or passive tolerance of this false teaching, Christ would rise up against them with His mighty sword.

Christ’s warning to the Early Church applies to the Church in all ages, and it is clear to see why His words are especially relevant to believers today. Although there are many God-fearing pastors, preachers, and spiritual leaders in the modern Christian community, a host of spiritual leaders are replicating the grave errors made by errant leaders in the First Century. In pulpits and congregations around the world, truth is being watered down and altered to reflect the inclusive values of a changing culture. In many congregations, pure, sound doctrine has been completely replaced by soft, “feel-good” messages, and the majority of people in the pews are ignorant of even the most elementary tenets of the faith.

Despite their ability to communicate masterfully, many modern-day ministers lack a basic education in fundamental Bible principles or have simply chosen to avoid teaching sound doctrine in favor of more popular motivational messages. To be direct, it appears that some have been duped into taking a politically correct position on many biblical truths instead of declaring truth — because the truth would put them on a collision course with the society that surrounds them.

This drift away from the Bible has created a doctrinal vacuum in the Church — a void currently being filled with dynamic business ideas, financial advice, and motivational messages instead of the Word of God that the Holy Spirit is bound to honor with signs and wonders. It is certainly true that some of the motivational messages delivered from the pulpit are beneficial in people’s lives, but this help is temporary and can often be found in a book by some psychological guru. When everything is said and done, only the Bible has the power to permanently transform.

Unfortunately, what we currently see and feel is only the beginning of the rift that is developing within the Church world. Unless a major revival occurs, this rift will only grow deeper and wider. If repentance doesn’t melt the hearts of people throughout the Church world, it will eventually seem like there are three churches:

• *A Church that holds fast to the truth and faces the brunt of opposition because it refuses to bend.
• *A Church in the middle trying to “ride the fence” through accommodation in order to avoid persecution and societal rejection (see Revelation 2:12-17).
• *A lukewarm, “Laodicean-like” Church (see Revelation 3:14-22) that has allowed compromise to run its full course, stripping it completely of the power of God and leaving Jesus standing on the outside.

It is not too late for the Body of Christ to make a recovery. In fact, it is never too late as long as there are believers who are willing to hear and hearken to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church. However, in order for the Church to receive the divine power it needs for correction, change, and restoration, it must undergo a transformation from the highest to its lowest levels.

The Bible makes it clear that if spiritual leaders refuse to take a stand for truth in these turbulent times, Christ will fight against them with His mighty sword. This is a battle that they cannot win. Absolutely no one may mitigate the truth of the Gospel — even for the purpose of purchasing peace with the world around them. The only true recourse is to surrender to the Holy Spirit and do what is right, even if it is wrong in the eyes of the world.

Early believers endured bullying, ridicule, imprisonment, and were even put to death because they refused to conform to the world that surrounded them on all sides. Although some believers collapsed under this pressure, many steadfastly resisted this coercion to conform and held fast to their faith. God has always had His remnant — those who will not bow to external pressures. In these last times God will have that remnant once again, and those who refuse to fear or to compromise their faith in Jesus Christ will experience previously unknown levels of the power of God as a result of their commitment to stand by truth.

I realize this is a very different type of Sparkling Gem, but I felt it necessary to write and memorialize what I believe are the greatest struggles facing the modern Church. I encourage you to stay faithful in praying for those believers and spiritual leaders who refuse to succumb to the pressures of the age and stand by absolute, biblical truth, regardless of what the world around them dictates. Why not make a fresh consecration to the Lord today that you will always be counted among that faithful number? Make a quality, immutable decision for your own walk with God: “From this moment forward, there’s no fence left to ride! Compromise in my commitment to Jesus is NOT an option!”

MY PRAYER FOR TODAY

Dear Father, I ask You to help me understand the relevance of this word I’ve read today. I pray that You will strengthen the present leadership of the Body of Christ to stand for the absolute truths of God’s Word even if that stance places them in direct opposition to the world. I ask You to raise up strong leaders in the Christian community who will lead the way and courageously stand for truth, regardless of the price that must be paid. I pray for my pastor and for other spiritual leaders. Father, I ask You to help them hear what the Spirit is saying and grant them boldness to call the Church to a time of holiness and separation, even if it is opposed to the voice of the world around them.

I pray this in Jesus’ name!

MY CONFESSION FOR TODAY

I boldly confess that I will stand by the truth of God’s Word, regardless of what the world around me tries to dictate as morally right or wrong. A day will soon come when we will all stand before Christ’s high court of reckoning and give account for how we upheld truth or how we forfeited it to accommodate the world around us. I have made my decision! Regardless of what the world says or what names it calls me, I am going to stand by the Christian values that have guided the Church for 2,000 years. Truth has not suddenly changed — it is society that has changed. I am determined to stand by biblical truth regardless of the price I must pay.

I declare this by faith in Jesus’ name!

QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER

1. Today’s television programs often depict homosexuality as the norm. Can you think of other examples in modern society where biblical truths are undermined and exchanged with a new code of ethics?
2. As a Christian do you believe you should merely go with the flow of what’s happening, or is it your responsibility to uphold the absolute truth of the Gospel?
3. If it personally costs you to take a strong moral stance that is in line with God’s Word, are you willing to pay that price? How far are you willing to go in your commitment to biblical truth?

OUR VISION… Is to take the Gospel both to our nearby world and to the ends of the earth, proclaiming Christ, and warning and teaching every man with all wisdom, in order that we may present every person fully mature in Christ Jesus. – Colossians 1:28