A Clarion Call – Part 6
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
As a society and even as Christians we’ve relegated the Bible to the back burner at best. Hence we have women and children leading us, setting the standards by which we are to live if we don’t want to be considered a failure. We love pleasure when we should love God. And, yes, pleasure and God are pretty much at odds, when it comes to the reality of daily living.
Ergo, we go into the Christian community and come face to face with folks who are “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. They get this way because they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The truth is to be culled from the Bible. When the Christian community shuns daily Bible reading—and I mean Bible reading, not parts-of-the-Bible reading—how are they to come to a knowledge of the truth? Oh, they can learn all right, learn man’s words and doctrines and soapbox issues. But the truth is not attained anywhere but from the Bible.
Without the truth they build humongous cathedrals, sit in the pews twice and thrice weekly, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be nice to their workmates, and help little old ladies cross the street—but this is no more than “holding to a form of godliness”. Real “godliness” is not a form. It is a heart condition which grows outward fruit, viz., good works. Forms of godliness only show supposed fruit without having the heart condition.
So with Christians shunning the Bible and embracing man’s words and works in its place, the heart condition is eliminated and the form alone remains. Voilà! church services today, with their programs and activities and manmade contrivances.
I wish this wasn’t the reality, dear friends. I really do. I have to live in the worldly mess right along with all of you. Alas, but it is spiritual reality today. We have become an antichrist society, and God’s witness via the Christians has been conformed to the world. No light, no salt, no Christ is given out to the world. Manmade ideas of right and wrong and good and bad have replaced them.
And small wonder. The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. But the Bible has been lost in the temple, and no one even knows it’s missing! A clarion call to arms goes out to would-be spiritual leaders. The trumpet soundeth:
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [Isaiah 8:20].
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
As a society and even as Christians we’ve relegated the Bible to the back burner at best. Hence we have women and children leading us, setting the standards by which we are to live if we don’t want to be considered a failure. We love pleasure when we should love God. And, yes, pleasure and God are pretty much at odds, when it comes to the reality of daily living.
Ergo, we go into the Christian community and come face to face with folks who are “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. They get this way because they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The truth is to be culled from the Bible. When the Christian community shuns daily Bible reading—and I mean Bible reading, not parts-of-the-Bible reading—how are they to come to a knowledge of the truth? Oh, they can learn all right, learn man’s words and doctrines and soapbox issues. But the truth is not attained anywhere but from the Bible.
Without the truth they build humongous cathedrals, sit in the pews twice and thrice weekly, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be nice to their workmates, and help little old ladies cross the street—but this is no more than “holding to a form of godliness”. Real “godliness” is not a form. It is a heart condition which grows outward fruit, viz., good works. Forms of godliness only show supposed fruit without having the heart condition.
So with Christians shunning the Bible and embracing man’s words and works in its place, the heart condition is eliminated and the form alone remains. Voilà! church services today, with their programs and activities and manmade contrivances.
I wish this wasn’t the reality, dear friends. I really do. I have to live in the worldly mess right along with all of you. Alas, but it is spiritual reality today. We have become an antichrist society, and God’s witness via the Christians has been conformed to the world. No light, no salt, no Christ is given out to the world. Manmade ideas of right and wrong and good and bad have replaced them.
And small wonder. The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. But the Bible has been lost in the temple, and no one even knows it’s missing! A clarion call to arms goes out to would-be spiritual leaders. The trumpet soundeth:
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [Isaiah 8:20].
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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