Christian Life – Page 12 – SON OF DAVID

6 May 201022 May 2011

Many Ways or One Way?

Rosemarie Buxton of Episcopal Divinity School wrote in response to Professor Stephen Prothero’s book (God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter) and his article (Separate Truths) in the Boston Globe on April 25, 2010:

According to Karen Armstrong, the difficulties arise when one religion sets itself apart as the one religion and chooses to do anything to defend itself, a sin that many religions have been guilty of throughout history.

Coming from the pen of a Christian Divinity school graduate, i am very disappointed at the above statement.

Mankind is but one-kind. And so is creation-kind. Can an offspring say that he has two fathers or two mothers? That is not only vulgar but also foolish. That there is but one God, the creator of heaven and earth transcends any sort of debate.

Now, there are a lot of injustices that are going unpunished by the government(s). The socio, economic, political, environmental crisis we are seeing today is testimony of that fact. Justice is not being meted out to all. That is why the Bible stresses on the Day of Judgment, when the Lord of lords and the King of kings will be seated on the throne and render justice to the nations.

Now for this justice to be rendered with equity, there needs to be one law that is self-evident and transcends all other laws. This Law is the Law of Agape Love that Jesus kept and “exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees” of His time and went and sat at the right hand side of God to judge the world.

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for His friends” ~ Lord Jesus Christ (John 15:13). How much more “self-evident” and transcendent can you get.

To say that there are other ways or back-doors to God is an affront to the living God who is Jehovah Jireh–the One who provided this Way–an excruciating death for His son the Lord Jesus Christ only in order to fulfill the transcendent AND self-evident truth in John 15:13 as stated above. If there were indeed other ways then God was a stupid fool to take His son through this excruciating death. So excruciating that the Lord’s sweat turned into blood well before He was going to be crucified because He knew what kind of pain He will have to suffer.

So, i believe, after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bhagavad Gita’s reference namely:

“As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take, through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee!”

and

“Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths that in the end lead to Me.”

apply to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself–all streams have to end up with Him. In other words, at the Judgment Seat of Christ!

For more on these lines, please read this article especially tailored for an Agnostic or one who is secular: http://truthunleashed.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20

4 April 201022 May 2011

Walk the Talk!

Don’t agree!

We not only have the Great Commission to be the Light (Talk) of the world, but we also have the Kingdom-Now mandate to be the Salt (Walk) of the earth.

So let your Light (Talk/Gospel) so shine before men that they see your Good-deeds (Walk) and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

In other words, we must WALK THE TALK!

Agape TiE is all about that. To give love where love is due and respect where respect is due and thus lift up a testimony which the whole world will behold, believe and be saved (John 17:23; John 3:14-15).

4 April 201022 May 2011

Faith is a gift that we must muster!

John MacArthur says:

“We are kept until that hour and we are kept by an enduring faith sustained by the intercessory work of Jesus Christ who prays that we will be protected from anything that would assault that faith, whether it be the flesh or the world or Satan himself.”

Simply NOT true!

Read the context of 1 Thess 5:23. We are first asked not to quench (put out) the Holy Spirit by despising prophetic utterances. This would happen when we grieve the Holy Spirit to the point when the conscience becomes “seared as with a hot iron.” It is dead and unable to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It is then we have reached the point of no return.

Secondly, he talks about the gift of faith, which indeed it is (Romans 12:3). However everything we have is a gift. It is only when we bring it at the disposal of the Lord that it becomes useful for the Master’s use. The faith he has given must be given back to Him; that is, it must be mustered! Otherwise Jesus would have no reason to say to His disciples, “O ye of little faith.” They sowed only a little.

Thirdly, many are called but few are chosen. They are chosen only after God sees entire sanctification potential in them and then are kept [in Christ] until the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Notice that the Lord’s prayer is that God sanctify us by His WORD (John 17:17) and not by some sort of a supernatural power!

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit/Word, on His part is able but on our part we have to yield to His promptings as well. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13). “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock” (Matthew 7:24). “…Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).

Even the demons hear, believe and shudder. In other words, the only qualification one can get by merely believing, is a Demonship. The concept is further illustrated with a man who walked a tight rope across the Niagara falls. All were clapping their hands. There was one man in the front who was clapping all the more. The walker asked that man, “do you think i can take another person with me on my shoulders across?” The man said, “Yes, Yes, Yes!” When the walker asked him to join him across, he was dismayed and ran away. That is the difference between trust and belief.

God is able to take you across but you have to trust Him with your life!

More on this subject @ http://Skyfeast.org or for a shorter read: http://calebmotupalli.me/2010/01/13/calvinism-debunked/

This calls for an amendment of or rather the scrapping of the Westminister Confession of Faith.

1 March 201022 May 2011

Liberal Theology

John Piper quoted S.H. on Facebook as saying:

Liberalism: Make the Gospel acceptable to the world rather than showing the world it is unintelligible without the Gospel.

Is calling the Gospel, Good News, liberalism? Is translating scripture from Greek to English, liberalism? Is making Christ relevant, liberalism? You know where i am going with this train of thought. I am sure for a conceited legalist (neo-Pharisee), liberalism, as defined, is not acceptable. Read the parables and know that our Lord made the Good News digestible. The very fact that He became incarnate, is liberalism! For someone who harps on grace, i am ashamed. A synonym for liberalism is grace for heaven’s sake. Liberalism is not about compromising. It is about being gracious to your neighbor. Thank you.

JulieBeth Chamberlain Lamb agreed:

Leaving people in their sin because it is less uncomfortable than telling them the truth.

However, Brett Coffrini:

Caleb, you are using an older definition of liberalism. The modern kind denies Scripture as the inspired, inerrant, all sufficient Word of God. In his classic book, Christianity and Liberalism, J Greshan Machen argued that liberalism isn’t just another form of Christianity, but an entirely different religion.

“A liberal is someone who will fight for your right to agree w/ them!” — Ronald Reagan

“Exegetical imprecision is the mother of liberal theology.” –John Piper; Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

Brian Brobeck:

The gospel will never be acceptable to the world, that is why christ was crucified. When He said drink my blood and eat my flesh the multitudes left.

Yes. For those who stuck with Him till the end, he said: This (bread) is my body and this (wine) is my blood and made it palatable for them.

Brett, let us redefine what a liberal is. Why stay on the fringes of legalism?! If there is any liberal in the world, we should be it.

Let us not leave the sinner in his sins. As JulieBeth said it, let us become uncomfortable until we make the truth palatable; in other words, acceptable!