You were the one describing them as “Christians” which is a descriptive term and not some title give church goers... Christian make up the church and the church is not all attendees at some gathering. You are the one using some unbiblical definition of Christians and church, so do you not need to know this?
But you could not be more wrong.
You are correct, in the Bible, the term "
church" often represents
ONLY the saved "
wheat" in the Christian "
Kingdom of Heaven".
However, the Bible also uses the term "church" to represent
BOTH the "
wheat and tares" in the Christian "
Kingdom".
You cannot expect to understand the
MEANING of passages
talking about the "church" or "Christians" unless you first are
able to discern the
CONTEXT... does the passage focus on the
"
wheat and tares" in the
TEMPORAL "church" or does it focus
on ONLY the saved "
wheat"... which is the
ETERNAL "church"
(1) Jesus (not me) explained in Matthew 13:24-30 and v36-43
that the Christian "
Kingdom of Heaven" consists of BOTH saved
"
wheat" sown by God and destined to eternal life... and unsaved
"
tares" sown by Satan and destined to the same fire prepared
for Satan and his demons [Mat 25:41]
Jesus (not me) explained these "
wheat and tares"
LOOK alike,
and they will would grow together until the end of the age when
the final harvest (of the saved "
wheat") occurs and the damnation
of the unsaved "
tares" occurs. The fact that they
LOOK alike and
they
GROW TOGETHER until the final harvest demonstrates Jesus
was not talking about "Christian" and non-Christians (like Jews,
Moslems, Buddhist, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, Pagans,
Satanists, etc... because they do not
LOOK like the saved "
wheat"
at all. In fact they REJECT both Jesus and His Gospel)... whereas
the unsaved "
tares" call Jesus their "
Lord" (they
LOOK like saints)
(2) The Bible has DOZENS of passages showing people who
follow Christ and call Him their "
Lord" and preach the Christian
Gospel... who are unsaved "
tares",
NEVER MEANT to be saved.
In fact, Jesus tells them "
I never knew you". You can read about
these unsaved "Christians" in Mat 7:21-23 and Luke 13:23-30
and Mat 25:1-13. Which, of course are the Words of Christ
(not my words) so rejecting or ignoring those Scriptures
is just the "
fruit" of those who are NOT saved "
wheat".
(3) Part of the Christian Gospel is that unsaved "
tares" would
infiltrate the "churches" (remember, the "churches" originally
were small - often home based - gatherings of those following
the teachings of Jesus... some were saved, others were not)
and the "
leaven" of the false doctrines of these false christians
would corrupt the "church"... which is
WHY we currently have
churches teaching a false synergistic "gospel" (
BROAD WAY)
and the Truth Biblical Gospel of Sovereign Grace (monergism)
which is the
narrow way. This was all foretold and has now
been fulfilled in history (reality).
(4) Every time JESUS or the APOSTLES taught about there
being "
false prophets" or "
ministers of Satan" in the church,
they were talking about the unsaved "
tares". The Bible says that
some fall away (demonstrating they were never of "
us" saints)
but some remain. In fact the Bible teaches the elders within the
"church" are to (a) identify these false christians by their "
fruit"
of bad behavior or false doctrines and (b) rebuke them, as they
may just be "
babes in Christ", needing much correction and then
(c) to expel them from the (wait for it....) "church" if they refuse
to repent of their bad behavior or heresies.
(5) In fact, the Bible foretells that, at the end-of-the-age,
those in the "church" (being mostly unsaved "
tares" at that time)
would reject the Gospel Truth and seek teachers of false doctrines.
There
MUST be a great "
falling away" in the "church" before the
"
Man of Sin" is revealed (and destroyed) and Lord Jesus can Return.
This is a very basic and essential element of the Gospel of the Bible.
To reject it or intentionally ignore it is just the "
fruit" of the "
tares".
So you can pretend to yourself that the Bible does not teach
the temporal visible "church" consists of both "
wheat and tares",
but you are only pretending to yourself - in contradiction of Scripture.
It is GOD (not you) who gets to
DEFINE the term "church" and
you embarrass yourself when you pretend otherwise after
having been shown the Biblical Truth of #1-5 above...
which you don't even try to refute from Scripture.
Why would it matter what I say or teach, since it all depends on if God made me part of the elect or I am not part of the elect and the same would go for those who are listening to me, it is not my fault if the agree with me or not disagree with me, according to your theology?
But it is not "according to
MY theology" as you pretend.
It is according to the Gospel of the Bible. That is a big difference
that you need to understand... if you have "
ears to hear". Again,
some men were
NEVER MEANT to "
perceive" or "
understand" or
"
be converted" or have "
their sins forgiven". Obviously they were
NEVER MEANT to be saved if these people were not meant to
"
be converted" or have "
their sins forgiven". [Mark 4:11-12]
To answer your question more directly... it does not matter
what you say or teach because God will save all of "
His sheep"
and ONLY "
His sheep". That is for certain. So, just as the Gospel
PROMISES unsaved "
tares" would infiltrate the churches and the
"
leaven" of the heretical doctrines of these "
false prophets"
would lead many ("
tares") into destruction... the Gospel
also
PROMISES none of "
His Sheep" will ever be lost.
However, the (real) Saints are COMMANDED to (a) identify those
teaching false doctrines and (b) to refute those false doctrines
from Scripture... that is all I have done. I do not expect you to
repent of your false doctrines because your "
fruit" shows who
you really are. But (real) Saints will submit to the COMMAND
to rebuke false doctrines and demonstrate (with Scripture) why
those doctrines are heresy... that is all I have done above and
in the previous post.
The Bible
PROMISES that the unsaved "
tares" in the churches
will NOT follow Biblical Truth... even after having their heresy
refuted with Scripture. So I would be foolish or very naive
if I EXPECTED people to repent of teaching heresy just because
I have shown SCRIPTURE which contradicts their false doctrines.
The Bible is very clear, the "
wheat and tares" grow together
until the final harvest... nothing I (or any other saint) says or
does will ever change that Biblical reality. However we (saints)
are still commanded to refute false doctrines. And that is what
we do.
Jim