Pagan Christianity

[ezeric]

I would agree but I am thinking that the separation of sheep from goats is going to happen through persecution. The false church will cave in to the demands of culture to avoid persecution but the true church won't so we need to brace ourselves for the persecution coming and for the fact that a lot of it will come from the supposed church.

This sounds like fear talking…we are supposed to be light and more than conquerors…and the fields are ready for harvest!

Wherever I go, I see hurt and a need for a Saviour and the desperate for LOVE.

Start small, or even 2 or 3 - then JESUS is in the middle and believe that!
Let the LORD worry (deal) with everything and everyone else.

After all, we just have to be willing and HE will build HIS church.

-eric

 

[Stefos]

This sounds like fear talking…we are supposed to be light and more than conquerors…and the fields are ready for harvest!

Wherever I go, I see hurt and a need for a Saviour and the desperate for LOVE.

Start small, or even 2 or 3 - then JESUS is in the middle and believe that!
Let the LORD worry (deal) with everything and everyone else.

After all, we just have to be willing and HE will build HIS church.

-eric

Ezeric,

Don't assume about what the man said!

It is not worry....It will & is seeming to be more & more so every day turning out to be like this:

We have many false gospels and many so called "Christians" around.

There are many ways to test these so called "Christians":
1. We know them by their fruit

2. No on can say "Jesus is Lord" and mean it in the truest sense without having had the "born from above" experience...I don't like the term "Born Again" because the New Testament Greek word is "Anothen" meaning "From above." Also because of the stigma attached to that phrase & weirdos who've portrayed being saved as irrational & emotional.....Not to mention people like me who backslid I'm being honest.

3. If people trust the Lord Jesus as Savior, Redeemer, King, Older Brother (Yes, it's in the word....not a New Agey phrase), etc. THEN people would stay with God's people through persecution & not bolt.

4. John said "They left/departed from us because they were not OF us."
This means that they never were saved to begin with.
As I told my friend, a brother in the Lord, "If you ask people: Do you believe that Jesus is God?" and they say "No" you can't get much clearer than that.
The end result is that these people will either accept Jesus as Lord or they will leave. Period.

So, THE issue becomes that while we should continue to preach the Gospel, we should also be aware of what's going on in the world locally & globally.

Why? A great indicator is the Book of Revelation.....
In it, It says that the dead bodies of the 2 Prophets that smote the earth with plagues as often as they wished would be seen by the entire world!
The Greek word there is "Eekoumenee" meaning "Inhabited earth."

This could not be possible without the development of Satellites & Television!

There we go,
Stefos

By the way, I'm of Greek descent and Greek is my first language....I'm also a dual American-Greek citizen.

 

[Episaw]

This sounds like fear talking…we are supposed to be light and more than conquerors…and the fields are ready for harvest! eric

I fear nothing.

 

[tobethebest]

So much of the book is not mentioned in what I just read. The fact that tithing was intended to feed the poor, when food was the gift people brought to a fellowship, not money. That is as basic as a group of believers can get. There doesn't need to be so much concern over financing the church; its pastor, its behind the scenes employed and such. It was according to what a man hath, if he had enough food to offer to the meeting to assist in feeding the poor, then amen. It's been said many times that to draw people to Christ, sometimes you have to feed them first. A hungry person can't hear anything but the rumbling of his stomach and none of this has to do with financing a "church", it has to do with caring for the less fortunate and drawing them to Christ. Tithing is so misconstrued. It's unspiritual, at best.

 

[hopeinGod]

Ezeric,

Don't assume about what the man said!

It is not worry....It will & is seeming to be more & more so every day turning out to be like this:

We have many false gospels and many so called "Christians" around.

There are many ways to test these so called "Christians":
1. We know them by their fruit

2. No on can say "Jesus is Lord" and mean it in the truest sense without having had the "born from above" experience...I don't like the term "Born Again" because the New Testament Greek word is "Anothen" meaning "From above." Also because of the stigma attached to that phrase & weirdos who've portrayed being saved as irrational & emotional.....Not to mention people like me who backslid I'm being honest.

3. If people trust the Lord Jesus as Savior, Redeemer, King, Older Brother (Yes, it's in the word....not a New Agey phrase), etc. THEN people would stay with God's people through persecution & not bolt.

4. John said "They left/departed from us because they were not OF us."
This means that they never were saved to begin with.
As I told my friend, a brother in the Lord, "If you ask people: Do you believe that Jesus is God?" and they say "No" you can't get much clearer than that.
The end result is that these people will either accept Jesus as Lord or they will leave. Period.

So, THE issue becomes that while we should continue to preach the Gospel, we should also be aware of what's going on in the world locally & globally.

Why? A great indicator is the Book of Revelation.....
In it, It says that the dead bodies of the 2 Prophets that smote the earth with plagues as often as they wished would be seen by the entire world!
The Greek word there is "Eekoumenee" meaning "Inhabited earth."

This could not be possible without the development of Satellites & Television!

There we go,
Stefos

By the way, I'm of Greek descent and Greek is my first language....I'm also a dual American-Greek citizen.

It always surprises me that those who want to produce for readers a list to go by that aids them in judging who is saved and who isn't don't bother to verbatim list 2 Cor 7:11.

The books of Corinthians are all about a man who sinned by sleeping with his step mother, was told to repent, he did so, but the Corinthian church refused to take him back, so Paul had to write to them to explain to them what a believer should look for in a person who has turned, repented. This man had repented and those inworkings were evident in his life.

All the other examples pall in comparison.

 

[Episaw]

This sounds like fear talking…we are supposed to be light and more than conquerors…and the fields are ready for harvest!

Wherever I go, I see hurt and a need for a Saviour and the desperate for LOVE.

Start small, or even 2 or 3 - then JESUS is in the middle and believe that!
Let the LORD worry (deal) with everything and everyone else.

After all, we just have to be willing and HE will build HIS church.

-eric

No, not fear, just reality and scripture.

 

[My Brother's Keeper2]

So much of the book is not mentioned in what I just read. The fact that tithing was intended to feed the poor, when food was the gift people brought to a fellowship, not money. That is as basic as a group of believers can get. There doesn't need to be so much concern over financing the church; its pastor, its behind the scenes employed and such. It was according to what a man hath, if he had enough food to offer to the meeting to assist in feeding the poor, then amen. It's been said many times that to draw people to Christ, sometimes you have to feed them first. A hungry person can't hear anything but the rumbling of his stomach and none of this has to do with financing a "church", it has to do with caring for the less fortunate and drawing them to Christ. Tithing is so misconstrued. It's unspiritual, at best.

I haven't read the book Pagan Christianity, but I have read the holy scriptures -- and it's clear when I study the Christian assemblies of the NT and then look at "churches" in the world today, that what most who call themselves Christians practice today is steeped in pagan traditions.

I agree, Brother, with what you said. Contributions that were collected in the NT assemblies were distributed to the needy saints in other congregations. Never was money collected in the NT assemblies to finance and maintain buildings or their furnishings, entertainment, or social programs. Neither was an offering plate passed around in worship services until the latter part of the 19th century. Yet, people take scripture out of context and apply it to their traditions to justify what they do. The apostle Paul assured the Christian assembly at Corinth, "[We] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians 4:2, KJV).

People often assume that God accepts their traditions because they use scripture loosely to justify their deeds and then claim they are somehow furthering God's kingdom while misusing His holy Word. They assume God is glorified and honored by their buildings, entertainment and programs, and that he must be present in a place He has not authorized for worship. Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, but he didn't direct his people in constructing any other building for worship. The Psalmist advised Solomon, "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....." (Ps 127:1a, ESV).