Get Real: What Makes a "Real" Christian?

John 8:31  "If you dwell within the revelation I have brought, then you are actually my disciples."

This was one of Jesus' closing remarks after a long discussion, recorded by John, with a group of questioners, some believers, some not.  What He meant is not in question.  The idea "dwell within the revelation" is a Hebraism for "obey what I teach."  I checked 40 or 50 other translations and paraphrases (even really poor ones like THE MESSAGE), and none have cared to lighten up what Jesus is saying here.  All through these questions and answers, Jesus reinforces the idea that people are either lost or saved, believing or unbelieving, rebellious or obedient, headed to Heaven or Hell.

There is an old country song (was it Tim McGraw?) about the "words in red," a reference to the practice of some editions of the Bible to print Jesus' own words in red ink.  There are several web sites up now, produced by people somewhere in the progressive church category of Christendom, in which writers like to call themselves "red letter Christians."  Perusal of their content reveals that they choose the moniker because they claim to believe the words of Jesus to be true and authoritative, but question or dismiss much of the rest of Scripture.  

The irony of their arguments struck me anew the other day as I was reading John.  In fact the teachings of Jesus are altogether in line and consistent with those of Paul, James, Peter, Jude and the other New Testament writers.  For example, many progressive Christians cannot stomach the idea that God is a just God who will judge all people one day, and consign to Hell all those who maintained rebellion against Him.  But Jesus clearly and often taught about eternal punishment.  In fact, He also repeatedly taught that many people who take for granted that they are His people in fact are not at all.  I know full well that this idea is especially troublesome to American Southerners, who generally assume that all more or less respectable people are headed to The Good Place.  But it just ain't so.  Take Jesus' word for it.  The flip side of Jesus' saying as quoted in the introduction above, is that those who do not submit to Jesus' teaching are actually NOT his disciples.  So, to  make another example, if Jesus taught that the rebellious will die in their sins, ending in eternal punishment, and a teacher among you maintains that Jesus is too nice for that, and will sooner or later save everyone, what are we left to believe about that teacher?

What I'm trying to say is "Wake Up and Smell The Coffee!"  Get real.  Grow up, think and deal with God for yourself.  God calls on us to follow His light, while many Christian groups all around are slinking along in lockstep with American postmodern culture. 

John 8:31  "If you dwell within the revelation I have brought, then you are actually my disciples."

God Is Not The Author Of Confusion

Not confused, are you?

I'm sure some of you are quite confused. We get reports via the grapevine. You know we are telling you the truth, but for your own reasons you "stay in line" and continue down the path of least resistance.

I Cor.14:33 God is not the author of confusion but of peace.

A local Christian false teacher recently responded to a request for clarification re: her beliefs on the subjects of universalism, the Lordship of Jesus, the authority of Scripture, etc. Her response was, "I'm resting my certainty on Christ crucified. That is as far as our conversation needs to go."

Guess why God revealed Himself and His ways to us in the Bible. So we could KNOW stuff! Of all the nasty lies promulgated by the "progressive church," one of the nastiest is the idea that we live in a postmodern, enlightened world, and cool, hip , educated people now understand that you cannot really know anything with certainty. We answer; no one knows the whole mind of God, but some things He has revealed quite clearly, so that we can know them. Vapid excuses for ignorance will not stand up at the judgment.

For the thinkers among you, Yes, there is a really schizo dilemma in our culture. While all the scientific world is based on knowing, and building on that knowledge, the postmodern philosophers and their duped minions are happy with the idea that you cannot really know anything. How often we have heard "I am not so arrogant as to claim that I know anything with certainty, so please stop trying to back me into a corner about what I believe." In the next breath they will claim "The Bible says. . ." And we ask "Why quote the Bible if you don't believe it contains any real, absolute Truth?" Even while asking, we know why they use the Bible. Because even as they deny the Bible's authority over them, when they pose as "Bible teachers" they effectively gain credibility with the immature and the untaught. So the Bible is referred to in order to support pet ideas. But not in good faith. Frankly, they use the Bible much as Satan did (Matt. 4).

No, God really is not the God of confusion. The way out of confusion is to sort out the truth. Establish what is true and real, and build on it. Remember Jesus' parable about the two builders (Matt. 7:24-27)? His challenge is to listen to His teaching and obey it. Even that simple instruction by our Lord requires that we distinguish His teaching from all the other voices out there.

The peace that God talks about does not come as result of just being agreeable and tolerant. It becomes possible only when we obey the Truth (Philippians 3), when our thinking lines up with God's thinking. Any other kind of peace is a shallow substitute.

Please listen. In this world created by God there are laws at work. There are natural, physical laws always operative, and there are spiritual laws, rooted in the character of God, always operative. We are fools if we think we can pick and choose which of these laws we will abide by; they are all operative regardless of our preferences. This just IS. We can observe it around us, and God has revealed this to us in His Word. So to use a line here or there in the Bible to support a pet idea, while ignoring the clear revelations of God that the Church has always called DOCTRINE (don't be intimidated by the word; it just means "teaching,") is foolish. That, in fact, is the hallmark of the false teacher.

So let me make a homegrown illustration. Long time ago we had a pet Black & Tan Coonhound pup. Jonah. A most beautiful animal: at the time of my story about twenty pounds of bones, loose skin, paws and ears. So I was working at the kitchen table with a block of styrofoam, a carving knife and a vacuum cleaner, trying to fashion a flotation device for a project. . . The pup was snoozing at my feet, and I was carving, carving: then vacuuming up all the little white beads that fell around me, when I noticed that some had fallen on the pup. So I impulsively swung the vacuum wand down toward him. Now I did not intend for this to happen, but when the tip neared his ear, it sucked it right up! He came off the floor with round eyes and all four limbs stretched out to the side. A few seconds of pandemonium. Now again, I did not intend this. God's physical laws were at work. Physical laws or spiritual laws: we submit to them or else. 

Somewhere very early in His revelation God said "These are my ways; walk in them."

Don't Be Fooled

Our overarching theme is know God by knowing and submitting to His Word.  DIUR.

We all have a few people around us we think we know pretty well.  How about you?  How did you get to the point where you think you know those people well?  I think there are only two ways: paying attention to their communications to you, and observing their behaviors, historically and with you, over a long period of time.  For example, I know my wife well, and I trust her implicitly, because over a period of almost forty years I have been given no reason whatsoever to mistrust her.  I always think of her when I hear Neil Young sing the line "I never believed in much, but I believed in you."  This is a fascinating subject to me, but I don't want to ramble on about knowing people.

How about knowing God?  A more challenging subject, as first you must be alive to Him.  According to the Bible, everyone who comes into relationship to God comes from a state of spiritual deadness into spiritual life.   To say you know God, it must have happened that at some moment of time in your life, you were "born again" into the kingdom of God (John 3).  Subsequently, coming to know God better is much like knowing any other person better.  Communication and observation. 

There is one God.  Does everyone know Him?  No.  Will everyone ever know Him?  No.  Are some people who claim to know God fooling themselves? Yes.  Are there Christian teachers, who claim to know God, but are deceived or deceivers?  Yes.  Ironically, one mark of a false teacher is that they often claim that God speaks to them a lot.  Truth is, God can speak to anyone He wants, obviously, but in the ages-long history of salvation, direct revelation from God is rare and unusual.  God's normal, every day  method of revealing Himself is by illuminating our minds as we hear or read His Word.  It should be obvious that if someone claims "God told me this," or 'God told me to do whatever," and that message is clearly contrary to what God is known to have revealed (the Bible), then that person is deceived or a deceiver. 

So, how do we know God better?  

(1) by observing His work in history (Paul wrote that such is one reason God has kept for us the history of His dealings with Israel;  cf. I Cor. 10).   This is concrete.  

(2) By paying attention to His revelation to us in the Scriptures.  Also concrete.  

(3) By daily relationship to Him, which is real but subjective.  I'd suggest these daily experiences must be weighed against means (1) and (2). 

You regular readers are aware that we are distracted lately by the false teachings of the movement called "progressive Christianity."  The movement is corrupted by a twisted concept of the love of God.  Progressive adherents want to believe God is so overwhelmingly soft, soothing and fuzzy that there is no room in His character for holiness or wrath.  I can imagine the scene long ago when a minion first suggested this ploy/false teaching to Satan.  They may have held hands and danced in a circle, shouting "I love it!  I love it!  I love it!"   Admittedly it is an effective and powerful lie and has fooled lots of people.  But to you who have read the Bible at all, it must be recognized as damning and obviously false.  Lets remember.  When Moses had a glimpse of God, what was his experience (Ex. 33)?  How about Isaiah, whose experience was only a vision (Is. 6)?  The Jesus Culture band got it right in one of their recent releases, "One Word."  Have you heard it?  The word is HOLY.

Know God.  Read His Word.  He'll open up your heart and mind.  He will reveal His love to you, but He is much, much, much more.

-David