Month: March 2017

HOW SAINTS READ THE BIBLE. (5)

HOW SAINTS READ THE BIBLE. (5)
There are multitudes who read the Bible for various motives. Some even think that of itself the practice of devotional reading gives all sorts of divine benefits.

Many presume that adopting its positivist philosophy equates to faith, but the artifice of wearing a smile and voicing optimistic sentiments do little to camouflage such pretence, despite the peer pressure to do so. In fact the large majority who read the Scripture only make token gesture effort to search the WORD, because they have not the Spirit within.

Excuses by half hearted readers.
1) EXCUSE: I do not want to be tied down. If I have time I will look at the Bible today.
a. ANSWER: This attitude belongs to a religious goat dependent upon his self-will.
b. ANSWER:A sheep (saint) has an irrepressible thirst for the Word which cannot be repressed. The goat is at ease and reads only what is convenient.

2)EXCUSE: ‘I don’t always feel like reading the Bible if I am having a bad day.
a. ANSWER: Emotions matter to the goat, but the sheep is another creature and will not be deterred.

HOW SAINTS READ THE BIBLE. (5)

FAITHLESS CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS

WESTERN CHURCH REJECTS FAITH BY GRACE?
Of the world’s 2,800 denominations (Barratt 1970) there are five main segments in the Christendom’s churches:

1. The sacramental church Christians, captives of tradition;
2. The liberal church Christians serving critical intellectualism;
3. The moral-majority church Christians addicted to a moralizing agenda
4. The conservative church Christians often evangelical and Conservative
5. The separatist fringe-dwelling church Christians claiming sectarian uniqueness

The universal faith of the religious Christian is often misplaced. Freewill faith belongs to humanist voluntarism, espoused by Origen at first, then more radically by Pelagius, his successor.

After 3rd C Origen self-will faith was echoed by Constantine’s 4th C Church of Rome; the Renaissance; the 18th C Enlightenment and finally by 19th C New England Theology evangelicals. The 18th C positivist philosophy which viewed man as basically good, betrayed the New Testament truth of his evil heart, darkened conscience, deceitful motives and wayward will, which is captive to original sin.

Since 1846 the USA evangelicals have rejected the Reformation’s righteousness of faith: a faith given by grace to the wholehearted seeker. Instead they claimed man is able by innate self-faith to access God’s grace under the sound of the Gospel preacher. The preceding saints’ intercessory prayer gatherings that would empower such preaching were overlooked and the evangelist became the chief catalyst. This new concept was built on the false premise that a measure of grace and faith is universally resident in man from the image of God he bears. Thus his assumed ability to understand, and seek the Lord becomes active in the presence of preaching. Yet, hinged alone on the vehicle of preaching the new genre of fundamental evangels unwittingly compromised the New Testament. The prophets and the apostles said that no one naturally understands the preaching of the Word, nor wants to seek Christ . (1 Corinthians 1:21; Romans 3:11; 1 Corinthians 2:13-14.)

Automated, mechanical evangelism soon abandoned the old-time weekly intercessors’ meeting and in its humanistic flurry of extemporary bombast it persuaded men to be converts of the church, but not of Christ.
Ditching original sin and replacing it with an unsullied image of God within man can never do more than sow tares in the harvest field of the world that once received the good seed of the Sower.

The Bible doctrine of faith through grace was inverted so that human self-willed faith became the key to conversion and the phenomenal growth of church empires in the USA. This easy-religion of stage produced sensationalism wowed the American populace as it tried to simulate a third Great Awakening. But it has constantly lacked the spirit of prayer, so essential to any awakening of the lost and the arresting power of the Spirit so paramount before conversion.

Oratorical persuasion of itself is a poor substitute. This new genre featured Billy Sunday, who won converts by a handshake at the end of his tent meetings. Also the likes of 19th C Dwight L Moody and Reuben A Torrey, mechanized automated conversion of the masses and devised modern methods of prayer to GET WHAT WAS DESIRED FROM GOD. The most famous fetish (still in vogue today) was to repeat the rote ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ for immediate salvation based on Romans 10:9 and 10:13 twisted from their context.

FAITHLESS CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS

EXPOSING CHURCH MYTHS WITH BIBLE TRUTHS. (1)

MYTH: ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. Adam fell from ‘a righteous state’ when he sinned.

1. THE TRUTH: Though Adam’s succumbing to the wiles of a woman provoked God’s endemic curse on mankind and the creation, nowhere in either Testament is it described as a “fall”. He succumbed to Eve and Satan’s temptation to reject God’s offer of eternal life. But he did not FALL from righteousness, but rejected the righteousness of faith.

2. THE TRUTH: Adam was created in a state of innocence without virtue or vice.

MYTH: ADAM MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD was holy and righteous.

3. THE TRUTH Adam had neither original righteousness nor the INDWELLING Spirit of holiness and righteousness. God however, was WITH him until he was exiled from His presence. God was WITH Israel of the Exodus, but His Spirit only WITHIN Moses, Joshua and Caleb. Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and Abram were some of the few who not only walked with God in primordial time, but within whom the Spirit of God dwelled by grace

4. THE TRUTH: God is tripartite and Adam was created uniquely as a tripartite being. God is triune:- the Father, the Word (The Son), and the Spirit (1 John 5:7) and He said, “Let us make man in our own image.” Thus Adam had a threefold existence but is one being: body, soul, and spirit and he also reflects each decision and action within himself. He confers within himself, his sense of humour enables him to laugh at himself and at others. He intellectualizes with himself and then takes rational action. These imprints of God’s image are over and above the basic instinctive appetites and senses, and they are unique to humans in the animal kingdom.

5. THE TRUTH: Adam was made a terrestrial creature from the earth itself, but unlike all other creatures he possessed more than animal instincts, appetites, and senses. He had a plurality of being which was exceptional among creatures.

6. THE TRUTH: God wanted fellowship with Adam, but he needed more than a state of innocence wherein he was able to hear God’s instructions. Fellowship is not a one sided affair. Thus the Lord placed the regenerating fruit of the tree-of-life should he desire to enter into fellowship with his Lord and Master. But alas he conspired instead with his wife to sample the KNOWLEDGE of the gods and the ethereal powers from the ‘prince and power of the air,’ who is the ‘god’ of this world.

7. THE TRUTH: The doctrine of Adam’s original righteousness was hatched by the emerging Church of Rome in the 3rd century at the time of building the first church and the first priest was ordained. This myth with other pagan beliefs of Rome has been perpetuated down through the ages.

8. THE TRUTH: When Emperor Constantine’s ‘Church of Rome was finally inaugurated about 311 AD the mythical ‘water of regeneration’ in his compulsory mass baptisms were said to remove ‘original sin’ and restore ‘original righteousness’ to the baptized. This myth has been perpetuated down through the millennia to present day Christendom.

9. THE TRUTH: ADAM.HEARD GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS? Though God talked to Adam this did not equate to righteousness. Though Adam was at fist innocent without sin his innocence was not righteousness. God talked to unrighteous prophets and false prophets, Balaam the soothsayer being one example.God can and will use what and whom he will, even the unrighteous Balaam, just as he used the early Twelve disciples of Christ before they were converted on the first day of the resurrection. Judas Iscariot heard Jesus pair him with a fellow disciple to go as a twosome to preach, heal, and deliver. Yet borrowing the power of the NAME neither justified him or made him righteous. God was with him for a season, then later left him to Satan’s devices.

EXPOSING CHURCH MYTHS WITH BIBLE TRUTHS. (1)

HOW SAINTS READ THE BIBLE (4)

Many saints today go hungry during their daily ‘Quiet Time’.

1) STARVATION RATIONS. They read the Word, but to little profit because they will not meditate upon what they read. Is it because they do not have the time? No! It is how they subordinate the time slot to their own prepared agenda.

2)a. ARE YOU A MARY OR A MARTHA? Which is more important: the word volume read, or hearing the voice of Him ‘the Word’ in the words? Which is paramount: covering the set chapter/s, or unhurriedly expecting the inner ‘Interpreter’s voice?

b. WAITING TO BE SERVED The saints who wait patiently at His table will certainly be fed with more than crumbs that are under the table. When such a reader readily pauses for the inner Teacher’s voice, sacrificing his own preconceived plan he becomes known to God as a WATCHER or WAITER.
Why eat only crumbs?

c. MARTHA SYNDROME Other believers fill their day’s timetable scheduling a small slot to Scripture in which time is of the essence. But often their priorities are amiss when they allow none for uninterrupted seclusion.

d. IS YOUR BUSINESS BUSY-NESS? Today’s reader mistakenly thinks only in goal completion. Targets are a good idea, but haste and clock watching are impediments to the saint.

e. DISTRACTIONS are common, more so today surrounded by technological devices galore. It takes effort to find space and privacy from the hubbub of the maddening crowd encroaching on the believers’ privacy. It also takes determination, perseverance and outright resistance to peer group and family pressured demands. It may also mean occasional sacrifice and self denial of food, sleep, and social media addiction.

BIBLE READERS’ INDIGESTION (4)

HOW SAINTS READ THE BIBLE (3)

1. Devotional reading on the run.
2. Rushed reading to cover a set number of chapters.
3. Pastor’s regimented reading the whole Bible in a year.
4. Allotting a time limit for reading
5. Momentarily glimpsing Bible verses in transit
6. Dipping into a promise box or randomly opening the Word for chance blessing.
7. Reading a daily devotional supplied by the church

REASONS FOR ALL SEVEN ON THE LIST.
1) ‘More haste less speed’ is the old proverb to remember.

2) Most of the listed actions are to save time for other more important priorities like eating, sleeping etc. The Bible says ‘it is vain to sit up late and rise up early.’ An hour before midnight is worth two hours after it. Sitting up late for leisure, work or pleasure will never allow meditation to him who has to rise early for work.

3) Short cuts are made for various reasons, but most are time saving factors for those who put Bible Reading on a low priority. Another reason is the reader himself does not understand much of the Bible except for historical narratives, as he has no indwelling ‘Interpreter’. He relies solely on his own knowledge and appreciation of literature. As such much of Scripture seems a mysterious enigma. As a result he wants to read the least amount possible, hoping that he will still acquire some credits of grace in the process.

4) Some think there is virtue in covering the Bible within one year. Others think that they will increase their faith if they force themselves to keep such a routine. Speedily accomplishing this goal may give comforting reassurance that they are pleasing God, but it is often only token gesture treatment of sacred write which impedes both meditation and intelligent cognizance of context.

5) The saints (sheep) do not need to be lectured, or compelled to follow a forced program of reading. They do not require forced feeding as their insatiable thirst for biblical milk, and hunger for the biblical meat will never cease. Down periods of temporary abstinence can cause dehydration and emaciation, but like the inner fire that burns low at this time “smoking flax he will not quench and a bruised read he will not break.”

http://bonitabiblemission.worthyofpraise.org/biblereading-dangers/ ‎