Why Does the Bible Mention Unicorns?

Scandal of Grace: Hillsong

Is Jesus a Creature of God? Part 2

No Other Name...

Every now and again I hear certain things from various people who name the name of Christ.

One of these things pertains to the exclusivity of Christ Jesus.

In other words, Him being the only way to heaven.

All throughout the bible though, it's declared that God is the only saviour. 

Isaiah 43:11

I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

 Even when God raises up people to save His people, He is still the one doing it so He is still the saviour.

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But for some reason, Christians have come up with this concept that there are other things that can save.

One thing of note is the church. Every now and again you'll hear someone say something like 'that church saved me'. Or 'I wouldn't be saved if not for that church'. Or 'church is keeping me saved'.

That is inconsistent with what the bible says. 

Acts 4:12

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

There are some churches that teach that Christians have the ability to grant salvation.

Never mind that Jesus is the only name, they take other verses out of context and give the granting of salvation to Christians.

It's actually the Christian that brings people into heaven don'cha know.

And when you get to heaven all the people who you've saved will be standing behind you to thank you... yes, I've actually heard this preached over the pulpit.

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Sometimes, you'll find that those who are bound by the unbiblical divisions known as denominations will grant salvation only to their specific denomination.

In other words, salvation is only obtained when you are part of this specific denomination.

Sometimes this even filters down to individual churches or fellowships. If you're not apart of their church or fellowship, then you aren't saved. Or if you are saved, you're lukewarm because you can only be on fire in this church/fellowship.

And if those weren't bad enough, there is the heretical belief that our works can save.

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Make no mistake... salvation is only found in Christ Jesus.

After all, who can turn way the wrath of the Father but the Son?

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How could this have happened though?

I think the answer is that a good amount of people who call themselves Christian do not have, know, or understand salvation.

Obviously they don't know because they've never been taught, which is the fault of the preacher(s)/pastor(s). But they stay in ignorance because of their lack of reading & studying the scriptures.

Because of their lack of knowledge regarding salvation, they are easily duped by unqualified preachers/pastors, when they give them false information... especially when its coupled with some twisted scripture.

So, what is Salvation? What does it mean to be Saved?

Salvation is the act that Christ has performed towards us in that He has saved us from having to pay the penalty/price for our sins.

He did this by paying the price of our sins Himself, by absorbing the righteous wrath of the Father that we incurred, and nailing it to the cross - being crucified.

You see, the price for sin is death.

Ezekiel 8:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Now, a lot of Christians will stop there, and start to talk about the great love that God has for us.

There isn't anything really wrong with that, but we have to remember that people do not understand what sin is or the reason why we have to die if we sin.

A lot of people, Christians even, would say that its a high price for something so small. You see, a lot of people, again... Christians included, see a lot of sin as small. How could a small lie be worthy of death?

And here's the kicker, it's not just because 'God says so'.

In everything God says and does, there is a purpose behind it.

But before we can unpack what sin is, we must first unpack who God is.

The bible declares that God is the creator of everything. Everything means... everything - visible and invisible.

The bible declares that God is holy, just, love, merciful, gracious, and many other things, but I think we can proceed with just those 5 characteristics and the 1 relational aspect.

When God created everything, He declared that it was good. At that moment in time, there was no evil, there was no bad, there was no sin.

God created the first two humans, Adam and Eve and had a relationship with them.

God, the creator of everything that was good, gave them an instruction, and they disobeyed, and from that point on, death entered the world.

Sin turned their hearts from pure to impure.

From here, we can start to form our understanding of what sin is.

Sin is the antithesis of God. In other words, it is the opposite of everything God is.

God brings life, but sin brings death. God seeks to protect, sin seeks to destroy. God seeks relationship, sin seeks selfishness.

Sin, therefore, is the ultimate expression of not wanting God.

The problem is though, we are God's creation (human), dwelling in God's creation (the earth), being kept alive by God's creation (air, food, water, etc). - Ultimately, being taken care of by the very God we've shown by our actions we don't want.

So, sin is a blight on the good work that God did.

How then could a God that is good, allow that which He created to reflect and stand for everything that is contrary to Him - boldly declaring that that creation does not what God?

He can not.

That is what sin is. That is what we do when we sin, support sin, enjoy sin, etc. We declare to God that we don't want Him. We declare to God that we would rather be without Him.

So death, in essence, is God granting to us exactly what we want... that is, to be without God.

Many people don't see it that way, but it is. After all, if God created everything good because He is good, and we don't want God... logic dictates that we don't want anything that He deems as good either since you can't separate His goodness from Himself. So, He grants to us what we want... no mercy... no grace... no goodness.

This is death.

So, the soul that sins dies because that soul has chosen to not want God, who is life. The opposite of life is death. And so God grants the soul its wish.

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Now, all sins are not equal, and all deaths are not equal, but that's not the issue here.

The issue is that we, you and me, have sinned against God. We actively participate and enjoy in the things that are contrary to God. And have openly declared that we don't want God. Even going as far as to deny His very existence and replace Him with fairy tales of over active imaginations.

The bible declares that there will come a day when God will call us before Himself. And He will grant us our wish of being in a place without His love, goodness, mercifulness, graciousness, etc... to whatever degree our opposition to Him was - this is called hell.

The problem is that even though we don't want God, God wants us. As His creation, He loves us, and doesn't want us to be without Him. He wants us to rejoice in His goodness. He wants us to recognise, appreciate and love Him for who He is. Just like a father loves His children and wants His children to love Him, so God wants the same from us, His creation.

But the sin problem is still there. We still walk contrary to God. We still desire, and enjoy everything that shows we don't want God.

And what's worse, because God hasn't wiped off man from the face of the earth, sin continues and gets worse from generation to generation.

So now, instead of sinning because we make the conscious decision to do so (which we still do), but we are born sinners. We are born with impure hearts which doesn't reflect God. By nature, the things that are oppose to God comes naturally to us. The older we get, the worse our opposition to God becomes.

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So what does God do? God works with His creation. And makes a way for us to be with Him, even though we have sinned and deserve death.

Jesus, the Son of God, comes and willingly takes our place. He dies for the sins of all those who want to forsake sin, and be with God. The Father pours out His wrath on His son, Jesus. Jesus takes the "hell" that we should have taken and then dies. For the soul the sins will die.

But, because Jesus is God, the very one who created us, He rose from the dead, guaranteeing a brand new life for all those who turn away from their sin and turns to Him.

God gives us a promise that for all those who turn away from their sin, and turns to God asking Him for forgiveness, that He will forgive them.

Not only will He forgive them, but He will fill them with His very spirit so that their life right now will start to change and reflect Him rather than sin. They will become more and more like Jesus, who being God... did not sin.

God also creates in those people, a new soul. This new soul is made from the desire to turn away from sin and follow God.

When our bodies die, we will be resurrected in a new life just like Jesus was.

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This is the gospel. That Jesus, the Son of God, willingly came down from Heaven in order to save souls from hell, by taking upon Himself the payment of our sins - dying for us in order to establish the new life in resurrection.

When we realise that there is a creator, and we have willingly opposed Him, and that we do deserve to be separated from all that He is since we chose it - if at that point we turn to God begging for forgiveness seeking to turn away from our sin so we can be with Him, He will then be granted a relationship with Him which will grow for all eternity.

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Our hearts should be sorrowful for our sins, and at the same time thankful that God would have mercy upon us and accept us when we have done nothing but oppose Him.

Jesus is our saviour, not only laying down His life, but picking it back up again so that we can be brought back into relationship with Himself.

Salvation is only in Jesus, because He is the only one who paid the price that we rightfully incurred. In Jesus alone was salvation made available. In Jesus alone can our sins be forgiven. In Jesus alone can we truly begin to live right before God or creator and father. Loving Him as only a child could to a Father who constantly shows love towards us.

If you have this experience, being brought low because of the great multitude of your sin only to be lifted up off the ground by the hand of the King, then you are His. He has bought you for a price. Don't forget it.

For those who may call themselves Christian, but have not had this experience, examine yourself. Are you truly His? Because He personally comes to you, but only when you humble yourself and are ready to confess that you have done all the things that shows you never loved or wanted Him. He will come when your desire for Him is greater than your desire for sin.

He is our inheritance. He is our Joy. He is our life. He is our rock and our salvation. And it's by His name we are called... because we belong to Him.

Witness Encounter #2

One of the reasons why I am so adamant that the gospel should be declared when witnessing one on one is because of experiences I myself have had while witnessing.

I know a lot of people that hold the mistaken belief that witnessing is just handing out leaflets or an invitation to a church.

It is not.

On top of that, it would be one thing if the leaflets (or whatever is being handed out), actually had the gospel on it - but more often than not, it doesn't.



It's usually an invitation to a church instead of the gospel.

And if the person lives no where near the church, I guess that person is lost because the gospel was obviously not important enough for that church to actually put it on their leaflet - attendance at that particular church I guess is more important to them than the actual salvation of that person.

Many times, what is offered on the leaflet, along with a church invitation, is 'God will help you with your problems' - are you depressed, in debt, addicted to drugs and alcohol, well, Jesus can help you - come to this church at this time, where God will set you free.

Although those things are true, God can break the bondage of those things on your life, the problem is that the Gospel is what should be offered.

These people will come to the church looking to have a better life, not to be saved from the righteous judgement of God.

This is how many false converts are made. The church has offered them the wrong thing. And when the heat gets hot and these people fall away, the church calls them backsliders - but they were never actually saved to begin with, so they can’t slide back when they never left that state from the get go.

It really is sad.

Ultimately though, God is merciful and gracious. As we walk with God, our beliefs should change. Our understanding of the scriptures should get better and deeper, and the beliefs that we hold that are wrong should change.

If a person is truly saved, they can not stay the same over time - its not natural - and people who do stay the same need to be questioned on their beliefs to see if they are truly in the faith.

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This happened many years ago.

I think I was in Birmingham and the group I was with were on the streets witnessing one-on-one.

I started to witness to this guy who was collecting for charity.

He admitted he wasn't a Christian, didn't go to church, and didn't know anything of God or Jesus.

I explained to sin, death, the bible, Jesus, salvation... everything.

You could see that he was being convicted. As a matter of fact He actually asked how could he be saved.

Now, here's the problem. The church that I met with believed that you had to be a part of their church to be saved - stupid right - at the time, i didn't really understand - so i told him that he needs to turn away from his sin, ask for forgiveness from God, and follow Him from now on - and.... go to our church.

He was happy doing everything, but he didn't actually live in Birmingham. He was only there for a charity fundraiser for the weekend.

Where he actually lived, none of our churches were in that location.

My heart sunk - here is a guy that is ready to commit his life to Christ, but because I've added to the gospel that he must go to our church, as far as I was concerned, how could he be saved then.

You see, I didn't believe that God could save someone and that someone not go to a church. Although I didn't fully believe that it had to be our church, but to not be affiliated with a church was contradictory to what the church I attended taught.

Now, my beliefs have changed - Thank God. I can only pray that the guy was indeed converted to Christ anyway despite my bad gospel presentation.

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Now, in my witness encounter, if I had just given the guy a leaflet or invitation to our church, he wouldn't have heard the gospel because the gospel was never on the leaflets and posters, which is wrong.

Plus, he didn't even live in that city to be able to go to the church, so it would have been worthless.


I'm not saying that you can't invite people to church, but the gospel should be presented first - you have no idea whether the person will even live long enough to make it to the church to supposedly hear the gospel.

I say supposedly because if the church doesn’t find the gospel important enough to put on a leaflet or poster or whatever, you can be sure that the gospel isn't being properly preached in the church either.

At the end of any witness encounter, the person who is being witnessed to should at the very least leave that encounter hearing the gospel.


They should have had sin identified, their desperate need for a saviour, their current position before God, the role and actions of Christ, and what they need to do to be saved.

It is not our job to convict them. It is not our job to convert them. It is our job to tell them the gospel of Christ Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Spirit does the convicting, drawing, and converting.

It pains me when I see or hear Christians supposedly witnessing to people and the gospel isn't even declared. Salvation from the wrath of God isn't even mentioned. It’s all about a change in your life, and God wants to bless you.

That was the motto of that same church that I used to be affiliated with. 'We do this to see lives changed'

I'm sorry, but many things can change your life, but its only Jesus that can save your life.

We see too many random murders on the street for little to no reason at all to assume that people will even have another chance to hear the gospel. The bible clearly says that no one is promised tomorrow, but no one is promised this afternoon or this evening either.

The gospel is at the crux of Christianity, why do we deem it of lesser importance than church attendance.

If the gospel was good enough to be instrumental in our salvation, why do with think we have to add to it?

When we do these things, not only do we do other people a huge disservice, but we misrepresent who God is.

Think about the way you witness. Do you present the full gospel? Can people honestly say that you explained everything to them so they could make an informed decision at following Christ? When you talk of sin and salvation, do they know what you are talking about?

Do you even know what the gospel is? Or are you just handing out leaflets promoting your church?

I urge you to seriously consider these things. Question and examine yourself.

Is Jesus a creature of God?

Cornerstone: Hillsong

What is Theology?

Theology is the study of God. For the Christian, almost all (if not all) doctrine/beliefs we hold come from our understanding of who God is. Everything comes under the heading of theology and whether we know a little or a lot.

God gave us the bible in order for us to learn about Him through His various interactions with His creation.

We are encouraged to learn about God. We are told to seek Him with all of our heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

 

Although we can learn about a person's theology through their words, we can also learn it through their actions.

Our actions often give a better picture as to what we believe, especially when it comes to God.

We should be giving ourselves to studying about God. Who He is, what He's like, etc.

When we do this, we draw closer and closer to Him.

We sing the song 'Because of who You are I give You glory... Lord I worship You because of who You are' - yet we don't actually know who God is. We know very little about Him.

And although it's sad to say, there is a great number of people who name the name of Christ who are quite happy for it to be that way.

Getting to know someone takes time, effort, work. Getting to understand someone takes even more time, effort, and work.

Yet we think that when it comes to God, that we don't need to know much about Him.

Matthew 11:27-30

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

 

Jesus encourages us to get to know Him. God doesn't just want an casual acquaintance, but a deep relationship with us.

God already knows everything about us, and we should have that desire to know Him. After all, how can we say we love Him, when we don't want to know anything about Him.

SO HOW DO WE GET TO KNOW GOD

We read the scriptures.

We study the scriptures.

We meditate on His word.

And as we do those things, we ask God to reveal Himself to us and to give us understanding.

Hearing the word preached every Sunday is not enough. We can't have a relationship vicariously through the pastor. We must cultivate our own relationship with God.

Romans 14:5

One man esteems one day above another: another esteems every day the same. Let every man be fully convinced in his own mind

We are told that whatever we say we believe, we must take the time to understand and be fully convinced that its true/correct. We aren't to just take anybody's word just because they say God told them, or the bible says.

WHY DOESN'T GOD JUST TELL US ABOUT HIMSELF DIRECTLY

God actually does do this, but not for all things. For example, we know that lying is wrong. We know this from we're young without anybody having to tell it to us. And we use the lying to cover up something that we've done that we also know is wrong.

Where did this come from? God.

But here's the issue, even though God has given us this information, we don't understand why lying is wrong. It's not just the fact that God says its wrong so therefore its wrong.

When we cultivate our relationship with God by getting to know Him, we start to see the why behind what He says.

It's similar to when we tell a child don't touch something because it's hot. They may understand "don't touch", but if they have no experience with anything being hot, it holds very little to no meaning for them. It's only when they actually have an experience with something that is "hot" then they can start to have an understanding.

Now, that is in relation to directly telling us things. What about the things He doesn't tell us directly?

Think about it. If you have a relationship with someone, how much more meaningful is it to find out things about them without them having to tell you?

To that person, they appreciate it much more when you pay attention to who they are and the various things about them in order to find out what they like and dislike, rather than just coming out and telling you.

It's the same with God. God wants us to learn about Him. To take the time to find out about Him. That's how a relationship gets stronger.

When you look throughout the bible, the many names that God has is not because He declared Himself to be those things, but because in His dealings with His creation, people paid attention and recognised His attributes/characteristics and declared them.

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I encourage you to read, study, and meditate on the bible. Take the time to learn about God. Find out who He is and who He isn't. Find out what He likes, and what He doesn't like. Gain understanding behind the things He has said and has done. Because the more we learn about Him, the more we draw closer to Him.

With all that said, there is a flip side to this.

When we come to know things about God, we inevitably start to walk in His ways - this is good theology.

But, the less we know about Him, the more prone we are to bad theology.

Bad theology is, in a nutshell, attributing characteristics/actions/sayings to God that are not true.

Bad theology persists because people do not search for God. Maybe a better term would be non-theology, because its really beliefs that couldn't come about if we were actually studying God.

It would be similar to someone saying they are practicing biology, which is the study of life, and in regards to humans getting energy, they decide to stick their fingers into an electric socket.

We would say that's crazy, how could you come up with such an answer if your studying biology? That's exactly the point. If they were actually practicing biology, they wouldn't come to that conclusion, so it shows that they are not actually studying it.

Similarly, if someone says they are doing theology, the study of God, and they say God wants all His people to be healthy and wealthy - no matter how good it sounds, if they were actually doing theology, they wouldn't come to that conclusion.

What they are doing is non-theology. This shows that their view of God is incorrect. The characteristic/action/saying that they have attributed to God is wrong.

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Now, God knows that this will happen. When we practice theology we will start to see that God is aware that we will make these mistakes time and time again. That's one of the reasons why He has provided us with written documentation for us to learn of Him, the bible.

He knows that we will come to the wrong conclusions about Him based on our lack of knowledge, which is why He tells us to study the bible.

But He also knows that there are people who do not have a relationship with Him, and intentionally seek to lead people astray and offer them a different God, but say that this God is the same God of the bible - when its not.

From the old to the new testament, we are warned that people will come with the intention of leading us away from God in order to follow other gods. We are told that some will be outright brazen about it, but we're also told that some will be secretive and deceptive.

Some will seek to entice us with words and promises, while others will seek to turn us away by visions, prophecies, and miracles... that will seem to actually be happening.

Although its easy to reject those who make no bones about what they are doing (preachers of other religions), its the ones who are secretive and deceptive that causes the most problem. These are those who even call themselves Christians. Lead big congregations. Are will known and highly esteemed. But the god they god they preach and teach about is not the same God described in the bible.

How will we know the difference? Theology. Study God. Learn about who He is. The more we know and know about the true God, the more we'll be able to spot a counterfeit.

Learn of God. Learn about the Good Shepherd. Learn about His rod and His staff, and be comforted by that knowledge. Be diligent in Theology - the study of God. Amen.

Witness Encounter #1

On my way home from class yesterday, I was approached by a guy, his teenage son and young daughter, while I was waiting for the bus stop.

He had a bunch of leaflets in his hand so I figured that He was going to witness to me.

The majority of the time, I actually allow myself to be witnessed to for three reasons.

1. I want to encourage the person to witness more by actually giving them the chance to do so.

2. To possibly learn a new/better way to witness to people.

3. Check if the gospel (or whatever is) presented is biblical, and if not, to hopefully show/teach that person what is biblical in order to help them evangelise better



Anywhoo... so the conversation went like this.

Guy: Are you a Christian?

Me: Yes I am

 

Guy: What church do you go to?

Me: What does it matter

 

Guy: Well, if you are committed to a church, that shows that you are committed to God.

Me: No it doesn't

 

Guy: Yes it does. Because people who are Christian should be in the church as iron sharpens iron.

Me: I agree with that but just because a person is committed to a church doesn't mean they are saved at all. There are plenty of religious people who go to church every Sunday and believe that they are saved but are not.

 

Guy: Well, I don't know what's going on in people's lives so I can't say one way or the other, but once that person is committed to a church then they will eventually be committed to God.

Me: You can't say that. If the church is not biblical and teaching false doctrine you can't assume that just because its called a church that people there will eventually be saved. Even if they weren't preaching false doctrine, it’s still not something you can promise.

 

Guy: Well that's what I believe.

Me: The bible doesn't say that though.

 

Guy: I just talked to a guy around the corner who says He was a Christian but doesn't go to church.

Me: There may be reasons why He isn't a member of a church. Maybe all the churches he's been to are preaching false doctrine and he'd rather find one that doesn't instead of stay in one that does just because someone says he need to be committed to a church.

 

Guy: I believe that its better for an unsaved person to be committed to a church, than for a saved person to not be committed to a church.

Me: That's not biblical. Being committed to a church does not grant salvation to someone. And there can be a myriad of reasons why a Christian is not committed to a church.

 

Guy: You are saved though

Me: Yes, but if I wasn't saved, you haven't said anything that would've converted me. All you asked me was whether I was a Christian and the name of the church I go to. Any religious person would answer those questions and be satisfied that they were saved, even if they were not. When witnessing, you shouldn't dwell on subjects that religious people would feel justified in themselves.

 

Guy: I'm sorry

Me: There's nothing to apologise to me for. You said earlier that iron sharpens iron. That's what's going on right now. I'm trying to help you. You are at a bus stop. So the people here are waiting for their bus. If I wasn't saved, and you asked me those two questions and my bus came, I'd cut the conversation short, get on my bus, and feel justified in myself that I'm a Christian. You should ask heavier questions to get people to actually think about whether they are saved or not. I'm not saying that you can't build a rapport with someone if you have the time to, but you really need to bring the gospel to the forefront. Ask the proper questions.

 

Guy: Like do you have Jesus in your life.

Me: Yes, but even that can be answered by a religious person. If you asked that question, and a person says yes, then the next thing you could ask is - How do you know? You need to get through the fluff and get to the heart of the matter....at this point, the guy's kids were looking really bored, so he left.

I did not get the impression that he took any of the things I said to heart, and felt that he would say the same thing to the next person he had the chance to "witness" to.

I did take a leaflet anyway - just so I could examine it.

Upon doing so, surprise… surprise, the gospel was not present. No where on the leaflet did it actually show how to get saved, and there was plenty of room for it to.

Here is some of the stuff on it:

- Do you have Jesus in your life?

- He came into this world to give us hope, and to give us peace and joy in our hearts.

- Why not try this Jesus and receive the gift of eternal life.

- Lord Jesus, I accept you as my Lord and Saviour. I know that you died for my sins and that God raised you from the dead. Come into my heart, that God's will be achieve in my life.

- Romans 10:9, John 3:16, Acts 4:12

When I realised that it didn't show how to be saved, I went to look for the guy in order for me to ask him about it, but I couldn't find him again.

In all of that, the gospel was not declared.

Let's say I didn't live in London, and was just visiting someone for the day, so couldn't even go to this person's church if I was interested. Because the leaflet didn't declare the gospel fully, or even show how to receive salvation, I would have gone back home no more better than I left, if the only thing I encountered spiritually was this guy.

This is a shame.

Objections to the Resurrection

Victor's Crown: Darlene Zschech