By: rafa

rafa — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:04:00 +0000

Hey,
I think what your friend is referring to is the Faithful Remnant, a group of humans found through out the world seeking righteousness and trying as much as possible to avoid evil. These are brothers and sisters that aren’t as ready to follow our path but are nonetheless seeking the God of Righteousness. I say path purposely because in your post you equate proper biblical practice with discipleship, yet the early church, beginning at Pentecost, had the promised Spirit way before Orthodoxy formulated the Bible. We have been taught to place so much emphasis on Doctrine that we forget that the Spirit that Jesus promised is like the wind which comes and goes as He pleases. I’m guessing I sound like a liberal Christian to you right about now. I’ll continue anyway. You state that anyone who does not follow the 10 commandments can hardly be considered a Christian but Jesus said the whole of the law hangs on loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself (Mathew 22:37).
You also state that a relationship with the Spirit of God is only possible through the Bible? I knew what Love felt like long before I could read the Bible or any book for that matter. As a matter of fact, any of the fruits of the Spirit that the Bible speaks of, I experienced before I read Galatians 5:22. If you really think about it, you too experienced the Spirit before you read the Bible. Is it so odd to think that others from non christian religions experience these same things and attribute it to their God and not Jesus?
You may have grown up in the Church and therefore your entire nature/ nurture has been Orthodox Christian, I didn’t. I was born again as an adult. I remember that before being born again I was not the judgemental type. I remember this was especially true upon being born again. Man I was so happy then I felt I could love the world the way the Lord loved me, unconditionally. Then as I began to be taught the bible I started becoming judgemental and conditional, constantly concerned with proper orthodoxy. I now had a measure by which to judge good from evil, right from wrong and I was using it and insisting that others use it as well. It was more than a decade later when I had studied the Bible backwards and forwards that it dawned on me that the standard I was consistently using to categorize people was the Biblical doctrines I had learned. I was dangling Jesus and salvation like a carrot on a stick in front of my non christian buddies insistent that they could have both if they joined me.
The next time you talk to that friend from Boston maybe you should look at him or her as someone who is looking for the goodness in people and not as someone trying to sneak people in to Heaven. No one will sneak in to Heaven (Mathew 22:12) I have a hunch that the Spirit is going to invite (at Jesus’ command) any and all that He considers worthy of His shed blood and the Christians in Heaven will give him praise and glory for his Regalness. The King will pardon whom He will.

Comments on: A God Journey

By: rafa