This is a question
we have been asked recently. The questioner appeared to think
that all 'believers' should live completely harmoniously
together. But this is surely both naive and
impractical.
If Jesus Christ is the very Son of God and if the teachings
contained within the Holy Bible will dress and furnish us for
salvation (though only God can save us), then it is surely rather
important that we do not misappropriate those teachings! One lady
said to me, "Jesus never criticised other people's teachings and
doctrines - so why do you?" I must admit that I was shocked at
her assertion! I pointed out His powerful criticism of the
religious leaders of His day. Jesus launched quite a sustained
attack on them from Matthew 5: 20 to Matthew 6: 18. Then I
pointed out Matthew 7: 15-29, Matthew 10: 34-39, Matthew 15: 1-14
and virtually the whole of Matthew 23; these were major attacks,
reaching a climax, perhaps, in that 23rd chapter. In short, Jesus
was quite prepared to tell people when they 'fell short'- He was
not a 'men-pleaser'. But what of His own disciples and followers?
Did Jesus display an attitude of 'as long as they have me, they
can hold whatever beliefs/use any approach they want?' Now I
pointed out such Scriptures as Matthew 24:23-27, and the whole of
Matthew 25. Then I asked this lady to go back and read Jesus'
words in Matthew 7: 21-23. There is no doubt that in these
Scriptures Jesus is talking about His followers at the time of
His return. Is His attitude one of, 'Well, as long as they have
Jesus, they can hold whatever beliefs/doctrines they want?' That
is not an attitude which we find coming across in these
Scriptures at all! So let us look at Matthew 7: 21-23;
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord,Lord,'shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord,Lord,'have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done
many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who practise
lawlessness!'
Quite obviously, here we see people who feel themselves to be
followers of Jesus. They consider themselves Christians!! They
are indignant at Jesus' rejection of them. And please note that I
have so far confined myself to just one New Testament book ; The
Gospel of Matthew.
If one were to broaden the scriptural approach, ones case would
be corroborated even further. Paul, in the first chapter of
Galatians, is utterly scathing about those who were undermining
the gospel in that province. Lets remind ourselves of just a few
of his words:
"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who
called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which
is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to
pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached
to you,let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say
again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you
have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1: 6-9).
These are the most strong and condemning words which we ever find
Paul using in the Scriptures! Obviously, then, it matters rather
a lot that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not
perverted. Yet somebody who supports the prosperity teaching
recently said to me,
"You'll catch more flies with honey than with
vinegar"
Actually, I do not think that the person who made that remark
realised the seriousness of it, because that individual was
comparing the true New Testament gospel to 'vinegar' and the
gospel with the prosperity message closely entwined, was being
compared to 'honey'. I think we should all try to be more
responsible about our use of words!!
Now of course Christians do not constantly have to disagree. We
ourselves have upset some people by saying that Christians should
not be bickering over such things as whether infant baptism is
fully biblical, the timing of the 'millenium' and whether or not
there will be a 'rapture' before Christ returns, we should be
prepared to agree to differ in some of these areas, since we are
never going to completely agree in every aspect of God's Word.
But we should all be able to hold to the great creeds, for
example, which outline the essential biblical truths. We should
all be able to agree that the Bible is divinely inspired, that we
have a responsibility to preach the gospel, and to warn this
society of the way it is going with its sell-out to liberalism
and pluralism. These are all areas where biblical Christians
should be standing together and as one! We should be anticipating
Christ's glorious return to this earth (while refusing, however,
to get too strung up on 'prophetic particularism' which will lead
to us arguing with those whose approach is different).
But certain things are important. To be frank, the teachings of
the Word-Faith movement - and the prosperity teaching which
largely emanates from it - actually pervert that essential
gospel message, so we have to sound warning here. But people from
this background can usually be brought back 'on track'- the
errors are not usually as hard to overcome as those who have been
badly affected by 'New Age' and the cults, for instance. But our
warnings are comparatively gentle, we are not as hard-hitting as
some, we rarely mention names; we just want to bring people back
into a close walk with Jesus Christ.
So we are not too critical of others at all, but what museltof
christian ministries do say is:
Let us all at least agree on the essentials of the gospel message
- that message which (as Paul shows us) must not be
perverted in any way! Then let us - by whatever means the Lord
has opened to us - get on with preaching that message!
Museltof
2002.
UK
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