You've brought a very good point, Aunty.
There are numerous creeds within Christianty.
In several cases, one group does not recognize other group as Christians.
A house divided against itself will never stand…..this is what Jesus said when the Scribes accused him of using the power of Beelzebub…..
“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.” (Mark 3:24-26 ESV)
Satan has a world empire of false religion, catering to every taste in all nations. His house is about to crumble.
God has only ever had “one House” and one group of worshippers who were exclusively his. His worship was not to be contaminated by the beliefs and practices of the people who were alienated from him. In Noah’s day we can see how the wickedness of the people was promoted by demonic interference. God acted to restore order.…wiping out those opposers in a spectacular fashion. Not a soul who perished had a single excuse to offer God once the rain started to fall because it was God who closed the door of the ark…not Noah. He had been sounding the warning from the beginning…..so they had not only his words but the works that backed them up.
The Jewish people were separated from the nations who worshipped other gods, but even though they failed many times to remain separate, God disciplined them and left a record of their activities for future generations to see where they went wrong and what God did about it. Their bad example and punishment, taught us more than the few times in their history where they actually obeyed and were blessed.
In ancient times the Patriarchs were the leaders of their own clans and taught God’s truth by word of mouth.
Noah, Job and Abraham were examples of this…..and it was Abraham’s descendants who were charged with producing God’s Messiah. God kept them as his people until that time arrived to bring him into the world. When he grew up in that corrupted Jewish system, and assumed his God-given role as Messiah, he never stopped exposing the religious leaders of his day as the woeful hypocrites that they had proven themselves to be. (Matt ch. 23; Matt 15:7-9)
But the one thing Jesus stressed throughout his ministry was the role of God’s Kingdom in the lives of his disciples.…and the value of obedience to God in all things.
The kingdom was the answer to all questions about who God was, and what his purpose was in creating us humans, and putting us here on earth in the first place……it was never about them going to heaven …..which is something the Jews never believed and still don’t.
Heaven was not mentioned until Jesus came. Don’t we have to ask why?
Progressive revelation of truth is what God has always provided to his servants……what we need to know will be provided when we need to know it.
His first century apostles and disciples did not understand the fact that heaven was the place where they would serve God for all eternity. According to their Jewish understanding, the Kingdom of God was to be established on earth…..Genuine Christian understand how the kingdom is both earthly and heavenly…..
I agree with some of your beliefs and I also agree with some of what Matthias believes but the differences are monumental to me.
What is your understanding of God’s kingdom, Pancho?
If an atheist is drawn to become a Jehovah Witness, a Mormon, a Catholic, a Unitarian, a non-structured Quaker, an Ethiopian Coptic, a Messianic Jew, a member of Christian Science, was that atheist drawn by the Holy Spirit?
Good question…..but don’t we need to ask why Yahweh, who had a record of strict exclusivity, would all of a sudden accept all forms of worship when he had been so careful in trying to keep the adoption of false beliefs out of the lives of his people? What changed? Or did it?
Was it not humans under the devil’s influence who suggested that God might do this? That idea is absent from the Bible which teaches “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”……and that is another important point…God only ever had one holy book, which contained one truth from one author, using his personally chosen secretaries. All writers of Scripture were Jews. It is a book written from the Jewish perspective…..it influenced Christ’s perspective as a Jewish worshipper of his God….so we have to understand that Jewish perspective when reading it.
Christendom added its own flavor over time, which was a fusion of weakened original Christianity and the worship of pagan deities adopted from the nations…especially the Greeks and Romans who were very influential in their day. (2 Cor 6:14-18) God said there was to be no fusion…that being the case, where does that leave Bahai’s?
There were no other prophets to come after Jesus. He was the last one and his words are echoed in all that the apostles taught.
To me, whoever is drawn to the life Christ taught us to live, is guided by the Holy Spirit.
The devil could never do that, according to Jesus Himself.
OK, so now we have to define that “life”…..what is it that marks the difference e between the “wheat and the weeds” that Jesus said would be manifest at the time of his judgment?
Through the teachings of Jesus Christ, God always grouped mankind into only two categories…..”wheat and weeds” ”sheep and goats”…..travelers on two roads, (one leading to life and the other to death) and there was always a clear line of demarcation between the two….one held to the truth of scripture and the other did not. So here we have the dilemma produced by the master deceiver….who is teaching the truth and who has accepted a counterfeit that was sown centuries ago but accepted by the masses?
I can only speak for myself…..but I am highly analytical and logical in my approach to all subjects……the Bible most especially. The story it tells from Genesis to Revelation has to be one story, harmoniously and seamlessly joined by the many secretaries who were chosen to write it. Revelation has to end the story that began in Genesis.…and all the the parts in the middle have to contribute something as to how God accomplished his first purpose to bring about that logical conclusion. (Isa 55:11)
What are your thoughts….?
