By Michael John McCrae
2005/2/13 13:29:07
Being a "born again" Christian, I have the full assurance of salvation because I believe the promises of the one true God of Heaven. This assurance does bother some people. Personally I don't think on it much. When you walk around a combat zone you remain alert to danger, but you don't let that build into immobilizing fear. The Christian stands and considers that fact that should he become absent from his body all of a sudden, he will be present with the Lord.
The people who object to such assurance are usually atheists or moderate religionists. The atheists just outright condemn any effort to speak from the Word of God. I believe that the true Word of God is that contained in the 66 historical, prophetical, poetical and doctrinal letters of the Hebrew/Christian Bible. The 66 writings, taken as a single work, all speak of the same God and his great gift to mankind. The Bible just makes sense.
Some of the objectors will try every regular argument to make a Christian “face facts” that God cannot be proven. The argument for proof or disproof of God’s existence is vital to the atheist. The Moderate will at least admit God is real, but he stops at accepting the Bible, which is the only book available that explains the “real” God they admit to. So, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The atheist, at least, comes right out and says there is no God and Christians are ignorant dolts to fall for such myths.
It does not matter what you write back to either the atheist or the moderate. Their arguments are time tested and tough. They’re also wrong; but you cannot tell them that.
Even a cursory reading of scripture tells the Christian that God does not tolerate sin. He loves the sinner enough to want to save him. The offer of salvation is extended worldwide by many evangelical sources and activities. Souls are saved every day in every nation by the faithfulness of those who carry the Gospel of Christ.
Any religion that tolerates sin is not standing on the true God of Heaven. There is a right and there is a wrong. The Christian need not apologize for anything God has declared. The truly faithful are filled with God’s Spirit and hold an assurance the unbeliever cannot fathom.
There is no need to “prove” anything. God has set forth himself in all of creation. The scriptures declare that even the invisible things clearly reveal the power of the Godhead. No man has an excuse for disbelief. Yet, Christians who speak and write such things are “intolerant”, “bigoted”, and, of course, “homophobic”.
All those names aside, it is a shame that the unbeliever does not see the heart of the faithful Christian that desires, like God, to see all souls saved.
The scriptures will tell the Christian to use a “soft answer”. The “soft” answer turns human wrath away. Many times this is proven true. Some of the more “die-hard” objectors will impersonate a “terrier-with-a-sock”; expecting their argument to cause a rejection of righteousness.
Political correctness and consideration could possibly destroy faith. It has already destroyed the scriptural foundations of many of the world’s orthodox religions. We see acceptance of immoral lifestyles from the pulpits of “modernized” and “enlightened” religions. God has gotten with the times and loves everyone.
While I would never dispute the fact that God does “love everyone”; I would have to remind the unbeliever and the moderate religionist that God still, very much, objects to sin. He has not sent the world a “Prophet” of moderation, or modernization that has changed the rules of morality in any way.
The next time God shows himself to this world, he will be carrying a “rod of iron” which he will use to “smite” the bad guys with. Now, when God “smites” someone, they usually stay “smote”.
Jesus told a man named Nicodemus that all men had to be “born again” or “born from above” or they would not see the kingdom of God. Why would God say something like that if it were not a fact of eternal existence? Since God “cannot lie” I would suggest, logically, that what Jesus spoke was true.
The key to becoming “born again” can be found in the pages of the 66 records contained in the Hebrew/Christian Bible. I can’t make you read it. I can only point you to it. I can only give my personal testimony and try to explain how I can be so sure God is faithful to his promises.
A long time ago, God knocked a Pharisee off his horse, blinded him and told him to stop killing those who he had saved. This Pharisee listened to the voice of God. Of course, if you had been knocked off a horse and blinded, you’d listen too. Paul the Apostle not only listened, but later spread the Gospel of Christ.
Every “born again” Christian has been knocked off a horse. They know it, because they know what they were, before what they became. I’ll discuss more of that another time.
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