How else does one describe a church-goer who says, “The Bible is…….”?

The day I took a stand to reject the “religious” Jesus Christ of my imagination and embrace the biblical Lord Jesus Christ of truth, is the day I knew I would come under much sniggering, mockery, insults and abuse from unbelieving people, but I was not expecting the same from people who claimed to be Christian.  The venom spewed from the mouths of these people turned out to be far worse and more intense indeed.  It was a little to difficult too understand at first, that is, until I found out that the label “Christian” really doesn’t mean much at all.

I found out that one who is a regular church-goer, born into the “faith,” baptized, and can recite their prayers and creeds by rote, is more likely to be religious than Christian, in the true sense of that word. I made that decision based not on their knowledge of the Bible or how well they lived up to its revelations and declarations, but rather, on their expressed attitude towards the Bible. It is the Bible alone that describes to us what a Christian is and it is our response to the Bible alone that tells us if we are one or not. Right here, I hear the mantra from someone, “you mustn’t be judgmental.” I’m not. By their expressed attitude they judged themselves.

Only within the pages of the Bible alone do we find accurate revelation about the existence, personality, nature and grace of God, plus the deity, humanity, Virgin birth, death, resurrection, ascension and the second coming of Jesus Christ.  No other book, “holy” or otherwise, gives such systematic, detailed information.  Only within the pages of that same book do we find the will and plans of God for people as they were in times past, as they are in times present and as they are in times future.  To be ignorant of this information is not what disqualifies us as a Christian, but to reject it (either some or all), does.

Fundamentalist!!  That was/is a favorite label spewed out on me and others like me – not by the unbelievers, but by the religious.  I don’t bow to labels, but perhaps they are right, because to me, God is in His word, the Bible.  That biblical written word is the representative of God.  My attitude towards that biblical word is my attitude towards God.  I do not obey God more than I obey His word.  I do not believe God more than I believe His word.  I do not have more room for God in my life than I do for His word.  The way I relate to His word is the way I relate to God.  That alone, plus nothing else, qualifies or disqualifies me as a Christian.

Compromiser!!  He or she perhaps, will not bow to labels either, but how else does one describe a church-goer who says the Bible is not the objective word of God, but an errant source of truth to pick and chose from?  How else does one describe a church-goer who says that God’s character is one of benevolence without standards and that sin does not separate us from Him and that he will not judge sinners?  How else does one describe a church-goer who calls God a liar by saying that all people are not fallen creatures, but rather, good at heart?  How else does one describe a church-goer who says the Bible is antiquated and outdated?

Qualified as religious, yes; but disqualified as Christian, is everyone who won’t take their stand for the God who reveals Himself in His Son Jesus Christ from the opening verses in Genesis to the closing verses in Revelation – sixty-six books, one-thousand, one-hundred and eighty-nine chapters, twenty-three thousand, two-hundred and fourteen verses and seven-hundred and seventy-three thousand, six-hundred and ninety-two words (Authorized KJV).  I marvel at religious church-goers who elevate the martyrs of old to saint-hood.  Most of them, blind to the fact that it was the martyrs’ stand for the Bible alone, that cost them their lives; killed by the very same kind of compromising people Luke 11:47-48.

In the Old Testament we read of God telling his people that they were destroyed because of a lack of knowledge.  He was speaking about the lack of truth operating in their lives – their ignorance as to the word and will of God.  So ignorant were they of such that they were led into captivity.  But for many, it was ignorance by choice.  Their leaders had rejected truth and substituted it for whatever came into their heads and the people were happy to have it so, because it cost them nothing.  Rather than operate their lives out of facts which built true faith and empowerment for living, they opted for religious error, lies, opinions and fantasies. 

There was only one outcome from such a choice and that is, their lives failed to work.  Instead of  being victors in life, they became victims – victims to their feelings, resulting in confusion and fear.  The true Christian’s faith is always only ever in proportion to what is truth.  In other words, the greater God is to you, the greater will be your faith – the smaller God is to you, the smaller your faith.  People of little faith know little of God.  It is the principle of proportion.  On the streets I encountered lots of church-goers who operated their lives on what God’s word does not say.  This made them feelings-based people, not faith-based people.

As an example, they were quick to tell me, “I think the Bible is….” or “I think God or Jesus is….” but they were unable or unwilling to tell me, “I know the Bible is….” or “I know God or Jesus is….”  Satan the devil is never threatened by the one who says, “I think….”  But he most certainly is threatened by the one who says, “I know….”  How did I learn that?  I learned it by way of the very people he was operating through – religious, Bible-compromising church-goers.  I learned it, as stated earlier, by the venom that came spewing out of their mouths.    

What one thinks he knows and what one does know about God and the Bible can be two vastly different things and often was the time when I experienced someone wanting to drag me down into their, “I think” realm.  As a new Christian, I quickly learned that if I did not undertake to devote my life to the on-going study of the Bible, then sooner or later I ran the risk of looking silly in my biblical proclamations as a messenger.  I was not too concerned about myself looking that way, but I was not going to play any part in making God look silly.  Too many people despise God today, because of the foolishness of religious people.

Churches today that are boring, stagnant and declining, are not an expression of the living Lord Jesus Christ, they are an expression of the leadership and its people.  The same applies to the churches caught up in ritual, ceremony and tradition.  If the church truly belongs to Jesus it will always express His vitality and life and people’s lives will dramatically change.  Sicknesses will heal, marriages and relationships will be restored, people will speak up for Christ, giving witness to His reality.  Most do not express or give witness to any such thing, so the church-goer only has him or herself to blame – although I’ve never heard of one who has ever acknowledged that.

Why are the “religious” so venomous in their attacks on the Bible and those who take their stand upon it?  Well, it confronts them with who they are and what they are, plus the requirement to change.  They know it.  They know it because God has set that knowledge deep within their innermost being.  Not one of us is exempt from this.  You could say that the Scriptures are a letter from God telling us what He wants us to do.  Religious man doesn’t like that because he wants to be in control – always.  That’s the picture we see from the first religious man, Cain. 

Cain didn’t want to humble himself to meet God’s requirement’s, he was a proud man who set up his own religious system and standard. And so envious and jealous was he of his brother Abel, who did offer God the sacrifice He required, he killed him for it. Nothing has changed in history. “Religious” Cain is still doing his uttermost to destroy non-compromising, biblical, born again Abel, and will continue to do so right up until Christ comes back to rule upon the earth. Church-goers enjoy the process of trying to achieve goodness, perfection and acceptance with God by their own efforts Acts 7:41. 

Born again, Holy Spirit-led, Christ-centered, Bible-based believers on the other hand, enjoy the process of allowing God take the initiative in their lives as He brings about real change – being conformed to the image of His Son.  On the Day of Christ, each one of us will be judged by God as to how much we have conformed to the Lord’s image.  We will not be judged on how much we have conformed to the demands of leaders, denominations, religious traditions, rules, laws and practices.  “……For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person Psalm 31:23.  “……But on this one will I look: on him who is poor (humble) and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles (reveres) at My word.”  Isaiah 66:2.