How Liberal Churches Are Like The Federal Government

Today I was considering the course our nation has gone… from being among the richest nation in the world to being basically owned by the Chinese.  Today I was also considering the course of various churches in our community.  They have gone from being Bible based with eternity and godliness being their focus…  to shallow speaking shells whose children are fleeing from them….

And I asked "why?"

Because both entities have made the same mistake. Both thought they were smarter than God and ignored His precepts.  Both have gone down a road that had an “unknown price”  to pay for it.  Both are now finding out the price for their choices.  Such is the way of sin…..

Consider…

"For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order : if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either."   II Thessalonians 3:10

Merry Christmas, Merry X-Mas, Christian Confusion & The Whole Nine Yards

Well, this year is a lot like most years.  Some are desperately trying to “put Christ back in Christmas”.  Some are trying to kick Christ out of everything to do with our civilization.  Some are so mixed up they don’t know which way to jump.

Sometimes I must confess I am the latter. Here’s my dilemma...  As a Christian, I am absolutely compelled to stand up for my Lord and Christianity in general.  However, what most people consider to be “Christianity” is not truly Christianity.  Ironically, those wishing to attack Christianity, often end up attacking Catholicism or some other denominational variant instead.
  
With Christmas in mind, let’s pick one example of confusion: The nativity scenes. . .

In recent years, there has been a full court press against the public display of nativity scenes.  Those attacks are intended to drive Christianity from the public spectrum.  Ironically anyone who has a respect for the Bible, is going to be loathe to defend the nativity scenes (regardless of the motives of those attacking them!). These same Christians (myself included) may aggressively wish to defend the fact that Christianity played a huge role in developing our culture, and it’s eventual success. 


Why can’t I defend the nativity scenes?   Let me count the ways. . .
1)  Angels over the manger. The angels appeared to the shepherds in the field.  Luke 2:8ff. The angels spoke to the shepherds.  Then, “When the angels had gone away from them into heaven,”  (Luke 2:15)  the shepherds went to the manger and saw it all. Were the angels around all this? You bet. Do I have a right to place them at the manger when the Word of God doesn’t say they were there?

2)  The three wise men.  How many wise men? The bible doesn’t say.  Many of the oldest traditions hold that there were 12.  (not three). It is thought that tradition has eventually settled on three wise men because of the three gifts.

What Denomination Are You?

“If {anyone suffers} as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” (I Peter 4:16)

We are simply Christians: no more, no less. That’s what Jesus wants us to be.  Wouldn’t you agree?  Have you noticed that churches seem to have a hard time deciding to be content to be just churches? Christians need to be content to be Christians and churches need to be content to be churches.  What does the Bible actually teach us?

Most are unaware that the modern series of divisions that we call denominationalism is actually addressed (in principle) by the Bible.  “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”  (I Corinthians 1:10)

What You May Not Know About Christmas

Today’s article (see below) will allow a bit of a father’s pride to show through.  It was written by my daughter.  She had done her own research with the intention of drawing her own conclusions and explaining why she believed what she believed to her friends.  She then sent it to me to edit and criticize… I asked for permission to send it out on my “Jottings”

Christians that study scripture will rapidly find themselves in a dilemma.  What can we participate in and defend?  For example, only a light reading of scripture reveals that the nativity scenes pass on a sorely mistaken view of what actually happened the night our Lord was born. As the ACLU attacks their placement in public places with a view to attacking Christianity… Our dilemma is, how do we defend Christianity without defending what is not really Christianity?

There is a certain joy that comes with watching your children come of age and establish families of their own.  That joy runs even deeper as you watch them choose Christian spouses and then establish Christian families.

Yours in Christ,
Jerry Blount

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What You May Not Know About Christmas...

What does the Bible say?

I don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday- the reason being that the Bible doesn’t tell me to. Under the Old Law, God was very specific about the holy days He wanted observed. He told what event was to be remembered, what should be taught, how and when to observe the celebration. Today… we aren’t under the Old Law anymore (refer to Hebrews 8-10), and God radically changed the way worship occurs in the New Testament. The only way we are commanded to remember Christ with a ceremony today is the Lord's Supper which we observe every Sunday. (1 Cor 11:23-26, Ac 20:7). The New Testament church did not celebrate the birth of Christ in any special way. If Jesus wanted us to celebrate His birthday, He would have told us to celebrate it, when and how to celebrate it. God has given us all instruction about life and godliness in the scriptures (2 Peter 1:3, 2 Timothy 3:16-17). It’s not my place to add in any religious holidays or observances that God didn’t command (Rev. 22:18).
 
 
When was Jesus born?

         No one knows the date Jesus was born! Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 describe Christ’s birth. December 25th, or any Roman or Hebrew equivalent is not mentioned! What we do know is that the shepherds were abiding in the fields, watching over their sheep at night (Luke 2:8), which wouldn’t be the case in December. “It's a well-known fact that December falls in the middle of the rainy season in Palestine, and the sheep were kept in the fold at that time of the year.”3 (Refer to Ezra 10:9-13, Song of Solomon 2:11, which show winter as the rainy season and shepherds could not be out on the cold, open fields at night with their sheep.)

God "Character Profiles" a False Teacher

"Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.  For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting." (Romans 16:17-18)

Have you noticed that when doctrinal disputes take place among the leaders within the realm of Christianity, their doctrinal points are sometimes hard to follow?  Sometimes the rank and file among Christians just get so lost that they make their decisions not on the truths or errors being discussed but on the basis of where they “wish” to go… or what they “want” to do. Normally that means taking the easy route, or just following the crowd.

Part of the reason for all of this is that the offer made by the false teacher is normally “easier” than the narrow road. How many times have you been told as a Christian that, “You need to just loosen up?”  Today, there is a drive to relax God’s teaching on a variety of things ranging from the way the church is run to throwing out His morality laws in a variety of areas … particularly Marriage.

"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned."  (II Peter 2:1-2)

So They Call This Worship?

Wherefore Come out from among them, and be ye separate...

Text for today’s article:

"And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." (II Corinthians 6:15-17)

It has been sometime since I have written, owing to the distractions of building onto my house.  However, I have had opportunity to research the modern homogenization of the church into worldly entertainment that is sweeping our country.  I will share this research with you.  As with the threat of Islam, most people among the older generation have no idea what is afoot, or at least how far it goes.  Today, I’d like to take a peek into this subject.

Three specific contemporary trends come to mind:
1.  The community church movement and contemporary worship services.
2.  The loss of discipline and godliness as a cornerstone of faithful religion.
3.  The final act: setting aside Jesus as insignificant and unimportant.  (Oprah’s version of church)

Not every church moving in this direction involves all three trends, but any one of the three is a movement away from the established truths of scripture.

A History Lesson on Mormonism

Last week I sent out an email to the list comparing the Mormon's founders to the founders of Christianity. I noted that virtually every signatory witness to the golden plates either repudiated their testimony, left the mormon faith or was excommunicated before they died. Comparably, we also noted that none of the authors of your Bible ran... even though most of then became martyrs. 

Today's email is somewhat of a follow-up from last week.

I was unprepared for the quantity and varied nature of the comments about Mormonism that followed. There seems to be a renewed interest in displacing what I would call a willful ignorance of Mormonism.  It is likely to be because of Mitt Romney's being a Mormon. We live in a funny world. Most churches are so afraid of sounding negative they just leave their members wallowing in ignorance.

I am reminded of another time...

Hosea 4: 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

By the same token, the behavior of the original Mormons was so inappropriate that most Mormons just do not want to know either! I have always thought how sad it was that Mormon leaders really have had to hide much of their history from their members. The Bible deals directly with this mindset. 

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”  Jeremiah 5:31

Now a Mormon wants to be president and people don’t know whether they should be afraid or not. 

To make a long story short, a couple years back,  our high school class was asking some pointed questions about the origins of the various churches. They also wanted to know how one church could be as good as another! Logically our young people were properly concluding that just couldn’t be so.  They knew they were correct and were asking for a basis to judge various churches as adults. Well, we don't leave our children ignorant. This is the material I used in that class. 

Providentially at  about the same time, I was studying with some young Mormon elders that had come to my door. These 20 year old “elders” complained that all they heard was negative things said about the Mormons.  They elaborated that people just read bad things about the LDS church. I thought about it awhile and decided that part of their complaint was fair.  It is important to know what Mormons really say, rather than what others say they say…  I determined that I  would concentrate on finding my material in the LDS documents rather than just from others.

What is a Contemporary Worship Service?

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."   Matthew 15:14

It seems like over and over this question has been coming up lately.  As this email list has grown, folks from all over have been asking about this.   Almost all the older generation is against this innovation... They just can't seem to figure out why!  Since this is a computer distributed (emailed) article let me recommend that you try an experiment to answer your own question. 

Run a word search on your Bible using your computer and see if you can find a contemporary worship service. Did you?  Me neither.  “Contemporary” doesn’t even occur in my version of the bible (NASV) or a KJV.  What does that tell you?  Churches going this direction are going where they have no instruction from Christ! 

Normally the churches instituting this “contemporary” worship service have long ago quit looking to the Bible for direction.  Almost always, they institute it as a separate service…. Why?  Because if they didn’t the “old” people would walk out!  And the leaders know it! 

Jesus Teaches Us How To Judge a Church (Part 2)

*If you missed Part 1 of this post, click HERE!*
Today's post is lesson 15 from my Learn Your Bible series...

Now it’s time to get out of the car, and go inside. . .   

Jesus teaches us how to judge a church from the inside. . .

(Yes, Jesus has even more to say about that.)

Can you image assembling at church one Lord’s Day and. . . Receiving a letter from Jesus himself? Can you imagine it being addressed to your church? Well, it happened to seven churches!

The book that today we call the Revelation is actually a letter or series of letters written to the seven churches of Asia.  The main body of the book of Revelation (AKA the Apocalypse) is for all, but chapters 2 and 3 are seven “cover letters” to those seven churches. 

These letters arrived in about 96 AD.  The church had gone from it’s infancy to maturity.  The Christians of these churches were much like us.  They had not seen the events of the Bible.  They were “told” of the resurrection. The Apostles, (with the exception of John) were long dead. 

In a practical way, we could describe these letters as Jesus’ evaluation of these churches. We hear a lot today about “this” or “that” making no difference (all churches being acceptable). 

Since Jesus dictated these letters, Himself!  Let’s put the modern attitudes to the test.

Does it matter to Jesus whether your church follows the Word of God?

1. Read Revelation 1:9-18  Where was John? ______________   Who appeared?  ______________  What was John’s reaction? _____________________ What would your reaction be? _____________________________
2. Read Revelation 2:1-7  Which church received this letter? ________________ Vs 2-3  Was this a working church? _____  Did they put teachers/teachings/practices to the test? _________   Did Jesus rebuke or compliment this? __________  Vs 4  What is Jesus’ complaint? ______________ _______________  Vs 5  What is the “threat?” ________________________________________  Application:  Will Jesus just ignore a problem in a church? ______  What do you suppose it meant to the people there if Jesus withdrew his acceptance of them? ______________________  Vs 6  Today we run from the term hate.  Can  it be appropriate to hate? ________  Is it appropriate to name names? _______  Does Jesus speak in such abstract terms they would have considered Him “politically correct?” ________________
3. Read Revelation 2:8-11  Which church received this letter? _____________  Is it possible on earth to operate in such a way that Jesus has no complaints? __________  What lay in store for them? ____________________  Did Jesus encourage them? _________  When Jesus “evaluated” them, did they pass? ____________
4. Read Revelation 2:12-17   Vs 12-13 Which church received this  letter?  __________ What happened there?  __________________   Vs 14  Does Jesus get upset over allowing false teaching in a church? _________  When he describes said teaching,  what name does he use to characterize it?  _________ What are the two key elements of this teaching given? _______ _________________________  Turn to I Corinthians 10:20-22  Does this scripture deal with Jesus’ complaint?  _______  Did this church “knowingly” ignore scripture? ___________  Turn to I Corinthians 11:18-22  Do churches today ignore this scripture in the next chapter? ________   Read Revelation 2:15  closely.  Are we supposed to note principles from scripture? _________  How large would the Bible be if it were simply lists of every detail of what to do or not to do? _____________  If our actions are “in the same way.”  Should we be concerned? ________  This church is obviously ignoring I Corinthians 10:20-22… Would your church be wise to ignore I Corinthians 11:18-22? _________Revelation 2:16 Would you like to be in that congregation?  _________ 
5. Read Revelation 2:18-29  Which church received this letter? _______________  Vs 18-19  Was this church “more” or “less” than when it began?  _____________  Vs 20  Should the church be “tolerant” of teaching such of this?  ____________  What two fields of toleration are listed? ___________________ Which passage in I Corinthians deals with the eating sin described here? ___________  Vs 22 if you support this church, how does it affect you? ___________________   Vs 23  What does this mean for the children of this church? _________________________________________________
6. Read Revelation 3:1-6  Which church received this letter? ____________    Vs 1 despite the name and the appearance is it possible for a church to be dead inside? _________ Vs 2  How is deadness to be determined? _______________________    Vs 3 What are they to do? ____________ ________________  Vs 4-6  Look closely at Vs 5  What is the implied threat?  _________________________________  Can the church’s actions affect your eternity? ___________  
7. Read Revelation 3:7-13  Vs 7-8  Who opens and closes doors for churches? _______________   Vs 9  are there those who claim to follow God that in fact do not? ______   Vs 10 are they commended for their new and different ways to serve God? ___________  What are they commended for?  ________________________________   Vs 11 What is possible for someone else to do? _____________  Can they do it against your will? __________________  What are you to do to resist? ________________   Vs 12  What should you strive to be? _____________________
8. Read Revelation 3:14-22  What church received this letter?  __________  Vs 14-16 What is the worst sin? ______________ __________  Is it fair to say this makes the Lord sick to his stomach? __________ Vs 17  Can a church become so wrapped up in wealth they miss the point? __________  Does this sound like a lot of churches today? _______  Would it be fair to say they put their trust in wealth? __________  Is Jesus a jealous God? ___________________ Vs 18-22 What does Jesus council them to do? __________________ John 7:24. "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Application:
9.  Does Jesus evaluate churches?  _________
10. Should you use the same standards Jesus uses to evaluate churches? ______________
11. Does it appear that one church is as good as another in the eyes of Jesus?  ___________
12. Read II Thessalonians 2:1-13  Does it appear that God expected there to be a departure from the truth?  ________________  Sometimes the Bible is addressed to churches, sometimes individuals.  What makes up a church? _________________  Vs 3 What must happen before the end?  _______________________  People have constantly tried to figure out what specific point in history this is referring to.  Let’s ignore that for this study and look at the principles that emerge.   Is it important for you to identify and avoid apostasy? ______________   Vs 5 Did Paul warn of such things to his generation? ___________  Shouldn’t we do the same? ________  Vs 9  Is the grandiose display to be a part of the presentation of erroneous teaching? ____________________  (Compare Vs 9 to the teaching of Jesus in Matt 7:13-14   What is one of the earmarks of most false teaching? ______________ II Thessalonians 2:10 what is the fatal flaw of those who loose out? __________ _______________________ Vs 11  is there a sense in which God can be said to be behind this? ________  Vs 12 Why would God allow such a thing? ________________________ 

"We are not again commending ourselves to you but {are} giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have {an answer} for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart." II Corinthians 5:12.

Hi I am glad you stopped by our blog. These articles are from an emailing that we did several years ago.   Today most of our work is on facebook

You can follow my personal page on Facebook by clicking on this link    ...  

  Jerry Blount 

You can follow the postings on the congregation's page by clicking on this link....   

Las Vegas church of Christ 

If you wish to worship with us....

Las Vegas church of Christ

709 Dora Celeste

Las Vegas, NM 87701

Our meeting times are

10am Sunday morning for Bible study.

11am Sunday morning for the worship service.

6pm Wednesday evening for Midweek Bible study.

If you wish to contact me...

yakipreacher@gmail.com

Be well 

Jerry Blount

Jesus Teaches Us How To Judge a Church (Part 1)

13.  "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14

 Most people today have misunderstood Jesus’ warning about making judgments (Matthew 7:1ff) to the point they are quite surprised to find out that Bible has a lot to say about us making sound judgments.  They are even more surprised to find that the Bible actually spends a lot of time teaching us how to judge appropriately…

Then, Jesus (and the rest of the Bible) aggressively admonishes us to judge!

Today’s email will consist of two articles sent together.  You might wish to separate your consideration of them into two parts.   The first, as the title indicates, is some teaching on the manner in which to guide our snap judgments.  The second (part 2) is a study sheet on the 7 letters dictated by Jesus Christ describing how to judge churches from the inside!

We all make judgments based on names.  We all realize that the Baptist, Methodist, or even the Lutheran churches are not the same church.  Folks spend a lot of time wringing their hands and hiding from the obvious.  Many will drive right past one church to attend the church of “their choice,” yet swear one church is as good as another.   

Let’s consider the very famous passage reproduced above.  (Matthew 7:13-14). Have you ever considered the fact that, directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ,  you have your first clue on how to judge a church and you don’t’ even need to leave the car?

The sizes of the churches do in fact vary by the overall attitudes of a local community.  Suppose you have two churches, in the same community…. Right down the road from each other, with the same name.  Which would be your first choice?  Let’s say one is a large church, and one is small.   If this situation exists (as it does in our community) one would almost certainly be much larger than the other.

Which would you choose to look at first and why?  Aren’t we all prone to go with the larger, nicer one church?  Wouldn’t we all assume that they had more going on? i.e. That they have it “together?”  In fairness, I think that is the natural inclination of all of us.  Now consider the words of Jesus.  “"Enter through the narrow gate.” 

As the leader of my family, should I direct them towards the very multitudes that Jesus warned us to avoid?  Didn’t the Lord Jesus in fact leave us with a principle that (all other things being equal)…. We are to go the opposite direction of  the crowds?

As a rule, size is an inverse indication of faithfulness. (According to Jesus)

The Apostle John echoed the teaching of the Master.    I John 4:5-6

“They are from the world; therefore they speak {as} from the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

What did Jesus say? “The way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”  So, can you now judge  from the car, which church is the most likely to be teaching the truth?  By way of contrast, which is the most likely to have things going on inside that shouldn’t be there? 

Which church is more likely to honor man, then override the teaching of God  . . . The big church or the little church?

Have you ever noticed that Jesus went out of His way to “reduce” and scatter the church in Jerusalem?  In Acts 2, when the church started 3000 souls were added to it Acts 2:41.  In a very short time, it was up to 5000 Acts 4:4.  But!  In Acts 8, through persecution, the church was scattered.

If we trust in Jesus, we are left with a brutal reality. In effect, when you see the multitudes… Run!

"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" Matthew 7:22-23

Click HERE to view part 2 of this post!

Hi I am glad you stopped by our blog. These articles are from an emailing that we did several years ago.   Today most of our work is on facebook

You can follow my personal page on Facebook by clicking on this link    ...  

  Jerry Blount 

You can follow the postings on the congregation's page by clicking on this link....   

Las Vegas church of Christ 

If you wish to worship with us....

Las Vegas church of Christ

709 Dora Celeste

Las Vegas, NM 87701

Our meeting times are

10am Sunday morning for Bible study.

11am Sunday morning for the worship service.

6pm Wednesday evening for Midweek Bible study.

If you wish to contact me...

yakipreacher@gmail.com

Be well 

Jerry Blount

The "United Church of Christ" is NOT the church of Christ!

The United Church of Christ has nothing to do with Jesus' church!

Christians do not endorse "Gay" marriage...  it is an abomination before God!

In light of the announcement that the so-called "United Church of Christ" has endorsed same sex marriages I felt it necessary to note the fact that Christians repudiate homosexual behavior.  Naming a group of people after Christ does not make them Christians!

This has been tried before.  In Acts 15, "Some men came down from Judea and (began) teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."  And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, (the brethren) determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue (vs 1-2). A group of folks were going about teaching something in the name of Christ... that they had no right to teach.  They were endorsing a behavior they had no right to endorse.  It created quite an uproar, for a while... At the conclusion of the discussion, the Apostles sent out a circular letter to straighten out the mess. Here is part of said letter:  

"The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings.  Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with (their) words, unsettling your souls..."  (Acts 15:23-24)

Does this sound familiar?  Someone who has received no instruction, is teaching something that disturbs the brotherhood and unsettles the souls of the same?