What Am I to Believe is True?
You say you are homeless, penniless, without reputation, the true servants of God.
- Yet you allow your followers to house, support and almost worship you.
You say you are from the beginning,
- Yet you have a relatively young, traceable history.
You say you are saved and set free through Christ,
- Yet you are uncertain of your salvation and burdened with keeping up appearances.
You say you have the unconditional love of Christ,
- Yet you cannot accept nor have fellowship with other Christian believers outside of your small group.
You say you have the mind and spirit of Christ,
- Yet you discourage honest questions and disallow individual inspiration of God.
You say you are not self-rightous,
- Yet you shun or excommunicate your own followers who believe there are others saved outside your fellowship.
You say that Christ is the Way and the Truth,
- Yet you demonstrate that your fellowship is the Way and only your workers speak and know Truth.
You say that Christ is the Way,
- Yet you really mean that He is the Way-Shower and only a man, without status as God.
You say you preach Christ alone,
- Yet you actually preach a method and a ministry instead.
You say there is harmony and unity among you,
- Yet there is division and disagreement in every place on many subjects.
You say your ministers are the finest people on earth,
- Yet there is considerable immorality that they are unaccountable for.
You say your followers are the light of the world,
- Yet there are many dysfunctional families suffering in darkness.
You say that you obey the laws of the land,
- Yet you demonstrate that you are above the law with lack of financial records or accountability to anyone.
You say you alone have the true doctrine of Christ,
- Yet you are reluctant to clearly state it and refuse to record it and your followers are ignorant of scripture.
You say you uphold truth and righteousness,
- Yet you lie and evade any questions in order to cover up your sin and deceit.
You claim to honor God,
- Yet you mock any worship of Christians and fail to openly praise God.
You say that you put yourselves last,
- Yet you reach out to no one but yourselves.
You claim to be the only people obey the Bible,
- Yet you disobey all of Christ’s commands to love your neighbor and your enemies.
You claim to preach the Word to others,
- Yet you only preach to your inner circle.
You claim to be unselfish,
- Yet you don’t give any of your money to God’s purposes until you die.
You claim that your church has existed from the beginning, or from the shores of Galilee,
- Yet you have no proof of anything except from 1897 from the green, green hills of Ireland.
You claim to have workers,
- Yet they don’t work, they travel from place to place, waited on hand and foot.
Christianity???- - - Religion???
What Is The Difference???
Think of representing Religion with the word - - DO! RELIGION is everything that we try to do to please God. It may include many things:
- Special diet
- Self-Denial
- Certain rituals
- Feasts
- Belonging to a particular group
- Keeping a particular schedule
- Or anything else that you might think of to try to make God think well of you.
But there "IS" a problem or two.
We never can know when we've done enough to make God happy. In fact, we can never do enough to please God because of "SIN" (Not exactly a politically correct word to day, but facts are facts)
Because of sin we are separated from God by a void that we cannot cross.
Christianity, on the other hand, can be represented by the word DONE!!!
This is because Jesus Christ has already done the work necessary to please "HIM."
"HE" is our Creator, our Judge, our Redeemer.
"HE" was the Perfect Lamb required for the sacrifice so that God might pass over our house. When we accept "HIS" perfect sacrifice and forgiveness for our sins, we enter into a relationship with "HIM" that surpasses any kind of feeling that we might get out of religion.
The Difference is:
Religion is the attempt to do the impossible for an unreachable God.
Christianity is a personal relationship with a very personal God.
Another way of saying that the difference is a matter of life and death.
Name Withheld Written to the Two-by-Two List on May 31, 2001
