”Foreigners have entered the holy
places of the Lord’s house.” Jeremiah 51:51b
As a Christian, it’s easy to know where
we stand with religions that worship different gods. For example, Buddhists and
Hindus want everyone to get along, which seems good, but their god is not
Jesus. New age traditions honor nature, which is a good thing, but they fall
short of acknowledging that YHWH is the creator of nature.
Much more difficult to sort out are
those who use the name of Jesus or an incorrect translation of the Bible, but
aren’t the real thing – foreigners working out of the house of the Lord, wolves
in sheep’s clothing.
True Christians, regardless of
denomination, share certain beliefs, nonnegotiable principles, foundational truths,
as explained in our Bibles. There is one God, the sole creator, who is known to
us in the Trinity. Jesus, fully God and fully man, was born of a virgin. Christ
paid the penalty for the sins of the world, and this is a gift, by grace,
through faith. Jesus rose from the dead, will return in bodily form. The Holy
Spirit will sustain us until Jesus returns. The church is the body of Christ,
doing his work until he returns.
There are many other practices and
traditions on which denominations differ, but those are not redeeming
ordinances.
Increasingly, the sin of the world is
creeping into some churches, and day by day, they get further off track. The
fact that they have a denomination with a “church-like” name makes discernment
of these foreigners in God’s house all the more difficult.
It will require a keen eye to separate
the sheep from the goats.
Norton Lawellin
Sunday, Sept.
02, Jesus in the City Fellowship worships in the Oliver Ministry building, 27th
Street & Bloomington Avenue, 10:30am. Following
Jesus’ lead, Pastor Michael will fish for men in Luke 5.
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