Submitted by: Morrissey | View Member Profile | View Other Posts
Created: 11/26/2005
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This is Part Two, A, of "What Is A REAL Man? What Is A REAL Christian?"
In Part One, I covered the Biblical model of manhood - in both attitudes and behavior. The Bible does indeed show that "real men love Jesus", just like that bumper sticker says, because true Christian character and true manhood are inseparable. Part One covered the "fruits" aspects, but it did not cover the "how-to" side of the story. That is what this Part Two is about, as well as showing some of the causes of the nonexistent or twisted morals of Western society today, particularly in the so-called "Christian nation" of the United States.
To begin, let us consider the first question on the surface: what IS a Christian? Is this a member of some club that has a certain name? Or is it a title that really means something? The name Christian has the word "Christ" very prominent in it. There is a reason for this: Christians are to be Christlike! A Christian is to be someone who is like Christ - that is, like Jesus Christ. Now, how can we be like someone without becoming knowledgable of what that person is like? In the case of Jesus, what source do we have that will show us what He is like? From my own experience and research, I can testify that there is NOTHING in the whole wide world that will show us the character of God/Jesus like the Bible; if I had to part with every earthly possession save one, it would be my Bible that I would retain. It is by far the most precious object on earth to me BECAUSE it is God's words TO ME, and therein is revealed the thoughts and character and attributes of my Lord and Savior and Creator, Jesus Christ.
The Bible testifies of itself in these verses (as well as many other similar verses): "And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Timothy 3:15-17 "Knowing this first, that no prophecy (teaching and/or prediction) of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:20-21 The Bible says that the entire Bible is a revelation of Jesus Christ Himself, for it was He Who - through the Holy Ghost, through angels, or directly - spoke through all the Bible writers, from the beginning to the end. Also, we are told that Jesus created all things, and sustains all things: "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in the earth, visible and invisible...all things were created by Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Colossians 1:17
But notice in the verse above from Peter, that it says no part of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. This is very important, because many people believe that one can get whatever one wishes out of the Bible. Is that really true? Let us find out. Have you ever heard of "checks and balances"? This is present in the Bible, and is seen there in such dazzling beauty and simplicity that it makes me stand back in awe! But before I can show you how this works, I must preface it with a few thoughts. In many places in the Bible, God tells us that His ways are foolishness to the unconverted carnal heart. One such reference is 1 Corinthians 1:19 & 20, "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolishness the wisdom of this world?" Notice here that God is saying through Paul that scribes and wisemen don't get things right all the time according to Heaven. But what would we in our time call a scribe or a wiseman? Would it not be the linguistic Greek and Hebrew experts, as well as the Biblical and church history historians? There are many today who believe that the truth of God can be found out by linguistic and historical means. Sorry, this and other texts show that to be dangerous and unreliable, since God is saying that it is NOT by learning and wisdom that He is made known to us, His children. What then is it? (1 Corinthians 1:27-31 gives more backup to the above quote, and 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 gives the background to the following,) "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, COMPARING SPIRITUAL THINGS WITH SPIRITUAL. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:13-14
I call it topical study - just that simple! Jesus used it on the road to Emmaus when conversing under cover with His two disciples. The record of it is in Luke chapter 24, but I will only quote one verse here: "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them IN ALL THE SCRIPTURES the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27 Notice how it says that Jesus took the topic of the Messiah and gathered ALL the texts on the topic and then went through all of them with those two disciples. This was Jesus' way of giving them a Bible study, AND LETTING THE BIBLE SPEAK FOR ITSELF. He did not pick a few verses and give a sermon on them; no, He covered ALL the texts on that topic and LET THE BIBLE INTERPRET ITSELF! This is the beauty of topical study - the Bible will be it's own interpreter by means of the checks and balances found on any one topic in the various verses that deal with that topic.
I (and countless thousands of others) have put this method to the test, and I can testify how it does indeed work! Not that long ago, I cleared my mind of all previous knowledge and all previous slants and interpretations, intent on seeing just what the Bible and the Bible alone taught on certain topics. I prayed every morning before studying, that God would give me His Holy Spirit to show me the truth as He sees it, and to save me from error, and I chose to be willing to follow whatever He showed me as the truth in verity. (This is crucial in letting the Bible interpret itself, for only by the aid of the Holy Spirit can humans understand the things of God correctly. They CANNOT be found out by scholarly methods alone - the above verses from Corinthians prove that!) Then, I got out nothing more than my concordance and my Bible and systematically located all the verses I could find on the topic I was studying. Time and time again I sat back in awe at how one verse would steer me to the right so to speak, and another verse would seem to go the other direction, and then another would show where the two met in the middle, and still another would show how all the above fitted together into a perfectly harmonious conclusion, and so forth. The book of Galatians was a marvelous example of that: just within that one book alone, there were enough checks and balances that - if weighed out all together in an overall topical manner - absolutely PREVENTED the far-left or far-right conclusions that so many get out of that book. (Notice I said "weighed out". This is a very important point as well, because the weight of evidence is something that is important to God, as shown in the Bible itself. In other words, if 70% of texts on a topic point to one conclusion, and the other 30% point to a seemingly opposite conclusion, then one is not to choose one or the other and throw out the rest. No indeed! But one IS to give priority to the 70% rather than the 30%, and look to see how the 30% do in fact agree with the 70%. EVERY SINGLE TIME, they do indeed agree, it just takes some effort to see how they do, sometimes.)
One other critical point on how topical study of the Bible is to be done to ensure that the Bible is indeed interpreting itself, and the student is indeed receiving and learning the mind of God on the topic rather than ANY human's interpretation, is that the student MUST choose to set the Bible as the final voice, above and beyond all other earthly voices. If the student does not choose to do this, then he WILL be led astray in one way or another, for the notions of any human are nothing more than confusion compared to the Bible speaking for itself; the only exception to this is when what a person or people say or teach is in agreement with what the Bible teaches first. Such human extra input is indeed valuable - especially in terms of historical and cultural backdrop to Bible times - but whatever human input disagrees with what the Bible teaches by interpreting itself, is thereby error (more about that later in this article).
To see this method at work, let us consider the topic of the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the work of Jesus, and how the Jews dealt with them in contrast to how Jesus and the Christians viewed them. (I will only cover this briefly, as otherwise it could comprise an entire little book!) First off, the Old Testament contains prophecies about the coming Redeemer in two distinct categories: 1) those that foretold His FIRST coming, and 2) those that foretold His SECOND coming. Most of the Jews did not catch this distinction, and that is why they thought the Messiah was to be a literal conquering King at His first coming, when in fact that would not take place until the SECOND coming - at the end of the world. Moreover, the priests had a tendency to totally IGNORE passages like Isaiah 53 that plainly foretold the sufferings of the spiritual Lamb of God connected with the Messiah. I once read an article on their methods of studying and preaching, how they loved to expound theories on individual texts or chapters, rather than topical study like Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. Had the Jewish leaders dug up all the passages they could find on the Messiah, they would have seen the apparent contradiction with their cherished power-and-glory views with the testimony of many passages of Scripture. They would have been forced to look more closely till they saw the two distinct groups of prophecies and how one group was for a totally different part of time than the other. IF THEY HAD BEEN HUMBLE, this would have kept them from rejecting Jesus (but we know they were not humble anyway, so all the light in the universe was not going to help them in their proud self-righteous state). See how CRITICAL it can be to use Jesus' method of study rather than logic, theories, history, traditional interpretations, et cetera? It can make all the difference between truth and error - accepting Jesus or rejecting Him!!
Something else can be seen from the Messianic prophecies; it is something called the dual meaning of Scripture. Isaiah 7:14 is a fantastic example of this. It says, "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." I have read some long theological articles about such texts as this, where the various meanings are debated over and over and on and on, with the oh-so-simple approach of dual meaning totally overlooked! The context of this verse is not talking about the Messiah at all - it is talking about a child to be born during the time of Isaiah. But it has an additional OVERLAY meaning AS WELL, and that of course is the meaning of the Messiah to be born of a virgin (Mary) to be named Immanuel, which means God With Us. I was amazed at how scholars could debate back and forth as to which of the two above meanings are correct for this text, when from the standpoint of topical study, BOTH meanings are correct - it is a simple overlay! There are countless passages in Scripture that have one, two, three or even more meanings in the same verse AS DICTATED BY THE OTHER VERSES ON THE TOPICS INVOLVED.
Are you beginning to see how this works? Isn't it exciting to see how the Bible dictates in itself what the correct meanings are? And how the various texts on a given topic possess steering elements (checks and balances, if you will) that are sufficient to guide the student to the correct conclusion - correct according to the mind of God as revealed in His word!?! See how utterly opposite this is to the wisdom and learning of men? It is so simple that even a child can understand it (AND USE IT!), and yet so broad and with so much room for expansion that even the most brilliant of minds cannot exhaust it! This is indeed how God operates, and it is so beautiful! He Who created the laws of nature and all that is therein, also created the laws of the spiritual realm. The same blending of exactness with unending diversity is found in both nature and revelation, for they both testify in harmony of their Divine Designer when they are correctly understood.
God tells us in His Word that we are not to simply take someone's word that an idea or teaching is Biblical truth - we are to study it out for ourselves since we are each individually accountable to God for our own choices and beliefs. There are those who think it is admirable to simply take religious leader's word for things and not question it, but the Bible does NOT agree with this! In First Thessalonians 5:21, Paul is telling not just the Thessalonians but EVERYONE, to "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." God praised the Bereans for how they did this even with the Apostle's doctrines that were coming to them. These people, it says, had a noble spirit because they "received the word with all readiness of mind, and SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, WHETHER THOSE THINGS WERE SO." Acts 17:11 This is what serious Christians are to do: search the Scriptures to find out for ourselves what is truth and what is the way of the Lord, that we might be CHRISTians indeed rather than in name only (which is taking Christ's name in vain, by the way). Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39 The whole Bible testifies of Jesus, hence we are to get to know Jesus through His word! "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth." John 17:17 The Word of God is truth, Jesus here says, and He is also saying it has transforming, sanctifying power. This is important - I will cover this more later in Part B of this article.
So then, it IS possible to know for a certainty what meaning GOD intended for any given topic in Scripture; and it is NOT true that people can rightly get whatever they want out of the Bible. (People can of course get all manner of interpretations from Scripture, but that does not in any way mean that they are all correct according to what God had in mind to convey through His Word!) Here lies the answer to the oft-posed, perplexing question, "Why are there so many conflicting denominations that all claim to believe the Bible and be Christian?" First off, let me say that the Bible plainly shows that all humans are judged not by what they DON'T know but by what they DO know; hence, there will be people in Heaven who never even heard the name of Jesus on this earth but who faithfully lived up to all the light that they had. Then too, there will be those missing who did NOT make it to Heaven who refused to live up to the light they had, regardless if they were learned Christians or not. There are sincere people in all Christian churches and in all other religions as well, who only God can read their hearts as to where they are in their spiritual walk. But in terms of organizations and denominations with their numberless and conflicting doctrines, the answer is more simple: Christians are so indoctrinated with the commandments and teachings of men that they almost NEVER allow the Bible to TOTALLY speak for itself. The many doctrines that are around are the product of various ways of mixing the thoughts of men with the thoughts of God as revealed in His Word. Were all to use the method of Bible study that Jesus used (as shown above) and not include one single thread of outside philosophizing, I dare say all would come to the same doctrines and conclusions, EXCEPT of course for those stubborn types like Judas Iscariot who are determined to go their own way no matter what. I can say this because I and countless others have put this idea to the test, and it does indeed hold true. The reason? God has built all the checks and balances needed right into His Word the Bible, such that anyone with prayer, a humble teachable obedient heart, a Bible, perhaps a concordance, and time spent in study, can with those things ALONE come to know the mind and will of God/Jesus Christ for one's self, and that it will eventually agree indeed with the results of others who study in the same way.
Someone may ask, "But I thought the knowledge of God's will and ways was only predestined for a chosen few. How can you say ALL?" Here again the Bible will speak for itself. While some verses do give the idea of only a chosen few, other verses show that Jesus died to save EVERYONE, that ALL might come into fellowship with Him in His ways and His will. Still other verses show that the only factor that predestinates anyone one way or another is their own choices! We each choose our destiny by our everyday choices! We can either make choices FOR God's will and ways or AGAINST them. God knows the end from the beginning, and He can see that only a precious few have and will make those choices of full surrender to God and His ways, hence the idea of a chosen few. God only predestinates in the sense that He honors people's choices; this is why the Bible speaks as it does of God hardening Pharaoh's heart, or God softening someone else's heart - this is only a way of speaking to show how God honors people's choices. Pharaoh made choices that caused his heart to be hardened by what God was doing; God by no means directly hardened Pharaoh's heart!! How do I know all this? Simply by comparing texts on the subject from all parts of the Bible - just that simple!!
Please note: I am in no way proposing that people should listen to and read nothing other than the Bible! No indeed! But what I AM saying is that people need to put everything to the test of Scripture and only hold fast to that which does not disagree with the overall teaching of the Bible on any given subject. Why? Because the Bible is the ONLY safe and reliable compass of right and wrong under the sun - there is none other. We can learn much from other sources - indeed God very often speaks through other sources! But only by judging by the standard of the Bible can we know what is from God and what is not!
A reliable source has told me that there is a fearful trend going on in Christendom these days - one which involves a lot of the brightest and the best, the young and the brave. It is largely seminary students involved in this, who are so disgusted by the disagreement and contradictions of the various Christian denominations in regard to what is TRUTH and how none can seem to agree on what "Biblical" means, that they are turning away from the Bible as the absolute rule of faith and are instead turning to the interpretations and teachings of the ancient Christians to tell them what is truth and what is really Biblical. My heart cries out within me, "Why not let the Bible interpret itself?!?" In the last two years I have personally read some of the treatises of the so-called experts in the Bible (non-SDA authors), and they seem to know NOTHING of Jesus' method of studying as I have presented it above in this article. Some may say, "Well that is proof that there is nothing to that method, else the experts would know about it." Wait a minute. Did the experts of Noah's day believe that Noah was right? NO INDEED! They called him a fool! But was he a fool? Hardly! In fact, all those who refused to go into the ark and be saved, were drowned; you tell me who were the REAL fools, Noah or the "experts" of the day? (By the way, those who think the stories of the Old Testament are only allegories that have no literal historical meaning AS WELL, had better reckon with Jesus Himself, because He used those stories in His lessons to the crowds giving no hint at all that He thought they were fairy tales - far from it!) So then, so what if the experts say this simple yet profound method of studying the Bible and letting it interpret itself is foolish and stupid and not valid; let them say that if they must! I would rather be called a fool and follow and know my Lord than to be so-called wise and be lost! How about you?
Thus far we have seen that a real Christian is a CHRISTian - one who is like Christ and who follows Christ. Jesus Christ and His ways are revealed in the Bible - hence the importance of understanding how to let the Bible speak for itself. Now that we understand how this works, let us continue to look deeper into the HOW of being a true Christian, and the reasons for the lack of morals and Christian behavior, as was covered in Part One (the article titled "What Is A REAL Man?).
One reason for this problem is that people do not know the simple fact that being a Christian means being Christlike! They think it is just a name of a religion, just like any other religion. But the Bible shows us clearly that we are to be like Jesus - we are to walk as He walked through His power. Also, how can we expect people to be solid, principled people if they have no idea where any absolutes are in this world? If people think that even the Bible is up for grabs - to be molded into whatever by whomever - then how can anyone be sure about ANYTHING?!? Indeed, the lack of knowledge of how the Bible interprets itself and how we CAN know for sure what God's ways are for ourselves, is a very great contributor to the lawlessness and lack of morals even among so-called Christians of today.
But there is another reason for the lack of morals today - one of the greatest of them - and it is something that could be called "cheap grace". But I will cover that in Part B of this article.
In closing this Part A, let me point out that letting the Bible interpret itself will yield some very unpopular conclusions. But was Jesus popular? No, not in the sense of acceptance with the leaders of His day. Will the real truth EVER be popular? No indeed, for Jesus Himself said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many thereby that go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:13-14 To be REAL Christians we must be prepared to be unpopular as Jesus was in His day. But what a tiny sacrifice that is compared to the eternal weight of glory of the hereafter?!? To be right with God - to walk in step with Him, even if it means bearing a cross in this life - is far far better than being without God in this life and ALSO losing the life to come.
Think for a moment what the reason is for Jesus' coming to die for us in the first place: the Bible tells us why: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for HE SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS." Matthew 1:21 (See also Isaiah chapter 53.) So then one of the main purposes of Jesus' life and death on this earth was to save people from their sins. What a fearful price was paid to provide the ransom for the human race, and how sad that so many will refuse to take that ransom and be lost as a result! Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, and many other passages say the same thing. Had not Adam and Eve brought sin into this world through their choice to disobey the plain command of God, there would have been no need for Jesus to die for anyone at all, and there would be no need for God to work with those who are willing, to be step by step recreated into the perfect character of God. This process is not painless, even as it was not painless for Jesus to purchase our ransom! It is because of sin and it's grim effects - like some horrible disease - on the characters of men and women, that God leads His children through trying circumstances in order that we may be brought to see where we are in need of His molding and shaping of us, such that we can cooperate with Him in His work to RESTORE us to the sinless state that was lost in Eden.
But what about people who think God's way is not very good - that it is too hard or too unpopular? Does not the Creator of all things know what is best for those He DIED to save???? Would He not in His infinite wisdom choose the very BEST and least trying methods possible???? We are but creatures with such very limited conceptions of what is best; how dare we think our way is better, or that just any "Christian" path will do, and that the one laid out in the Bible is not necessary? You know what this kind of attitude is? It is heady and high-minded, just like it says in the list in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 TALKING ABOUT PROFESSED CHRISTIANS!!
But I should also bring out here just how much breadth of action and freedom of working there is even within the Narrow Way itself. Sometime back I did extensive research on what some denominations call "the regulative principle", especially in how it relates to the use of musical instruments during the public worship of God. I found that the "Biblical" approach used to support NOT using any instruments in worship was only Biblical in that it employed a whole bunch of verses in it's support; but in terms of reflecting the overall teaching of the Bible on the subject - NO, it was not Biblical at all. The difference was subtle at first, but the farther I got with studying it, the more I saw just how far off it really was. I will not go into depth with that here, as it could fill an entire article of it's own, but I will summarize what I found to be the TRUE "regulative principle" in Scripture - that which shows just how much room there is even within the Narrow Way. It can be stated like this: God has given each person talents, gifts and personality different from anyone else on earth, and it is just fine with Him if people go about helping others or sharing or working in many different ways SO LONG AS whatever they do does NOT cross or disobey any of His commands, directions, or general principles (as correctly understood by Jesus' method of topical study of course). That sentence is a mouthful, but it covers the truth on that subject perfectly. Notice that I did not say "commands and directions" alone; I ALSO said "general principles". That one requires the child of God to have a familiarity with the Word of God as a whole, and a relationship with Him, whereupon that which is out of harmony with God's principles as well as His specific commands will alike be that which makes the conscience speak out, "You better not do that!". So then, there is GREAT breadth of freedom within God's ways - great breadth! It is only those things that are harmful or hurtful to us that God tells us not to do. It is His love for us - and that He knows what is best - that directs His commands, directions, and principles. TRUE Christians will love and trust their Lord enough to happily stay within the boundaries He has established for the good and well-being of His children.
Are you beginning to see what a REAL Christian is (and isn't)....?
Listen, there is joy and power and VICTORY in the path that God has ordained! Yes there is hardship mixed in at times, but this is only because we are still in this sinful world and our characters are not yet ready for Heaven. In eternity, there will be no more sinful habits to combat, no more evils to overcome, and consequently trials will not be needed as God's tools to shape and chisel! So we must keep our eyes on the prize; Jesus is looking forward to that prize as well, because ever since He rose from this earth in Acts chapter 1, He has been spending all His time as our High Priest, ministering for us in the heavenly sanctuary (see Hebrews for more on that). What a job!! I know He is looking forward to being through with that as well!
Join me in Part B of this article to find out about the POWER and VICTORY that God's way has to offer!
