Judgment

[th1b.taylor]

<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { so-language: zxx } --> </style> [FONT=Georgia, serif]Mat 7:1[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]Judge not, that ye be not judged.[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]There is a very sad movement within the Church today. It is oft denied but the membership roll of any given church does not reflect the number of persons that are saved, unless you work some magic percentage number. So it is that the majority of the membership is still residing and following the world and their god.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]Because the forces of the enemy are crafty I´ll state now that my previous paragraph is supported by a survey taken of the Church Universal in the US in the mid-eighties by the Barna Group.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]Contrary to the conventional wisdom of the world (the lost man) Matt. 7:1 does not tell us to just accept anything. To the contrary, Jesus is instructing us not to be foolish nor to be self-righteous but to judge all things and people righteously from the position of God´s righteousness.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]Mat 7:2[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, serif]Mat 7:3[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, serif]Mat 7:4[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]is[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]in thine own eye?[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, serif]Mat 7:5[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]To judge righteously you must live a holy life and, indeed, you are called for just that purpose! (1Pet. 1:16) Let me explain, I am not a teacher of the Holiness movement, it is heretical and a lie! That being understood, we must learn to live as God expects us to.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]First off, we are not God and never will be, no matter what the Mormons think and teach. [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] But ye have not so learned Christ;[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif](Eph. 4:18-20) Does this Ephesians passage describe you? If it does you are not saved.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]The Christian man and Christian woman have a responsibility to live a different life. [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif]What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.[/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif] [/FONT][FONT=Georgia, serif](Rom. 6:1-4)[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]I am 19 years or better now teaching the scriptures and the Christian Life and the biggest lie taught within the Church today is that it´s okay to sin... God will forgive you if you just repent! Please pay attention here, this is a true statement when it is applied correctly... otherwise, it is a lie.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]God knows yours and my every thought, I know He does because He often bends me over His knee and strokes my behind with a razor strap. I just admitted I sinned, didn´t I? And when I do I also repent and neither plan to do that any more nor do I live loosely so as to give that sin a chance to creep back in.[/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]Before I was saved I sang Country and Western and the Blues, every time I had the chance, with my band or without. I planned to sin every weekend! Since our salvation, you and I have been called to live as closely as we can to the life modeled by Jesus. The ability to repent was and is not given to us as an emergency exit when the lust of our loins or of any other sin overcomes us. The Holy Spirit always provides the Saved Man and Woman an escape and we are expected to take it. (1Cor. 13:10) [/FONT]


[FONT=Georgia, serif]Here´s praying for your souls, God bless![/FONT]

 

[Nathan Alterton]

There have been a number of studies in the past 7 years that all show "regular church attendance" (this is defined as going at least 2-3 times a month) among Americans to hover around 40%. This number was also reflected in Barna's "State of the Church" study series for 2011.

In that same Barna Group series it was found that 40% of Americans claim to read their Bible on at least a weekly basis. On it's face, this seems encouraging. Another encouraging statistic from Barna'a research for 2011 also showed 40% of Americans believe "that they will experience eternal salvation based on their commitment to Jesus Christ, personal confession of sins, and acceptance of Christ as their savior," and 38% believe that “the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.†This would appear to be good news for the Church generally if that 38% was largely the same group that attends church on a regular basis (there's no information group cross-over in the report).

What is troubling is that despite these numbers that seem to communicate that a relatively conservative christian worldview is held by 40% of the American population, 84% still proclaim themselves to be "Christian" and 65% claim that they have made a personal commitment to Christ which is still important in their lives today. Seems like a lot of people don't actually understand what they're talking about when they make claims of real Christ following commitment.

While the Church has worried and wrung its hands over the declining numbers of people who claim to believe, I actually think it might be a good thing. I don't think the actual numbers of truly committed believers has declined over the years, I have seen several studies that would suggest we have held pretty steady at about 7% of the American population for a long time. I think it might be helpful to our cause if more of the hangers-on would leave, and the really committed Christians in church would become more concentrated. Once those numbers of people claiming to be "Christian" actually drops to a more realistic and true level, I think that the Church will be able to make much better progress in discipling those Christians who attend and accurately representing Christ to the unchurched world outside.

 

[Nathan Alterton]

th1b.taylor,

Now that I look more closely at your OP, I'm not sure I understood your point. Is this a topic about the numbers of "faithful believers" in the Church, about judging rightly, or about living a holy life?

 

[for_his_glory]

If we would concentrate more on what God is judging in us then what we are judging in others, which we should not be doing anyway, than maybe those numbers could be increased as others see the genuine acceptance of those who call themselves saved whether they be saved or not as all we are allowed to judge is the fruits they are displaying as they also see what fruits we our self are displaying.

 

[th1b.taylor]

th1b.taylor,

Now that I look more closely at your OP, I'm not sure I understood your point. Is this a topic about the numbers of "faithful believers" in the Church, about judging rightly, or about living a holy life?

It was my intent to provoke prayerful consideration of both the lack of people living the Holy Life we are called to as well as the lack of Righteous Judgment inside the Church Family today.