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Bible truth: It's not what you think
Mike Fletcher
I read a study the other day that said the major theological issue facing the church these days is Radical relativism.
Don’t you love the way the church talks in gobbley-gook? You know what radical relativism is?
Make note of it because you ll be hearing a lot more about it. Radical relativism proposes that Christians should abandon any beliefs or claims about the uniqueness of Christ and Christianity.
The people boosting this include major leaders of many of the mainline denominations and they are increasingly saying that Christianity is just one among many religions through which people may be saved.
It’s a sad fact but true: Jesus Christ and his teachings are opposed by much of what passes for the church today. The very people who should know and believe the most believe the least.
A man can deliberately shut his mind to a truth he does not wish to accept. That’s the problem many of us have today.
When Jesus comes to us with his offer to change and re-create us, telling us we have to be born again, it isn’t that we fail to understand what Christ is saying. Instead, what many of us do is reply, No thank you, I am quite satisfied with myself as I am and I don ‘t want to be changed.
We don t believe because we don’t want to believe.
About this being born again, the pharisee Nicodemus asked Jesus in John 3:9, How can this be?
Jesus tells him he should already know. You are Israel ‘s teacher, said Jesus, and you do not understand these things. Nicodemus knew the scriptures. He refused to accept what he has been clear. He refused to accept the teachings of Jesus and all the prophets that led up to this time in history.
You and I have the Bible, the Old Testament teachings that Nicodemus had, and the New Testament teachings which he didn’t have, the fulfillment and completed word of God. It is all in here. How can we not believe?
Jesus asks you. Have you read this book? If you really study this book there is NO WAY you can ‘t see the truth. How about all the testimony of all the changed lives? Throughout history. Of all the people whose lives have truly been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit?
I know of recovered alcoholics, former adulterers, ex-cons, former drug abusers, wife beaters, business cheats, liars, people who lived lives of total abandon whose lives have been absolutely transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.
Surely you have seen people like that. This is real. Show me one person, one, whose life has been totally transformed like that, rescued from the depths of depravity--- by following the world’s teachings, by embracing atheism or agnosticism or New Age or radical relativism. Show me one. You can’t.
Only one thing changes lives like that. Being born again. Believing and receiving Jesus Christ. We don’t understand how the Spirit works. It is a miracle. It truly is. But the effect of the Spirit on the lives of men is there for all to see. The unanswerable argument for Christianity is the Christian life.
The fact is, as is demonstrated countless times, Christianity makes bad men good.
Because they’re born again.
Mike Fletcher is the publisher of the Online Christian Shopper, which offers llifestyle evangelism resources like Christian T-Shirts, Christian clothing and Christian jewelry. |