Randolph was born at Stevenson, AL, June 28, 1940, to parents Ollie and Gretchen Gonce. Randolph grew up in the church, and was baptized in 1952 when he was 12 years old. He began helping teach a Bible class when he was still a young teenager.
He attended Auburn Church of Christ for the four years from 1958 to 1962 while getting a BSAN degree in Agricultural Engineering, then was at Dadeville Church of Christ for two years before returning home in 1964. Since that time he has been at his home congregation at Gonce, AL., where he has done some preaching, teaching, and song leading. He was first employed by the US Department of Agriculture as an agricultural engineer, then with the North Alabama Electric Coop as operations engineer, then District Woodlands Manager for Mead Paper Board, and then self employed in farm drainage installation and farming, then worked for four years for Lyle Starnes in the farm drainage installation business, before retiring in June 2002. Randolph served for eighteen years on the Jackson County Board of Education.
The central focus of the work became training leaders and teachers for the churches in 1998. Utilizing teaching material developed specifically for the work in India, the Institute of Biblical Studies graduated more than 200 students in the first two classes in India, and presently has a third class of more than 130 students who should graduate in 2004. You can see information about the program, and the courses, at the website www.ibsresources.org . Randolph was chairman of IBS from 2001-2003.
The demonstrated philosophy of liberal federal judges shows a belief in organic law, that rules should be changed to adapt to the current environment. Such interpretations are not encouraged by our constitution. The rule of law demands respect for our constitution, which gives the responsibility for making laws to the legislature. Federal judges have taken over that responsibility by arbitrarily changing the application of laws. These liberal judges have applied their faith in humanism and evolution to our laws. I believe that they have imposed their religious beliefs in secular humanism upon their legal judgments, and are thus guilty of the worst form of violation of the first amendment. They are using their government power to impose their false religion of secular humanism upon our people.
Antichristian forces want to apply the separation clause only to Christian faith, because they do not want to be bound by moral law inherent in that faith. Any religious system that is permissive, such as Earth worship, hedonism, secular humanism, atheism, and Buddhism, finds a welcome in the hearts of the antichristians. But they demand the exclusion of the Christian faith by all means possible.
When we talk about religion, we are talking about what people believe. Everyone has some kind of religion, even the atheists. All believe in some principles of conduct and behavior, and all trust in something, even perhaps in themselves. Religious faith cannot be separated from the public sector. Faith is demonstrated in what people believe and practice.
When our constitution was first framed, many of the state constitutions of that time required that any candidate for public office be a Christian. The separation clause prevented the requirement that one had to be a Roman Catholic, or Anglican, or Methodist, or Lutheran, or Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Quaker, etc. in order to serve in public office. The separation clause was intended to prevent the abuse of political power like that demonstrated by the ruling religious powers of Europe. That combination of political and religious power had caused the persecution of hundreds of thousands of Christian people who followed their own conscience instead of the proclamations of the political-religious parasites who ruled the European nations at that time.
The separation clause was intended to protect the free exercise of Christian faith in the public sector. It is against reason that it has been turned by the liberal federal judges as a tool against the free expression of fundamental Christian faith. The first amendment guarantees us the freedom to express our faith in public.
Certain Senators have filibustered the appointment of federal judges who are conservative men of Christian faith. These Senators are enemies to our nation's best interests. They may be in violation of the separation clause of the first amendment by using their government power to support their liberal faith.
The hope of our nation resides in Christians continuing the public exercise of our faith. In God We Trust! God bless America.
Dr. Wiemers and I spoke on conflict resolution in the church, administration principles and church administration, growing toward maturity in faith, how to run Christian schools, and sharing missionary experiences.
Dr. Robertson spoke to the ladies about spiritual and health related issues. She also treated patients in the health clinic operated by the churches of Christ.
Roger and I taught lessons from the Institute of Biblical Studies curriculum to twenty men who wanted to be instructors in IBS. Following those introductory lessons, and after explaining the IBS program, an organizing committee of five men was elected by the group, and plans were made to organize IBS Ghana with ten instructors and not more than one hundred students. Students must desire to be servant leaders in the churches. The IBS program is a two-year Bible study taught by volunteer national instructors to people in their own communities. Instruction schedules are arranged by the instructor and students to avoid conflict with their employment. Students must be men and women with mature faith who desire to serve and lead in the church. IBS is now established in the USA, India, Nepal, and Ghana. We have plans to start up in Pakistan and Bangladesh next year.
There are more than 800 congregations of the church of Christ in Ghana. Many of the churches have more than 500 members, and are building large buildings by their own resources. They are also planting churches in the rural villages. This is the place where a leadership training school such as IBS is of great value; where there are many churches being started, and where there is growing need for faithful teachers and leaders. The institute of Biblical Studies is organized independently in each nation, and belongs to the national instructors.
An interesting feature of Ashanti culture is the including of a name representing the day of the week they were born as part of every person's name. Secretary General Kofi Annan of the UN is of Ashanti origin, and was born on Friday. After searching the calendar at www.calendarhome.com I learned that I was also born on Friday, and could add Kofi to my name while visiting Ashanti.
| DAY OF BIRTH | FEMALENAME | MALENAME |
| Sunday | Esi | Kwesi |
| Monday | Adjoa | Kojo |
| Tuesday | Abena | Kobina |
| Wednesday | Ekua | Kweku |
| Thursday | Yaa | Yaw |
| Friday | Efua | Kofi |
| Saturday | Ama | Kwame |
Kamasi is a boomtown, and new buildings are going up in many places. Large residences are being built from hand made concrete blocks about four inches thick. These blocks are stacked with mortar to fill in the walls between steel reinforced concrete columns. Many new church buildings were being built of the same material. Many people are employed in hand mixing sand and cement, loading them into a block form, and then pounding the form until the block is properly settled. Then the blocks are set out to cure, and later laid with mortar to form the walls. Once the walls are set, the surface is plastered to make a smooth finish. One day we visited Bosomtwi, the largest natural lake in Ghana with a diameter of 8km. This lake was formed when water filled the crater left by a meteorite. Fishermen ride logs shaped like crude surf boards out to tend their gill nets, which snare the Tilapia that are native to the lake. The small fish are fried whole in hot oil on the banks of the lake, and sold in markets there and in nearby cities.
The people of Ghana are very industrious, and have a tradition of helping each other. Gardens are planted everywhere, even on wasteland in the cities, and in yards, and along the roadside. Plantain, yams, cocoa yam leaves, cassava, manioc, maize, pineapple, papaya, and cocoa are commonly grown crops.
A favorite food of Ghana is fufu, a gelatinous mass of beaten cooked yam, manioc, or cassava. The product is pounded in a wooden bowl with a large wooden pestle until it forms a white, glutinous ball. It is often served with spicy soup, and serves to calm the heat of the chili pepper.
Our last night at Kennedy and Comfort's home, she served groundnut soup and fufu. A fist-sized ball of fufu was placed in a bowl of the spicy soup. My son Wilson takes pride in eating strange foods, and has had practice in Africa and India. He tackled the fufu with vigor, breaking off small pieces with his fingers and putting them into his mouth. He decided that he would poke holes in the fufu with his fingers so that more of the soup would be mixed with the fufu. After eating for sometime, he decided that the fufu was growing. The soup was causing the fufu to swell. I could feel it swelling in my stomach. I decided that fufu would make a wonderful food to satisfy hunger. It is primarily starch.
Fried plantain (cooking bananas) is another favorite food. It is served with black-eyed peas that are highly seasoned. I enjoy cooking Indian food, but I am not quite ready to start cooking African foods.
On the way from Kamasi to Accra on our trip home, we traveled in a diesel van belonging to the medical clinic. Along the road we saw men holding grass cutters for sale. A grass cutter is about the same thing as our ground hogs. The creatures showed no sign of having been gutted. They had been killed by a blow to the head with a bush knife.
We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch, and the menu included grass cutter soup. My son Wilson decided to order some. When it came, there was a chunk of the hind leg with the skin still attached. Apparently they had singed the hair, and cooked the leg without skinning. Wilson looked at the hair and skin, and gamely tackled the meat after removing the skin. After a while, he got up and left the table with a pale look, and went toward the toilet. When he came back, he pushed the soup over to me. I left it in the middle of the table.
It is a blessing to travel the world and to have fellowship with Christians from different cultures. But when I return to Little Crow Creek valley, I am reminded that there is no place like home.
I had neither fufu nor grass cutter soup for supper. I settled for a fresh cucumber and tomato sandwich fresh from the garden.
For many years the forces opposed to religious influence in out society have battled Christians in court, and with the complicity of misinformed Judges, restricted the practice of our Christian faith in the public arena. Christian faith is not a private matter. It is a way of life, both public and private. Many things in our society show the result of some that are not practicing Christian faith in their lives. School shootings, rotten music, rampant pornography, family disintegration, road rage, greed, and many other like things demonstrate the failure of many to follow Jesus. Taking Jesus out of the classroom and public affairs was surely the wrong fork to take.
Wise king Solomon said "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." (Prov 14:12; 16:25) We have gone far enough along that road to see where it is headed, and wise people will repent and turn back to the right way. There is a right way and a wrong way. Humanists and many philosophers deny that there is right and wrong, but there is enough evidence to convince me that Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6, NKJV)
Hopefully we have moved back to the fork in the road, and are going to try the other way. Many of us want to put Jesus back in the public affairs of our nation, through the individual faith of men and women who have a commitment to honor Jesus Christ as Lord. Following Jesus can not be a private matter, because it changes our way of living. Following Jesus is the other fork of the road.
Following Jesus will require a majority of our citizens to start voting their conscience instead of their pocketbook. Giving priority to economics of the moment at the expense of honesty and justice gives short yield, as we have experienced. Long term prosperity is the result of people following principles of truth, justice, and mercy. As Solomon wrote, "Righteousness exalts a nation,but sin is a reproach to any people." (Prov 14:34, NKJV)
Imagine how Joshua felt upon hearing such instructions from the Lord God. Perhaps he wanted to argue with God, and propose a better plan. But the Lord had spoken to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him." (Josh 6:1-5, NKJV)
And Joshua accepted the words of Yahweh as true. He did as instructed, and the walls fell flat as God had promised. Joshua did not rely on his own understanding, but trusted the power of God. After all, God recently had stopped the flow of the Jordan River in flood stage, and caused the army of Israel to pass over on dry land.
But before the conquest of Jericho was secured, Israel had to demonstrate their submission to the command of God regarding circumcision. The male children born in the wilderness wandering had to be circumcised. Only when their circumcision was completed, "The LORD said to Joshua, 'This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.'" (Josh 5:9, NKJV)
Today Jesus has promised eternal salvation to those who believe in Him. He also has commanded the circumcision of the heart for those who believe. Paul spoke of this circumcision when writing to the saints at Colosse: "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." (Col 2:11-13, NKJV)
Jesus commanded baptism for salvation through the words of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, Acts 2. What possible connection is there between being buried in water and eternal salvation? It does not make human sense that burial in water can have any effect on eternal salvation. Eternal salvation is a gift of God. But so was the conquest of Jericho. God commanded certain things in order to receive the promise. Joshua and Israel complied. God did what He promised to do. The only connection between the commandment and the promised result was that God commanded it. It did not make human sense, but that does not matter.
God counted Joshua's faith after he obeyed. Jesus promises salvation to those who obey Him: "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Heb 5:9
Imagine a man in his tent suffering from snakebite, about to die. His friends come in and tell him that Moses has just had a snake put up on a pole, and if he will go and look at it, he will be healed.
"What nonsense!" He might have replied, "Any sane person knows that looking at a brass snake on a pole has no power to cure snakebite!"
If he followed his human logic, he died. But if he remembered the powerful things that God had done through Moses ever since the plagues in Egypt, then surely he would have dragged himself outside, looked at the brass snake, and lived.
A brass snake on a pole has no power to heal, but God does have that power. He promised that He would heal those bitten by the fiery serpents, if they were willing to look up at the brass snake on the pole, as He commanded through Moses.
God has promised to heal sinners bitten by Satan, if we will look up to Jesus on the cross, and come to Him for healing. Jesus said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:14-17)
The writer of the book of Hebrews records: "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:1-2, NKJV)
Does it make sense that the Son of God would leave heaven and come down to earth and suffer death on the cross? Does it make sense that we can have a new life when we repent of sins and are buried with Christ in baptism? Can't God pardon us any way that He pleases? Why should I not simply pray to God for forgiveness and invite Jesus to enter my heart and save me? Why should I be baptized?
The answer is that God does have the power to save, and that He has commanded what we are to do to receive the free gift of salvation (Acts 2: 37-38). No one would claim that the Israelites earned their cure by looking at the snake, nor would any proclaim that the healing was in the snake. Looking at the snake for healing was the command of God, and those who complied received the healing. God's power did the healing in agreement with the terms of the promise.
Our salvation is based upon the promises of God. If we refuse His conditions, we refuse His salvation.
Are you willing to look to Jesus for salvation? Listen as the Holy Spirit speaks, "And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them." (Acts 2:40-41)
The victorious commander of the Syrian army had expected something quite different. He had brought a lot of expensive gifts for the prophet, after his wife's servant had assured him that Elisha could cure his leprosy.
He came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of Elisha's house, expecting the prophet to come out and show him favor. After all, Naaman was a powerful man.
But "Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean." (2 Kings 5:10)
Naaman was insulted by the way he had been treated. The prophet had not even bothered to come out of his house and say hello. Imagine the company of powerful men in their military splendor pulled up at the small house of Elisha, and he does not even bother to come out. What a blow to human pride! And the instructions of the servant make no sense whatever. Why wash in the dirty Jordan river? If he was going to wash in a river, the rivers of his home country suited him better.
As Naaman angrily started his return journey, his servants approached him saying, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?"
To his credit, Naaman repented of his anger and did what the servant of Elisha had commanded. "So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."
What connection did dipping seven times in the Jordan river have with healing from leprosy? Nothing, except that God had commanded it in order to receive the gift of healing. Naaman was cleansed after he claimed the promise by obedience. He was not cleansed by the power of the water, but received the promise when he met its conditions.
What if Naaman had reasoned like this? "I believe that God is able to heal me of my leprosy, so I do not need to go to the Jordan River to dip seven times. I will just trust God's healing power by going into my tent, stretching out on the ground before Him, and praying for His healing."
Reasoning our own response by human logic can not be substituted for believing what God has commanded. Even though the commandment of God that a believer should be baptized in the name of Jesus to receive salvation does not make human sense, it is the command of God. If we want to receive the promise, we must meet the conditions of the promise.
What connection can water baptism have with the gift of eternal salvation? None, except that God commanded it. Faith claims God's promise by obedience. All the reasoned arguments in the world will not change the fact that God commanded baptism in the name of Jesus in order to receive salvation. It does not have to make sense. We do it because we trust God to keep His promise.
Those predestined to be blameless in the sight of God are those who are in Jesus Christ. Paul said that God has given us all spiritual blessings in Christ, Eph 1:3. According to the above passage to the Ephesians, we were included in Christ when we heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and having believed, we received the Holy Spirit as a down payment on our eternal inheritance.
Paul, writing to the Corinthian Christians, said this: "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." (1 Cor 12:12-13) Jesus said that one must be born of the water and the Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God, John 3:5. Peter told those who asked what they should do about their sins to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of their sins, and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:37-38.
We receive salvation in Jesus by obedient faith. James, brother of Jesus, asked how a person would show faith without action? God counts faith when we respond by faith to the commands of the gospel, believing in Christ as Lord and Savior, repenting of our sins, and putting on Christ in baptism. God has predestined those who believe and obey the gospel to be His children. As the apostle John wrote, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31, NIV)
God has chosen to give eternal life to all those who believe and obey His Son Jesus. We make the choice to be in Christ when we hear or read the Good News of the Bible, believe it, and obey the simple commands of Jesus to repent and be baptized into Christ, being born of water and the spirit, receiving the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our future glory. Are you chosen for glory?
The faithful have the encouragement of Romans 8:28-39, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" ------- "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" ------"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." NIV
The rebellious have the warning of Heb 6:3-6, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." See also Heb 10:26-31.
Peter wrote to Christians and warned them about the danger of turning back to the world, 2 Peter 2:19-3:1, "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
All people who are faithful in Jesus Christ will be saved eternally. This is God's pre-ordained plan, to save those who believe in His son Jesus. Therefore, if one remains in Christ, walking with Christ, repenting, confessing, and praying for forgiveness, that person will be saved eternally.
But those who once belonged to Christ and who rebel against him, returning to slavery to sin, will be lost eternally if they die in their rebellious condition. Jesus said that any branch connected to Him that refuses to bear fruit will be cut off and cast into the fire. Paul wrote this: "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" Rom 6:15-17
Paul told the Roman Christians that "the wages of sin is death." Jesus said that "No man can serve two masters." He will hate one and hold on to the other. We cannot serve Jesus and the selfish pleasures of this world at the same time. Many people try to mix the two, to do some good and some bad, and in the process deaden their conscience about evil. Our society has slowly slipped into degeneracy. Many people are afraid that they will come off as "holier than you," and be shunned by their peers, if they take an open and vocal stand for righteousness.
Truly, there needs to be a separation between holy and unholy in our minds and actions. Those who seek to please God must live different from those who seek to please themselves. The Amish and Mennonite communities are often looked down on because they do not enjoy many modern day conveniences. Outsiders think that kind of life of self-denial would be a terrible experience. But if self-denial helps them find spiritual value in helping each other, then that experience is valuable to them.
However, making rules about physical separation is not really the solution to the problem of unrighteousness. Paul wrote to the Colossian about that: "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-- 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using--according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Col 2:20-23, NKJV)
The real solution is to replace Satan's counterfeit values, to replace Satan's low life with an exalted life in Jesus Christ. We should not confuse low life with the true high life. The high life is successful life, a life which gives us the power to do good things, to be a blessing to others, and to bring glory to our Creator. The high life teaches us to practice self control, to be filled with God's power, and to live exciting and fulfilling lives of service, instead of dulling, destructive lives of degradation.
To leave the low life behind, one must repent. Repentance includes a recognition of the terrible nature of sin, and results from godly sorrow about the condition of being enslaved to sin. Then one must turn to Jesus for forgiveness and new life. Even after we come to Jesus, when we find ourselves trapped in sin, we must repent and pray to God for deliverance. Confessing our faults to each other and praying for each other helps us to follow Jesus successfully. Replacing bad thoughts and actions with good thoughts and actions is necessary. We all have a void in our lives that seeks fulfillment. Filling our lives with Jesus will deliver us from Satan's low life. Are you living the low life or the high life?
Sometimes people have a warped view of what the good life is all about. Satan deceives us into believing that the good life is about what we possess of this world's pride and treasures. Many spend their lives in the quest for the toy that will satisfy the inner longing for happiness. Stuff that we possess for a short time in this life has no power to provide the good life. We soon tire of our toys, or lose our ability to find joy in them. Human pride leads to destruction.
Those who want the good life will find it in Jesus Christ. When we get beyond Satan's illusions, his smoke screens of temporary enjoyments, we find that what is of real value endures eternally. And we find that it comes from giving rather than receiving.
Moses was raised as the son of the King of Egypt. He chose to give up his royal position and wealth to identify with God's people, who were Moses' people. He chose to suffer with his own people, rather than enjoy the pleasures of this world for a short time. He gave up being buried in an Egyptian burial chamber, perhaps a tomb in a pyramid. But he led God's people out of slavery, and was buried by God in the mountains east of Jordan. Moses lived the high life, in spite of some mistakes. He has an exalted place in the history of the world.
The Word of God left heaven to be born as the man Jesus. Being the Son of God and the promised king of Israel, He did not exalt himself. He humbled himself to the point of dying on the cross, a horrible death accompanied by insults and terrible pain. But He was exalted and became ruler of heaven and earth. He is living the high life, and offers to share it with all who desire it.
Paul, writing to the Christians at Ephesus, said this: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph 2:4-10, NIV)
Christians can live the high life when we are willing to give up our own selfish desires relating to this world and pleasing ourselves with temporary things. We can live the good life in Jesus Christ, receiving all spiritual blessings in Him, not according to what we deserve, but by what He has done for us. We receive these blessings by an obedient faith.
Are you seated in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus? We must give up pleasing ourselves with temporary pleasures in order to enjoy the good life!
A man dying on a cross in front of his mother, while the pagans mock him and his own people hide from him, does not fit our concept of power. God turning His back on the one claiming to be His Son, His only begotten Son, strikes at the heart of what humans hold sacred. What father could let his son die such a horrible death, if he had the power to prevent it? What son could watch his mother's face as he died on a cross, if he had the power to call ten thousand angels to his rescue, as he claimed?
The message of the cross is not something any man would devise. The apostle Paul wrote: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'"
"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."(1 Cor 1:18-25, NIV)
The wisdom of men calls for man to make himself righteous by good works. Human wisdom devises many systems of laws to accomplish righteousness. But man can not approach God by his own power. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." God in his wisdom planned a way of rescuing mankind from the clutches of death. He became a man and give himself as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. God himself paid the price for sins, and made it possible for God's people to have perfect union with Him.
God in His grace and mercy forgives the sins of those who believe in His Son Jesus Christ. He gave responsibility to all Christians for teaching the message about Jesus. We teach it in our lives each day as we follow Jesus. As Paul wrote, "The gospel is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes." (Rom 1:16)
Why would anyone believe such an irrational message? Because of the demonstrated power of Jesus Christ. He said that He would rise from the dead the third day, and He did it! There is no human explanation for what happened with Jesus Christ. The only reasonable conclusion is that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of all who trust in Him.
C.S. Lewis regarded it as chronological snobbery when we don't review our beliefs against the conclusions of others: "Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods, and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age." (Learning in Wartime,1939)
Today, hundreds of millions hold to a belief system and invitation practice that no one had ever held until relatively recently. The notion that one can pray Jesus into his or her heart, and that baptism is merely an outward sign, are actually late developments. Evidence suggests that the use of the sinners prayer to indicate acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior arose within the last 200 years, and that it was recognized as a substitute for baptism as a way of accepting Christ even by some who instigated the practice. I have been interested in this topic for sometime, and even in India noticed how prevalent was such teaching.
I began to do some research into the history of the Sinners Prayer. I contacted several respected Evangelical ministries and made this simple request; I am doing some research into the teaching of the Sinners Prayer as a way to accept Jesus Christ as personal savior. Do you have any information about when this first began to be used? Thank you for your help.
I received three responses. Their message was also simple. I do not know! It is time for all professed Christians to examine their faith and teaching.
An informative article on the subject, titled The Sinners Prayer, can be found at www.chicagochurch.org. I am endorsing neither the website nor the article, but it contains useful historical information. This is a subject worthy of the consideration of all Christians. None of us want to be willing participants in a great cataract (flood) of nonsense. Neither do we want to have a blind spot (cataract) in our spiritual eye.
After 250 years of pagan persecution of Christians, Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity the approved religion of the Roman Empire. The joining of church and state led to the apostasy (falling away) of the church, and to establishment of the Holy Roman Empire. Horrible persecution by the church-states of those who opposed their oppressive and corrupt rule lead many to revolt against the state religion and its religious-political leaders. The reformation of Christianity began with men like Martin Luther, John Huss, and John Wesley leading the way. This reformation movement encouraged personal search for truth.
Scientific discovery began to remove the mystery of the physical nature of the earth, and exposed the false claims (flat earth) of some religious leaders of that time. Man's ability to learn became the expected source of reality as opposed to the decrees of the Roman church rulers. Proponents of rationalism (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900) proclaimed the death of God, and the rise of humanism. Modernism rejected spiritual power and the truth of the Bible. Humanism, belief in the general theory of evolution as a sufficient cause for the universe, situation ethics, and communism are some of the major ideas that belong to the Modernist era.
But the fruit of Modernism was eventually revealed. The teaching of situation ethics led to moral anarchy in societies that adapted the Modernist worldview. Social order could no longer be maintained by people's faith in the moral teaching of the Bible, because the fabric of that faith had been destroyed for many by the teaching of humanism, the general theory of evolution, socialism, and situation ethics in our schools and society. The collapse of atheistic Communism revealed the death of Modernism. Man is not master of his own destiny.
Meanwhile scientific discovery revealed the infinite complexity of life, and that the reality of natural laws proves the general theory of evolution to be incapable of explaining the universe. Modernist man, having rejected God's power, did not know and could not find the truth. So the philosophers decided that deconstruction was required. Failed systems of thought must be destroyed, even if rational man still did not know with what to replace the failed theories. Finally the thinkers decided that knowing truth is beyond the human ability, and advocated that feelings and experiences are the ultimate good. Nothing really matters anyway, in the Post-Modern view.
But I believe that the Post-Modern way of thinking ended for many people on 9/11/01. Sobering reality set in. Not everyone is following the concept that nothing matters anyway. Some people (al-Qaida) are committed to destroying American power. What people believe does matter after all. All religion is not good. Some ways of thinking can not be accommodated in the free world. There is good and evil.
What we believe and practice really does matter. Truth was revealed in a man named Jesus, and we need to share this message with the enslaved people of the world. What Jesus taught long ago, the Christian worldview, is back in fashion again. Do unto others as you would have them do to you is the foundation of right thinking. Love God with all our being, and love our neighbors as ourselves, are the commandments that give a foundation for real life. Pray for a return to Christ in America. Africa and India are turning to Christ by millions. God's people are blessed people.
"Faith of our fathers! Living still In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword. O how our hearts beat high with joy When-e'er we hear that glorious word! Our fathers chained in prisons dark, were still in heart and conscience free; How sweet would be their children's fate If they, like them, could die for Thee. Faith of our fathers! We will love both friend and foe in all our strife, And preach Thee too, as love knows how, By kindly words and virtuous life: Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to Thee till death."
Sadly, the faith of early Christians was soon upset over various issues of human philosophy, church tradition and proclamations of church councils. Christians in the West became dominated by the bishop of Rome, and Christians in the East became dominated by the bishops of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and other large churches of the East. Conflict between East and West opened the doors for Islamic expansion from the seventh century until the thirteenth century. Then the inquisition brought the horrors of persecution by the apostate Holy Roman Empire upon Jews and upon Christians of conscience who refused to submit to the traditions of Rome. The control of religion by the state enabled the persecutions. State sanctioned Protestant churches practiced similar atrocities upon those who refused to submit to their decrees.
Christians today who live in nations where religion is controlled by the state may be subject to persecution if they violate the religious decrees of the state connected religion. When we resist the powers of false religion and come under persecution, it is a blessing. No power can suppress true faith in Jesus Christ. Even if we die, we will be blest abundantly.
Missionary to Ecuador Jim Elliot wrote the words which seem prophetic of his death at the hands of tribal people he was trying to reach with a message about Jesus. He wrote "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
There is a blessing in sacrifice for a just cause. The greatest cause to which anyone can dedicate his or her life is the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Whatever we give of the temporary means and circumstances of this life can not compare with the blessings promised to those who love and follow Jesus. As Paul wrote, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God." (Rom 8:16-19, NKJV)
Faith of our fathers, holy faith! How sweet would be our fate if we, like them, could die for Thee! Jesus calls us to die to self and live for Him. Preach Jesus by kind words and virtuous life.
The Bible teaches that no one can be saved by his or her good works. No one merits salvation, because we all make mistakes. Sin removes us from perfection. Sin separates us from the God who created us. We all miss the mark of our heart's desire. Our failures bring despair and hopelessness.
One popular way to deal with the shame of sin is to deny that there is such a thing as sin. Humanists claim that all actions are natural, since they believe we are only animals by nature. Animals do the things that instincts and environment cause them to do. Therefore, to the humanist, modification of environment and denial of shame are ways to lead people to desired action in life. Acceptance of sinful nature as being the natural status of mankind, and encouraging social acceptance of all types of human behavior, naturally follow this philosophy. This way leads to moral bankruptcy, and to immoral society, with all the evils such life produces.
Jesus demonstrated correct living during His brief visit on earth. He showed that considering the rights of others of equal importance to our own rights produces a blessed society. Our basic nature is to put our own rights above the rights of others. Pagan society is marked by disregard for the rights of those outside the clan or family, and history abounds with the destruction that resulted from such thinking.
Doing unto others as we would have them do to us is not natural; it is supernatural, beyond the way of man. It is the way of God. Jesus demonstrated that way in the things that He did. He lived a life of compassion and healing, always caring for the downtrodden and helpless of society. He dismissed as play actors the religious people of his day with their emphasis on empty ritual. He showed that the mind is the center of life, and that the mind can be transformed by the influence and power of God.
Through His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus opened the only way to God; the way to a mind cleansed from shame and empowered by the will of God. Jesus opened the way to life by giving His own life as the ultimate demonstration of the love of God. He commands that those who come to Him must demonstrate their submission to the will of God by following the pattern of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in repentance and baptism. Those who demonstrate their faith in such a way are cleansed by the blood of Christ, and given a life empowered by the will of God in Jesus Christ. This is the way to eternal life. "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom 6:4)
Yahweh, the God of Abraham, the creator of the universe, has decreed death as the punishment for sin. That decree is just. The one who sheds innocent blood is to be killed. But God is also merciful. He allowed Cain to live, and protected him, even though he had murdered his brother Abel. Eventually God satisfied His own justice by giving the life of His Son Jesus to pay the price for sin. Mercy and grace opened the way for redemption. But that redemption is only for those who believe. Peace is for those who serve the Prince of Peace.
Where does that leave the unbeliever? Under the penalty of death for sin. God will destroy the wicked, and punish them with everlasting banishment from His presence. That is justice. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, "since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." (2 Thess 1:6-10, NKJV)
I received a letter from a Christian brother asking me to clarify that I am not speaking for all Christians when I count the conflict in Iraq a just war. Many Christians are pacifists, and do not believe in war for any reason. They believe that killing for any purpose is wrong. There is a long history of this Christian pacifism, and it is to be respected. Jesus taught us to do good to our enemy, and to love those who mistreat us.
There is another kind of pacifism, that taught by Buddhism, to do no harm. The Buddhist delights in believing that life is an illusion, and that we should not be unduly concerned with events around us. That philosophy permits a man to see his family murdered before his eyes without showing any anger. But it is a philosophy that is devoid of love. There is no encouragement to do good to others.
The scriptures say that the greatest love is to lay down our life for our friends, John 15:13. There are men and women in Iraq who are willing to lay down their lives for the cause of justice, and I honor them. They are doing a good work. They are showing great love for their friends and their nation. I pray for their protection and their success.
But there is another kind of warfare that does not involve guns, planes, bombs, and missiles. This warfare is fought with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This weapon is powerful enough to change the hearts of men. We should be willing to lay down our lives for the cause of the gospel, to carry the gospel even to our enemies. Ultimately, the only way to peace is through bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ. It is no accident that the men who terrorize the world today are followers of a prophet who denied that Jesus is the Son of God. It is no accident that the suicide bombers mistakenly believe that they will go to Paradise because their religious leaders told them so. People need to hear the truth. Everyone, even our enemy, deserves to learn about Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace.