By John Larkins
While we look to Jesus for rewards in this life, His essential gift to us can only be obtained after our death. As we enjoy the current warm and calm Alabama spring weather, it is not uppermost in our minds that God promised a WAY to redemption only for those who choose His conditions. It is true that soon after Jesus’ hideous death had paid for that redemption, many of us turned our backs on His conditions for allowing us to enter into His Father’s Kingdom. It is very sad to read the obituaries of fellow citizens but seeing no evidence that they had any connection with Jesus Christ. Many false teachers have prevailed in protecting their occupational activities, promising salvation but devoid of any mention of His Church and requirements. Those teachers present a treacherous institution’s dogmas to you that are contradicted by God’s word in all but the most threadbare versions of the Bible.
Where do you go for guidance as to the truth? Even such unreligious references as the internet provides will inform you of the dates of Jesus’s teaching era and His time of death. There is no Church in history but the one His disciples formed under Jesus’ personal guidance at that time around 33 AD. If you research Father Martin Luther’s church, you will note a 1,500-year gap between Jesus’s time and Luther’s time. Does this ring a bell in your mind? If you consulted the Bible, you would see in the Gospel that Jesus promised His Church would prevail against the Gates of Hell, not somehow needing a heretic Catholic to form a competitor.
Look around you at the estimated 35,000 so-called churches jockeying for your support. One non-denominational reference book is The Handbook of Denominations in the United States by Roger E. Olson, published by Abingdon Press. Searching for Jesus’s true church is a worthy job. While you would not need this book if you studied the Bible, it is useful because so many have chosen to make a living organizing their own groups.
Looking back in history to my birth year of 1938, the great progress made by socialists is astounding. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson earlier had organized a basic cadre to infest the American government. Please keep in mind the basic starting point for all the anti-American workers is to discredit God as the source of our freedom, happiness and salvation. All their schemes hinge on nullifying churches and religious belief.
Although the current Socialist Democrats are reluctant to say it, even Moslems, Buddhists and other non-Christians are to be killed or imprisoned. This is because of the supreme teaching that all power comes from the Party Leader. Our U.S. Constitution holds that our individual freedom comes from God; therefore, all religions must all be destroyed.
The real issue targeted by the Socialist Democrats is that the American idea centers on rights given by God, not the party. Former U.S. President Barack Obama stated that America is not a Christian country, and he now appears to be correct, at least in most big cities. It is not so apparent here in Etowah County, but you can see local politics are under attack by imported organizers. Oh yes, it looks so innocent!
Thus, we are under attack by Satan in undermining Jesus Christ’s teaching by many hellish elements. Throughout history there have been times and places where a “remnant” was all that was left of previous robust groups of believers. Just as tornados may come tomorrow, so might our deaths. It might be a good idea to think about and study on our individual defense before Jesus as to how we actually behaved to prove we love Him.
For the past 15 years, John Larkins has evangelized on the street, door-to-door, in tent revivals and in church situations. Contact him at johnlarkins@bellsouth.net.