There are so many problems with modern Christianity it’s hard to find a place to begin. Let’s start with the general and go to the specific. The first problem is like a promise of marraige. I was promised to a 19 year old girl once while in college. She was pretty and smart and seemed to be just what I needed. We agreed to have the wedding a long time in the future because we were both busy with school and work. As time passed I never heard from her, it was hard to find her when I came to town and she never visited me at the college town where I lived. I knew she came to town often because she was attending college there. But she never came to visit, she never called, and it seemed she had no interest in me at all. We went weeks without hearing from one another. It began to dawn on me she was really not interested in me. It was only the promise she cared about. In time, I began to lose interest in her because she was not interested in me.
I thought people should meet often, try to relate to the same kind of life and make plans for a future life if they intend to get married. Apparently, she did not and I called it off.
What if the same thing is happening with Christians today? What if we are the only one that thinks we are going to be saved? The scripture that all Christians think is going to save them is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
What if people never bother to read the rest of that idea, John 3:18, He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” “On” Him is not the same as “in” Him. The devils believe “in” Him, but not “on” Him, because they do not follow His commandments. James, 2:19, “Thou believes that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Here, James, is saying that faith without works is dead. The difference between believing “in” and “on” is following.
John continues, 3:19 “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
This appears to be the answer to two questions, Who doesn’t believe and Why.
I think the way things are in the world now is not an accident, but a design. God is filtering out those who are not interested in getting on board His plan, and He is identifying those who are.
There is more in John, 3:16-19 than meets the eye. He wants us to investigate this and discover the deeper meaning. Part of being engaged is learning about our new bridegroom and getting into the deeper meaning of who He is and what He wants from us. If we are not interested in Him, He may not be interested in us. In fact, if we don’t do our homework, we might not be considered believers because we preferred the darkness rather than the light.
For example, What if our Lord’s name is not really something invented in 1573 by Pierre Ramus and placed into Bibles by the Catholic Church? After all, the Middle English language is only 1000 years old, modern English is only 500 years old. Bibles began to be printed after the printing press was invented in 1600, so all of them were printed in a language only about 500 years old. Interestingly, the etymology of the Name states it was derived by transliteration, which is defined as, AI generated;
“A transliterated word often holds no meaning in the new language; it serves only as a guide for reading or pronouncing the original term.”
“This method is primarily used for proper nouns (names of people and places), brand names and technical terms where maintaining the original phonetic identity is more important than understanding the definition”.
Problem is, Our Lord was given a name that was not a proper noun, Savior. Since it was not a proper noun, it could be translated with meaning into all languages and still be accurate.
For those of us who love the light, this is food. For those who love darkness its just noise and fog. Our Lord said, “take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” The yoke He is speaking of is the Commandments. When the young man asked Him, “Lord what must I do to be saved, He said, ”keep the commandments.” The commandments are the yoke and “learn of me” is obvious.
TV Preachers
Most of the the TV Preachers do a fair job at unpacking scripture, Andrew Wommack probably the best. The problem with all these guys is they are tethered to doctrines that came from the Catholic Church. Matt 15:9, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.”
Some of these men must know the truth and withhold it because of money. If they told the truth they would be outcast and called anti-Christian. They would be cast out by the people that don’t want to know the truth but love darkness. But they pay well. The Catholic Church pays these preachers and the people pay them to say what is traditional.
But who cares? In America, church is mostly a social activity once a week where you go and pay and get told you are already forgiven for what you are going to do.
However, there is a remnant, a few people, who need to know more. These are the ones God is looking for. They are the ones who love the light. They have to understand things, they have to be sure. After all, How else can we have real faith unless we understand?
Ron Cash