Or do you not know that your
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have from God,
and you are not your own?
For you were bought with a price;
therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit,
which are God's.
1Corinthians 6:19-20
You act accordingly to who you think you are and that belief is your theology, and this is your religion, and this is your character, and this is how you act. This is true of everyone and it is this fact: you must know who you are and whose you are. To be an Authentic Biblical Christian you must believe, completely believe, to be converted to this belief as Paul so aptly puts it: we are not our own for we have been bought with a price and this by God. You are the temple of God. You belong to God. Cultural Christians, those that are liberal in their beliefs are not God's people for it is themselves that they hold dear, God seems to take a second place. Oh! They may admit to being a Christian, they may even talk about salvation, they may even speak of heaven; but they are not Authentic Christians because they are not God's, they are for themselves. All Authentic Christians are to be servants and children of God: "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...." (Matthew 5:45a). Authentic Biblical Christians are children of God, and as we so often say, most of the time this saying is just that, a saying, the importance having been lost: "Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Paul in writing to the Roman Church says: "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.... For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:9, 14-15). Who are you? Whose are you?
It is true that each individual grows differently from another in Sanctification; but there must be growth, or you are dead, useless, anything you do is not of God, it is for other reasons. How do we grow? First; you must come to the knowledge and awareness of how inadequate you are to achieve this goal without grace and empowerment. This is your starting point, and knowing this we then come to God humbly, and ask Him for the guidance to become what He has told us, to be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. We pray, and then, we get up, and then, we move forward one step at a time, applying His word in all we do and all we say. Our devotion to Him will grow and this well be a sign that our Sanctification is growing and we are becoming more and more to be the very image of Jesus Christ. No one is exempt from this rubric, we must grow, and this we do be studying His word, applying what He has told us, no matter what, even those hard things, such as putting Him first before our loved ones, and others. This is our motivating principles that is our logical response to God.
Yet, for cultural, liberal "Christians" there are many problems; for one, they don't believe the Bible to be inerrant, infallible, and preserved by God. Wow! If this is so, then all we done is limit God, that He cannot, or will not say things and control how they are recorded. If God inspired men to write what He wished to be written, first for those immediately that needed this word, and this word is applicable to all generations to come. God did promise to preserve His word, did He not? It is inspired, is it not? Why would God give His word and not protect it? Yes, men are the ones writing down His word, and some men have corrupted His word, but not all, for God would not say something and not do it: "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, on jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18). One jot, this is a period looking mark in the Hebrew language by which we have vowels, even our period at the end of a sentence is a jot. A title, the best I can describe is; take an "O" and but a " ' " on it as "Q" and you have a title. Humanity of man is not destroyed by God, He allows us to use our common sense, and He is in us so that we are influenced by the Holy Spirit and those God has chosen will not corrupt the Scriptures, they are very careful of what they wrote. For instance the Hebrew scribes counted every word on a page, they knew the number of words and letters for each line, and they knew the center word, and letter. So careful were they in writing down God's word that if they made a mistake on the last letter of the last word on a page, they destroyed the page and started over. This was true of the Greek speaking people, who knew Greek and had copies of the original writings, and with more that 5,000 manuscripts, and 24,000 pieces of manuscript we can find that they are in harmony, and are in agreement and scholars have made the determination that there is no Doctrine that is affected if a word was not in the same order, i.e., Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. To Be an Authentic Biblical Christian, to have Authentic Biblical Faith, then the beginning is to believe and have faith in the God, in His preserved word. Of our belief starts there, then our theology would conform to His word, and our religion would be in accordance with God's plan for His people and then we we have a change in character and act as Authentic Biblical Christians.
Therefore be imitators of God
as dear children. And walk
in love, as Christ also has loved
us and given Himself for us,
an offering and a sweet-smelling aroma.
Ephesians 5:1-2
Praise God: He has chosen You
Richard L. Crumb
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