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THREE TYPES OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA (Part 5)
There are Christians who, for various reasons, will never be the first type of Christian I identified in Part 4. Nor will they ever give their hearts to the Lord.
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Prior to the Declaration of Independence, when America was hanging in the balance and subjected to the ongoing whims of a great nefarious power holding the nation in contempt for not groveling before it, the American Colonists were divided into three distinct groups. One remained loyal to the mother country, one decided to put everything on the line and fight for freedom and liberty, and one group didn’t much care one way or the other.
These three groups mirror the three types of Christians currently existing in America. We discussed the first group in Part 4 and identified it as the Christian Pharisees. These are those Christians who look good on the outside but whose hearts are far from the Lord. They have bought into traditional religious externals without bothering to seek the Truth of the Gospel and the full curriculum of the Lord Jesus.
Today I will discuss the second group, the middle group, the group which cannot commit. This is their primary characteristic. Keep in mind that these groups are not so finely constituted that there is no overlap. These three groups are thus somewhat general in scope but defined by their primary attributes. Where is their true loyalty? Where is their heart? What do they deem most important? Do they simply follow the crowd? Do they go along to get along? Do they stand fast, first, and foremost with the Lord Jesus regardless of circumstances? For what will they give their lives?
We see then, that the heat of battle will reveal priorities. I mentioned in Part 4 that many Christian ministers of the Gospel during the Revolution, some very well-known at the time, decided to take up arms and fight for liberty. They made the decision to stand up for their lives and their future generations. They would not allow the thought of their children not having the same freedom and opportunities with which they had been blessed. They saw what was happening as a powerful attack against everything they held dear. They were passionate for the cause and fully committed. Other Christian ministers were aghast at such a development. They could not fathom such a thing. It just didn’t seem “Christ like.”
Before the battle lines of the Revolutionary War were drawn, there were already unseen battle lines in existence which had to be dealt with and sorted out. It seemed the pro-British American Tories had decided where their loyalties were and, of course, the American Patriots had surely decided what course they would take, but the other group of Americans that fit neither of these categories remained gooped up in apathy and unconcern, too small to see or care about the Big Picture.
Christians like this have a severe motivation problem. (“What is my motivation?”) Maybe some were clueless and simply unaware of what was going on all around them. Maybe some were so far out in the boonies they were not affected either way. Whatever the case, it reminds one of that guy with the one talent who went out and buried it. God was not pleased. At all. These are the people that, no matter the provocation or prompting, will simply not engage. And how is it that they could be so unaware, so callous, and so apathetic? Especially during one of the greatest times on earth with the greatest to be gained? Sound familiar?
This kind of Christian goes through life sleepwalking. And whereas all Christians need to wake up from time to time the Christians of this second group simply cannot. They must sleep. They are sleeping. They exist in a netherworld without ever realizing what’s at stake. The word risk is not in their vocabulary. Based on the teachings of the Lord Jesus such an attitude is beyond problematic because the holders thereof cannot possibly be saved from sin without a major change of heart because they cannot understand they are gambling with eternal life. It is one thing to lose one’s soul by being overcome with temptation and committing to a wrong path. Though it is obviously wrong there is clear decision making in such a choice. For the Christians of this second group, however, they simply cannot grab hold of making a life-changing decision. They remain muddled in the middle.
We can gain more clues about this type of Christian in the Gospels. We clearly see those who commit fully to the Lord. We also see those who oppose Him violently. The third group, however, is mostly invisible. We know it’s there but it’s pretty much beyond obscure. They don’t have the rebellion or fight to oppose the Lord. They also don’t have the passion to join His movement and risk everything. During the American Revolutionary War, the two opposing sides were all in. We discussed this in Part 4 regarding the Levitical priests and the Prophets. The Law-first people and the Prophetic Word people often did not see eye to eye. The Lord never intended this. He wanted everyone to understand that everyone was viable and necessary. There was a great reason for The Law of Moses, for the Temple and all the ministrations thereof, and also for lone Prophets out in the desert giving their all to hear from God and be His voice.
These two groups are roughly represented within Christianity in general to varying degrees and it’s sad that some have gone so far to the opposite edge of the other that there is simply no possibility of communication. This serves no good purpose. The answer to bridge this great divide is right there in the Gospels and the New Covenant writings but some are so invested they simply will not go there. Of course, it is a fact that the early first-century Israelite believers post resurrection still attended the Temple precincts as well as going house-to-house but the time came when the Temple was no more. And there were no church buildings for three hundred years. This meant they kept going house-to-house. But they also had a definite spiritual order and great purpose in their meetings, organic as they were.
Whatever the case, and whether one had this gifting or that, each real Christian was and remained committed. And the faux Christians were committed. But that other group couldn’t bring itself to go one way or the other. It craved a middle ground that didn’t exist. In the first century AD it is likely, as thoroughly unlikely as it may sound, that many Israelites had never even heard of the Lord Jesus or were aware of what happened during the final week of His life. They didn’t read the Scriptures. They didn’t read the newspapers. Their level of gossip never contained anything of any substance. They simply went about their lives in an unconscious uninformed indifferent state.
These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. [Jude 1:12-13][1]
Meh
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued]
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
THREE TYPES OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA (Part 1)
THREE TYPES OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA (Part 2)
THREE TYPES OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA (Part 3)
You’re Going To Hell!
Back in the primitive past when Christians were grossly intolerant and actually believed in and followed the Word of God, preachers really said this. They actually told people in no uncertain terms that unless they repented and got right with God they were going straight to hell.
And people got saved.
And they dedicated their lives to God.
And they were ever-thankful for the great price the Lord paid on their behalf.
And they loved the preacher for preaching the truth.
Speaking of which, there was once a man, about fifty years ago, who was a self-described drug addict-satan worshipper-bad dude biker, and the kind of guy who could kill a man relatively quickly without a weapon. He happened to hear a preacher once. The preacher shouted, with absolutely no fear, “You’re Going to Hell!!!”
The hell-bound man repented and gave his life to God. Later, he also became a preacher. And one night, several years later, I happened to be in a small church building where this man was preaching a revival. The little place was packed and the Spirit of God was powerful. The title of his sermon was… ready?
Known in Hell.
He quoted from the Book of Acts, or actually, he shouted from the Book of Acts: “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” [Acts 19:15 NKJV]
The big idea was that the devil knows those responsible for wrecking his kingdom. He knows those who attack his gates and steal back souls for the Lord.
In the Acts story, the evil spirit knew who the Lord Jesus was, and it knew who the apostle Paul was, and was deathly afraid of both. Real Christians are Known in Hell.
But what about the fake believers?
Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. [Acts 19:16 NKJV]
After hearing this nice little Christian message—Known in Hell—I decided that right then and there would be a very good time to surrender to God. The next thing I knew I was up at the front with about a million other people. The kingdom had to add an extra wing that night. And another hell-bound man got turned around and headed in the right direction.
Now, even though we humans don’t like such talk, for obvious reasons, the default destination for every human is hell.
And without real repentance, a born-again experience, and surrendering one’s life to the Lord Jesus, the following applies:
You’re going straight to hell. You will not pass Go. You will not collect $200.
Because you have repeatedly trashed the commandments of God, because you have rejected the incredible offer of necessary salvation and undeserved grace, because you have dishonored, disobeyed, disbelieved, and disavowed discipleship, you will be eternally disconnected from God and disappear. You get the hot place. You will spend your first big vacation on the other side of earth at Fire Lake.
In you will go. And you will never return…
There are certain things that most people refuse to acknowledge. Hell is often at the top of the list. We don’t want to believe there is a hell. We don’t want to believe in the possibility we may end up there. Some think, “How could a loving God ever send anyone to such a place?”
Here’s how: Because human beings are sinners, to one degree or another. The very fact that God is a loving God is why those who appreciate His offer of grace should not have to spend eternity with sinful, rotten idiots whose greatest sins are questioning the existence and motives of the very God who made them, rebelling against Him at every turn, thinking they know better and are better than Him, and who are so ridiculously lost in their own self-worth and deception they would rather have their pride and sin than eternal life.
Jude knew about such people in his time:
Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
Why would Jude tell them to contend earnestly for the faith? What happened?
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Oh.
Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.
I think that’s what we call a precedent.
And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
And there’s another precedent. And it gives us all a very good indication of how God feels about a certain lifestyle.
Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Cain was evil. He offered an unacceptable sacrifice to God. He killed the godly seed. Balaam was a prophet for hire (Send me money and God will bless you!). And Korah and his rebels took a very fast shortcut to hell. These were in part religious people… Is Jude pointing toward unreal Christians?
These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Uh oh.
It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
Wow…
But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. [Jude 1:3-19]
Bingo.
But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. [1 Timothy 1:8-11]
So the most stupid people of all are those who reject the laws and commandments of God? And live according to their own sinful nature? And refuse to come clean? And trade the lusts of this very short life for the loss of their souls for all eternity?
Can they be described further?
“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [Revelation 21:8]
But what if a person is a liar by profession? What about those who support the murder of innocent babies? What about those who unreservedly and with full knowledge serve mammonas, the god of riches and avarice? Who sell their soul for wealth and power? Who cut out a little section of the planet for their own purposes through illicit means, not caring at all about who they rip off in order to pad their evil little nest?
“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” [Matthew 23:33]
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? [1 Peter 4:18 KJV] [1]
Um, could it be…
© 2013 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
