THE FOLLY OF TRUE CHURCH AND REAL REMNANT CLAIMS I consider as absurd and untenable the claims of leaders of old and modern religions, denominations, sects, etc. that their members are the only people who are going to be saved because they assume the prerogative which is God’s alone. No one is going to be saved by his affiliation with any church group. It would be the individual’s servant-Master relationship with God that would either spell his doom or account for his worthiness of the heavenly inheritance come Judgment day. The best we can do is to sincerely repent of our sins as we fervently pray for God’s mercy and obey all of His commandments by His grace as we trust in His power to save us. The enemy has been quite successful in confusing and misleading the minds of the people by having convinced nominal Christians that the love of God is unconditional as they erroneously believe all their sins (including those that they may commit in the future) have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. Since all of God’s promises to the faithful and hopeful were given on condition of obedience to His law, it would be illogical and presumptuous to conclude that Jesus Christ would pardon and save even the unrepentant, willful violator of His law. We must all constantly pray for the light of the Holy Spirit to guard against our propensity to interpret the Holy Scriptures from the standpoint of human wisdom as countless pious Christians have likewise been misled to believe in God’s unconditional love instead of this love being appreciated as truly unfathomable. Many have misconstrued God’s lovingly lofty thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55: 8, 9) as tolerant even acceptable of transgression of His law while in truth His tender manner of dealing with the erring is immeasurable, incomprehensible and indescribable. Even devout Christians have fallen prey to the fallacy pointed out in Jeremiah 7:4 of trusting in the lying words of ancient Israelites that declare the permanent and absolute status of God’s temples/churches. Verse 18 also mentions the error that millions of Christians make in their offerings before the “the queen of heaven” and other gods. All professing Christians would do well to study prayerfully the whole Chapter 7 of Jeremiah in order to escape the wrath of God which His former chosen people (Israelites) endured because of their murmuring, rebellion, ingratitude and intransigence. Luke 3:2 should make us ponder not wonder about much less wander from the lesson being imparted – the status of the true church of God is conditional as it is based on the church’s unquestioning obedience to His commandments, strict adherence to His word in the Holy Scriptures and loving service to His people. Why else would the word of God have been given to John the Baptist in the wilderness when there was already an established, supposed to be learned Levitical priesthood at that time headed by the high priests Annas and Caiaphas? Christians would be much kinder and less judgmental of other denominations, splinter groups or offshoots if they were to study carefully why Jesus Christ himself started the first independent ministry among God’s professed followers when He bypassed the traditional, denominational rabbis and called the fishermen Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, James and his brother John to follow Him and become fishers of men (Matthew 4: 18-22; Mark 1: 16-20). I used to ask myself why God allowed His original chosen people – the Jews (the natural branches in Romans 11: 20-22) to be nearly exterminated and pitifully scattered around the world until I read about Israel’s stubbornness and impenitence which led to her being left desolate (Matthew 23: 37-39; Luke 13: 34-35). Since the Jews ignored/rejected the Old Testament prophecies (Isaiah 7:14-15; 53: 3-12; Micah 5:2) about the first coming of Jesus Christ and thus did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God in their midst, they derided him as merely the delusional son of carpenter Joseph and eventually nailed Him to the cross at Calvary. Luke 12:48 explains exactly why the fate of Israel was so tragic and ironic in that she failed to harness the greatest light and blessings ever bestowed upon men to honor and glorify God. I lament the fact that today’s Christian churches (much like the Jews of old) again assert their individual superiority over the other churches including the real remnant people of God composed of His faithful followers who would set aside family ties, cultural tradition and religious boundaries in order to follow the only true living God of the universe. Much blood would be shed at the altar of truth as religious groups with their imaginative, distinctive but deceptive doctrines compete for tempest-tossed souls seeking a haven of sorts. May we all comprehend the minimal proportion of the faithful few against the vast number of professed disciples of Jesus Christ to be saved in Romans 9:27 and refrain from branding, judging and condemning people who are earnestly searching for truth. Then we would realize the folly of making any claim regarding the identification of the name of the true church and the composition of the remnant people of God. Written by: Antonio Nantes Guevara March 7, 2014
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:34:35 +0000
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