Letters and Responses
Here we post letters that we have received that we feel are pertinent information for all who visit our site.
It will show the letter we received and our scriptural response.
We do not post names and address on these letters. All writers have received a personal reply from us prior to the posting.
| 11:58 PM 09/30/07
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Charles LaFoe
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| on becoming a Christian
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Letter:
I am studying the bible as well as the internetregarding how one becomesa Christian?
One would think it is pretty simple but with so many different churches, different doctrines and methods of coming to Christ, how do you begin to make sense of it all?
One states..."Just believe and Christ will do the rest". Another..."Give God your heart and don't worry". What about examples of Gentiles and Jews becoming Christians in the new testament? While Christ was on the earth, wasn't He under the mosaic law? Did the new testament church begin in Acts - on the Day of Pentecost?
Can you fill in the blanks and help me put the puzzzle parts together?
signed.
YES, it is confusing UNLESS you use the scriptures as your SOLE SOURCE for truth. The denominations and many non-denominations (what I call the churches of men) are an abomination and teach so many myths and man made fables that it is impossible to know the truth from them. The scriptures tell us “you shall know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will Make you FREE”.
Yes while He walked on the earth before his death, Jesus and all the others were under the mosaic law. He however came to FULFILL the law. Which HE DID. When He died and was resurrected the law was fulfilled, was finished, completed. It had fulfilled its purpose and was no longer of any effect. The mosaic law, ALL of it, including the ten commandments and the laws on titheing were and are finished. The new covenant was instituted upon His resurrection and was fully functioning beginning with the upper room experience on the day of Pentecost. He said in Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. Notice He did not say “you shall talk about Me”, but He said “you shall be witnesses to Me “ in other words He was saying wherever you go when they see you they should be seeing Me. What He meant by “you shall receive power “is simply this. Without the baptism (infilling) of the Holy Spirit , you do not have the power (ability) to be a Christian, but his gift of the Holy Spirit infilling will empower you to be a Christian. Yet in spite of this TRUTH of scripture many of the “churches of men” say that these things given to the church by Christ Himself are not for today they teach contrary to scripture that parts of the old covenant are still in effect today even though Jesus Himself declared that it was finished.
Of course the reason is that if they do not put the people in bondage to themselves then they might read their own bibles and start understanding that they DO NOT NEED ANYBODY to Stand BETWEEN THEM and GOD other than the LORD JESUS CHRIST. By the way, I am not against Christians meeting together as we are commanded to, just against the “churches of men” that draw people to serve them and not Jesus Christ.If they don’t teach the unscriptural titheing as they have been taught, how will they fund their church systems and get paid? (God forbid that they have to get a job like most of us new testament minister(servants) do). The scriptures also tell us that not only is the law not in effect for us, but it tells us that if we do not believe Jesus FULFILLED IT ALL and we continue to follow part of it that we are obligating ourselves to obey ALL of it (which we cannot do) and are sying that Jesus died in vain – we are calling Him a liar. So they are in fact not teaching Jesus as deliverer but are calling Him a liar – disowning Him while professing to be His church. NO wonder people are Confused.
The truth is we have two commandments and ONLY two, Given to us personally by Jesus Christ and these two if we really understand them require us to live far above the requirements of the mosaic law, we are to become like HIM. Matt 22:37-40 “Jesus said to him ‘ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang ALL the Law and the Prophets’
WELL enough of this lets get on to the meat of your question. What is True Salvation?
The bible teaches that Jesus the Christ paid the price for our salvation by becoming the Last, Full and Final Blood Sacrifice. Jesus makes it clear that we must repent and be baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit. John 3:5-7 Jesus answered,” Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
John 3:13-20
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Now many of them say we must believe in Him, but that is only a small part of it, as the bible tells us that even the demons believe in Him, that He is the son of God. We must look at the word – believe – and if we do we find that the meaning of the word translated as believe is much more complex than just believing who He is.
The word is 4100 strongs – pisteuo – (pist-yoo-o) – from 4102, ti have faith ( in, upon, or with respect to a person or thing), ie: credit, by implication, to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ)
KJV- believe, commit (to trust), put in trust with.
See, this word means that we turn ourselves over to His keeping, we submit to His control of our lives, We believe that He truly is who He says He is and we trust Him completely. So we believe when He says we are sinners and we repent and are baptized in water for the remission of our sins, during which time our heart is circumsized thereby allowing us to understand the things of God and we are baptized in the Holy Spirit to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit which give us the power to become Christians, Then we must as scripture tells us, work on becoming LIKE HIM.
1 Peter 2:20-25
21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 "Who committed no sin,Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Then we must learn to deal with the natural desires of man, which scripture calls ‘the flesh’ or the ‘carnal man’.
Gal 5:16-26 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
We then must constantly become more like Christ and less of a carnal person. It is not a one step process, but it is a lifelong life style.
may God bless you richly as you follow Him.
Charlie
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