Justice Stephen Breyer said that “The goal of promoting participatory democracy is more important that fidelity to the actual text of the Constitution.” If that is true, then the founders wasted a lot of time giving us a document that would guide our nation through the years. Using Breyer’s dictum means that there isn’t any essential set of rules to guide the way since whatever is expedient and popular will suffice.

In the same manner, there is an ongoing effort to turn membership in the kingdom of God into the same type participatory institution that is devoid of standards except what each group reckons to be right in their own eyes, much like the people of the Old Testament. [Judges 17:6] In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. If the king is looked at as the standard, then in absence of a king, there were no standards. In the same way, those who denigrate the scriptures and refuse to follow the teachings of God are following the dictates of Breyer and the way of the period of the Judges.

 The church of Christ (an assembly of people claiming God and salvation through Jesus Christ) are people who are living in newness of life, following a standard prescribed by God and taught by His Son and the Apostles. As Paul wrote: [Eph 4:21] If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: [Eph 4:22] That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; [Eph 4:23] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; [Eph 4:24] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Membership is predicated on a standard found in scripture and those who are members are expected to follow the way of God in Christ. Additionally, as Paul wrote in [2 Corinthians 5:17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Again we see that membership in God’s kingdom requires adhering to a standard.

If God’s standard isn’t followed, then all sorts of pernicious doctrines will abound and do abound in this day and age. Getting your name on a membership roll isn’t one of the standards. Allowing anyone and everyone who desires to participate in religious matters isn’t what the Bible teaches. Allowing all sorts of behavior by those who practice deviancy under the guise that God won’t deny anyone his love in the end no matter how perverse the conduct, is as gross a false doctrine as can be fostered.

Jude wrote the following about those who teach perverse doctrine. [Jude 1:10] But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. [Jude 1:11] Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. [Jude 1:12] These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; [Jude 1:13] Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

The foregoing explains the end of those who won’t follow the standard of holiness. It makes no difference how much they profess to love God; it makes no difference how much they participate in the affairs of whatever group in which they claim membership; the end will be the same for all who don’t follow the teaching and the standards of Christ.

John wrote the following: [1 John 5:11] And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [1 John 5:12] He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. [1 John 5:13] These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.  Those who desire salvation can know they are saved because they have followed the standard, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Those who don’t follow can also know that they aren’t going to be saved. [Rev 22:18] For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: [Rev 22:19] And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. That is the teaching and the standard found in the Bible.

© 1-05-06 DEC

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