Salvation Involves an Intimate Relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit
What the Spirit is saying
to me today is His end time church will be a commandment keeping one, regardless
of religious persuasion. I am convinced God does not
have a religion, not to mention denomination within religion. God has "a
people", who follow His Way to Him. Jesus is the Way and Jesus says; "Follow
Me". Else, why did God give up His only Son to us?
Is that not to say follow in His footsteps? I read nothing of the early patriarchs
coming together for church. I read a lot, however, of them walking according
to to the commandment of God.
Here is something I wrote recently about religion that may shed light on
why I am no longer a "joiner".
By so many separate acts and hours of work, religion becomes habit. Sort of like
becoming a drunkard by so many separate drinks... We are creatures of habit and
I'm not saying there are not good habits to develop. I question whether religion
is among them. Who among men is qualified to declare a man a saint? Some religious
authority?..
Religion takes its toll over the years just as any bad habit until we become
so embedded in it it becomes impossible to break free to discover Truth for
ourselves. Religion is for joiners. Joiners become followers. Somewhere in
the process our free-will is sacrificed.
Church going offers no free ride to the Kingdom of God. What it does do is
place us in a situation where we become preached to instead of searching
out Truth for ourselves. Over the years I have come to see religion as a
means of recruiting people to join various organizations rather than do due
diligence. A means to pay for a sermon, if you will. Are we out to turn the
people of the world into Seventh-Day-Adventists, or ought we be out to take
the gospel of Jesus into all the world? Is Adventism any less a part of Babylon
than Catholicism when they persist in ignorance of the 1st commandment? Do
Adventists really understand the purpose of Christs' mission? Was it to show
us how to keep the Sabbath, or was it to show us how to honor the Father?
Are we baptizing sinners into the Adventist church, or are we baptizing them
into Chirst? Was Naaman, the Syrian, baptized a Jew?..
Everything I read of Christ in His ministry in earth reflects upon His Father,
His God and our God. Nowhere do I read He was here to start a new religion.
Seems there was enough trouble with religion already.
In the Revelation to John, I read; "And the dragon was wroth with the
woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her SEED, which keep the
commandments of God, AND have the Testimony of Jesus Christ". This sent
me on a search of just what the testimony of Jesus was and what I found was
two words; "Worship God". I found that in Revelation 19:10. It
also defined the Spirit of Prophecy and referred me to Rev. 22:9.
"
My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me"?!
"
I go to My Father and your Father, My God and your God".
"
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he
shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the
name of the city of My God"...
With all the many references to His Father as His God, how did we ever miss
that?! I'm not basing this on one or two isolated texts like so many false
doctrines have been established and organized religions formed as a result.
Rather, this Truth is throughout the Word of God. We are called to come out
of Babylon and "be ye seperate".
Don't confuse my message with attending church as being wrong, for that,
too, was the custom of our Lord. Rather, consider what happened with a church
group one day after He preached unto them a real sermon. Not only did they
cast Him out of their church, their intent was to throw Him off a cliff.
He was not among strangers that day. He was among people who, supposedly,
had been looking for Him for 2,000 years. After Christ had risen and encountered
the two on the road to Emaus, what did He call them? He called them fools
for not having studied these things out for themselves! They were found unprepared
for these events and Christ called them on it.
How long has it been since then? Will He know us when He comes? How so unless
we are living and walking in all the Law of His Father? If we cannot understand
why we "do" the commandments today, will we have the faith and
strength to follow Him to the grave?
Did satan cause our first parents to break all the commandments that day
or did he cause them to break only one? Is there a difference in one and
all? I believe the commandments of our Creator are they that govern His universe
from everlasting to everlasting. We live either inside His Law, or without
It. We do It out of desire, not out of habit. We know Whom we believe. Christ
did not set up Himself in place of His Father. He came here to do His Fathers
will. The holy ten commandments of our God must become a state of mind. Such
is freedom. jc