Restoring True Biblical Christianity

Restoring true Biblical Christianity must be unending. More than 200 years ago our forefathers in the faith realized that it was time for them to get back to the Bible and break free from denominationalism. They were willing to take a stand for God's truth and to hold fast the doctrine within God's Holy Word as Paul commanded Timothy:

2 Timothy 1:13 "Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus."

All it takes is one generation to either grow the church correctly or to severally damage the church. Unfortunately, it did not take long after the forefathers in the faith had moved in the right direction that a new generation was born that was in desperate need of being taught the importance making the Word of God their rock. Since they were not taught properly, history shows that the church began to suffer once again from lack of knowledge, and many Christians slowly but surely left the church and went back to existing denominations, or they created new ones.

This is why restoring true Christianity must be unending. Each new generation must be taught about God because if they are not, the church will suffer, and she is. Even those that are "in The Faith" must constantly refresh themselves with God's teachings because it seems to be in man's nature to forget about God and what He has done for us in our lives.

An example of how a new generation can affect the church can be seen from Joshua. During Joshua's days the children of Israel saw and experienced the great works of God. That generation was committed to serving God, which is why they were successful at conquering the promised land. But that generation died out and a new generation came along that had not been properly taught about God and they had lost their way. We read about them in:

Judges 2:10-13 "When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel. 11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths."

I want you to understand that all it took was one generation to change the children of God from being faithful to being unfaithful. Understanding this should motivate us to teach each new generation about God and the importance of holding fast to the doctrine of Christ.

 

We also cannot be like the Samaritans that we read about in:

2 Kings 17:33 "They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods -- according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away."

It is not enough to fear God or just to know about Him, we must be fully committed to Him and His Holy Word. We cannot serve Him on one hand and continue to live in sin on the other. We cannot sit in a pew on The Lord's Day and praise Him and forget He exists throughout the week. The further we move away from God's Word, the more we are going to find ourselves compromising God's Truth with the ideas of man.

It is easy for us to drift away from God's Truth, and to let the next generation be unfaithful because moving away from God's Word happens gradually. When things happen gradually, we don't realize the damage that is done until much later.

It is kind of like the story of the frog, whether true or not, that if you try to put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out right away, but if you put it into cool water and slowly turn the temperature up it will not jump out and will be boiled alive because gradual change is much more difficult to notice. This is why the writer of Hebrews warns us:

Hebrews 2:1-3 "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation,"

As Paul taught:

2 Thessalonians 2:15 "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle."

We need to understand that Satan is at work and he wants us to fail to teach the next generation, and he wants us to wavier in our faith and compromise God's Truth. We must never forget the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44) and as Paul says:

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 "And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."

Satan wants you to believe that restoring Christianity as it was 2,000 years ago is impossible and impractical in a modern society. He wants you to believe that the Church that belongs to Christ is just another denomination and is no different from any other denomination. He wants you to accept any idea of worship at a church of your choosing. He wants you to think that God does not care about the details as long as you worship Him in your own way.

But Paul says:

Ephesians 5:6-7 "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them."

Do not be deceived by the devil or those who are working for his cause because God has not changed and His Word will not changed. If we are going to be pleasing to Him, we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). If we worship Him any other way, then our worship will be in vain.

People have a tendency to want to do whatever is popular, and Christians who are weaker in The Faith will allow the world to influence them and they will adopt manmade doctrines just so they can fit in, but John tells us:

1 John 2:15-16 "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world."

Jesus warned us that the road to heaven is difficult (Matthew 7:14), but the reward of heaven is worth it all, so we must be willing to go against the grain of the world. Sometimes a church will find itself chasing after  manmade ways because the elders of the church do not stand up for what is right, and they allow themselves to bullied into something false.

Elders, God's leaders, should never compromise God's Truth, even if half a congregation walked away because God would rather have half a church worshiping Him correctly then a whole church worshiping Him in falsely or in vain.

The world has been pressing in hard against Christ's church trying its best to corrupt the faithful and to train the new generations in the way of the world. Usually, if you want to see the direction the Lord's Church is headed just look at the denominations and how they are being influenced by the world because they will usually adapt worldly practices before they end up influencing the Lord's church later down the line. We are not to look to denominations for how to please God! God has given plenty of instruction for how to please Him!

 

One example that comes to mind is how many denominations have started losing membership with their youth, so in order to try to save their youth, they created a worship service just for them. These youth often decide how they will worship with little regard as to what God's Word says. They are attempting to appeal to a generation who is no longer satisfied with traditional worship as they call it and so they allow them to dress how they want, and then "jam out" with so-called "Christian" music.

Some from these denominations would disagree with me, but it easy to see that they are simply trying to entertain these younger folks and not teach The Word of God as written.

But they are finding out that it is not working because their membership is still declining. As far as I am concerned, if worshipping God His way is not good enough for these younger folks, then they are lost anyway because they are not interested in worshipping God "in spirit and is truth."

The denominations have been doing things like this for years, and in the last few years we have heard of several congregations of the Lord's church that have started thinking this way as well. They have started giving women roles that God has not authorized, thereby removing the Elders of Christ's Church from their proper position of leading and feeding the flock of God from the Word. Some have started neglecting Bible teaching that baptism is necessary for salvation or glossing over it quickly as though they are embarrassed to preach it properly.

If we want to remain true to God we must plead with our brothers and sisters in Christ about the importance of restoring true New Testament Christianity and to reject all manmade doctrines.

We will pick this up again in our next time together. God bless, Mark