4 Arguments that need to be Refuted!

This is a very sensitive topic for me to discuss because I’ve been in debates with people in regards to this topic all too much. This is a very short read that I believe will change your life when it comes to serving God and being a real follower. At this very moment, I feel like God is striking my heart as I write these words down, so please pay close attention to them. This should take you no longer than 30 minutes to read. There is a very particular Scripture that sticks out in my mind as I start to write this short essay, it’s revealed in John 14:15, where Christ says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command”. Now let me ask you this, do you obey what He commands? Or at least make all conscious effort to do so? Sometimes I feel as though we use the “I’m not perfect” argument all too frequently. This argument basically states that since “I am a sinner, then I can continue to be a sinner, and I will be saved”. Unfortunately, this is not how it works, and this is not what Paul intended by salvation, just read Romans 6. If you are continuing to live in sin, would you consider yourself to be one that obeys what Christ taught? The problem is many of you think that because God is a God of love, He will understand any sin that you continue to live in. The problem with this concept is that ignores the fact that God is also a God of justice, of righteousness, of obedience, and of perfection. Just read the Bible to find this information out. For justice read 2 Thessalonians 1:6, for righteousness read Psalm 11:7, for obedience read 2 John, and lastly for perfection just read Matthew 5:48. It’s all Biblical, I promise. I don’t speak unless my authority comes from the word of God. So with that being the case, we can clearly see that God has many other attributes than just love, hopefully you are now starting to see the importance of following all that He says to do. Neglecting to understand this important factor is disrespecting the God in which you say you love with all your heart. Words are deceptive, and prove nothing until they are put into action, which the book of James talks about. I have encountered people in the past that have said to me, “I have Christ in my heart” and then cuss like they don’t even know the name of Jesus, or get drunk and pretend as if Jesus wasn’t sitting right next them, or even deny the fact that we are to strive for holiness altogether. This digs under my skin because I don’t want this kind of preaching going out into the world because it neglects the message of the gospel. It fails to understand the atonement, and the whole concept of washing away your sins. Let me put this into an analogy for you. Let’s say you have a dirty rag, will it become clean just because you shout, “Rag be clean!”? Of course not, it needs to go into the washer. It needs soap and water, not words.  Sanctification is all about your actions becoming more holy. If you just say, I’m going to stop drinking and then not even bother to work on it, then you are becoming sanctified but rather fooled by fake Spirit. Now sanctification is a gradual process, however, if you aren’t improving in your walk with the Lord, then I would evaluate your faith because you may not have God’s grace growing in you. I say the word “may” because I personally don’t know your spiritual background so I don’t want to make an absolute conclusion in your walk with God. However, the odds are; you probably don’t have the true Spirit developing in your heart if you have been continuing to live in sin, rather than alive for Christ. What I just said is all explained in Colossians 3:5-11. So we must remember that the death of Christ not only paid our penalty of sin, but God also used it to break the power of indwelling sin in our life. This now leads me into the next argument I’ve had to deal with and most certainly need to discuss. It’s a 4 letter word that should absolutely bring you to your knees to a true repentance every night, its known best as Fear. Do you fear God? Do you fear God when choosing to get drunk? Do you fear God when cussing up a storm? Do you fear God when you commit fornication? Do you fear God when you steal something? Do you fear God when you have hateful thoughts? Do you fear God when you are feeling jealous? If you say that you do fear Him, and then continue to do just those things listed, then you are committing another act, lying. Did you know God killed a man for lying? Just read the book of Acts. I’m not making this stuff up. Fear is very important to understand, and I think that it is because of a lack of fear that we don’t have people truly following the Lord. For example, what happens when a parent doesn’t punish their child for acting like a brat? They continue to do what they want because they have no fear of what is going to happen since they know that there will be no punishment. That’s the problem with these “proclaimed” Christians. They have no fear. If only this could be instilled into the human brain, we would have so many more true conversions for Christ. Having a true fear brings you to your knees knowing you need a Savior because God is just and does send those to hell that don’t obey Him and believe in his Son, Jesus Christ. Now I’m not suggesting that if you slip up and sin, that you aren’t one who strives to obey. Considering the fact that we still live in these earthly bodies we will naturally commit sin at times, just read Romans 7, which discusses this struggle greatly. However, for those that live for Christ, they don’t commit sin in their mind, but rather through their fleshly nature. Your mind (as a true Christian) is set on the things above, not on the things here, read Colossians 3. Whatever I do here, is not because I want to do them, and because I do not want to do them, it lessens the chance of me committing sin. This needs to be every Christian’s focus and goal in life. I would now like to connect this fear with love. While we are to fear God, we are also to obey through love. We obey because we love Him! Fear brings us to Him, and Love keeps us in Him. Jesus wouldn’t have told us to obey if it were impossible for us to do. Lastly in regards to this argument, I’ve also gotten comments in regards to preaching to the point of giving someone else fear. The question is, is that alright to do? According to Scripture, absolutely! For fear of God does all the following: The "fear of the Lord" is the beginning of knowledge - Proverbs 1:7, The "fear of the Lord" will cause one to hate evil - Proverbs 8:13, The "fear of the Lord" will prolong life - Proverbs 10:27, The "fear of the Lord" provides strong confidence and is the fountain of life – Proverbs 14:26-27, The "fear of the Lord" prompts one to depart from evil - Proverbs 16:6, The "fear of the Lord" leads to a satisfying life, and spares one from much evil - Proverbs 19:23 and lastly, The "fear of the Lord" is the way to riches, honor, and life!- Proverbs 22:4. Clearly, teaching a message of fear and reverence is important for one’s life. If the person fears you through the message, than that’s a personal problem, not yours. They need to concentrate on fearing the one in which the servant is working for. The next argument that I’ve had to deal with goes like this, “Well, your walk is not my walk with God, and my walk is not her walk with God”. First off, while you may be in a different pace of sanctification than someone else following Christ, the definition of sanctification doesn’t change. Sanctification is sanctification, meaning to become holy. If there is no progress, then I don’t care what walk you are on, you’ve taken the wrong path, and that path doesn’t lead you to Christ. I feel as if a lot of Scripture is going to be necessary for this statement because I can already tell grumbling is about to arise. The term "walk" signifies the whale of activity of the Christian's life, the direction, orientation or theme of the believer's life (According to GodandScience.org). Now here is the list of Scriptures that explicitly describe a believer’s walk: In Romans 6:4, it says we are to be “raised from the dead to walk in newness of life”, in Romans 8:4, it says we are to “walk according to the Spirit not flesh, in 2 Corinthians. 5:7 it says we are to be “walking by faith”, in Ephesians 2:10, I says we are “created for good works to walk in them”, in Ephesians 5:2 it says we are to “walk in love”, in Ephesians 5:8 it says that we are to “walk as children of light”, in 2 John 4 it says that we should “walk in truth”, in 2 John 6, we are told to “walk according to the commandments in love”. Now there is also a list that describes how a Christian should not walk: in Romans 8:4, we are told not to walk “according to the flesh”, in 1 Corinthians. 3:3, we should not be “walking like mere men”, in 2 Corinthians. 4:2, we should not be practicing “craftiness of adulterating the word of God”, in 2 Corinthians. 5:7, we should not be walking “by sight”, and lastly in Ephesians 4:17, we are told to not “walk as Gentiles in futility of their minds”. As you can see, as Christians, we do have basic principles to walk by and not walk by. If you think the context is wrong in any of those verses, then please, feel free to read the entire New Testament, because they will all testify as perfectly aligned and true. Just to take a side step from this comment in regards to context, I think I need to make an important remark. There is a difference between interpretation and application. There is a proper way to interpret, verses applying what you want it to say based on a past belief. I will provide a source for more information on that at the end of this essay. Anyways, walking with God is a path that will lead you into the same direction, not a different one, unless you are suggesting in polytheism, which states there is more than one God. In which, each different god would lead you into a different path. However, this would be heresy, and hopefully, I don’t need to show a Scripture to show that. The last argument that I need to handle involves hindering those that are preaching the gospel. Many of you think that a “Jesus Freak” needs to tone it down a bit. When I say many, I’m referring to the proclaimed saved Christians. Would you walk up to Jesus Christ and say, “Hey, excuse me sir, do you mind sitting down and shutting up I don’t feel like hearing your preaching today”? I sure hope you wouldn’t. Many thought of him as an annoying teacher, such as the Pharisees, but that didn’t stop Him from speaking truth. I’ve been called a lot of names, stuff along the lines like being a Bible thumper. At first, this bothered me, and discouraged me; however, later I realized that even though the person meant harm by it, it was actually a good sign to me. I knew that I was only doing my job as a true Christian. Are you doing your job? How often do you sit back and discuss earthly things rather than heavenly things? It is also important to note that the Bible tells us that some people will be offended at the gospel, just read Luke 12:51-53. If you are one to get offended at someone’s content from Scripture, then evaluate your faith. We are also commanded to share the gospel, and there is no excuse for not doing so, read Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; and 1 Peter 3:15. If you truly love Jesus, you will spread the content, and teach the people around you to repent in the name of Jesus Christ. I say this to you, because I’ve actually been shunned for preaching the gospel by other “claimed” Christians. Can you believe that? I know that I couldn’t. What kind of Christian hinders another Christian from sending forth the truth from directly the Scriptures? The argument then extends into the fact that it can become overwhelming. And guess what? I have news for you: The gospel is overwhelming! We are talking about God sending His son to pay our price; this wasn’t easy for Jesus Christ especially knowing His role. Yet, you complain when one is simply trying to teach you what to practice abstaining from! As I conclude this short essay, there is one question now that must be asked, do you truly love Christ? Based on the above arguments that have been refuted, would you sincerely say that you do? If you feel as though you’ve fallen into deception, take this moment and repent and start over again as a dedicated bond servant for Jesus Christ. Live for His name, and don’t be a Judas at heart, meaning do not fall into the category of not knowing anything about the God whom you serve. This is very important to me because I feel as though spiritually this society is weak. I don’t feel like I should walk into a Church and feel as though there are so many people around me that aren’t fully “there” with Christ. It’s sad when certain individuals stick out among the crowd, when we should ALL be sticking out. I pray that you see this reality because it is very important to understand. Jesus Christ couldn’t have said it better Himself when He said, “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14). Think about that for a minute. He said that only a FEW will find it. Not billions of people which have statistically been recorded to follow Jesus Christ. He makes the call, and while many are called, only a few are chosen. Just read Matthew 22:14, it’s all there in the Bible. Hell is no joking matter, and I think we risk our eternity based on one Scripture, John 3:16, while we need to obey Genesis through Revelations. Remember the old expression that states “If you play with fire, you are going to get burned”. Just like if you play with your eternity, you will get burned as well, and I mean literally.