Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof: from such turn away

L

lightwalker Apr 28, 2007

The power of Godliness seems to have been lost in these times due a mistaken adherence to doctrine. It seems to me that the way Christ is portrayed today is through a system of "Doctrines" that deny the truth of why he came. The doctrine of "imputed righteousness" as taught in the modern church seems to teach this: Christ died to cover you with his blood so that the Father will not see you but Christ and so you are covered and it does not matter what you are or do because God hates sin and as you are sinful he cannot bear to see you, because he hates sin. So if he sees Christ and not you, he will pass by your filth and unrighteousness pretending not to see it. Like a game of hide and seek. And all you need to do to get this free pass is to come to the altar at your local church and repeat after me....Now we go into the "sinners prayer" and afterword tell those who feel no different that to doubt is sin and that to think you have to DO what Jesus said is works and keeping the law...

The gospel that I see is the truth that Christ came to give us his LIFE. That by believing in him as the power of God to give us newness of life to overcome sin we are purified and made holy. It is no pretend thing but a real and daily walk with God as we allow Christ to be Lord we turn from sin and walk as He walked. We are made the righteousness of God in Him. True righteousness, HIS righteousness.

In 2 Peter 2:1 The word tells us that there will be false prophets who shall secertly bring in damable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them. I see that in the teaching of today inasmuch as people are taught that Christ came to save them from hell and not that he came to give them his perfect life that we through Him might walk in newess of life.[ ie: he came to save us from sin] He came to give us life, and the end of this life is eternity with him.He broke the fear of death to which we were in bondage, breaking the chains and setting the prisioner free... free to "BE" as he is to walk as he walked. Free to walk in the Spirit and not to fulfill the desires of the flesh, Romans 8 tells us that we are free to keep the spirit of the law, that through the power of HIS LIFE we can mortify the deeds of the flesh and live a new life, we who truly believe in Him are free to deny the self, free to take up that cross, free to walk in newness of life. That is the gospel to me.. The Way, the Truth the Life.

Any other teaching that leaves room for the flesh is denying the Lord who bought them.. the teaching of anti christ.. 2 Thessalonians2:10-12 And with all decivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish: because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; That they might all be damed who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

L

livingfire Apr 30, 2007

I agree with what you say. As time goes by, things rust and corrupt. Men grow weary from their original zeal and seek to be tickled by the new. After AD 100, or thereabouts, new teachings trickled into the body of Christ and the body of Christ was corrupted with Gnosticism, Judaizing, and the usual fleshly and worldy things of men.

Scripture carries the original message, the original doctrine, the only doctrine that we need as Christians. All else is ornament produced by the vast brayings of sinful men, egoistic men, and even some holy men. But, no matter how holy the man or woman introducing new doctrine is, what is introduced is surplus material, some of it edifying, some mystifying, but mostly just plain obfuscating and completely unnecessary.

Nothing is clearer in Scripture than the fact that we have to die to self and take in the spirit of Christ and live by the Spirit. This is the plain orthodox teaching of the Bible. Along with the orthodox call to follow Christ as Savior is a call to follow Christ as Lord [orthopraxy], which means fully obeying God, doing that which is of God, for God, and never doing those things which are against God, never consciously doing those things which are of the Spirit of anti-Christ. This is the working out of one's salvation. And it simply can't be done by the Self but only through the Holy Spirit.

If there is no zeal for Christ in your heart, mind, and soul, no zeal for God, no intense desire to obey God and give up Self entirely to be filled by God, then pray that there will be that zeal, that abiding love for the things of God and that the Holy Spirit will not only guide you but that your entire life will be lived through the Holy Spirit, in all things, at all times, no matter what.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. [Matt 11:12]

R

rowdy2 Apr 30, 2007

We as Christians and we are baptized into the body of Christ and we abode with God in the Body of Christ the Tabernacle not made with Hands. Don’t put any trust in broken cisterns made with hands if they conflict with The Word. We fear God and trust Him not ourselves. We believe that God raised Christ Jesus and God can raise us up. We seek the righteousness of God and summit to His righteousness.

(John 14: 23-25 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
(Rom.10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.)
(Rom.11:19-21
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.)
(2Cor.1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:)
(2Cor.10:17-18
17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.)
(Gal.6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.)
(Rev.3:17-18

sermonindex Apr 30, 2007

The power of Godliness seems to have been lost in these times due a mistaken adherence to doctrine.

This is a great thread. We need to read the bible again as it was meant to be read. To many modern day theologians have turned half the Scriptures into "doctrine" that has no practical outflow or change in the lifes of the believer. This was not meant to be so.

R

rowdy2 May 1, 2007

Reply I agree

Quotes

The power of Godliness seems to have been lost in these times due a mistaken adherence to doctrine.
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If there is no zeal for Christ in your heart, mind, and soul, no zeal for God, no intense desire to obey God and give up Self entirely to be filled by God, then pray that there will be that zeal, that abiding love for the things of God and that the Holy Spirit will not only guide you but that your entire life will be lived through the Holy Spirit, in all things, at all times, no matter what

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This is a great thread. We need to read the bible again as it was meant to be read. To many modern day theologians have turned half the Scriptures into "doctrine" that has no practical outflow or change in the lifes of the believer. This was not meant to be so.

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The words of God are living water and each time a new understanding is given to us we must reread, and ponder the scriptures and understand how our new light effects our understanding and put our new light into practice in our lives. I know now that I will never finish reading the Bible because I can never understand every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Walking in the light of His Word is gaining sight and hearing and being healed. It is not a healing of the flesh but a healing of the spirit.
That is why I love to come to this site. To be edified by others and to let my light shine.

The well intended shaping of almost every verse in the Bible into a evangelistic sermon has I believe caused a lot of the distortions in our understanding.

sermonindex Jul 14, 2007

Well said livingfire , it is not by our power or our might, but by HIS SPIRIT.
Makes you want to tell someone that you know that don't have HIS SPIRIT they need Jesus and HIS LOVE.
Makes you want to become the person he created you to be instead of the one you were before you knew HIM and HE knew you.
Makes you want to study HIS WORD to learn the things that please HIM and how to conduct your life so on that day you will hear "Well done good and faithful servant"
Makes you want to be a part of HIS family and HIS agenda and not the world's agenda.
Makes you want to please HIM more than to please men, when there's a toss up, he wins.

sermonindex Jul 14, 2007

Scripture carries the original message, the original doctrine, the only doctrine that we need as Christians. All else is ornament produced by the vast brayings of sinful men, egoistic men, and even some holy men. But, no matter how holy the man or woman introducing new doctrine is, what is introduced is surplus material, some of it edifying, some mystifying, but mostly just plain obfuscating and completely unnecessary.

This is true.

We can even fool ourselves by writing 'for others'.

Having a computer for 5 years and then taking time off-line for three breaks totaling two and a half of those five years, I notice the difference after a while when being off-line.

What can cloud our view is our own writing, just as much as reading the writings of others.
Or when we can think that the time we spend writing or reading other's writings is as beneficial as our time alone with Him alone, where HE can change and mold us.
It's sort of a slight of hand deception in either case, if it takes away from that time with Him that He's waiting for, to deal with us personally/individually.
Not always because we're necessarily sinning, but He may just need more of our undivided attention for reasons only He would know of.

We're doing exactly what we condemn in many ways and may not even realize it.
I always tell folks to go look at what the Word says and not an Author, but how many times do we start typing away from ourselves 'to others' again ?

Being off-line and away from that, leaves you alone with Him alone again, unless there are other distractors that keep you from the "just you and Him" times.
We're very busy folks in these days and always have excuses or other things to do beside be alone with him.
Is it really God's will for me to be sitting here typing right now ? See, now I have to wonder.
When is it right to write "to others" ?
The message of His Word needs to be in me and working it's work in me and I don't see where I personally can say a word to "others" anymore.

Fellowship is good and that's how I see Forums and Church and all, but when you get right down to it ... how much of other folk's stuff must we read before we're neglecting what God would say to us if we were alone with just Him ?

Watching television itself is the biggest enemy out there. I always need to clarify that I'm not a legalist to tell folks how much clearer they'd hear His voice and their thoughts would get clearer if they'd just unplug the thing.
Not saying to throw it out the window, just unplug it.
The radio can provide enough News and stuff and fill the home with good music or sermons at the same time. But even temperence with that noise is needed.
Only brought that up because there are many things that obfuscate our view, besides reading or writing things that we think are from God.

What I noticed when I went off-line was that after about a month, my vision (internal) clears and what's Really Important stands out more. And then a month back on and my view is clouding somewhat again.
I used to write a lot before I got a computer and after, but now, it's seeming that I only enjoy it when it's just posting or writing out Scriptures alone. The only "living" word.
I think to myself, who really needs to hear me, when we all have The Word ?

Anyhow, the title attracted me, because there are some instances in the Word where we are to break fellowship with some.

I love SI, so don't feel I meant this against this wonderful place to fellowship with like minded believers in this tossed about world we're still living in.

Thanks for letting me vent also.