A wise man once said something like this:
The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.
When I think about that statement and compare it to what I see going on in the circles of modern Evangelical Christianity, I have to scratch my head in wonder. The one thing that I am certain of is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that my Savior was born as a man, walked the earth in perfection, was viciously slain, died, then defeated death through resurrection and has ascended to God on high where He waits for the day he calls his children home and that by faith alone in Christ alone I find my justification, sanctification, and glorification as a result of my salvation and that in Him I am complete.
However, it doesn't take one long to figure out that we, as modern Evangelicals, are too busy pointing fingers at the others within our own circles. We spend massive amounts of time debating within our ranks about tertiary, maybe even secondary things, at best while the world is dying and going to hell because we are more concerned about which five points to follow or if we are wearing the right clothing in the pulpit or if we are singing the right songs. We tell people how crooked their stick is but when they look at ours, they see one just as crooked. They look at our doctrines, our theologies, our words, our actions and they see people living not like what they claim to believe. I'm sorry, but predestined or not, once saved always saved or not, if we don't quit the my way is better than your way arguments, the world will remain lost.
I am a Southern Baptist, have been for my 35 years. I love the Southern Baptist for many reasons, I am frustrated with the Southern Baptist for many reasons, but do I believe that you only get to heaven if your a Southern Baptist? Not on your life pal....probably not the most popular of stances, but I believe what Paul makes clear in Romans 10; everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isaiah said it in Isaiah 45:22
Turn to ME and be saved, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (HSCB, emphasis mine)
Hmmm, I'm not really up as well as I would like on my Greek and Hebrew, but I understand things like ALL and EVERY and usually that includes, well pretty much all and every. Understand, you must call on his name to be saved, clear as a bell, no universalism here. Again, I love the Southern Baptist, am a Southern Baptist Pastor, my grandaddy was a Southern Baptist Pastor, my family for generations on both sides have been Southern Baptists, but I am not naive enough to believe that this is my ticket into heaven.
Scriptures are also very clear on this issue as well, in fact Jesus himself said that "no one comes to the Father but by me". Hey, there is another of those words "no one" pretty self explanatory. So my personal stance is this, I don't care if you are Baptist, Methodist, Bapticostal, Holiness, Pentacostal, you better know that Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father. If you do not accept the sacrifice that He made for you on the cross, well then you better get some asbestos undies, you're gonna need them.
Hear my plea, remember that before we bash our brothers and sisters in Christ by pointing our fingers, let's simply lay the straight stick of Christ beside the crooked stick of the world and let the Holy Spirit do His work.
Last comment, "PREACH THE WORD" it so saddens me when me who are as Paul tells Timothy "saved and called with a holy calling" turn their backs on the very truth that Christ died for, so I say to all men of God, standing in our pulpits across the nation, preach the gospel or remove yourself from the pulpit.
This is just my View from the Corner....
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