ARE YOU REALLY A CHRISTIAN?
The Church:
To the church a church is a big fancy
building, fed by a building fund, used to hold weekly meetings, which are held
to increase the building fund. A staff whose job is to hold the existing members
and draw in more members to support the building fund. A pulpit is used to scare
the members into following harsh and primitive Hebrew laws, keep them from
seeking knowledge outside the particular organization, and give more money to
the building fund. Seldom, if ever, some money is diverted from the building
fund to present a token image of charity, which is aimed at attracting new
members to increase the building fund.
The Bible:
No building, and no building fund. A
group of like-minded people who live in a communal setting and sacrifice all
physical belongings to support a work totally devoted to charity. There is a
staff, whose job is to feed and clothe the poor and
infirmed, and to perform miracles. One basic law, love for one another, is the
guiding principle.
The Church:
The Bible:
The Church:
The Bible:
Prayer is private. Public prayer is condemned. Repeated prayer is vain and
unnecessary.
Public Prayer
Matthew 6:5 And when thou prayest,
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Private Prayer
Matthew 6: 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
The core of Jesus' message is in Matthew 5:38-48
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth:
Can you see even the vaguest resemblance between this message and modern Christianity?
Chickens are tortured by wiring their feet to the bottoms of their cages. We eat the eggs produced this way rather than free range eggs because they are a dollar cheaper. What kind of person are you that you want animals tortured to save you a buck? Have you ever heard a Christian sermon on your moral duty to be kind other species?
WHAT ABOUT WOMEN
Phil 4:5a says "Let your
moderation be known unto all men". I Tim
2:9-10 talks about women adorning themselves in a modest apparel.
Putting on too much make-up and wearing skimpy or provocative clothing is not portraying Christ. . Proverbs 31:10-31 tells of the virtuous woman. How we act can also influence others whether we have on make-up or not.
We find in the Old Testament that
God is telling Samuel in I Samuel 16:7 "...that man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The Bible is not
telling us to wear make-up or even not to braid hair or wear gold (as in I Peter
3:3-5) but to have an ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. I
"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works" (1 Tim 2:9, 10).
"Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Pet 3:3, 4).
Now, where does the above leave today's Christian female? have you seen some of those woman on TV that head up those TVanglist? What does this say to the clothing and make-up going on the churches on Sunday morning?
On To "The Soul Of An Animal"