Is It Wrong For Christians To Disagree?

IS IT WRONG FOR CHRISTIANS TO DISAGREE?  ~  Yes and no!  "Bill, are you confused?"   No, not really. 

YES, it would be wrong if Christians disagreed on Essential Christian Beliefs, i.e., the Trinity - the Bible is the Written Word of God - the deity of Jesus Christ - the Resurrection of Christ - Salvation by grace through faith alone - the Gospel of salvation - heaven and hell are real.

NO, it is not wrong for Christians to disagree on Non-Essential Christian Beliefs such as eschatology or end times prophecies, baptism timing and method, speaking in tongues, the frequency of communion in our fellowships, homosexuality, marriage, and many more issues which are Biblical, but do not affect our eternal salvation.  These issues are interesting, and vital, for us to discuss - for discussing them should cause each of us to dig deeper in our own personal Bible studies.   Yet, our eternal salvation does not depend upon our views and beliefs on those teachings.

"Then, Bill, why are those things in the Bible?"  Good question.  And I suppose the best answer is that God wants to give us His full revelation of why we need salvation - how He prepared the hearts of our Old Testament saints for their coming salvation - and how we, and the Old Testament saints, gain eternal life only in and through Jesus Christ - the once for all Perfect Lamb sacrificed to take away all the sins of all who will believe and receive Him as Lord and Savior.

In teaching us why we need salvation - God has shown us, warts and all, how man, Adam, was created perfect - and then through free will disobedience - blew it for all mankind. As part of Adam's legacy even the nation of people specifically picked by God to be His Chosen People, Israel - continued, over and over and over, to defy God, to break His laws, and to worship demonic idols and gods.  Because of that Adamic legacy, that is why we today still need salvation.  And, Jesus Christ is how we attain that salvation.

And, we Christians do disagree, often.  That is why we have so many different Christian denominations.  And here I am speaking of true Christian denominations, not those who wear the Christian mantle - but teach doctrines which are antithesis to the Essential Christian Beliefs, through teaching doctrines which deny any, or all, of those Biblical teachings.

YES, my wife disagrees with me at times.  I will admit to being a wee bit naughty.  For, at times, I will ask her a question which I know will get her dander up.  Okay, so I am just as kid at heart!

Over the past thirty years that I have been a believer - I have seen many changes in methods of teaching God's Word.  I have seen churches which, today, will only teach topical messages and devotionals - never wandering into the more fertile ground of expositional Bible teaching.  Why is this? 

It is my belief that this is done by churches who have a predetermined theology - and want to avoid any Scripture passages or verses which will disagree with that theology.  Teaching the Bible expositionally, i.e., verse by verse through the Bible will not allow those churches to avoid Scripture verses which would invalidate their predetermined theology.  So, they can avoid that possibility by avoiding those verses.

Bible study is another area which has been drastically changed over the years.  When I was saved in 1987, praise God our pastor and our church believed in weekly Family Bible Study.  Each Friday we gathered in a home, read Scripture, and discussed what we had read - verse by verse.  And we did it as a family:  mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and all the children - from toddlers and up through college age and young professionals. 

I have personally witnessed a number of pastors, pastors wives, and other strong Christians who have emerged from that early youth and young adult teaching in our early Bible studies.

Some will tell us that young children can be distracting in Bible studies, that they have short attention spans.  Yes, that is true and if the children have shorter attentions spans - shorten the study, but don't exclude the children.  Right now I am seeing in beautiful memory two small sisters, Gabrielle & Chantelle, who were 3 and 5 years old in our early Bible studies.  Today both have graduated from Christian colleges and are strong Christian witnesses to all around them.  Was that seed planted in our early Bible studies?  I say, "Yes!"

Then, churches began to separate us into groups - men, women, young marrieds, old marrieds, divorced, youth, college, young adult, seniors, and on and on.  Folks, isn't that a form of "segregation" - separating people by their traits?   Growing up in the South I did not believe in, nor like, segregation.  In the 1940s/50s I saw racial segregation all around me - but, praise God, it was not taught in my home.  My mom respected all people, regardless.

The Christian church was begun on the Day of Pentecost 33 AD, and within a couple of weeks it had grown to over 5000 believers - men, women, children.   And, yet I do not find anywhere in this passage where it tells me they started to segregate or separate people based upon their age, gender, or anything else.  It just tells me that they continued, daily, to gather in homes to learn Scripture, to pray, and to fellowship - as one body of Christ.

Acts 2:38-39, 42, 46-47,"Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." .  .  . And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. .  .  . So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."

They gathered as ONE body of Christ to study His Word, to pray, and to fellowship - and He blessed them spiritually and numerically.  Isn't that what we want for all our church fellowships - to grow spiritually and numerically?   If your answer is, "Yes" - then shouldn't you and your church be following the guidelines He established in His first Christian church, on the Day of Pentecost 33 AD?

"But, Bill, what do you still ask Dory such questions when you know she will disagree with you?"   Glad you asked.  Actually, because I know that Dory, like me, likes Family Bible Studies - I ask one simple question:  "Did God create ONE Bible ~ OR ~ did He create a Women's Bible, a Man's Bible, a Youth or Young Adult Bible, a Senior's Bible, a Prison Bible, a Divorced Bible, etc.?"  

And, the reason that seems to bother her is because of her Filipino culture.  Oftentimes I have been told, and have experienced, that when a Filipino disagrees with you, he/she will not say anything - preferring to be quiet rather than disagree.  In other words, Dory would prefer that I not ask that question of other people - for it might seem that I am being disagreeable.   When, in fact, I am just being my good old Alabama American self - and raising an issue which I believe could effectively be discussed.

And, of course the answer to that annoying question is that we have ONE Bible, the Inspired, Inerrant, Literal Written Word of God.  Is there anything in the Bible that cannot be discussed and studied when all those groups are gathered as one body of Christ?  No, not really.  Then, Dory will tell me, "Well, women, men, youth, young adults, etc., have different thoughts and discussions on the Bible."

Really?  If we read John 1:1-2, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God."  - just how would a woman's view, or a young adult view - differ from my view of that Scripture passage?

Then she tells me, "Well, we have different things to discuss that don't pertain to men."   Really?  Aren't you really talking about a "social meeting" - and not a Bible study?  And that is okay if women, or young adults, or any other group wants to gather for a social - that is great. 

But when we gather for "Bible Study" - the sole purpose of that gathering should be to study the Bible, to learn from God's Word, to grow more mature in our knowledge of His Word - and to help those who are newer in the faith to grow more mature.  There is no other reason for a Bible study.  And we do that more effectively in a Scripture reading and discussion style study.

And, finally, Dory must still love me - for in one week, September 2, we celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary.  So I suppose I have not made her too mad.

However, if I have upset you a wee bit, good.  Hopefully that will cause you to give thought to my suggestions.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

Memories Are Made Of This!

MEMORIES! - THE MEANING CHANGES WITH EACH YEAR OF OUR LIVES  ~  Back in 1955 Dean Martin sang "Memories Are Made of This" - but for us in those days, those memories only went back a day or two.  And then we were off making new memories to forget.  Little did we realize then that those memories, like aging wine, become precious gems with each passing year.

The mother of my high school friend and classmate, Buck Locke, had the foresight to buy him a Sheffield High School yearbook for each of the four years he was in high school.  Wow, what a treasure now.  I have my Class of 1955 yearbook - but nothing to show those classmates who graduated before me.  Effectively, in the yearbook memory world - they are lost forever.

In hindsight today, I wish I had a Sheffield High yearbook starting from when I was in the first grade.  Why?  Well, as we get older, all those people seem to get closer and closer to us in age.   How many of your current friends today - graduated years before you, or years after you?   But now they are just close friends who do not seem older or younger than you.  Get the picture?  With age, time differences shrink.

About 1990, my mom was in Helen Keller Hospital and I went home to be with her for a week.  I spent each day with her, eating lunch in the hospital cafeteria.  And I was amazed.  The Shoals area of Alabama is not a large metropolitan area (praise God) and I could not understand why, in the cafeteria, I was not seeing at least a few people I knew.  I searched the faces, but recognized no one.   Where were all my friends and classmates?  This went on for several days - eating in the cafeteria, searching all the faces of the white-hair people - and, nada, nothing, no one!   What happened to all my classmates and friends?

Then, on the third day, it dawned on me:  I was looking at the wrong generation.  These white-hair faces I was searching - were the children of my classmates!  When I finally had the proper perspective, voila!, there was Patsy Brocato, my classmate.  And, as we were enjoying lunch together, Ralph Milam, another classmate joined us.  Amazing what you can find - when you know where to look.

All that is to explain why I am sharing my 2016 Facebook dialogue below.  Billy Bell graduated from Sheffield High several years before me - Molly (McCullough) Kelley was my Class of 1955 classmate (and girl friend) before her dad was transferred to Oak Ridge, Tennessee - and twins Carroll and Clay White were SHS-57 graduates.  David Johnson was an SHS-68 graduate.  Yet we all have one common feeling - we all see and love Sheffield, Alabama, as our hometown, a treasure which gets more beautiful and more valuable with each passing year.

So, now back to my Facebook dialogue from 2016:

Bill Gray - August 25, 2016:  ~  MANY THANKS TO DAVID JOHNSON for posting this photo of my hometown, Sheffield, Alabama, today on Facebook.  He has reminded me that I am so blessed by God to be a product of this wonderful city - and of the Shoals area of north Alabama.

As the old saying goes, "You can take the boy out of the South - but, you can't take the South out of the boy!"  A really big "AMEN!" to that.  Thank you, David.  God bless, Bill

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Carroll White - August 25, 2016 at 5:47pm:   Bill,  What do you see missing is this 2016 photo?  The Colbert Theater!!

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Bill Gray - August 25, 2016 at 6:26pm:   Hi Carroll, There are a number of things missing from our time.  True, the Colbert Theater is gone.  Also, on the right side of the 2016 photo, near this corner, was my favorite hang-out, the Pool Hall.  Jimmy, who had a hunch back, ran the pool hall and was a great player.  My biggest thrill was the evening I beat him shooting bank pool.

And, at my mom's promotion to glory and viewing in 1994, I found out that the lady who made the delicious hamburgers in the front cafe of the pool hall - was a good friend of my mom - and used to file reports on what her son, me, was doing.  Can you believe it - a spy in our own pool room?

Also, not seen in the 2016 photo - the Liberty Super Market where I worked is gone.  And, the Sheffield Hotel, later Sheffield Hospital, is now something else.

Note added later:  I believe it may have been called the Shoals Hotel, not sure.  But I just discovered a great web site with photos:  "Explore Sheffield, Alabama, and more!"  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/31877109840564933/

 
But, all in all, it is still home and I have to say it really looks nice.  One thing which really stood out for me is how clean it looks.  Someone is doing a great job, right Mayor Ian Sanford?  God bless, Bill

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Carroll White - August 26, 2016 at 5:51am:   Bill, The lady who made those good burgers was Nancy, don't remember her last name.  Gene Lewis was the man's name that ran the Pool Room.  Jimmy Gist I think was the owner.  He also ran the projector at Park View Drive In Theater.  Anyway I saw him come out of the projector room one night.  On 4th and Main they had a heck of a watermelon battle one summer night.  A man parked his melon truck in front of the Pharmacy, crossed the street, and went to the movie.  The boys on the corner gave him about 15 minutes to make sure he didn't come out.  I guess you know the rest of the story. 

Bill Gray - August 26, 2016 at 6:20am:  Hi Carroll, In 1994 when I saw Nancy at my mom's viewing I was surprised - for I had no idea she knew mom.  Then when she told me how, back in the 1950s she had kept an eye on me for my mom - when I was at my second home, the pool hall.  I was totally taken by surprise.  All that time when I ate hamburgers at the pool hall - she never once mention knowing mom.

And, I mentioned beating Jimmy at bank pool.  What actually happened was that, because he was such a good player he goofed off early in the game - and that gave me a chance.  But, whatever - to beat Jimmy, even if he was not being serious - was a gold medal for me.

So many memorable people in Sheffield from our time.  The couple who took over the pharmacy, I believe their names were Worley, or something similar - and on Friday nights they would push back the booths and let us dance to the jukebox.  They were beautiful people. 

Note added later:  Stan & Jan Whorton were the folks who purchased the Sheffield Pharmacy during my SHS tenure - and they made it into a haven for we teens.

And, the city let us have the basement of City Hall as a Youth Center in the evenings for gathering and dancing - very special.

Also, working at Liberty Super Market was special - in hindsight.

Then, there was my first job at 14, working as a car-hop at Mr. Lansdell's Drive-in Restaurant at the Montgomery Avenue fork between Sheffield and Tuscumbia - and the Friday night of that horrible semi-trailer truck and car crash which took five young lives.  One was an SHS classmate a year or so older than me named Jerry.  He and his younger brother lived on 26th Street just a block north of Bill "Snooky" Collins and his brother John (later learned the Collins boys are my cousins).

Note added later:  The restaurant was located where the Rite Aid Pharmacy sits today.

I was working at the Drive-in Restaurant that evening when many police cars and ambulances went flying south through the Y-intersection toward Tuscumbia (the accident happened on a narrow bridge south of Tuscumbia).   We had no idea what was happening.  Later someone came and told us of the accident - that the car Jerry was in was going too fast and had scraped the concrete siding on a narrow bridge, which turned it broadside into the path of the oncoming truck.

Another special memory was delivering the Birmingham News papers for Mrs. Savage.   We folded our papers in the back room of the Trailways Bus Station - while listening to blues and R&B music from Baptist Bottom on the little radio as we folded.

So many wonderful memories of growing up in Sheffield and the Shoals - and I have only mentioned my high school years.  My younger years were just as memorable.

Carroll, God truly blessed us when He made Sheffield our home town.  God bless, Bill

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Carroll White - August 26, 2016 at 10:05am:  Bill, Stanley Whorton and his wife took over the Sheffield Pharmacy.  I remember Jerry in the accident.  His brother, Neil, was my friend.  Billy Blythe was in that wreck.  Also a girl from Tuscumbia, her name was Barbara.  She later married a guy that worked at Blankenship's Market with me.  Her mouth was wired together for a long time.  Billy's dad had Marvin's Hamburgers on Nashville across from the bus station.  The Rexall Drug store across the street closed because the owner didn't want the teenagers dancing there.  So everyone went across the street to the Sheffield Pharmacy.  All his help later went to work for Mr. Whorton.

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Bill Gray - August 26, 2016 at 12:54pm:  Hi Carroll, As I recall, the guy (an older guy) who was driving during the accident had such bad eyesight that he could not get a driver's license.  And he was the only one to come out of the accident with no injuries.

They had gone to a girl's home south of Tuscumbia to pick her up - but her mom would not let her go with them that night.  On the way back toward Tuscumbia, they had the accident.  Don't you know that girl's mom was thankful she kept her daughter home that night?

The Whortons were exceptional people. They seemed to love young people.  My classmate and friend, Gene Endfinger, worked there at the soda fountain.  God bless, Bill

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Clay White - August 26, 2016 at 1:13pm:  Bill, about this same time Buster Smith, Johnny Williams, and Barbara George worked there. 

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Molly Kelley - August 26, 2016 at 5:06pm:  Hasn't really changed that much -- such was my happy place.

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Billy Bell - August 28, 2016 at 10:55am:  I feel that same about my connection to Sheffield.  Thanks for the reminder.  Memories are firmly entrenched about that time in my life!!!

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My question to you:  Are YOU building your Treasure Chest of Memory?  Are you preserving them?   Are you doing the same thing for your children and grandchildren - giving them a Treasure Book of your life, and one for their lives, to cherish down through the years?  Believe me, it is so worth the effort.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill

How Do YOU Share The Gospel?

Have you ever taken a serious look at yourself and asked, "Why does that bother me?" - or - "Why do I have that reaction, those feelings when I experience this?  Why does it still trouble me?"   Well, while I am not on a psychotherapy kick nor am I ghost hunting - I have long recognized that there were events from my childhood which still bother me, which still cause reactions in me, today.

We, as adults, often see problems of childhood with our children as trivial, not really serious - we often don't realize that some hurts can go deep.  And telling them, "Oh, don't let that bother you" very often does not work.  Even as an adult, looking back on personal childhood traumas, it is easy to rationalize, "That happened so long ago, forget about it!"   Very often easier said than done.

When I was a young boy, about 10 years old, my mom, brother, and I lived in a small duplex in my hometown, Sheffield, Alabama.  My mom really wanted to go to church, to know more about God - but she had one major problem.  She could not read nor write.  Her mother died when she was an infant - and she was basically raised by her four sisters and a brother.  This being the South in the 1920s, many people did not go to school.  And her siblings, having only attended a few years themselves - saw no reason to send her to school.

So, she grew into a very attractive woman who was smart, but with no education.  Yet, she was intelligent enough to hide her handicap from people.  When I was a teenager, my mom decided to teach herself to read and write - but believing that my step-dad did not know, she would not ask him for help.  When she could visit my aunt in Tuscumbia, she would ask for help.  But that was infrequent.  And, my brother and I, being typical teenagers, just did have time to help her. 

She purchased a 1st grade reader and began to teach herself.  Think about that.  If you cannot read nor write - when you look at a page of text - it has to look like Chinese scribbling.  Yet, she stubbornly persisted.  And by the time I went into the Air Force at 17, she could write letters to me and read my letters.  True, her grammar was not the greatest - but she could read and write.

All her life she was always ashamed of her lack of education, even when I tried to tell her what an amazing thing she had accomplished.   She, virtually alone, taught herself to read and write!  Many times I told her, "Mom, the only other person I know who self-educated himself so well was Abraham Lincoln.  That puts you in mighty lofty company."

But, until she passed away in 1994, I was not allowed to tell folks what an amazing mother I had - a woman with such innate intelligence that she could teach herself to read and write.

So, why am I telling you about my mom?  Because that, indirectly, led to the trauma which has stayed with me throughout my life.    As I said earlier, mom wanted to go to church and take her two boys to church.  But because she was afraid someone at church would ask her to read something, she was afraid to go.  Oh, she could go out with friends to bars and night clubs - for there, if anyone asked her to read something, she could feign having had one too many drinks - and ask them to read it for her.   But that would not work in church.

Yet that did not stop her from sending my brother and me to church.  The nearest church to our home was the Nazarene church two blocks away.  So every Sunday she would get us all cleaned up and send us off to Sunday School.  And we kind of liked the Sunday School classes, even though in hindsight, I realize that those people teaching us were most likely far from qualified.  After Sunday School when everyone would go upstairs to the sanctuary for the worship service, Bob and I would take off.

When I was about 11 years old, mom married my step-dad, Russell Arthur, a World War 2 vet and a really nice guy.  By this time my brother and I were going with friends to the First Baptist church and later hanging out with friends.   With my step-dad, mom could go to Wednesday night services at the Nazarene church because she could just mix in with the crowd with no danger of anyone asking her to read.

Then, the fateful day arrived.  The Nazarene church was having a Wednesday Night Revival Meeting and had a traveling revival preacher as the main speaker.  Keep in mind that many preachers at that time were "seat of the pants" preachers, with no seminary training, little education, and mostly self-taught - but who could give stirring, fiery sermons, designed to make saints out of all we sinners - whatever it took.  In later years I have often wondered if they yelled their fiery sermons to cover up for their lack of knowledge and training.

By this time, Bob and I were not attending the Nazarene church at all.  But, when mom asked me to go with her and Russell to the Wednesday Night Revival Meeting - I could not say no to her.  The Revival Meeting started, the Revival Preacher gets up a full head of steam - and then he announced, "Everyone stand up!"   We all stood.  Then he told us, "Now, everyone who is saved, sit down."   Even though I did not really understand what it meant to "be saved" - I had to figure I was not.  So, I remained standing.

Then that fateful declaration, "The rest of you just keep standing there until you decide to come forward and be saved!"

If I had been an adult at that time, I would have given him a one finger wave and walked out.  But, being a 12 year old boy, especially in the South, I could not be that disrespectful.  So, I had no choice.  I had to go forward.  And, boy, the spark in that Revival Preacher's eye!  Today I can imagine his thoughts at that time, "Hallelujah, here come a young boy and I am going to personally usher him into the family of God!" 

I went to the altar and the preacher and several others, maybe elders, the local preacher, etc. - all starting laying hands on me, praying loudly and shouting hallelujahs - and, yes, I got caught up in that emotion and thought I was saved, whatever that meant.  Not that evening, nor at any other time back then - did anyone bother to explain to me what it meant to "be saved."  In hindsight, I would suggest that I was just one more number, another supposedly saved soul, on that traveling Revival Preacher's resume - and that is all.

I will admit that I felt something when I left the church - but now I see that it was only emotions.  That night I went home, a saved person, right?  Wrong!  And laying in bed that night - this preteen boy began to have carnal thoughts about girls at my school.  Whoa!  How could that happen?  I was saved tonight, right?  No, you were hustled.

And, that night my self-esteem, my self-image, went right down the drain.  Boy, I was really a lost sinner now - for I had been saved tonight (whatever that meant) - and here I was having such carnal thoughts.  I was hopeless.

That mindset stayed with me as I finished high school and went into the Air Force.  I had one possible avenue out of sure destruction.  I had to find a church which would tell me there is no hell.  If there is no hell - then why worry?  That became my quest - to find that church.  And, I did.  When I was 20 years old, I was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas - and I found a chaplain from a major Protestant denomination who assured me, "Hell is only a myth."    Praise the Lord!  Now I can continue to live my carnal life and not have to worry about hell.

Yet, down deep, I really knew that was not true.  But, on the surface, it at least gave me a way to cover up my guilt as I continued my worldly lifestyle.  That persisted until I was 50 years old, when I met a man of God named Pastor Sam Lacanienta.  He began to teach me the real Truth - and he and that Irvine congregation loved me all the way to the cross.   In our interactive Bible study discussions, and at church, he taught me about God and what it meant to be a true believer.  And, in 1987, at the age of 50 I became a born-again believer.

Yet, because of that Nazarene Revival Preacher when I was 12 years old - I still have a strong negative reaction when Pentecostal preachers like TD Jakes, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and other television preachers start stomping their feet, pounding on the pulpit, and yelling their sermon - instead of just conversationally sharing the Gospel to me.  That is how Pastor Sam led me to the Lord, through talking with me in his sermons and Bible studies about Jesus Christ.  If Pastor Sam had been another fiery TD Jakes style preacher - most likely today I would not be a Christian believer.

After spending a large part of my life in computer industry field service, sales, and marketing, I have learned a few things about selling.  The first thing I learned is that you want the potential customer to be at ease with you, to be comfortable, to feel like you are a friend talking with him.  That way, he/she is more receptive to the information you are sharing.

And, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a form of selling.  A person can be selling a physical product, i.e., car, computer, etc. - or a person can be selling a concept or a belief.  That belief can be the Gospel, or it can be the advantages of a new smart phone.  The principal behind the sales effort is effectively the same - you want the person to believe you and to be comfortable hearing about your product. 

NO, I am not suggesting a "feel good" church or sermon - leaving out the parts that could make folks uncomfortable.  Doing that is to do a great disservice to people who need to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.   People need to know that hell is a real place and is the only alternative to eternal life in heaven. 

What I am suggesting is that folks like TD Jakes who "yell" the Gospel at folks - can often drive people away from Christ.  Just as that Revival Preacher drove 12 year old Bill Gray away from God until I was 50 years old.  We all know what would have happened if I had died before I was saved at fifty.   If so, would I have been another number in that Revival Preachers heavenly tally sheet?

Would YOU be comfortable talking with a salesperson - if that person started yelling at you?

If you went into a car dealership, knowing you need a new car - and the salesperson starts pounding the table, stomping his foot, and yelling at you - how would you react?  If that salesperson demanded that you sit down, put away your smart phone, and listen to his full message - would you?  No, I am sure that most folks would do as I, in hindsight, wish I had done to that Revival Preacher all those years ago - give a one finger salute and leave.

Because of that Revival Preacher when I was 12 years old - to this day I cannot call anyone "preacher."   I have many pastor Friends, many solid Bible teaching Friends - and I call them pastor, teacher, brother - but never preacher.  Why?  In my mind (with that 12 year old boy still wandering around in there) you can either preach at me - or you can teach me.   While I love having knowledgeable folks teach me - do it by talking to me, not preaching at me.  

Sharing the Gospel, to me, is teaching and not preaching.  Yet, many times over the years on forums, etc., I have had people say to me, "Bill, stop preaching at us!  Stop hitting us over the head with your Bible!"  And, I suppose that, to a non-believer, any mention of Jesus Christ, salvation, the Bible, etc., is preaching and Bible slamming. 

If we are to be effective witnesses, we will always face those types of accusations from non-believers.  I have one long time (fifty years) dear Friend on Facebook who told me, "Bill, why are you always quoting the Bible in your posts?  Why can't you answer without the Bible?" 

And, I responded to her, "Thank you for noticing that my first authority is always the Bible.  And, in a post when the Bible is the best answer - why not use it?"

Yet, I will admit that we do have to be careful when sharing with non-believers - for we do NOT want to make them feel that we are beating them over the head with our Bible.  Such relationships call for sensitivity and timing.  Many times our witness to them will need to be only our Christ-like love for a while.   I have a Friend who is a missionary to a Muslim community where he cannot share the Bible or the elders will ban him from their community.  In that case, his witness is his Godly love and his willingness to help them with daily needs. 

How is your witness?  Are you comfortable "talking" with a non-believing friend or family member about Jesus Christ and His eternal life-giving Gospel?  Can you effectively share the Biblical doctrines your church believes and teaches?   Maybe this PowerPoint video I made in 2009 will help you.  I made it to begin a Sunday School class in our new church plant.  Please feel free to use it and to share it. 

WHAT WE BELIEVE - Our Statement Of Faith - Revised October 11, 2016 (8-18-17 HD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC619qohBjc

I pray that my personal testimony has been helpful to you.  Please feel free to share it with all your FRANs (Friends, Relatives, Associates, Neighbors).  Our goal is to bring more folks into the Family of God.  Let's do it by taking their hand and guiding them - not by trying to shove them.  Just a thought!

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill

END TIMES Bible Study - Weeks One & Two, Edited August 15, 2017

In the past couple of months I have been a member of a Facebook group named "Rapture Discussion: Pretribulation, Posttribulation, or Prewrath?"   And I have to say that in these few short months on this discussion group I have read a greater variety of End Times/Rapture theories, conjectures, and outright fantasies than in all the thirty years I have been a Christian, most of those years studying End Times Prophecies.

That is why I have created and published this End Times video which I have titled "END TIMES Bible Study - Weeks One & Two, Edited August 8, 2017."  

Before we can begin a discussion of the End Times; we must first define some of the key words and phrases which we will encounter as we travel the End Times Highway.

I do not want you to be as I was in 1991.  I was then a relatively new Christian, circa 1987, and the Gulf War was ongoing.   That war, especially the burning of the oil fields in Kuwait, led many Christians to thoughts of the End Times.  Not long after the war began, at our Friday Night Bible study, our study leader, Tom Fletcher, began to talk about the Rapture.

At that time, I had "NO IDEA" what he meant or what this obviously soon-to-come Rapture entailed.  This was the first time I had ever heard the word "Rapture" and had no idea what Tom meant.  However, I was not going to be the one who asked, "What is the Rapture?  What are you talking about?"  No way!  I was not going to show my ignorance.  So, I sat silently, totally in a cloud.

But, there was one positive outcome of my hidden ignorance of Biblical prophecy that evening.  Shortly after that fateful 1991 Bible study, I began my own personal study of End Times Prophecies - and have continued since, gaining new insight and knowledge almost daily.  I spent four years creating the End Time Charts in this video - and, over the years, I have made a number of corrections.  As I gained new insight, or as someone made me aware of an error - I made changes.  And, just within the last few weeks, I have made several more corrections.   That is why I titled this video"END TIMES Bible Study - Weeks One & Two, Edited August 8, 2017."

I pray that if you find an error in my video, you will bring it to my attention so that we can have a discussion.

My goal in this Bible study video is to share with you the insight and knowledge I have gained over the years - with the goal that none of you will have to sit through an End Time Bible study in a cloud of silence - as I did in 1991.

First we will take a look at this mysterious language, Christianese, so that we will all be on a level playing field.  However, if the video introduces a word, a phrase, or a point you do not understand from watching the video - pause the video, open your Bible, or maybe even Google - and do some research.  We ALL are somewhat in a cloud of ignorance when trying to fully understand the End Times and other Biblical issues. That is why we are told in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known"  

But God, in His Bible, has given us all the knowledge we need to attain eternal salvation and to be eagerly waiting for His coming to "catch us up to be with Him in the clouds"  (1 Thessalonians 4:17).  Our task now is to stay in God's Word, daily striving toward more maturity -  and to share His Word in our own Jerusalem (our family and community) - and in all the world - His Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15).

The best way for us to be more mature in our own knowledge of God's Word and to be able to help others grow toward maturity -  is to be engaged in our own personal Bible studies - as well as participating in lively discussions in our corporate Sunday Schools and Bible studies.  That is the goal of this Bible study video - to create a lively discussion about the End Times.

Now I invite you to view the video:

END TIMES Bible Studies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUwF_igeTQk&list=PL_YT3RttutrhPFj_GxNr9bXqlaei7eJaQ

Once again, if you find a possible error or just want to discuss a particular issue, please let me know and let's have a discussion.

God bless, have a wonderful blessed day,

Bill

Two Tribulations ~ Biblical Or Not?

Today, on Facebook, a Christian gentleman shared from his blog an article about Corrie ten Boom.  The article is titled "Corrie Ten Boom: Beware of False Teaching of Pre-Tribulation Rapture" and is found on his blog page: "Z3 News, End Time News Before It Happens."

In his blog about Corrie ten Boom it is evident that he believes her letter, written in 1974, proves that she denied the PreTribulation Rapture of the church. 

This bothered me because in the past year or so, we have been inundated with so much "fake news" - both political and religious.  Some of the fake news is openly and blatantly thrown at us, with the writer knowing that it was false - just trying to mislead folks.

And, we have others, such at the man who posted his blog - whom I believe, without him holding a false prejudice, he is following an unbiblical teaching of the Rapture, a teaching which denies the Imminency of Christ's Return.  I do not believe he has shared this to propagate "fake news" - but, instead he has shared it through honest, though misled, belief that the return of Christ is not imminent. 

Possibly Corrie ten Boom did not believe in a PreTribulational Rapture.  If so, I believe she was wrong - BUT, that does not detract from her Christian faith, nor her eternal life in Christ.  Our beliefs and teachings on issues such as End Time Prophecies. baptism, tithing, etc., do not affect our eternal position in Christ.  Those beliefs fall into what we would call Non-Essential Biblical Doctrines.  In other words, they are important to study and understand - but our position in Christ is not determined by them.

And we must keep in mind that - as much as all of us loved and admired Corrie ten Boom and her devout Christian ministry - she was not and is not the final authority.  The Bible is the final authority.   We should never follow the teachings of "anyone" without testing those teachings against Scripture.  While we respect our pastors, theologians, scholars, teachers - not one of them is infallible.  So, in respect, we take what they teach us and test it against Scripture - and keep what the Bible has validated.

A point of interest:  Just last night in our Prayer Night Devotional - our pastor taught on the same Scripture passage which Corrie ten Boom shared as her go-to passage while in the German concentration camp.  This is from her letter:

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.”   But we would find the next day was even worse.  During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.

1 Peter 4:14-15, "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name."

I found myself saying, “Hallelujah!  Because I am suffering (for the name of Christ), Jesus is glorified!”

In that excerpt from her letter - this tells me that Corrie ten Boom did, indeed, see that there are Two Distinct Tribulations:  First, the current persecution of believers - and - Second, the coming Tribulation which God will use to bring the remnant of His chosen people, Israel, into the family of God.

Below is an excerpt from the 19 page booklet "The Tribulation And The Church" written by Pastor Chuck Smith and available in PDF format if you google it - or it can be purchased from bookstores.   Here, Pastor Chuck clearly defines the Two Tribulations:

It's important to make a clear distinction about tribulations as taught in the Bible.  There are two different types of tribulation. (1) The Great Tribulation referred to by Jesus and Daniel and detailed by John in the Revelation - and - (2) The tribulation that Jesus promised would come to the Church.

Speaking to His disciples in John 16:33 Jesus said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

The Church will have tribulation in the world.  It's important to notice that the "tribulation" faced by the Church originates from the world and comes from the world system controlled by Satan.  Satan is behind all the attacks on the Church.

Paul tells us that we're wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Spirit forces are warring against the children of God, the source of our tribulation is definitely the world system governed by Satan.

The Great Tribulation that will come upon the earth originates from Heaven.  God's wrath is poured out in judgment against the sinners during this Tribulation.  When the sixth seal is opened in Revelation 6:12, those on the earth try to hide and they call for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of His wrath has come, and they question, "Who shall be able to stand?"   Revelation 11:18 declares, "Thy wrath is come."

In Revelation 14:10 the Great Tribulation is referred to as the indignation and wrath of God.  When the seals are opened in Heaven corresponding judgments come upon the earth.  The angels are given trumpets in Heaven, and as they blow the trumpets corresponding judgments come upon the earth.  The vials from the living creatures are opened by the seven angels, and again corresponding judgments come upon the earth.  All these judgments come from God and have their origin in Heaven. . . .
 
The tribulation (today) experienced by the child of God comes from the Satan-governed world.

The Tribulation (Great Tribulation) that is coming on the sinful world will come from God.

My Friends, God tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  

And, by "dividing" He does not mean that we should let Scripture divide us, brother against brother.  But that we must be diligent in discerning the correct interpretation of each Scripture verse and passage.  The apostle Paul teaches us in Acts 17:11 to be good Bereans, always testing the teacher and the teaching against Scripture. 

That is one reason that I believe so strongly in expositional sermons and Bible studies. i.e., teaching and studying through the Bible, verse by verse.

My reason for sharing this blog is not to put down other Christian believers because they hold different views on the End Times Prophecies or other non-essential Biblical doctrines. 

My reason for sharing this is to warn all of us - that we should not so revere any person - such as Corrie ten Boom, or any pastor, teacher, scholar, or theologian - that we mindlessly accept everything they teach - without being good Acts 17:11 Bereans.   The final authority must always be God and His Bible.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill