Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Honor (05/30/24)
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TITLE: Honor God; Respect For People | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
06/05/24 -
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Honoring one’s father and mother (1) is a stabilizing part of society promoted in virtually all cultures.
It is a powerful source of influence that can be used to promote both good and evil.
Its hard for many of us to consider our parents as being promoters of evil, but evil is the English translation for one of the words that inspired Scripture (2) uses to describe human parenting.
With the best of intentions, parents pass down to their offspring what was passed down to them, with little (if any) concern for the Biblical consistency with the religious teaching and practices they promote.
Satan knows the influence that a trusted person in a position of authority can have.
Evil is anything, in teaching or practice, that runs contrary to the Word of God, no matter who promotes it, or for how long it has been taking place.
Some denominations and groups are more culpable than others, but Scripture warns that as the Church Age comes to its end, the Christian Community will be greatly influenced by apostasy (3),following teachings and embracing activities taught by demons.
I can’t think of a form of evil more dangerous than the evil that comes from an apostate pulpit.
The longer a false teaching remains, the deeper the roots grow.
This is why Jesus taught His disciples to pray for the on-going deliverance from evil (4).
Acts 17:11 speaks of the need for Scriptural verification, and 2Cor. 13: 5 requires self-examination.
Jesus taught that the unadulterated Gospel Message of the Church Age would cause divisions and separations in even the closest of human relationships (5).
The greater one’s understanding of the unadulterated Gospel Message that one has, the clearer the fallacy of all of Man’s religious alternatives will become.
From the very beginning of the Church Age (6), up to the present time, there have been many adulterated Gospel Messages (means of securing salvation) promoted within the Christian Community at large.
Satan works long and hard promoting adulterated Gospel Messages that deny the deity (divine nature) of the Person and or the significance of the atoning Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He finished (7) on the cross.
Religious authority, within the Christian Community, with the full endorsement of the devil, has promoted the perceived need for believers to participate in Man-made traditions, promoting them as necessary in order to obtain, retain, or regain salvation (that cannot be lost).
If such things were indeed necessary, then faith in the Person and in the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough.
To imply such a things amounts to blasphemy, diminishing His atoning work (8) on the cross, and the irreversible Work (9) of God the Holy Spirit that takes place the moment one is born-again.
The unadulterated Gospel Message is encapsulated in John 3: 16, 18. Belief or disbelief in the unadulterated Gospel Message is what, and only what, determines WHERE one will spend eternity upon leaving this world.
Eternal security (10) is not a license to sin. While there is only one requirement to be saved (11), there are many, many, requirements for success in the post salvation life of discipleship.
Failure in the post salvation life of discipleship will not cost a born again believer his or her salvation, but will open the door to divine discipline (12), here on Earth
Belief in the unadulterated Gospel Message determines WHERE one will spend eternity, but the quality of one’s post salvation spiritual life determines HOW eternity will be experienced, being with or without 1Cor. 3 : 14, 15 reward, and or Rev.2/Rev. 3 privileges.
The more a born-again believer advances in the post salvation life of Biblical discipleship, the more he or she will find himself or herself in the inevitable (13) conflicts with parents, siblings, and others who are unsaved, or who are less spiritually mature, creating Luke 14: 26 scenarios.
Such scenarios are to be seen as opportunities in which an advancing disciple will honor God by being prepared and to give an appropriate answer. The advancing disciple will do so, while showing gentleness and respect (14) for the ones that God desires for him or her to evangelize or to edify.
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Exodus. 20: 12 (2) Matt. 7: 11 (3) 1Tim. 4: 1 (4) Matt 6: 13 (5) Matt. 10: 35 (6) Gal. 3: 1 (7) John 19: 30 (8) 1John 2: 2 (9) Titus 3: 5/Eph.4: 30 (10) Rom. 8: 1 (11) John 3: 16 (12) Heb. 12: 6 (13) Mark 6: 4 (14) 1Pet. 3: 15
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