NOTES:
Are you a fake Christian?
-Water bottle – what happens if I stop resisting gravity? (always down)
-Cursed fallen world – fight to prevent decline (health, marriage, home, soul, church)
4 Signs of a real Christian
Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
1. Identity in God (not sex/gender/race): “Beloved” 4X = (received, unchanging, work from)
2. Saved like everyone else: “common salvation”
3. Hold to core doctrine: “faith…once delivered to saints” (boxed lunch vs salad bar)
4. Willing to suffer or die for their faith “contend” (belief & behavior)
4 signs of a fake Christian
Jude 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Invaders – Inside – Crept in – insiders not outsiders (Satan/Judas)
- Unsaved – Never going to be saved
- Sexual perverts (sex, gender, marriage, sexuality
- Anti-Christ as Lord Church = Body. Apostates = Cancer.
Contending Christians, not contentious Christians
- Contentious – critical spirit, unteachable
- Contending – Military word = officer commanding soldier
= struggle hard, defend, standup, stoutly defend, vigorously defend, fight strenuously, fight w/everything you have, fight hard!
Opposite contending = syncretizing “Greek verb “to combine”
= “unity”; “reconciliation”; “love”; “tolerance”; “pride”; “progressive”; “interfaith”
2 ways to contend
1. NO!
2. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ!” (CONTEND 7 BATTLEFRONTS)
Should a Christian contend for the family?
- God made us male/female
- God made marriage for 1 man 1 woman
- God gives authority to parents not governments
Polygamy
From 2003 to 2023 polygamy as “morally acceptable” went from 7% to 23% (Gallup)
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1681/moral-issues.aspx
- Utah has voted to “decriminalize”
The American Psychological Association has a “Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy” pushing for polygamy laws https://www.div44cnm.org/
Pedophilia
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB145
=California SB-145 allows pedophiles to not register as sex offenders if less than 10 years older than their victim if the victim is at least 14
Should a Christian contend for education?
– 1st 200 yrs – Puritans landing 1637 virtually all edu private & XN (in churches).
– Nearly every 1st 123 coll/univ.
– Last 200 yrs – Gov’t schools Thomas Dewey &Horace Mann – signers Humanist Manifesto
· Proverbs – dad & mom teaching kids
· Eph. 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. =AZ school choice
https://onenten.org/health-wellness/ Queer Based Learning Center 14+ part “one-n-ten”
-Queer history & monthly program – pronouns support, hormones 101, gender-affirming surgeries 101, how to bind & tuck genitalia safely
Should a Christian contend for the media?
Please get this fig. 1 chart from National Center for Biotechnology Information https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7112764/figure/F1/
- What is newsworthy?
- Which side of the fight (contend) to tell?
Should a Christian contend for entertainment?
- 65 years 4 Keys – Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency; – 2020 key 5 Inclusion
Should a Christian contend for business?
https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Lighthouse_Action_Social_Justice_Stakeholder_Inclusion_2021.pdf
Large $ management firms (e.g. retirement) e.g. BlackRock, Vanguard Group, & State Street = woke & own 20% in every Fortune 500 Company (Disney’s largest shareholder 15.3%)
- Shareholders – goal is increased wealth
- Stakeholders – goal is increased social & climate justice (e.g. BLM)
Should a Christian contend for government?
1. Believers in government – Joseph, Nehemiah, Daniel, Kings of Israel (David)
2. Believers practicing civil disobedience
- The government commands you to do something God forbids.
- The government forbids you to do something God’s commands.
=Hebrew midwives Egypt, Rahab hid God’s people, Joseph’s refusal slave sleep w/Potiphar’s wife, Daniel’s friends not bowing down, Obadiah hid prophets from Ahab/Jezebel, Paul prison, Jesus parents fled Egypt, Jesus executed, apostles jail
Should a Christian contend for religion?
QR code for revised Doctrine ebook free?
Jesus vs Atheists = there is no God
4% of Americans https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/12/06/10-facts-about-atheists/
- Jesus only founder of any major world religion claimed to be God
John 10:30-33 “Jesus answered… I and the Father are one.”…[they] picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these…but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus vs Agnostics – we cannot know if God exists. Taken from two Greek terms, a (no) and gnosis (knowledge).
“= nones” around 3/10 Americans –Jesus “Immanuel” = God w/us
Jesus vs Occultists – demonic spiritual practices forbidden by God in the Bible.
=Wicca; Witchcraft’ New Age/New Spirituality; psychics, channeling, astrology, clairvoyance, divination, free masons, oracles, tarot cards, Ouija boards, native American shamanism, spells/sorcery, spirit-guides, auras, palm reading, paganism, = Halloween
https://www.tiktok.com/discover/witchtok-tiktok?lang=en
#witchtok – how to cast spells, conjur demons (8 billion on earth, 21 billion views)
Jesus vs World Religions
1. Jesus Christ and Christianity
– Founder: Jesus Christ
– Writing: 66 books of the Bible
– God: Trinity 1 God 3 persons co-equal, co-eternal, sharing all divine attributes
– Jesus: fully God, fully man lived without sin, died for our sin, resurrected
2. Jesus vs Islam
– Founder: Muhammad (AD 570-632), greatest ever lived, last of Allah’s 124k messengers
– Writing: Koran revealed by angel Gabriel
– God: Allah is the only God (no Trinity; qualities like fatherhood of God = shirk or greatest sin.
– Jesus: Not God. Not Son of God. Not crucified or resurrected = Lesser prophet.
3. Jesus vs Hinduism (Republican candidate)
– Founder: No one founder
– Writing: Many writings (Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, etc.)
– God: Brahman “The Absolute” universal spirit manifest in numerous gods/goddesses
– Jesus: Teacher, guru, or avatar (incarnation of Vishnu). Did not die for sin or rise. He is not our savior, we get released from reincarnation cycles by yoga, meditation, etc.
4. Jesus vs Buddhism
- Founder: Gautama Siddhartha (563-483 BC) or Buddha (Enlightened One)
- Writing: Mahavastu “Great Story”; Jataka Tales, Tripitaka (3 baskets); Tantras
- God: does not believe in a personal god
- Jesus: at most an enlightened teacher but not God or unique
5. Jesus vs Judaism
- Founder: Abraham and Moses
- Writing: Old Testament, NOT New Testament
- God: One Creator God but not Trinity
- Jesus: Either a false messiah, or a martyred rabbi (NT myths yrs later)
American cults claiming to be Christian – Latin “cultus” = worship
- OT – Baal, Asherah, Chemosh, Milcom, Molech,
- NT – Artemis, gnostics emperor worship
2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-14 I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough…[from] false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
1. Jesus vs Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
– Founder: Joseph Smith (1805-1844)
– Writing: The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price,plus their “prophets”; KJV “rightly interpreted”,
– God: God was once a man who evolved, NO Trinity, worthy men become gods
– Jesus: Father sex w/Mary as a man who became a god. Jesus was married. Good works save, not Jesus. Jesus = Lucifer’s brother
2. Jesus vs Jehovah’s Witnesses (The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society)
– Founder: Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916) later Joseph F. Rutherford (1869–1942).
– Writing: Watchtower publications including New World Translation of Bible
– God: No Trinity, a “god” named Jehovah
– Jesus: created being, not eternally God, was Michael archangel, rose spiritually not physically, returned invisibly 1914. Good works save, not Jesus.
3. Jesus vs United Pentecostal Church
– Founder: John Scheppe (1913 or 1914) – offshoot AG/Pentecostalism
– Writing: claimed a divine revelation from God
– God: NOT Trinity, modalism
– Jesus: a manifestation of God, not God, not an individual Person. NOT Savior = legalistic works, speaking in tongues, & baptism in “Jesus name”
4. Jesus vs Christian Science
– Founder: Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910)
– Writing: Science &Health w/Key to the Scriptures, Miscellaneous Writings, Manual of the Mother Church, & other books by Mrs. Eddy; Christian Science Journal, Christian Science Sentinel, & other official periodicals. ? Bible (not as reliable)
– God: an impersonal Principle of life, truth, love, intelligence, & spirit. God is all that exists, matter is an illusion.
– Jesus: Not Christ, not God, did not die on the cross, rise from the dead, or is coming.
5. Jesus vs A Course in Miracles (Oprah; Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson)
– Founder: Jewish Psychologist Helen Schucman
– Writing: 1200 pages 3 books “inner voice” named “Jesus” – my counseling appt
– God: a spiritual force
– Jesus: not god, but someone with a high level of conscious connection w/world force
Work with (horizonal)? YES Work w/things like moral laws (e.g. abortion, rel liberty )
Worship with (vertical)? NO
Call band up
Fun exercise w/cue cards & boxes
- Closed Hand = Unity
- Open Hand = Diversity
CLOSING PRAYER
