Thu 11 Sep 2008
Leaving Everything
Posted by Shammah under Bible, Church, History, Modern Doctrines
[3] Comments
I started to write a blog last night, and I decided I wanted it permanently on my “Rest of the Old, Old Story” web site. You can read it at http://www.oldoldstory.org/teachings/leaveitall.html. Sorry for linking you to a “blog,” but this seemed to work. Leave me a note (your back button will get you back here after reading it) if you have comments. It’s a lot to chew on. It was a lot for me to chew on, and I wrote it!
I don’t know if that’s the best wording, either, since what I really mean is “knowing what’s true may be a lot more rare than you realize; we need more people on board and doing this together; and I really want you to take this seriously.” I don’t know that this qualifies as “a great victory over the kingdom of God.”
Well, let me add something: I occasionally call the time period from Constantine’s Edict of Toleration until the Council of Nicea as the “great judo throw.” In judo you push your opponent as a preparation for throwing him. When he pushes back, you pull, and it’s his momentum that allows you to throw him over your back or shoulder. Constantine was preceded by a period called The Great Persecution. It was the most intense and organized empire-wide persecution there had been. That was the push. Immediately afterward, Constantine first removed the persecution, then embraced the church. That was the pull, and the result was a great crash. The difference in the histories written before and after Nicea are immense.
That was a victory for the devil, and the allowance for a gospel of half-heartedness is a victory for him, too. The way that those who deny themselves are forced by our Christian system to be in fellowship with those who do not is also a victory for him. On the other hand, Jesus said it would always be the few walking the narrow way, so those are who he’s after. Still, the life, power, and grace available when those few walk together, rather than trying to fellowship with the multitude on the broad path, is immense. When the enemy is able to insert a hundred half-hearted believers among five or six who deny themselves, he is able to effectively separate those five or six in many cases.
Well said! I’ve dealt many times with people over the same misapplication over Romans 7.
My only issue would be in the statement “the devil is winning a great victory over the kingdom of God” … it may be semantics, since I know your heart and where you’re coming from, but I firmly believe that the kingdom of God will have victory and reign, even though it seems quite the opposite at times, and maybe I just need to have hope in that, not to get discouraged when I feel alone at times in the things you’re speaking of. I don’t mean it as a criticism, just a comment on where I am personally …
love you and always appreciate what you share.
peace.
That blog is great! That is the bottom line. This is where you seperate the sheep from the goats. Many are willing to give 10% but 100% no way.