failure not an option

9 29 07
Just visited worldslastchance website you referenced in TH post today.
I think it best to reply to your comments here as this topic (my take on worldslastchance, hereafter WLC) is unrelated to the article about Alaska's governor.

While WLC does seem to uphold the Trinity, deny a so-called "secret" rapture, and if I understood correctly, deny a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, its emphasis on the New World Order is disturbing.

In the first place, I am highly suspect of non-denominational Christian groups, whose leaders are often lacking in formal theological training, and who claim to be the sole source of correct Biblical interpretation.

I also found WLC legalistic, stating what we must do, at the expense of telling us what Christ has done for us. I find this phenomenon in the reformed churches, among them many of the Presbyterian Churches and the Southern Baptist church, to name but two.

These churches stress getting out the gospel message in order to clean up the world, America specifically. The emphasis is on changing lives, making people better, making the world a better place in which to live, and so on, which I believe puts the cart before the horse, so to speak.

It may seem a subtle point, but I am convinced that God gave us the law as a mirror, a curb, and a guide. The mirror of the law shows us our sin, the curb keeps the believer's sinful nature in check, and the guide shows us how to align our lives with God's holy will. The story of the Bible is that all people are born in sin and cannot satisfy the righteous demands of a holy God, no matter how many good works we try to do. God sent His Son, Jesus, to live the perfect life we cannot live. Jesus, the God-man, took our sins upon Himself -- and God's just condemnation and punishment for those sins -- when He gave Himself to die for us on the cross.

It is finished; your sins are paid for. Believe it. That is the gospel message: forgiveness of sins. We are no longer slaves to sin (Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh). We are people now free to live lives pleasing to God -- even while we remain saint and sinner in this world -- until we are ushered into his presence at the time of our death.

It is because we are redeemed and know it that we then produce fruits of the Spirit; the sun shines because it is the sun -- God's people shine because they are God's people: sons shine! We don't shine to be saved, we shine because we are saved. That is the subtle difference to which I referred. Many churches want you to put the focus on yourself, how well your life stacks up to the Ten Commandments, for example. The moment you start that examination you're going to end in doubt about your faith. Because the truth is we will always fall short. Our focus should be Jesus and Him only. We must always be looking to Jesus and find rest in Him and His verdict on us: not guilty. The Father sees us through the blood of His Son -- He does not see our sin; He does not count our sins against us. We have no reason to fear; there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, Romans 5:1-5.