First of all anyone who reads this and as everyone hopefully reads this, please bare with me as this is a brand new venture for me. I have "fiddled" or played with a blog or two in the past. Fully committing to it is indeed brand new. But the times we're in and the things that are taking place, it's time to develop my own space. My own space away from Facebook. For those who take a peek or even migrate from Facebook, I will continue to be there as well for the foreseeable future. I will particularly continue to post, interact, and share on my own timeline and with all of you. I will also maintain the American Faith Today Facebook page such as it is for as long as I can.
In our lives and in these days in particular, we deal with more untruths than most ever really know. They come at us from all directions. They certainly come to us from our television screens. They come to us from the politicians we count on to solve all of our problems and protect us from every perceived threat. I say that even now as politician after politician as overreacted to a virus that it is looking more and more has the potency of the seasonal flu. Those politicians have shredded economies, closed businesses, and caused 22 million Americans to file for unemployment over the last month. That doesn't even take into account the unknown and untold number of people who tried to file but couldn't get on the website or are still in the process of filing. Nor does it tell you the still unknown economic effects on individuals and small businesses in particular even when all are "allowed" to resume life. Many of those individuals and families live paycheck to paycheck and haven't worked. Many of those businesses lost all or almost all of their sales income but still have bills like the rest of us. Some of them perhaps will never open again. It's Democrats and Republicans both that have done this. It sure makes me glad that I woke up some of the way and God woke up the rest of the way regarding the broken, evil, corrupt political dynasty and the politics of man.
But along with those dynasties and those falsehoods come deception within the church itself. Fairy tales and the wisdom and traditions of man. God through Paul let us know what wisdom in the ways of this world counts for in 1st Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are your's;
He also lets us know that traditions of man make the word of God of "none effect" in Mark 7:13. In other words, it completely takes the meaning, the power, and the truth out of it to where it's no good to anyone. And unfortunately that has become all too prominent in our churches today. This is why, in large part, Christ in a letter to the 7 churches of Revelation found no fault at all with only 2 of the 7. How's your church doing?
One of the more damaging traditions in the church today is certainly the "any moment" rapture doctrine. And while at various points I will probably come back to this, here is just a primer. And I will admit that I "borrowed" this from a Facebook friend's timeline to help write my first blog post. For those who are unfamiliar, Shepherd's Chapel out of Gravette, Arkansas is still in my opinion as fine of a chapter by chapter, verse by verse bible teaching ministry as you will find. Arnold Murray is long gone but the ministry remains at this time in archives and through his one living son, Dennis.
#rapture,#bible,#shepherdschapel
Moving away from all manner of falsehoods and vain traditions is something we should all endeavor to do. May God Himself open the eyes of those whom He would have do just that.
