Are Message Believers Christians?: Difference between revisions

Are Message Believers Christians? (view source)

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 :''When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the '''first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear'''.<ref>Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Heb 8:13.</ref>
-In fact, how we behaved became the most important thing in determining whether we were Christians:
+How we behave became the most important thing in determining whether we were Christians:
 :''If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
 :''If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day,
-:''and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
+::''and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
 :''If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.
 :''So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.<ref>Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), 1 Co 13:1–3.</ref>
+''The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.''<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ga 5:6.</ref> .  Love is the only thing that matters.
-==So what about message followers==
+==So what about message followers?==
-Message believers generally feel more guilty about missing church than about how they treated someone at work.  They are more concerned about what God would do to you because of a moral failure than about what they did to the person they wronged.
+Message believers generally feel more guilty about missing church than about how they treated someone at work.  They are more concerned about what God would do to them because of a sin they might committ than about what they did to the person they wronged.
-The problem with the Nicene Council was not the issue identified by William Branham.  Rather, it was in the fact that Christianity went from being behavioral to creedal.  What became important was not how you behaved but what you believed.
+The problem with the Nicene Council was not the issue identified by William Branham.  Rather, it was in the fact that Christianity went from being behavioral to creedal.  What became important was not how you behaved but what you believed.  That was the tragedy of all of the Nicene Council - love lost.
-"And the tragedy of all this … [is that] love lost," Stanley told his congregation.
+Under Constantine and the Roman church, believing the wrong thing became a crime.  Suddenly in Christianity, what you believed trumped how you behaved.
-Christians have largely reverted back to the ways of the Old Testament, blending the old "temple model" with Jesus' teachings.
-"Suddenly, believing the wrong thing was a crime," Stanley said. "Suddenly in Christianity, what you believed trumped how you behaved."
+Christianity became creedal.  There is no mention of love in the creeds.  In fact, there's no mention of behavior at all. You can subscribe to that creed and basically do anything you want.  And there was a reason the creeds were that way. It's because the creeds were generally signed off on by the emperor and the emperors had bad behaviors. So the church leaders who were being funded by the emperors had to be very careful what they put into the Christian creeds.But the entire law hangs on loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.<ref>Stanley, Andy -  from the sermon series "Brand:New"</ref>
-"Christianity almost immediately became creedal," he added, noting the creation of the Nicene Creed, among many other creeds already in existence.
-"There is no mention of love (in the creeds). In fact, there's no mention of behavior at all. You can subscribe to that creed and basically do anything you wanted. And there was a reason the creeds were that way. It's because the creeds were generally signed off on by the emperor and the emperors had bad behaviors. So the church leaders who were being funded by the emperors had to be very careful what they put into the Christian creeds.
-Stanley moved on to the 16th Century Protestant Reformation where Martin Luther wanted to reform the Church. During this time, the Scriptures became available to everyone as the printing press was created. But the Reformation splintered, Stanley noted, and now there are over 1,000 Protestant denominations because of different interpretations of the Bible.
-"Now you had more sacred places with sacred men with sacred texts telling everyone else how to live their lives and specifically what would grant them entrance to heaven," the Georgia pastor said. "And Protestants have been beating people over the head with the Bible ever since."
-In all of this, Stanley imagines Jesus and the Apostle Paul looking down from heaven and asking, "How did this happen?" and saying, "We couldn't have been any clearer."
-"I got them all together right at the end and I washed their stinking feet," Stanley imagines Jesus saying. "I told them this is an example, this is what you are to do to one another — as I have loved you, so you must love one another."
-"How could the new movement of Jesus with a new command and a new ethic of love that was to serve as the filter for all of their decisions, how could something so pure, so grassroots, so one another oriented become so temple?
-"The reason is because there is a little temple model in all of us … What you fear, what you see as sin, what you think God condemns has been taught to you in such a way our consciences have been shaped by it. Consequently, we continue to hold onto things that hold … the Church back."
-Stanley believes what fuels temple model thinking is the failure to truly embrace the Gospel. While Christians may believe Jesus Christ died for them, this has to get to their hearts.
-"Once you understand that Jesus and His Father are unequivocally for you, that there is no measure, no sin that puts you outside their love, grace has no … limits, that becomes the context … through which we understand the Scriptures," he stressed.
-He reminded the congregation about what Jesus said — the entire law hangs on loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
-"Imagine if everyone realizes … God is fine with me," he said. "Now I must figure out how to be fine with other people so they can be fine with my Father in heaven."
-But those that say they follow Jesus have had a historical tendency to bring the old covenant back  into the new.
-<ref>Stanley, Andy -  from the sermon series "Brand:New"</ref>