333 Words

333 WORDS….

Put a juicy, yummy steak through a meat grinder and you get baloney. Put sacred Scripture through the evangelical grinder and you get baloney.

When you blend The Word with other words you get something other than The Word. While “The words of the Lord are pure words”, man’s words are not. Never were and never will be. Christ’s words mixed with man’s words result in spiritual baloney.

Often the ways of man are conveyed non-verbally (simply because they cannot be reinforced with Scripture), or implied but not declared (for the same reason), and yet the ill effect is equally dramatic and damaging.

There are many examples within evangelicalism (and most certainly every religious group) whereby The Word differs significantly from traditional teaching….

BEFORE evangelical grinder….
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
“With God all things are possible.”
“That the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

No hint of evangelical mediator between Christ and christian.

AFTER evangelical grinder….
Unity is strength. Alone you can’t, together we can.

Us and we are emphasized, I and me understated.

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BEFORE….
“God shall supply all your need.”
“My grace is sufficient for you.”

“You” is Paul and “you” is me and “you” is you.

AFTER….
Need encouragement?…. fellowship?…. teaching?…. comforting?…. discipleship?…. come to us. We “shall supply all your need.”

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BEFORE….
“Abide in Me.”
“Follow Me.”
“Believe also in Me.”

AFTER…
Abide in Christ and us.
Follow Christ and us.
Believe in Christ and us.

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BEFORE….
“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.”
“The Spirit told me to go with them.”
“The Spirit said to Philip.”

AFTER….
The Holy Spirit will lead you through us. The otherwise, obviously, is chaos.

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BEFORE….
“[Christ] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.”

AFTER….
Christ gave some to be reverends, some reverends, some reverends, and some reverends and reverends.

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Few, it seems, build their christianity on undiluted BEFORE; most, it seems, build on adulterated AFTER.