To My Facebook Friends

To My Facebook Brothers and Sisters in Christ….

I really, really wish you had an intense enthusiasm for John chapter 15 including, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit.”

You can tell to which branch you are abiding by simply listening to your own words. It may become apparent that you actually abide in two ‘vines’, the “true vine”, as Lord Jesus called Himself, and also the vine of religion. Very not good. Please hear me….

Many years ago I concluded that if I could envision Paul doing what I did, I would be safe. And if I couldn’t I shouldn’t. (Paul: “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.”) I cannot imagine Paul embracing, promoting or financing your evangelical religion. Can you? Like really?

Paul preached through the media of speech and example. And so do we. We preach by saying and we preach by doing. Our example is our epistle, as surely as the words we speak. Again, can you visualize Paul attaching himself to your religion? Or any religion?

While Paul preached Christ-alone, your gospel is Christ-and. Or Christ-plus. You preach Christ-and and Christ-plus by word and example. You are part of the institutional machinery that soon introduces the new convert to your religion (which is catholicism tweaked). The m.o. of every sect is to convince the subject of his/her need of them. Not Christ alone, but Christ-plus (they being the plus).

Like Paul, you are an ambassador for Christ. Unlike Paul, you are also an ambassador for evangelicalism. Paul would say to the new convert that Christ is your sufficiency. You would suggest that Christ is not, in Himself, sufficient. You insinuate, “More is required than just ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’; you need the religion I represent (or one similar)”. This is so debilitating to the one looking to elder brothers and sisters for direction. Jesus gave us the “Spirit of truth.” (“He will guide you into all truth.”) Religion vies with the Holy Spirit to give leadership to Christ’s flock. Religionists immediately assault the new convert with traditional logic and human practicality, and don’t back off until they have captured his/her loyalty (and money).

“The head of the church” wants you (and all) to build your life on the Bible, chiefly the New Testament. That’s why He gave us the Book. (We are not to study the Bible to learn His will and His ways and then live an opposite christianity.) He would have you detach yourself from the vine of religion and abide solely in Himself, “the true vine”.

John 15 is pivotal. Abiding in Christ alone assures bountiful rewards at “the judgement seat of Christ” where “we must give an account”. Jesus: “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears MUCH fruit.” He who abides in Christ-plus bears LITTLE fruit. Jesus taught (Matthew chapter 7) it is the “wise man” who hears His words and builds on them; the “foolish man” is the christian who hears the same words yet builds his/her life on the sand of tradition. The double-minded build on both.