Do you Believe?

From "Thy Kingdom Come" - October 2011 - a publication of the
Association of the Covenant People, Burnaby, B.C. Canada

DO WE BELIEVE?

BY DON ROBSON

Editor's Note: In his accompanying comments, Mr. Robson had this
to say: "Brooks, In a recent church bulletin, they conducted a
survey where it was discovered that 75% of our clergy believe in
God and for the rest, it depends on what we mean by God. Lord,
help us!" I often reflect on the words of the late Jim Read, our
former president. He would say, "Many believe in God, but do not
believe God. " This is so ,true, as the survey to which Mr.
Robson refers. When theologians begin teaching false doctrine,
it's like the Apostle Paul said, "For if he that cometh preacheeh
another Jesus, who we have not preached, or if ye receive another
spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye
have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." (2 Corinthians
11:4) So, such theologians convince baby Christians to accept the
false doctrine they are preaching. All the churches are now
inundated by such preachers and sadly, some false doctrine is now
even seeping into our movement. The Apostle Paul said that the
day of Christ would not come unless there first come a falling
away. Well, as Mr. Robson points out in this excellent article,
we are there!


     "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."
"All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything
made that was made."
     How many Christians believe these statements by Moses and
St. John? Many have decided to follow the route of the
"intellectuals" and the scientific community who have struggled
for many years to remove God from the creation relying on the
big-bang theory and the theory of evolution. Some of us have
passed this dilemma by seeing the beautiful harmony and design in
nature and the obvious holes in the theory of evolution to find
the story of creation by God to be undeniably credible.
     Chapter 4 of Amos, declares that God is punishing Israel to
bring them back to Him but concludes, (I think in despair) that
"Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." How many of
us believe that God is behind the curses brought on our land
because we have abandoned the precepts of God's law? I had my
pastor declare to me that he did not believe that God caused the
drought that Elijah requested in prayer, even if James referenced
it as fact in his epistle. If we don't believe that God made and
controls the elements, how could we expect Him to heal our lands?
     Recently, we have seen riots in the streets from unemployed,
frustrated youth unable to participate fully in our society
remaining impoverished and abused. We have spiraled into a
society without the morals that we should have taught our
children. Psalm 78 reminds us of this duty at its beginning with
these words, "Give ear, O My people, to My law; incline thine
ears to the words of My mouth. We will not hide them from their
children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the
Lord, and His strength and wonderful works that He hath done."
     Psalm 78 reviews the story of the Exodus where God
demonstrated on the unfortunate Egyptians, His power. In the
wilderness, there were further demonstrations of power, chiefly
the provision of manna and water from the rock. Verses 21 & 22
state, "Therefore the Lord heard this (their complaining) and was
wroth; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger came up
also against Israel; because they believed not in God and trusted
not in His salvation." Do we believe our ancestors' behavior
without believing ourselves?
     Through experiment and observation, we have discovered many
of the laws of physics and used them successfully in exploring
the universe. It seems that we have accepted their design and
reliability but when we look at the Creator's laws of prosperity
and social justice we believe we can do better! The fact that we
constantly change our laws - whereas the Eternal designed His
laws for eternity. And we were shown how His laws prospered a
country as they were applied by Kings David and Solomon. Christ
said, "If ye love me obey my commandments." Do we love Christ?
Jesus told Pilate that His followers were not of this world, lest
they would fight for Him against His enemies. Are we not of this
world? Do we follow the spiritual truths espoused by Jesus or are
we inclined to follow the wisdom of this world? Christians, it is
time for some soul searching! Do we believe in Jesus, the way,
the truth and the life? Consider the words of Jesus as recorded
by St. Luke 18: 8, "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh,
shall He find faith on the earth?"
..........

NOTE:

In the Greek of the above verse there is the definate article
"the" - so Jesus actually said: "Nevertheless when the Son of man
comes, shall He find THE faith on the earth?"
As you read through the New Testament, as you get to the books of
Peter, James, John, you should see very clearly that true
Christianity in their life time, was being CORRUPTED, and false
teachings were already coming into the Church of God and Christ.
How much MORE TODAY do you suppose the "churches" are full of
false doctrine and practices and traditions and the ideas of men?

Keith Hunt