Christianity Explained InformationFind
Christian Unity in Biblical Explanations of the Doctrines That
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You're Invited | You have a choice to make: You can either believe the opinions of theologians, atheists, or agnostics, or you can determine for yourself what the Bible says by studying it. If you
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| Topics What Is Christianity Explained Information?What Is Religion and Where Did It Originate? What Is the Bible, and How Relative Is It to My Life? What Are Messianic Prophecies? Who Was Jesus of Nazareth, Really? Why Are There So Many World Religions? Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations? What Is the Law and How Does It Apply to Me? What's All This About the End of the World and End-time Prophecies? Isn't the Book of Daniel a Closed Book? Revelation: How can anyone understand all that symbolism? Who or What Was Jesus' Mother, Mary? Didn't Darwin Disprove Creation? What's the Truth About Faith and Works? Christian E-mails: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Complete Directory of Articles/Studies
Title Abbreviations for Books of the Bible Genesis
- Ge | Who or What Is a Disciple?According to the Random House Webster's unabridged dictionary:dis�ci�ple (di s#�p�l), n., v., -pled, -pling. –n. 1. Relig. a. one of the 12 personal followers of Christ. b. one of the 70 followers sent forth by Christ. Luke 10:1. c. any other professed follower of Christ in His lifetime. 2. any follower of Christ. 3. (cap.) a member of the Disciples of Christ. 4. a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower: a disciple of Freud. –v.t. 5. Archaic. to convert into a disciple. 6. Obs. to teach; train. [bef. 900; ME < AF, OF < L discipulus, equiv. to dis- DIS-1 + -cip(ere), comb. form of capere to take + -ulus -ULE; r. ME deciple < AF de(s)ciple; r. OE discipul < L, as above] —dis�ci�ple�like�, adj. —dis�ci�ple�ship�, n. —Syn.4. See pupil 1.
Takes some of the mystery out of the word, doesn't it? Needless to say, we'll be studying about being a disciple of Christ here and you will come to see why there is no unity in "Christianity". There are two concepts associated with disciples and the one(s) they claim to follow: 1. Disciples will have a learning relationship with whomever is their teacher. 2. Their actions will reflect what they have learned, thereby reflecting on the character of their teacher. There are three requirements to being a disciple: 1. You must be willing to learn, have an open mind. 2. You must exercise faith; you must believe in the one you claim to follow. 3. You must demonstrate a positive response to the teachings of the one you claim to follow. That means, conversely: 1. If you are not open-minded and willing to learn from a particular person, you are not his/her disciple. 2. If you have little or no faith in the one you claim to follow, you are not his/her disciple. 3. If your life does not reflect the character of the one you claim to follow, you are not his/her disciple. I have been blessed with an open, teachable attitude, a love of learning, and it served me well in my career as a Medical Transcriptionist. The medical field changes so rapidly that if you're not willing to learn, it becomes a chore to keep pace and maintain the accuracy you must have to do the job. I loved it, but many who try it for a while hate it and become totally "stressed out" by the constant learning curve. Let's assume, you are open-minded and willing to learn. Who do you want to learn from? In the case of Christianity, don't you want to learn from the greatest authority on the subject? If you don't have faith in and respect for the one who's teaching, how much will you learn? And finally, you can have all the faith in and respect for the teacher that one could possibly have, but if you don't put what you learn into action, what's the point of studying? We all know that different people learn at different paces and seem better able to assimilate different parts of the lessons they're learning. Our capacity and determination to learn, but also our willingness to accept as truth what the "teacher" says determines how quickly we "get" what we're being taught. That means all disciples of Christ won't be identical; some will be more advanced or mature in their learning. This leads to an apparent lack of "unity" within Christianity. Take a poll of the students after any class, asking, "What was taught today?", and you'll get different answers from different pupils. In fact, no two answers will be identical, for even their level of understanding before entering the classroom will color the words they use to describe what they learned in the class. So, whose disciple are you? If you call yourself Christian are you REALLY Christ's disciple or are you taking Christ's name in vain?
Christ's disciples are those who readily and joyously receive His teachings and follow them--even if they don't fully understand them, they live by them. These disciples are the only ones who have the right to be called or to call themselves Christians. Jesus referred to his disciples, his followers, as sheep and himself as the shepherd.
This implies a love and dependency relationship. Sheep have no "natural defenses" and, left on their own, can do some pretty dumb stuff that would lead to their own death. They need the shepherd to protect them from the elements and predators, and even their own lack of intelligence. Humans have no natural defenses against Satan and can do some pretty dumb stuff that would lead to their own death. They need a Savior to present them to a faultless God as His own so that, even though they are not faultless, they can be allowed to live in God's presence as the flock of the Savior who will train them to become faultless. And even this can only be allowed because the Savior gave his life in exchange for their lives. Paul tells us that unity in the Church is destroyed by individuals who are not disciples of Christ, but disciples of men.
And I would take that a step farther at risk of offending some wonderful, sincere but sincerely deceived people: Was Mary crucified for you? Was the Pope crucified for you? Was Billy Graham crucified for you? Was Joe Crews crucified for you? Was Kenneth Copeland or Joyce Meyers, or Joel Olsteen crucified for you? Was your pastor/priest crucified for you? Was your mother or father crucified for you? So why would you risk your eternal life basing your experience with Christ on whomever taught you about "Christianity"? Why would you not study the only book accepted as authoratative by Christ and his apostles to find out for yourself through the leading of the Holy Spirit about the real Christ, compare that to the life of Jesus of Nazareth, and discover what the book tells us we can expect if we really follow him? Christ himself tells us that no human is greater than any other human, and there is only one teacher, only one rabbi, only one whose disciples we all are. In one of his discourses on pharaisees--a sect of Jews who considered themselves to be knowledgeable about the law and pure in their observance of it--he tells us:
Does your church encourage you to call your spiritual shepherd Rabbi or teacher or father? Have they "read the Bible through in a year and missed this scripture, right out of the mouth of the one they claim to follow? Is it a sin to call someone your teacher or your father if they are in fact the one teaching you or the one who raised you from childhood? Of course not! It is wrong to give spiritual homage to a human and follow his/her teachings instead of studying scripture in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are all brethren. One may lead out in a study simply to keep the focus, but all are encouraged to speak and discuss and offer opinions and ask questions. And above all and before all, the presence of Jesus and his holy angels and the Holy Spirit are requested to lead the study and to teach the hearts and minds of the students. Unless you are studying scripture, you are not Christ's disciple; you are only the disciple of the one teaching you. The Bible contains approximately 782,000 words and Jesus says we are to live by them.
Not only did Christ teach from Scripture, He taught from Old Testament Scripture.
And unlike many today, he taught from Scripture in light of its most basic teaching:
God loved us enough to give up the intimitate relationship He shared with His spirit Son and allow what was part of Himself to become human, forever changing their relationship. Christ will forever be human, unable to ever again be "physically" one with God, forever trapped in a human body that precludes being joined with His Father as He used to be in eternity past. Forevermore, He must experience His Father and the Holy Spirit the same way we do. Does this not reveal to you the depth of the love of God for you? Everything in the Bible, viewed through that prism, can be seen as an outworking of love toward those God has been trying to teach to love Himself and each other. He has done everything in His power to get us to realize that we need Him and that only by following him can we protect ourselves and allow Him to protect us from sin and its horrible consequences. While Satan forces himself and his ways on everyone on earth, God only pleads with us to realize that His ways are best and to make the choice to follow Him. Satan is the father of lies and has deception in his arsenal to manipulate and coerce us into his way of doing things. God, on the other hand, is righteous and true and therefore cannot lie. He simply offers love, peace, and joy for eternity in exchange for a few years of selfish pleasure taken often at the expense of others here on earth. As Satan bombards us with worldly distractions, God gives us a choice to REALLY follow Him or not. So make it! Either follow Christ, relying wholly on God's Holy Spirit and Scripture, as the Son of God did during His earthly life, or follow the world and don't call yourself Christian, taking Christ's name in vain, as Christ himself described it.
It's all about loving . . . loving God and loving each other. Disciples of Christ study Christ's life and teachings, including all that scripture has to say on any subject, through the prism of God's eternal love--not their "teachers'" interpretations of Christ's teachings. |
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Within Text: Acts 11:26
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