The Nature of a True Christian

The Nature of a True Christian

(People who wish to continue in deception should not read this.  After you read it, you have no options but to surrender to God or reject Him.)

I personally know many professing Christians who are apostate.  Some of them I come into contact with in the area I live in.  Other ones I observe on the Internet, television, and on social networks such as Facebook.  They will engage in complete debauchery one moment, and then praise God the next.  Some of their vulgarity is unspeakable.  It is not just profanity in their speech, but open lust, indulging in various forms of evil, posting completely vile pictures, talking about committing vulgar deeds, and basically engaging in a life style that no true Christian would ever surrender to.  Instead of becoming alarmed when they are challenged, they vehemently claim to be “just as much a child of God as anyone else”.  Some of them are living with individuals they are not married to, committing fornication with whomever is available and even sending out messages for prospective sexual partners.  They will go from that diabolical activity to posting a status of how much they love God.  These individuals appear to have no concept of God’s righteousness.  They are in fact serving a god who condones their wickedness and while they claim the promise of eternal life.  The truth is that the god they are serving fits perfectly the definition of Satan.  Their error is that they have rejected God’s holiness, but attempt to own His provisions and promises.  In fact, many do not even understand the holiness of God.  I will explain it here for anyone interested.

One day I was in a restaurant with my wife and a woman walked in with her small son.  The little boy was a massive scar from his head all the way to his shirt line and beyond, as I discovered later.  She saw me staring and smiled, but I could see the pain in her eyes.  I went over to comfort her and she voluntarily told me what had happened.  The child had climbed over the fence guarding a large electrical booster station near their home.  He either did not read the warning signs or could not read them.  He was a rare survivor of arc blast.  I thought about that young boy for hours afterward.  It came to me that the booster station had nothing personally against the child.  It simply operated according to the laws of electricity, which means the current always seeks a ground.

God’s nature operates according to holiness.  The way He remains holy is by instantly and completely destroy anything unholy that attempts to come near Him.  It is true that God loves the world and that love is expressed in His willingness to send His only Son to a torturous death to save us from sin and its consequences.  God does not punish or banish people to hell because He hates them.  But when evil attempts to come close to Him, His holiness reacts violently against it.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 12:29, “Our God is a consuming fire,” which is a quote from Deuteronomy 4:24.  Leviticus 10 presents a vivid demonstration of that truth.  The two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, came into the presence of God with strange fire.  God cremated them on the spot.  God told Moses that the reason was to “make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean.”  God said to Moses, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.”  Understand that God does not and indeed cannot change. 

The Apostle Peter wrote, “…but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ…” (1Peter 1:15-19).

But the apostate Christian declares that he or she does not fear because of God’s love.  That is not what God declares.  John wrote, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love (1 John 4:15-18).

Obviously, it is not God’s love that delivers us from fear.  In fact, God loves the entire world.  Is the entire world delivered from fear?  Instead, it is our love for Him that is made perfect by living as Christ lived in the world.  This means that the same nature (mind) that was in Christ has to be in us.  The proof that we have His nature is evidenced by our actions.  How can one claim to have this status and spew profanity, promote vulgarity and other evil, while doing absolutely nothing to honor God.  In fact, it is the greatest dishonor of God to claim to be a true Christian and then live as if Satan guides ones every thought, action, and speech.  The fact is that such a mindset is consistent with apostate individuals.  It is like taking a clean white sheet, smearing it with excrement, and then claiming it is pure and clean.  Then, when someone presents a truly clean sheet, that individual is attacked as being “holier than thou” and thus a hypocrite.  Consider what type of people God intends to populate the kingdom of heaven with. 

“…that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” (Revelation 3:5)

“And to her (the church) it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” (Revelation 19:8)

People who have white garments are holy, are overcomers of sin, and prove it by their actions.  What happens to people who attempt to get into heaven without this covering?  The consequences are vividly portrayed by Christ in the following passage.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 22”11-13)

That is what people false and apostate professing Christians are attempting to do when they exhibit the characteristics of being slaves to Satan and sin, but claim to be children of God.  They are wearing filthy garments and pretend to be clean and holy.  Of course, there are the heretics that claim that it doesn’t matter how much sin one indulges in if he or she has professed Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, because the blood of Christ covers/hides our sins from God.  Therefore, we can come into His presence with these hidden sins and have no fear.  God’s word does not present such a thing.  Instead, His word declares that our sins must be cleansed away by the blood of Christ, not hidden.  There is a great difference.

For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. (2 Peter 1:9 NKJV)

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.  (2 Corinthians 4:2 NKJV)

The difference is that if our sins are merely hidden, we are still sinners and thus commit sin without any consequences or fear of God.  That’s where the false statement “sinner saved by grace” comes from.  “Sinner saved by grace” is like a “criminal acquitted of crimes”.  One is either a sinner or not, a criminal or not.  I confess that I am a Christian saved by grace.  My sins are not hidden, but cleansed away.  This occurred because I not only confessed Christ as Savior, but also as Lord.  He is my Lord and I obey Him to the best of my ability.  Though not perfect, I am not using my imperfection as an excuse to live for Satan.  If our sins are cleansed, we are aware of every sin and reject the temptation to commit it.  Further, if we commit a sin we are sorrowful and repentant.  We come before God in repentance and ask His forgiveness so that the sin may be cleansed.  Just like taking a bath makes us more aware of filth, one who is cleansed does not wallow in wickedness all the while proclaiming he or she is clean.  To do so is to become apostate and change ones course to eternal darkness.

The state of our nation and the world is that the dominance of darkness, prophesied in God’s word as coming upon the entire earth in the last days, is almost here.  The Great Apostasy has ushered in an atmosphere that is ripe for the appearing of the Antichrist.  However, the majority of professing Christians do not recognize this has in fact occurred.  They are going on with life as if there is nothing wrong just as Christ said they would in Matthew 24:38.  Paul warned that people who live in darkness will be completely surprised when the Day of the Lord arrives.  Millions of people professing Christianity are in this predicament.  There is no understanding of righteousness, and in fact they have no desire for it.  What they want is a hell insurance policy that allows them to continue in sin with no restrictions or consequences.  They become very agitated and even angry when it is revealed to them that they are not true Christians.  Instead of turning to God, they launch attacks against the truth speaker.  These are the individuals that along with secular individuals will compose the Antichrist base.  They will be giving consent to the persecution of true Christians when the Antichrist gains full control of the world. 

To understand how close we are to the manifestation of the final events we only have to consider how many true Christians we know personally.  I can tell you that out of the thousands of Christians I have met and know personally, I cannot identify but a few of them as true Christians.  Instead of true Christianity, I witness them practicing apostasy and calling it Christianity.  Further, they attack true Christianity as Pharisaical hypocrisy or just plain heresy.  Point out the inconsistencies between their profession and practice and they declare that they are just as pure as anyone. 

The pure truth is that they have made a covenant with Satan that will not stand on the Day of Judgment (Is. 28:15-19).  An Old Testament type of these final apostates is portrayed in 2 Kings 17:33; “They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.” 

God answers such people in Psalm 50.  He indicates that when people say they serve God and then live wickedly, they are saying that God is wicked like them.  The following is His reply.

But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to declare My statutes,
Or take My covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast My words behind you?  When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers.  You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit.  You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.  These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes. 

“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver: Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright
I will show the salvation of God.” (Psalm 50:16-23)

Can there still be doubt as to how we should live if we are going to profess Christianity?  If so, then please consider the words of Peter.  I will close this article with the following passage that leaves no doubt as to the type of people true Christians ought to be.

The Day of the Lord

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  2 Peter 3:10-13 (NKJV)

Are you attempting to live righteously, or excusing your wicked living by pointing out other people’s imperfections?  To say “nobody’s perfect” is a lie.  The example we are suppose to be using is our sinless Lord and Savior was and is perfect.  You know the old saying, “I’d rather aim at the moon and miss than to aim at the ditch and hit it.”  The problem with false Christians is that they are aiming at the ditch.  The most dangerous factor is that they are doing so in the most critical hour.   Time is short.  It is past time to repent and fully surrender to God.