Why Young People Leave Church
Young people stop going to church because it’s church. There is a reason church is not in the New Testament. There is a reason church does not show up until the 4th century. People have been trying to fix church for 500 years now; how are we doing? Christianity and church are two different things. Christianity was NEVER an institution with an authority structure. Please do not confuse leadership and fellowship with authority and orthodoxy. Please do not confuse individual temples where the Holy Spirit dwells with an institutional temple of refuge from the wrath of God. The church is a separate model of institutional authority with a gospel that serves that authority. ALL spiritual abuse, I repeat, ALL spiritual abuse flows from the presuppositions of the church’s institutional gospel of perpetual justification.
Church is the problem with church.
paul
Pondering the Gospel
After counseling nearly all day with a longtime professing believer about his life and the gospel, I would like to share the thoughts I am pondering afterward:
You are not saved without your own death and resurrection after that of Christ. Believing on Christ unto salvation is not a mere mental ascent to the facts of the gospel; it is a decision to follow Christ in His death and resurrection. This means you have died to the law able to condemn you and now love the law of the Spirit. The law of the Spirit is the commandments of Christ that formally condemned you. You have passed from death to life, and from condemnation to loving God and others according to the law. Your motives are indeed pure for the law can no longer condemn you, the only motive that is left is love.
To love God is to love the law of the Spirit of life: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
Salvation involves your own literal death and resurrection after Christ…
“You must be born again.”
paul
Acts 15:7-35: Lesson 39
Tuesday Night Bible Study
November 4, 2014
Study of the Book of Acts
Tonight’s Text – Acts 15:7-35Brief review
-Faith cometh by hearing -God bore witness of their faith -Sign of the Holy Spirit authenticated their conversion
διακρινω (dee-ah-kree-noh) – Compare with Acts 10:20 to judge thoroughly – prejudice
– Peter accuses them of prejudice towards the Gentiles – same lesson he had to learn in Acts 10
– Prejudice by imposing presumptuous standard – Prejudice in hypocrisy/orthodoxy
πειραζω (peer-ad-zoh) to test, particularly with the idea of piercing
– Compare with Peter’s report in Acts 11
– Quotes Amos 9:11-12
– Not for justification – So as not to be a stumbling block to the Jews – Liberty (knowledge) vs. love – For the purpose of sanctification
III. Reviewing the letter to the Gentiles
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