Skip to main content

Followers of Abraham


When Jesus spoke to the Jewish leaders in John 8, He told them that they were not followers of Abraham. They thought they were! But Jesus said, “If you were followers of Abraham, you wouldn’t be seeking to kill Me. Abraham didn’t do that.” He says, “You are of your father the devil.” Jesus said their religion was demonic—they were following the great Liar.

If what Jesus said is true, then we should not be following our own views of the other religions in the world today. They are not only anti-God, they are anti-Christian. If a member of a Muslim family becomes a believer, his relatives are required to kill him. In these demonic groups, there is no tolerance for people becoming Christians. This is still happening today. When people survive, they are a great testimony to the power of God for goodness and kindness and love and peace, and they are either admired for this or hated for it.

An almost unspoken belief of Christians in the western world is that people are Hindus because they are in India, or people are Buddhists because they are in China, or Muslim because they are in the Middle East, and we’re Christians because we’re in the United States. We do not assume that our fellow Americans are followers of the devil who need to be saved. But that is what they are.

Peter said, “There is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.” This is either true or false. If it’s true, salvation doesn’t come through anyone except Jesus Christ.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Preaching the Word of God is how people can repent and turn from their sins, from the devil, and to God.

Christians in the United States go to church. But there is somewhere else we are to go—into all the world, making disciples of all nations and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. Christians go to church, but on the whole we do not go to all the nations, teaching everything that we have heard and believed.

Not only do we not go to all nations—we don’t go to our own neighbors, to the people across the street. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This is second only to loving God. Loving our neighbor means doing what is best for him. What is best for him is for him to love God the father through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christians in the U.S. are guilty of anything, it is this: we are not teaching our neighbors about the Lord Jesus.


This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a
6 comments
Read more

Getting Old

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have
Post a Comment
Read more

Lifted Up

In the first thirteen verses of John 3, Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was talking about. It was nonsense to him. When Jesus said verse fourteen to him, Nicodemus finally understood Jesus. Here it is: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…” (John 3:14). The reason it made sense to Nicodemus was because he knew of the event that Jesus spoke of. People who had been bitten by a serpent could look at the bronze snake and did not die. Nicodemus knew the Bible story.   Here it is: “Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyo
Post a Comment
Read more