A couple of weeks ago I filled in for Mike teaching the class. If you remember we discussed the one church established by Jesus. In the class we talked about how far off the path we as people have gone. Denominationalism runs rampart here in the United States and throughout the world. The fact is more and more people attest to the modern day view towards religion. As long as we all believe in God, why can't we each go about it our own way? Tolerance is being preached to bind these thoughts together. People are abusing scriptures to further their cause. They will cite passages talking about love as the reason why we should all be united despite our differences

I thought this morning as a follow up to our class, that I would share some more thoughts and scriptures to this subject. I thought it important to reaffirm what the scriptures say on this matter. The reason is not only to strengthen our faith, but equally important is that we are prepared to defend and give answer. This is a problem that is not going away, and people will challenge us and so we must be ready.

Many centuries ago the Roman writer, Cicero, said that `not to know what took place before you were born' was `to remain forever a child.' The whole educational experience begins with the body of knowledge built up by previous generations. We are then equipped to build on this through trial and error. In this way mankind has made advances in medicine, industry, technology and so on. MANY believe that religion and spirituality have advanced by this same process. In other words, man knows more about God, the truth and morality than he did two thousand years ago. The old time religion just won't cut it in our modern world. Newer is better seems to be the motto.

Is the modern practice of denominational-ism better than what we find in the Bible: one body, one church Eph 2:22-23 and 4:4? Is the diversity, confusion and divisiveness of modern faith, better than Bible unity I Cor 1:10? Are the creeds written by men and proclaimed by various denominations, better than the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3? Are religious teachings better today than those of Christ, Matt 7:24-27?

It should be obvious that true religion is different from other bodies of knowledge. The followers of Christ are sanctified by the truth, God's Word, Jn 17:17. A person is born again spiritually in obedience to the truth, 1 Pet 1:22-25. He/She grows spiritually by continuing to feed on this same word, 1 Pet 2:1-3. God's Word is what we need TODAY if we are to be acceptable to Him. The truth found in the Bible is capable of shaping our lives completely into His workmanship, 2 Tim 3:16-17. When something is perfect or complete, there is no need to try to improve upon it. In fact, to do so would ruin it, Gal 1:6-9.

Eric