Why One Way? 6

Incompatibility

Why One Way? by John MacArthur

Hi, everyone…gosh, once again Dr. Mac so loses me! Again we need to ask, "What exactly is the Good Friday-Easter proclamation" Is it about a "personal relationship" (a concept not in Scripture) with Jesus as Personal Savior? Or isn't it rather the declaration of the end of the reign of death, the proclamation of the reality, primacy and ascendancy of the reign of life – "The Sovereignty of God," since someone on one of the other threads said "Reign of God" sounds exactly the same as "Rain of God!"

To quote a translation into English of Martin Luther's paraphrase of Psalm 46:

"That Word above all earthly powers
No thanks to them abideth
The Spirit and the gifts are ours…"

Continuing on this chapter's topic, I need to say both exclusivity – salvation only in the Christ event – and inclusivity – that the salvific Christ Event has a cosmic, totally all-encompassing scope and reach to all creation, whether or not the person or entity affirms Jesus as "personal savior" or publicly confesses the name of Jesus.

Nehemiah chapters 8 and 9 are wonderful, but we need to read them in historical context, and since that's available in a lot of places I won't go into it here. Here are the verses our facilitator mentioned:

Nehemiah 9:2: "And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners..."

2 Cor 6:14: "Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?"

E also suggested:

2 Corinthians 11:4: "For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted…"

and then E, you questioned,

"How does they apply when we worship? Are those verses and example authoritative? Are we incompatible?" And, "May I ask respectfully those who would worship with other faiths if you love Jesus how can we not proclaim Him? Or why would "you deny Him before men." Or are you proclaiming Jesus but .... (fill in the blank)."

For me, ecumenical Christian services are simplicity in that regard, though most more doctrinally conservative Christians around here almost never associate with more liberal Christian types, since in general they don't consider people like me really Christian partly because of our not considering the Bible literally inerrant. So far as interfaith services go (and especially since 9/11/2001 we've had a bunch of those here in Paradise) if I have an opportunity to speak in public I always self-identify as Christian; when I'm not part of the leadership I don't say unless people ask. My point is there's only one true God so whoever worships God worships the one true God, and I'd be very uncomfortable with Satan worshipers, for example, but that's not the issue here?

Again Dr. Mac's doing Scripture as the "objective, authoritative truth of God," rather than Christ Jesus as the truth he proclaimed himself to be.

E, you closed with, "E loves Jesus, the ultimate TRUTH! Have a great Lord's day!" I'll echo with "Leah loves Jesus, the ultimate TRUTH!" And with "everyone have a great Lord's day," too! That's exactly what it's about – it's about the living Christ, and about the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to the extent that they reflect and proclaim Jesus Christ.