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11-22-09, 08:02 PM
The five accounts in the book of Acts concerning "the Way", helps to identify that there is was only one true religion that Jesus established, not many as the churches have given credence to. The apostle Paul wrote that there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism."(Eph 4:5)
Hence, when anyone asks what faith you are, do these really believe that there is just one true religion ? Just as a combination lock has only one set of numbers and in the correct order, that will unlock it, so likewise there is only one set of beliefs that God is pleased with, called "the truth" by Jesus at John 8:32.
It is accepted among the various churches that you can be anyone of several thousand different religions that profess to be Christian and still be pleasing to God. This thought or belief does not agree with the Bible. James wrote that the "pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."(James 1:27, King James Bible) Hence, there is ' one Way ' that is pleasing to God, the "pure religion" that is "unspotted from the world."
Concerning the one "pure religion", Paul clearly spoke of "one faith" that would be pleasing to God, not "faiths". In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: "Why, then, do you call me ' Lord ! Lord !' but do not do the things I say ?"(Luke 6:46) Hence, the professing of Christianity is not what has value with God, for Jesus continued and said that "he who hears and does not do, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without a foundation. Against it the river dashed, and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house became great.”(Luke 6:49)
On the other hand, those who make a personal application of Jesus words as part of the one "pure religion", he says: "Everyone that comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock-mass. Consequently, when a flood arose, the river dashed against that house, but was not strong enough to shake it, because of its being well built." (Luke 6:47, 48)
For example, concerning morality, Jesus said: "You heard that it was said, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone that keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."(Matt 5:27, 28) How many men are unwilling to enticingly look at a woman, realizing the improper motive attached to it ? Job, who was married, said: "A covenant I have concluded with my eyes. So how could I show myself attentive to a virgin ?"(Job 31:1)
To be married is to enter into a covenant or binding contract with your mate. Job, because of his loyalty to his covenant that he had made with his wife before God, refused to "show (himself) attentive to a virgin". For those who are married, flirting is crossing the moral boundary that God has established, ' showing attention to a virgin'.
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