The Truth

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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“Truth”

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one

comes to the Father except through Me.”

John 14

We include these words at the end of our Sunday morning worship services on the corner of Lincoln and Main: “The answer to every question is Jesus!”

Jesus is the answer to the who and what of Christianity.

Who is Christianity all about?

Jesus!

What is Christianity all about?

Jesus!

We point people that want to know who and what Christianity is all about to the red letters of the New Testament.

  Many Bibles have the words of Jesus in red letters and we recommend those Bibles or urge people without red-letter editions to get a red highlighter and go for it!

Reading all of the red letters to learn who and what Christianity is all about takes only a few sittings and a lifetime of prayer and revelation enabled by the Holy Spirit.

The short course on the who and what of Christianity is Matthew 5-7.

That takes maybe an hour or two and a lifetime of prayer and revelation enabled by the Holy Spirit.

The initial conclusions after reading the red letters that will be deepened over a lifetime of prayer and revelation enabled by the Holy Spirit are Jesus is Lord and Savior and following Him means loving Him by loving like Him with a life punctuated by grace, mercy, and forgiveness wrapped in agape.

In short, Christianity is all about Jesus as the foundation of faith and the Church, focus of a Christian’s or Christ-believer-follower’s head and heart and hands and guts, and filter for everything that Christians through the Church think, say, and do.

Parenthetically, there’s a lot of talk about what’s wrong with churches these days.

Sadly, churches in America are becoming like churches in Europe – an afterthought except for baptisms, weddings, and funerals with those rites becoming less and less and less important to people.

Like so-called Christians and their churches in Europe, worship, the primary activity of Christians by the book, has become an afterthought, optional, important as convenient, and not really a calendar priority.

C’mon, let’s be real about how real Jesus and His body the Church are to America in these last days.

Not speaking as a theological dispensationalist, it is clear that the “church age” is over in America.

It peaked right after WWII through the mid-60s and it’s been declining ever since with the most notable acceleration to cultural irrelevance being a by-product of anti-social networking, Facebook, Twittering, texting, Alexa, Siri, selfies, and everything else lost in cyberspace and orchestrated by satanos.

Again, if you want to know what’s wrong with today’s churches, just read the red letters; especially Revelation 2-3.

The truth is Christianity isn’t that complicated if we begin with Founder Jesus as revealed in the red letters of Holy Scripture.

Of course, if we go to the secondary sources about Jesus – books about Jesus rather than those red letters as the primary source of information about who He is and what He expects from those who claim Him as Lord and Savior – we may gain some knowledge about Him without ever really knowing Him in His own words.

Just as I’m always amazed to hear what I’ve said from people who have never talked to me or read anything that I’ve written – which isn’t rare - it’s always better to get to know a person rather than relying on opinions about the person.

There is often a big difference between the real and reported.

Again, that’s why those red letters are so important.

Churches always get into trouble when they confuse Jesus as revealed in Holy Scripture and Jesus as reported apart from Holy Scripture, imagined, re-imagined, auto-suggested, and the like.

God knows theology has been corrupted over the years by darkly inspired people who have invented God through human filters: “So man created God.  In the image of man, man created God.”

That may be more palatable to the corruptible human spirit but it is not salvific to the soul cognizant of Jesus and Jesus alone being the way to God, the truth about God, and the sure way to life through God.

With faith in Jesus by the book as Lord and Savior, blessings flow from Him into the lives of the faithful.

Apart from faith in Jesus by the book as Lord and Savior, blessings are forfeited; or as He said over and over and over again and confirmed throughout the other letters in Holy Scripture: “If you have faith, you will experience the miraculous…Nothing is impossible through faith…mountains will move…lives will be changed and redeemed…souls will be saved.”

Matthew reported what doesn’t happen apart from faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior: “He did not do many mighty works there among them because of their unbelief.”

Some people make bad choices.

The biggest of the bad choices is distancing from God.

Some people make excellent choices.

The best of the excellent choices is choosing increasing intimacy with God through Jesus by the book as best nurtured by the Holy Spirit in worship.

Again, here’s the truth.

If you want to be happy, whole, joyful, and eternally secure with a life punctuated by strong calm sanity expressing yourself through grace, mercy, and forgiveness wrapped in agape, you’ve got to stay close to Jesus; and the closer you get to Jesus, the more of the more happiness, wholeness, joy, eternal security, strong calm sanity, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and agape will punctuate your life.

Anyone who advocates anything less than Him is a liar seduced and serving the father of lies who steals souls and ruins lives.

Paul explains the consequences of not staying close to Jesus and advocating “other paths to the top of the mountain” as seduced by satanos: “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all Godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them…As a result, people are without excuse.  For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude.”

Jesus warned people who ignore the truth, suppress the truth, seduce others from the truth, and deny the truth: “Let the children, everyone, come to Me…Anyone who causes any of my children to stumble is in deep trouble with Me in the judgment…Whoever causes the downfall of one of my children who believe in Me, well, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!”

Lily Tomlin’s 5 ½ years old Edith Ann comes to mind as she sat in her oversized rocking chair, talked about life, and always concluded, “And that’s the truth.”

The truth is Jesus by the book.

Again, let Him speak for Himself in what He offers so freely by grace through faith, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

The truth is Jesus by the book.

Anyone who doesn’t embrace and express the truth is a…

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Blessings and Love!

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Wake up! Look up! Stand up! Speak up! Act up for Jesus!

Shatter the sound of silence!

Salt! Shine! Leavenate!

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