Recently I met a group of believers in a new church I had never heard of. I don’t recall the name of their community, but they worshipped on Saturdays, believed in the priesthood, Eucharist and had the protestant Bible.
We spoke about the Eucharist and the Real Presence, they agreed with me about it being truly the body and blood of Christ, and they believed in the priesthood. They have their own minister, but attend the Orthodox Divine Liturgy. They only go to Holy Communion like once a year, and live in a community where they share all their possesions in common, like in Acts.
The 2 questions I have, how can I convince them that it is not necessary for Christians in a church to live in one house and share everything, and how do I go about telling them that their own minister is not a validly ordained priest (not the Orthodox one but their own minister.)
The same way you would tell anyone that the priesthood of believers is the true priesthood and Jesus Christ is the Chief Priest, then show them Hebrews 7,8,9 and they can see by the very word of God the end of formal priesthood with the ushering of the New Covenant in His blood the one and only sacrifice that was sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God intended for all the ungodly, but in His mercy He was pleased to crush His only begotten Son and the sin and the penalty of that sin, which is the wrath of God for His bride the church.
The only valid minister is one God chose to give and proclaim the gospel of Repentance & commissioned to feed and protect the small flocks God has put in their trust. ( 1 Timothy and Titus) All others are ordained of man and not of God who do not preach & teach the true Gospel of Repentance, protect and nourish the flock by the washing of the Word. Unfortunately we live in a day and age where the gospel is watered down to the point where it is no gospel at all. God will not always strive with men and that day is coming like a thief in the night and then it will be too late. Why do you think all Christians are called to minister the Word of God to the lost? When is the last time you shared the Gospel; told a person about the holiness of God, why the God of Love is also the God of wrath and justice and unless one repents because they hate their sin and not because their afraid of hell or because heaven sounds better than hell? People better wake up to the reality of God’s wrath and that without Jesus Christ they will die in their sins and the wrath of His anger will be continuously poured out on them for all eternity.
People say they love God, but how often do they commune with Him in prayer and reading His word and then acting by faith and obedience to commands spoken in His word? How often do people claim Christian and laugh at the things God hates, watch TV shows that sometime use offensive language and even mock God and act like the rest of the world because in fact they are part of the world. The Christian is a person who has no home on this earth and is an awkward character because He refuses to participate in the things of this world; is this you? America needs another reformation to come back to the Gospel of Repentance in my opinion. I love the apostle Paul, a shrewd apostle, in Peter’s face rebuking him and to the Corinthians he said “I care to know nothing among you except J
esus Christ and Him crucifiedd!!!” {emphasis mine}
Can you imagine Satan, sinned and justice was immediately executed, then Adam falls and Satan says where is your justice God, then Abraham called a friend, where is your holiness God, and David a man after your own heart, where is your justice God? God’s answer came 2000 years ago when it pleased Him to crush Jesus the God-man to show that justice because of the sins that were overlooked. Do you have any idea what that means? To the Christian it means everything and to the dying world it means nothing and to the carnal “Christian” it means I profess to love you, but I despise your commands and see them as restraints as shown by the fruits of my life as I act just like the world.
I’ve seen on this forum the question can one vote for someone who is pro choice? Well if you like babies, then you hate murder and those that commit them because you hate the sin that God hates; so NO you can’t if you are a Christian. This is why so many many people are going to say Lord Lord and the key is “I don’t know you”. People always ask the wrong question…do you know Jesus? Well yes of course I do I said a prayer or I belong to this and that church, religion, I was baptised or whatever else comes to mind; but does Jesus know you is the real question is it not?