ADRIFT DEFINED
Monday, March 4, 2019
Colossians [GW]
2:6-10 You received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live as Christ's
people. Sink your roots in him and build on him. Be strengthened by the faith
that you were taught, and overflow with thanksgiving. Be careful not to let
anyone rob you of this faith through a shallow and misleading philosophy. Such
a person follows human traditions and the world's way of doing things rather
than following Christ. All of God lives in Christ's body, and God has made you
complete in Christ. Christ is in charge of every ruler and authority.
1Peter 1:18-25
Realize that you weren't set free from the worthless life handed down to you
from your ancestors by a payment of silver or gold which can be destroyed. Rather,
the payment that freed you was the precious blood of Christ, the lamb with no
defects or imperfections. He is the lamb who was known long ago before the
world existed, but for your good he became publicly known in the last period of
time. Through him you believe in God who brought Christ back to life and gave
him glory. So your faith and confidence are in God. Love each other with a warm
love that comes from the heart. After all, you have purified yourselves by
obeying the truth. As a result you have a sincere love for each other. You have
been born again, not from a seed that can be destroyed, but through God's
everlasting word that can't be destroyed. That's why Scripture says, "All
people are like grass, and all their beauty is like a flower of the field. The
grass dries up and the flower drops off, but the word of the Lord lasts
forever." This word is the Good News that was told to you.
Last Friday’s DT
is titled ADRIFT. In it I wrote: “Claiming to trust God while denying that
truth can be known is expensive double-mindedness; travelling in the company of
muddled unitarian universalist philosophy, we can expect nothing …”.
Knowing that my assignment to edify includes
education, at times indicated specifically by DT’rs questioning “What in the
world are you talking about?!” – I today explain what unitarian and
universalist philosophy is so you can see how it is in conflict with the fact
of God’s Word, and determine how the philosophies involve double-mindedness for
the professing Christian.
---
The Unitarian
movement was not called "Unitarian" initially. It began almost
simultaneously in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and
in
Transylvania in the
mid-16th century. Among the adherents were a significant number of Italians.
[8][9]
In England, the
first Unitarian Church was established in 1774
on Essex Street,
London,
where today's
British
Unitarian headquarters are still located.
[10]
Since the theology was also perceived as
deist, it began to
attract many people from wealthy and educated backgrounds,
[11]
although it was only at the late second half of the 18th century that it
started to gain some wider traction within
Christendom.
[12]
In the United States, it spread first in
New
England, and the first official acceptance of the Unitarian faith on the
part of a congregation in America was by
King's
Chapel in Boston, from where
James Freeman began teaching Unitarian
doctrine in 1784, and was appointed rector and revised the
prayer
book according to Unitarian doctrines in 1786.
[13]
In
J. Gordon Melton's
Encyclopedia of American
Religions, it is classified among "the '
liberal' family of churches".
[14]” [From Wikipedia]
---
"Is universalism /
universal salvation biblical?"
Answer:
Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved.
There are many people today who hold to universal salvation and believe that
all people eventually end up in heaven. Perhaps it is the thought of men and
women living a life of eternal torment in hell that causes some to reject the
teaching of Scripture on this issue. For some it is an over-emphasis on the
love and compassion of God—and the neglect of the righteousness and justice of
God—that leads them to believe God will have mercy on every living soul. But
the Scriptures do teach that some people will spend eternity in hell.
First of all, the Bible is clear that
unredeemed men will dwell forever in hell. Jesus’ own words confirm that the
time spent in heaven for the redeemed will last as long as that of the
unredeemed in hell.
Matthew 25:46 says, “Then they [the unsaved] will go away
to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” According to this
verse, the punishment of the unsaved is just as eternal as the life of the
righteous. Some believe that those in hell will eventually cease to exist, but
the Lord Himself confirms that it will last forever.
Matthew 25:41
and
Mark 9:44
describe hell as “eternal fire” and “unquenchable fire.”
How does one avoid this unquenchable
fire? Many people believe that all roads—all religions and beliefs—lead to
heaven, or they consider that God is so full of love and mercy that He will
allow all people into heaven. God is certainly full of love and mercy; it was
these qualities that led Him to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die on the
cross for us. Jesus Christ is the exclusive door that leads to an eternity in
heaven.
Acts
4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” “There is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (
1 Timothy 2:5).
In
John 14:6,
Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.”
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.” If we choose to reject God’s Son, we do not meet the requirements for
salvation (
John
3:16,
18,
36).
With verses such as these, it becomes
clear that universalism and universal salvation are unbiblical beliefs. Universalism
directly contradicts what Scripture teaches. While many people accuse
Christians of being intolerant and “exclusive,” it is important to remember
that these are the words of Christ Himself. Christians did not develop these
ideas on their own; Christians are simply stating what the Lord has already
said. People choose to reject the message because they do not want to face up
to their sin and admit that they need the Lord to save them. To say that those
who reject God’s provision of salvation through His Son will be saved is to
belittle the holiness and justice of God and negate the need of Jesus’
sacrifice on our behalf.
[From
GotQuestions.org]
---
"What is Unitarian
Universalism?"
Answer:
Unitarian Universalism is a fairly small, yet widely influential,
religious group. Having some 300,000 registered members, mostly in the United
States, they are becoming more and more popular. Relativism, tolerance, and
alternative lifestyles are all buzz words used by Unitarian Universalism.
The Unitarian Universalist name comes
from their denial of the doctrine of the Trinity and their belief that all
human beings gain salvation. According to Universalists, the mere idea someone
might go to hell is not compatible with the character of a loving God. Its
roots go all the way back to the sixteenth century when Unitarian beliefs
became popular during the Reformation. Unitarian thought and Universal thought
were merged together during the late eighteenth-century in America during the
Age of Reason. The intellectual elite of that time refused to believe in such
biblical teachings as total depravity and eternal damnation, but rather
embraced the idea of a loving God who would never cause someone to suffer.
Adherents of Unitarian Universalism
base their beliefs primarily upon their own experiences and are not committed
to any one religious system. They believe that individuals have the right to
decide for themselves what to believe in and that others should not infringe
upon this right. As a result, one such believer might lean toward liberal
Christianity, while another might lean toward New Age spirituality. There is no
real dogma beyond tolerance—for everything except biblical Christianity. They
reject the Bible as a book of myths—denying it is the Word of God—equating it
with barbaric writing that has little to do with modern man. They reject the
Bible's portrayal of a Triune God, leaving the concept of God up to each
individual's imagination.
To the Unitarian Universalist, Jesus
was a good moral teacher, but nothing more. He is not considered to be divine,
and every miracle associated with Him is rejected as being outside of human
reason. Most sayings of Jesus recorded in the Bible are regarded as
embellishments on the part of the authors. Among the Universalist beliefs:
Jesus did not die to save mankind from sin, as man is not a fallen sinner;
emphasis is placed on humankind's capacity for goodness; sin is completely
relative, and the term itself is rarely used; man saves himself through
personal improvement, salvation being a purely worldly experience, a
"waking up" to the world around oneself. This is very important, for
death is final. Most Unitarian Universalists deny the existence of an
afterlife, so all we have on earth is all we'll ever get.
The Bible, on the other hand, refutes
these falsehoods. Jesus does save mankind, which was in a fallen state since
the Garden of Eden and separated from God by sin (
John 10:15;
Romans
3:24-25;
5:8;
1 Peter 2:24). Man is not good, but sinful and hopelessly lost.
It is only through the grace of God and faith in the shed blood of Christ on
the cross that mankind can be reconciled to a holy, transcendent God (
Genesis
2:16-17;
3:1-19);
John 3:36;
Romans 3:23;
1 Corinthians
2:14;
Ephesians 2:1-3;
1 Timothy
2:13-14;
1 John 1:8).
Unitarian Universalism has nothing in
common with biblical Christianity. It is a false gospel, its teachings are
contrary to the Bible, and its members strongly oppose traditional, biblical
Christian beliefs (while purporting to be free of discrimination or prejudice
of any kind). The Bible clearly refutes Unitarian Universalism on all the major
points of its teachings.
[From
GotQuestions.org]
