Who am I for, what am I against?

What am I for?

As time has gone on, I have taken a stand on some issues here at AllAboutGod.NET, for which I sometimes get accused of being offensive, hostile or an agitator. None of those are my goals, nor my heart. I did not come here to offend, I came here to be a blessing and hopefully be an agent of the Love of Christ. I am not for anything or anyone, but the Gospel of Christ; I do not represent any church, denomination or group. I would say that I represent the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed in so far as the "Catholic" church spoken of there is the universal body of Christ, in every language and every ethnicity, the bride of the Savior, purchased with his blood. In other words, I hope that I represent Jesus, and my goal is to do that well. Jesus was offensive to those who had other agendas, those whose agendas were about some particular turf, or organization were easily offended by the Truth that Jesus spoke.

I am for the name and fame of Jesus Christ; He is the only Son of God, the only Savior of the world, the one and only head of the Church. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the only Mediator between men and God. He is the only one who has been granted ALL Authority on Heaven and Earth. I am for Him, because he was for me first. He is my shepherd and I want to follow His voice alone. He is The Rock and The Fortress in whom I have fled for refuge. I have taken refuge under no other banner, in no other fortress but Jesus himself. I have chosen to only follow Him as my path and enter through Him as my door. This is His command. His Spirit has led me to no other.

Anyone else who claims such titles as Mediator, Vicar, Lord, Savior, Confessor, Head or any other term of exclusive leadership over the Body of Christ is a usurper, a false prophet or false shepherd. This is not my opinion, this is the opinion of the Word of God. It may offend you for me to say this, but it would offend Jesus more if I failed to say it. It would be easy for me to neglect to speak the truth, it takes a solid conviction for me to say something that I know is unpopular. That conviction comes from choosing to read and believe the Bible as my guide. I could easily allow myself to be swayed by the teachings of men, to be tossed back and forth without conviction. But, that would offend Christ, who has been utterly clear in His word.

My purpose is to share the power of God with anyone who wants to know. I hope to demonstrate the redemptive, loving, healing power of Christ for the world to everyone who has a heart to listen. If you come from a major church, or if you have never gone to church, I believe that Jesus loves you and wants to save you, and I am confident that he has power for living abundantly, which you may not have found yet. I believe that God shows you that he has respect for you as his creation, and that he values you, by the fact that Jesus came into this broken world to save sinners like me. If God could love a wretch like me and has shown that he values me, then I know that he loves you and values you.

What am I against?

I did not come to AAG.net to be against anyone or any organization. I do not have an axe to grind against any group or institution, nor do I consider myself the enemy or crusader against anyone. I consider anyone that loves Jesus (and is born of his spirit) to be my sibling, my brother or sister. I don’t care which church you attend, I don’t care whether you fellowship on Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday or Thursday. I don’t care if you sit quietly in your church, listen to an organ, recite liturgy, sing and dance in the isles, play electric guitars, or have banned all instruments. I am not against you. I am not against your group, even if I don’t agree with your particular mode of worship. If you want to seek Jesus, I want to encourage you. If you want to run away from Him, I want to help you see how you can turn around. 

What I am against is false doctrine. Bad teaching hurts people and turns them away from the Lord. The Truth sets people free. So, really, I’m for the truth. I will oppose anyone teaching man-made doctrines and traditions, because I hope to help you see the power of the truth. I will challenge what appears to be a misunderstanding of Biblical teaching or a failure to understand the context of scripture because I want to give light to the Word.

Some things are debatable. I don’t chase those rabbits, in general. I will stand for scripture when things are clear and plain and essential. If you don’t agree, but you still have a heart to love Jesus and follow his word, I will still love you as a sibling and still openly discuss matters with you. If you challenge me on something and provide scriptural evidence for your point, I will heartily consider what you say. I don’t think that I know everything, nor do I believe that I am the expert on everything. What I do have are thousands of hours studying deeply and considering every point that I can, on scripture at a deep level. I have some convictions, driven by research of scripture, listening experts and considering every side of an argument for and against most of the common doctrines. 

I like to make truth easy to find. 

Whether we agree or disagree:

It is my intention to show charity and grace, whether we agree in some ways or even if we completely disagree at a deep level. I believe that the love of Christ and the respect of God for His creation is thus and so it is my intention to stand this way. Sometimes, people with an axe to grind or with a specific group to defend, will find my challenges to be offensive and even derogatory. I hope that together we can agree to seek the LORD and His favor above all. It is my intention to never “broad brush” anyone, especially not as may be typical in opposing camps of religious thought. My intention is to take every person at face value and accept that you are who you are, not what I may think of your group or how your group has been portrayed by others. I hope that you will do the same for me.

My point:

I like to apply Augustine’s Maxim, which is essentially: “in Essentials, Unity; in Non-Essentials Liberty; in All Things, Charity.”

Walk in the peace of the Son of God and be blessed.