Online Articles
Are You Narrow-Minded?
We seem to be hearing more and more from influential “Christian” leaders who do not want to be thought narrow-minded. This sometimes leads them to suggest that it is not necessary to believe in Jesus to be saved. Consider the following by the late Billy Graham:
What God is doing today is calling people out of the world for His name. Whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus . . . I think they’re saved and they’re going to be with us in heaven.
Another well-known preacher is on record as believing that even atheists will ultimately be received into heaven by a merciful and loving God. This in spite of such clear scriptural declarations as:
I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. - John 14:6
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. - John 3:36
There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven [Jesus Christ of Nazareth, vs. 10] that has been given among men by which we must be saved. - Acts 4:12
But now consider this – many people who recognize what those passages say find it impossible to believe that anyone who claims to be a Christian might also be lost. Again, consider what Jesus said:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. MANY will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” - Matthew 7:21-23
Is that narrow? Yes it is! But notice what Jesus said earlier in that same discourse:
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are MANY who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are FEW who find it. - Matthew 7:13-14
Indeed, the way that leads to eternal life is narrow. If accepting this truth causes us to be branded as being “narrow-minded” so be it.
– Leonard White
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The Book of Proverbs and Ants
In Proverbs 6:6-8 king Solomon admonished, “Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.”
In 1747, William Gould published a scientific paper on the ant in which he contradicted Solomon, asserting that there was no evidence that “ants have magazines or granaries of corn, and lay up provisions for the winter.”
However, in the middle of the 19th century, scientists discovered that ants really do harvest. In a book entitled The Insect Societies, Dr. Edward O. Wilson of Harvard, a renowned entomologist (and an avowed non-religionist) grudgingly acknowledged the accuracy of Solomon’s statement. He wrote, “Thus for once the tales of the ancients proved right and modern European science proved wrong.”
It appears that the sluggard is not the only one who can learn from the ant. The Bible is right, and those who criticize it are destined for embarrassment, and ultimately, something worse!
- Christian Courier
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One Solitary Life
A man was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked as a carpenter until He was thirty, then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home, never wrote a book, never held an office, never had a family, never went to college. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from where He was born. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. One of His friends betrayed Him, another denied Him, and then they all ran away from Him. He was turned over to His enemies, went through the mockery of a trial, and was then nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only property He had – His clothes. When He died, He was buried in a borrowed tomb through the pity of a friend.
Twenty centuries have come and gone, but He remains the centerpiece of all human history. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as that one solitary life.
(Adapted, author unknown)
We can go around bemoaning, “Look what the world is coming to,”
or we can joyfully proclaim, “Look who came into the world !”
