I like to use Scripture references in my posts so people can see for themselves what the Scriptures say.  They do add more volume to the post, but I try not to make posts that are too long.  This time, to keep the post shorter, I will leave out references.  If you know the Scriptures, then you can decide if I’m in keeping with the Scriptures.  If not, then please do as those in Berea that searched the Scriptures to see if these things are not so.  Understand, I am not judging.  I myself am too far from perfect to judge someone else who is not quite perfect yet.  To say that ‘I am too far from perfect’ is just a polite way some people like to make it sound when I say, “I, too, am a sinner.”  I believe that if anyone said that they were not sinners, then they would be saying that they were perfect, and if one were perfect, then it seems he wouldn’t need a savior.  But still, in properly understanding how humble we should be when we approach God, then sometimes we need to seriously consider just how far from perfect we are.

Some people go to church and profess Christianity, but they practice Wicca, Ouija boards, or Horoscopes on the side.  Did their preachers not teach them, or maybe they weren’t paying attention when they did, that Jehovah tells people to avoid witchcraft, communicating with the spirits, and astrology?  It wouldn’t surprise me if there are preachers who didn’t preach this.  I have heard a number of preachers, and gone to a number of churches and preachers websites that, as far as I could tell (though websites don’t give all the answers), I couldn’t tell that a number of preachers believe in preaching the whole entire Bible.  Else, they believed that they were only supposed to teach a certain subject from the Bible.  I suppose these preachers, pastors, and reverends believe that if you want the whole Bible, you should collect a number of preachers that specialize in different subjects to learn what you want to learn.  In the meantime, Lucifer is sitting back laughing that so many ‘Christians’ are playing games that are displeasing to the Heavenly Father.

Many people go through a period in separating from their parental care that they want to explore the joys of life in partying.  I did.  Then, for Christians, there should come a time that they realize that ‘partying’ doesn’t help them take life’s responsibilities, wastes much of their time and money, and doesn’t set a proper atmosphere for living a productive life (i.e. Christian spiritual growth and setting a good example for children or teach children proper spiritual growth so that when the children grow older and go through their party times, they can learn the importance of a time to set aside the party life).  If Christians go through this rebellious party stage, they should certainly learn to set it aside in marriage or shortly thereafter to prevent that influence on their children.  There are too many parents who don’t seem to care what sort of an example they set for their children.

Some people aren’t concerned about their life because they don’t believe in eternal punishments in Hell.  “Okay,” they may say, “I may not make it to Heaven, but life is difficult so I’m going to enjoy it as best I can now.  When I die, I die and want have to worry about anything else.”  There are professed Christians who don’t believe in eternal punishments; they believe that the unsaved will be destroyed (that’s the end of it; no more existence).  I don’t understand because Jesus said eternal punishments.  Jesus said that there would be would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  I don’t understand how there could be weeping and gnashing of teeth among people who no longer exist.  Jesus said of some that it would have been better for them if they had never been born.  If one thinks they didn’t exist before they were born and then after being destroyed in the judgment that they would no longer exist, then I have trouble understanding how one could have been better or worse than the other.  Jesus taught that there were those who thought they knew more than they did that because they claimed to know what they didn’t know, it would be harder for them at the judgment.  At that time Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders of His day (the preachers and teachers of our day).  Again, I don’t understand how in a judgment of ‘non-existence’ it would be harder for some than for others.

The prophets speak of false and otherwise bad shepherds.  God’s children were referred to as the flock (sheep, lambs), and the spiritual leaders were referred to as the shepherds.  There were many such leaders who falsely led the Israelites into captivity.  Jesus has been called the Great Shepherd, and present day leaders in the church (i.e. preachers, pastors, and reverends) are sometimes thought of as His under shepherds.  Among the false shepherds would be those who don’t feed the sheep.  That would be those who don’t proclaim God’s Word so that the lost could be found (new sheep to be born) and that the sheep of the flock could grow spiritually mature.  I can’t speak for under shepherds who feel God called them to be specialists (i.e. preaching the tribulation or any other subject without teaching the whole Bible).  I suppose if you went to that kind of church, you would have to find one preacher to teach you the doctrine of salvation so that you could come to know the Lord and learn how to show others the Lord, another to teach you how to grow in you spirituality, another to teach you the doctrines concerning the Lord’s coming again, and another to turn to when you needed comfort and encouragement.  I’m not sure how it works now-a-days.  I seem to remember that there were evangelists who would go from city to city to crusade to bring people to Christ and encourage them to become a member of any local ministry from any denomination that participated in the crusade.  Many came to the Lord, or had a renewal of their Christian life experience through these evangelists, but beyond that, there were the local preachers who didn’t specialize.  They won people to the Lord through their sermons, taught them the Christian life and witness, comforted them when needed and taught them to comfort one another, and pretty much covered the whole Bible in their teachings.  Among the ‘bad’ shepherds were those who ‘fattened themselves from the sheep’.  I believe that would refer to those who get mega-rich panhandling God’s Word.

There are many religions today who teach many ways to ‘achieve Nirvana’ or ‘come to the Father’.  In the Scriptures it is taught that you can only approach our Creator Jehovah in the way that He prescribes.  He gave His law which demonstrated that no human could approach Him by living up to His law, because no one ever did (except His Messiah).  Abraham believed God and God gave him (Abraham) the right to approach Him (Jehovah) based on that belief.  He sent His Messiah to teach man the way to Him by believing.  Christians (or Messianics) are those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah (or Christ) and seek to follow Him and become like Him.  Jesus taught that no one could approach our Heavenly Father except through Him.  If I believed that Jesus were a liar when He said that, then I wouldn’t want to follow a liar.  But there are still those who believe that they are Christians (Christ followers) but they believe there are many ways to come to God, so they could hardly believe that Jesus was telling the truth when He said that He was the only way.  If they choose to call themselves followers of someone they think is a liar, then I truly pity them, but Satan (or Lucifer) is a liar and the father of lies.

Then there are those who call themselves under shepherds who teach that Christians could learn a lot from other religions.  That seems to me to contradict Jehovah’s teaching that we are not to learn the ways of other religions but that we are to live so as to show the world the right way.  Jehovah taught that we are to avoid the ways of other religions, and not listen to false shepherds who try to teach us other ways.