THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST
What is the Church of God? The New Testament word translated "Church" means those called out to assemble. Generically this refers to people who come together for a common reason/purpose/belief. More specifically, in regard to the Church of God, we are assembled as His Body with Christ as the head. This "head" has a dual meaning as it first and foremost refers to the fact that Christ should be in control of the body and be our eyes, ears and mouth. Secondly, Christ as our head refers to Him as our leader and the one we submit to just as a wife is submissive to her husband. The letter from Paul the apostle to the Ephesians shows us this in chapter 5, as it talks about the the love of a husband (referring to Christ) and the submissiveness of the wife (referring to the Church, Christ's Bride). This is a deep mystery but we can know these things are so by the testimony of the Bible externally and the testimony of the Spirit of God internally.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Gospel means "good news". For news to be good there has to be a purpose to it. News has to make you feel good or do something good to be "good news". There is no better news then the good news of Jesus Christ. Maybe you have stumbled here on accident or are not 100% sure of what the good news is. Nobody puts forth the good news of Jesus the Christ better than...well.....Jesus the Christ. In the Gospel according to John chapter three, verses 16-21, Jesus exposes some of the key components of the good news:
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust him to save them. But those who don’t trust him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God. Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil. They hated the heavenly Light because they wanted to sin in the darkness. They stayed away from that Light for fear their sins would be exposed and they would be punished. But those doing right come gladly to the Light to let everyone see that they are doing what God wants them to."
Those are Jesus' own words on who He is why he came and what our state is with and without Him. Many are familiar with John 3:16 but are not familiar with the rest because the rest is seen as judgmental and condemning. The truth is that it is exactly that. Without Christ we are judged guilty and condemned. If we let Jesus come in and change our heart then we will have a new home. Maybe you believe in Christ but are just not sure of your place in Him. We would love to study out the ways you can be sure of your salvation and that your heart is at home with Christ.
HELL
Hell is real. Jesus believed in a real hell and also ultimately believed in a real and eternal punishment. That real and eternal punishment will ultimately be the lake of fire. The lake of fire is not a nice place. The lake of fire is void of God's presence and there will be torment there day and night for ever and ever. The sad thing is that hell and the lake of fire were not made for humans. They were created for the devil and his angels. However, humans decide to follow satan and continue to reject God as satan did and therefore end up in hell which will ultimately be thrown into the lake of fire with satan, his angels, the beast, and his prophet. Now I know that's a mouthful and a lot to take in. Here's the thing though......IT'S TRUE!!!
People don't like to accept this reality for multiple reasons. One big reason is that people have a hard time believing that their good old grandma who never hurt anyone and is the most loving person they know may actually end up in hell. Or any of their other family or friends for that matter. The worst part is when people who claim to believe in Jesus reject God's eternal punishment. This is utterly ridiculous since Jesus emphatically believed and taught eternal punishment.
How then do we respond to those who reject the truths of God as it pertains to this specific topic. Well first of all we must realize that we are dealing with nonbelievers. Those who reject God's righteous punishment of sin and sinners has therefore rejected God's salvation through Christ. Therefore, we must tell them the good news. If they reject this good news of salvation from sin, death, hell and the lake of fire through Jesus Christ then you just leave it alone. If they claim Christ and reject this then you leave THEM alone.
