Christians are identified by
several things, but among the chief demarcations of true believers is Who and
what they believe. As it is written:
This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2.3,4)
James wrote that God has given us
the new birth through the word of truth. (James 1.18) Apart from the truth, there is no life and,
therefore, no salvation
Believers are jealous for the truth, willing to "contend for the faith." Right now, the fashion or way of this world is to accept any and all opinions as equally valid. Because the world takes such a “broadminded” opinion, believers are often considered to be narrow-minded and bigoted. But, believers are not “narrow-minded because they think they are better than others. They do not boast in a personal superiority. Rather, they consider the God they worship, the Christ they trust, and the truth they hold fast to be superior to other religions. Even more than that, they do not consider the truth they believe to be merely superior to other "truths" but the only truth there is. All else is false.
Believers are jealous for the truth, willing to "contend for the faith." Right now, the fashion or way of this world is to accept any and all opinions as equally valid. Because the world takes such a “broadminded” opinion, believers are often considered to be narrow-minded and bigoted. But, believers are not “narrow-minded because they think they are better than others. They do not boast in a personal superiority. Rather, they consider the God they worship, the Christ they trust, and the truth they hold fast to be superior to other religions. Even more than that, they do not consider the truth they believe to be merely superior to other "truths" but the only truth there is. All else is false.
If someone considers that to be too
narrow-minded and unenlightened, let him be reminded that the Lord Jesus said, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father except by Me.” Christ was very narrow-minded when it came to
the means of obtaining God’s salvation!
The apostles held the same
opinion. For example, Paul pronounced an
eternal curse on any who preached a gospel other than the one he preached. (Galatians 1) Paul wrote that there is one
faith, and Peter said that all believers have a common faith. If
there is only one faith, it cannot be that all the variations of
"Christianity" are valid and true.
We need not enter the debate over
how much a man must know before he can be in possession of saving faith.
Rather, we will follow the principle of the Apostle John in 1 John 4.6:
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
Let us simply declare the truth
as we know it and leave it to our readers to decide whether or not we are of
God.
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