Not So Famous…

I’m sure I’ve mused upon this subject enough to annoy most of my readers, but it’s an important topic.

So what does makes someone a Christian?  Is it enough to believe that Christ existed and died on the cross?  No.

Is it enough to believe, even, that Jesus was a good man?  Or is it enough to believe that he was a moral teacher?  Are any of these things enough?  Not according to the Bible.

So what about believing that Jesus was the only Son of God?  The demons believe, and they’re smart enough to tremble because of it…but they’re not Christians.  That he died on the Cross to save mankind from their sins?  That manages to be both inaccurate AND inadequate!

So what makes someone a Christian?  Being born in America is not enough.  Believing in God is not enough.  Believing that we ought to be the best people we can possibly be is not enough. The only thing that can make you a Christian is believing that Jesus Christ is God, that He died on the cross to save His people from their sins, and trusting in His substitutionary work on the Cross as the ONLY way to heaven is what makes you a Christian.

So if you believe that there are many ways to God and that Jesus is just one of these ways, you are not a Christian.  If you believe that the Bible is a set of suggestions on how we can be better people, you’re not a Christian.  If you believe that Christianity is more of a social gospel than a way to save sinful people from eternal, justified damnation, then you are not a Christian.

Christ’s claims, themselves, ought to be enough to disabuse you of the notion that Jesus was anything other than a lunatic, liar, or the only Lord there is.

This may sound arrogant, but the problem with that claim is that it’s only arrogance if it’s not true that Christianity is the ONLY way to heaven.  It’s not arrogance if everything I have said in this blog post is correct.  And it’s not arrogance on my part anyway, because I’m not saying this as my own words.  I’m saying that this is what the Bible says…this is what Jesus, Himself said.  It’s not arrogance because on my own, I seek out other ways of being a Christian than to die to myself and life in Christ.  I know darn well that I am as guilty as anyone else, more so, of trying to make my own way in this world.

And I thank the Lord that He shelters me in the palm of His hand, keeping me from evil, and delivering me from temptation. Don’t look at me as an example, for I am a poor one. Look to Christ, who was crucified, and paid the price for the sins of His people. He is the example.  He is my Lord and my God.

Kim and I walk the battlefield, observing the carnage all around us.  War is hell, and none more so than arachno-war.

Our front porch, the doorway to the Human HQ, corpses lay strewn about the landscape. Their little arachnid faces fixed in the gory rictus of death, they stare at me. Our victory is apparent in the number of their dead vs. the number of our own. They didn’t really have a chance, since we were using biological weapons.

We are too busy regrouping to see what damage has been wrought in the yard areas. We are pleased to see that no enemy troops have been spotted within the confines of our headquarters and are organizing a raiding party to go out to the other battlefield areas this weekend. I know not what I will find, but it very well may involve me screaming like a little girl and running back into the known safe areas.

I have had a soldier with the Human Army check out the devastation on the porch, and he has identified at least one of the large corpses as a Wolf Spider. The muscle of the invasion was apparently carried out by the Wolf Spiders, who proved the most resistant to the biological weapons we unleashed.

Saturday will show whether our tactical strikes have been successful…