God's Work His Way

Men often try to improve on God's methods. Apparently they think the Almighty, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, does not know what He wants. We advertise that we are separatists, by this we mean that it is wrong for Bible-believing Christians to work with unbelievers (liberals, modernists, cults or anti-Christian religions of any kind) to do God's work. Even when "political" or "humanitarian" organizations which claim to be Christian include non-Christian people in their membership and on their boards they are going contrary to the plain teaching of the Bible. The secret lodges would come under this classification. As an individual Christian we may work with a political organization to do political work or with a humanitarian organization to do humanitarian work. But when it comes to doing Christian work, that is, God's work, it is absolutely wrong to co-operate with God's enemies to try to do His work!

An illustration of this principle is given in the Old Testament book of Ezra. The incident took place when the Israelites returned to their land after the Babylonian Captivity. Ezra records: Now when THE ADVERSARIES of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple unto the Lord God of Israel; then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: FOR WE SEEK YOUR GOD, AS YE DO; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esarhaddon King of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the King of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia [EZR 4:1-5].

Ezra calls them adversaries of God's people and their actions certainly proved this to be so. They very piously claimed to be a part of God's people. They said, we seek your God, as you do. This sounds very much like the modern day ecumenical liberals and modernists and New Evangelicals. They say, we are all Christians, we all serve the same God, we're all going to Heaven. God is the God of all, and all the people of the world are brothers say the modernist. Yet they are infidels when it comes to the doctrines of the Word of God--such as the substitionary atonement provided by the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus Christ for our sins, or His deity, Virgin birth, bodily resurrection, miracles of the Bible or salvation by grace alone. They are not Christians, but rather are enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ and we ought to say with Zerubbabel, You have nothing to do with us to build unto our God. What does the Bible say to God's people who are involved in the ecumenical movement? The command is, Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord [2CO 6:17].

Join the church of your choice? Since the establishment of the church in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost many churches have departed from the teachings of Christ and the Bible. This fulfills the prophecy of the New Testament. For example Paul wrote: Then shall that wicked (one) be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness . . . . Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle [2TH 2:8-15].

The unity of God's people is to be achieved not by compromise and toleration of infidelity in religious dress. The unity popularly called for today is a unity of God's people with the Devil's people. Unity of God's people can be found only through a return to obedience to the Word of God. The teaching of the churches of Jesus Christ is to be determined not by the traditions and philosophies of men, but by the Word of God. Every individual, not only has the right but the responsibility to study the Scriptures and to follow them to the exclusion of all other religious guides [2TI 2:15-19; 3:16, 17].

If Jesus Christ is your Savior, be sure you make the church of your choice a church which believes and practices the teaching of the Bible. Be sure it is separated from all forms of unbelief whether it be idolatry, modernism, ecumenicalism, the charismatic movement or the cults. The Bible plainly says: What part has he who believes with an infidel? Wherefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord [2CO 6:15, 17].

What is a Christian? To find out what a Christian is, any reasonable man must admit, that the only authorative source of information on the question is the first century Nazarene called Jesus, born of Mary in the little village of Bethlehem, and His immediate followers. It was this Jesus Who was called Christ and His followers were called Christians [ACT 11:26]. We find the life of Jesus Christ in what are known as the Gospels. We find the teachings of Christ as given by His followers in the book of Acts, the letters of Paul, James, Peter, John, and Jude, and the book of Revelation. The first question of course is are these writings what they claim to be, are they honest, are they accurate? We believe that the facts do prove that they are what they claim to be. We write from the position that the New Testament is what it claims to be, that the writers were honest, that what they wrote is accurate, and that the manuscripts in our possession today are reliable copies of those original writings.

There are two observable tests to determine whether one is a Christian or not. One is what one professes to believe. The second is one's conduct. Both of these must be viewed in the light of the teaching of the New Testament.

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This Page Last Updated: 03/15/99 A. Allison Lewis aalewis@christianbeliefs.org