Imagine that you are a small grocery store owner. You are standing behind the register, helping people check out of your store.
It’s a busy day and there are lots of people in your store.
On your lunch break, you decide it would be a good idea to empty out your cash register and to take the money to the bank since you’ve been so busy.
So you empty the cash register, take your money bag, and you go to your bank.
You go to the teller window and you proceed to make your deposit. As the teller is counting through your deposit, she takes one $50 bill and sets it aside and she finishes counting the rest of the money.
After she’s finished counting, she goes back, takes that $50 bill, and she places it in a special machine. The light on the machine turns red.
Yep, it’s just as she suspected, its a fake $50 bill.
Why You Need to Be Good at Detecting Counterfeit Christians
Just like there are fake dollar bills, it’s no surprise that there are also fake Christians within the body of Christ.
Jesus Himself spoke about this when He gave the parable of the wheat and the tares.
You remember how Jesus said that there was a farmer who sowed good seed in his field.
At night, his enemy went and sowed weeds among his good seeds.
So when the crops began to grow, so did the weeds. So the farmer’s workers asked the farmer, “Sir, the land that you planted is filled with weeds. Where did they come from?”
So the farmer replied, “An enemy planted these weeds.”
So the workers asked, “Do you want us to go into the field and take out the weeds?”
But the farmer surprised his workers by saying, “No, you’ll uproot the wheat if you do that. Let both grow together until the time of the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them. And I’ll tell the harvesters to put the wheat in my barn.”
That’s why it’s important for you to be able to spot fake Christians, because you’ll want to include them in your evangelism efforts.
7 Questions to Ask to Spot a Fake Christian
1. Are they controlled by the Holy Spirit?
When you received Christ, the Holy Spirit came and began living inside of you. Walking in the flesh instead of the Spirit can be a tell-tale sign that something fishy is going on (Galatians 5:16-18).
2. Do they have a new nature?
When you are born again, you become a new creation with new desires, a new mind, and new heart. If there isn’t evidence of any of these then, “Houston, we’ve got a problem!”
3. Do they have Christ’s agape love for others?
By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
-John 13:35
The Bottom Line: No love, no Christ, yes love, yes Christ…
4. Do they obey God’s Commandments?
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
-1 John 2:3
Christians won’t ever become sinless this side of heaven, but we will sin less. Tweet
5. Is their fruit in their life?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22- 23). True Christians will have these spiritual fruits in their lives.
6. Are they becoming more like Jesus?
The true markings of a Christian is that he or she is becoming like their Master. If someone isn’t becoming more like Jesus, then chances are they are not a follower of Jesus.
7. Have they put their trust in Jesus for their salvation?
Ask someone one of these questions to see who or what they are trusting in for their salvation.
If it ain’t Jesus, then they ain’t saved.
[image credits to Filip Olegeanu and Josh Sliffe]
[author title=”About the Author”]
Comments 180
It seems like questions #1-6 are all similar, and #7 is obvious.
Professing Christians who read this post ought to judge themselves first (Matthew 7:4-5, Rom. 2:1, Cor. 11:31). In my opinion, this is the first principle for each of us to keep in mind when exercising judgment/discernment.
Thank you Martin for weighing in with your opinion. Yes, questions 1 through 6 are very similar and I chose to address them since the Bible addresses all of those issues.
As for number 7, it is obvious to you because it sounds to me like you are a strong Christian. But you’d be surprised as to how many professing “Christians” are carnal and don’t know what it takes to get saved. That’s why I think there are many more tares among the wheat than we think.
I agree that we can’t take people’s salvation for granted merely because they claim to be Christians. Some professing Christians in the “grace” camp cause me to be concerned. For instance, I recently talked to a Christian blogger who said he has no authority but God. Any such person living in Jesus’ time could never have been a disciple of our Lord. Besides, the Bible clearly states that God put authorities over us.
Also, I recently sent the following tweet and heard back from a few Christians who disagreed:
Can a Christian who has never struggled with guilt and condemnation truly understand grace? (see Rom. 7)
The problem with questions 5 and 6 is this: Any true Christian would probably answer like this: Not enough, or maybe Not as much fruit as I’d like there to be. I myself get more and more conscious of my sins and shortcomings every year. Anyone who is converted should see his/her sins more and more the closer to God they come. If you are truly converted you probably will feel as if you were not truly converted. Several Christian authors living long ago have all confirmed this
As long as there is a little fruit then I think they are okay. As Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them.”
Thanks for your insightful comments 🙂
,
My son Peter & I Natalie true born again believers that love Jesus & serve him wanted to let you know that we have bought your 40 Days In The Word Campaign Resource Kit from our Kooyong Christian Book store here in Australia & we are waiting on having it delivered. We are mother & son who have been born-again for a while.
Mum & I are true born again Christians from Australia in the city of Melbourne Victoria that love Jesus & have lived in complete isolation for over 8yrs now. We don’t have any family or friends. We have been calling so many different Christian churches in our area as well as other areas in Melbourne in regards to supporting my bedridden mum with her illness as well as I having contacted different Mission Organisations in giving us support & they the so called Christians made so many petty excuses that their church was too far to come & help us & they only help their own flock. Mum & I tried reaching out to them & wanting to become a part of them, but they wouldn’t hear if it.
Mum & I can’t take their abuse, lies, false doctrines, & sociopathic behaviours of these so called Aussie Melbourne Christians. Mum & I are all alone on this Earth, even though we have one on one with God, but it’s not enough without the support of our brothers & sisters in Christ!! Where are they? My mum as well as myself are trying so hard in memorising our bible scriptures…Our mobile phone never rings…After we beg those Christian churches to give us support in helping us with the bible as well as supporting my bedridden mum about her health, but But get this, their excuse is always the same”They are 2 busy!” You want to blame me & my mum for staying away from a pit if vipers…Tell you what, mum & I live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt…
Not the liberal relative thinking that they say it means let him die. Our only prayer now is”God show mum & I one true Australian believers that knows you” And doesn’t lie like a drunk drinks. Mum & I need a place to belong with fellow Christians here in Australia/Melbourne…But until there are true genuine born again Australian believers that truly love God & their brother & sister such as mum & I,& also Worship God of the Bible, & not verbal a empty Platitudes with Schizophrenic derision of everything good….
Mum & I read our Bible, as well as we separately spend time alone with God on our own rooms, we both don’t need these so self rationalising abuse from the so worldly Australian so called Christians.however having said that we both find it very hard to memorise bible scriptures here @ home. Mum is on a Disability & has a slow learning memory. We hope this Resource Kit we bought will help my mum with her memory being on a Disability as she suffers Depression & Anxiety. I am her Carer & love her so much, we know we both have Jesus but without brothers & sisters in Christ it will not be the same. Mum & I we don’t have a church to fellowship because of their BUSYNESS & other excuses in not supporting us in our spiritual & emotional needs. We don’t even have family or friends. Just ourselves, the bible, & God..
Blessings & Greetings from Australia from your Sheep,
Natalie & Peter Capaldi.
Why do you live so far away from the city? [Did you inherit the house and land? Can you sell it and move to the city?] How do you get FOOD, medical care, mail, etc?
Thank you. That is comforting to hear since for years, since 2007, I have strongly doubted continually of Jesus being in my life, while having reasons not to, because of serious reasons to doubt. But a few weeks ago, I prayed “God, if you are in my life, then let me be a blessing to somebody in some way over the weekend…” on a Friday. The next morning, my sister texted me inviting me to come up and help my parents and her construct a dog kennel that had to be put up within days. I worked Sat and Sun, although perhaps shouldn’t have missed going to a church service. But it seems to me like God doesn’t work in my life or grow me the same way when I’m constantly being lazy, outside of my job that is. I believe in keeping my eyes looking to God in all things I do in life, but it scares me when I get the impression from Calvinists when they speak God’s sovereignty and control a certain way, because to me, it seems like in my life I still have to do my part in keeping the ball rolling, while looking to God. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not speaking in terms of having to earn, or keep your Salvation
I feel exactly that way I know and feel my sins im confessing to my Lord all the time when I feel that impulse . Its like when iim convicted I run for forgiveness. I feel how im changeing
This is EXACTLY how I feel I have massive assurance issues weather I am a true Christian or not some things I read and hear say yes I am other things I read and hear say hmmm maybe i’m not the bible says examine yourself how do I do that ? Because I feel like I don’t know my own heart as in have I truly trusted in Jesus or not really have I truly repented or not I’m pretty sure I have but how can I know ? Also I’m not sure f I have come back to Christ after 15 years or if I was never converted at all! I don’t know where to turn I’ve spoke to Christian friends and my pastor and I feel assured for a while then my doubts re appear one of the main things that worries me is Jesus said those who are not ashamed of me will inherit the kingdom of God now in my heart I love Jesus and I’m so thankful for what he has done on the cross BUT I have apprehension when talking to others about him and my fait how will they react etc but at the same time I have desire to share! So many questions! Can someone please help ?!
Why is it Mike that you are having so many doubts? And would you consider yourself to be a born-again Christian?
All I can say or add is that God in his own words said that besides him there is no other savior. This is found in the Book of Hosea if you need to look it up.
Therefore one turns his back on God by accepting Jesus as their savior. Nowhere does God say that he and Jesus are one and the same, neither does Jesus. It is claimed to be interpreted as such by christians but they are the masters of ‘interpolation’. There is no word that means ‘virgin’ either. The word christians claim means ‘virgin’ actually has been around for thousands of years and simply means ‘young girl’. Hence there could have been no virgin birth records or facts of a virgin birth.
I love my creator, my heavenly father, ‘dad’ as I refer to him. I refer to Jesus as my big brother since he came before me. I ‘m a child of God and a male, I am a son of God.
I won’t be turning my back on my creator.
God is Saviour in OT. Jesus is Saviour in NT. So, God = Jesus(Godman). Jesus was crucified cuz He claimed to be God. Mary said she had not known (had sex with) a man so she was a virgin. Angel said she would conceive by Holy Spirit. God is First & Last in OT. Jesus is First & Last in NT. The First & Last claims to have died and is now live in Revelation. God is not your Father unless you have faith in the blood of Jesus as the atonement for your sins. And you are born again into a direct creation of God when the Holy Spirit unites with your spirit to form a new creature and then you have become a son of God. Until then you are a child of the devil born in sin. Turn to your Creator to be saved. There is no other name besides Jesus’ by which man can be saved.
Sorry…not you B.O….
I MEANT STEPHEN HALEY
How do you call someone out as a satan to you and tell them to be gone when they are not your disciple, nor associate, nor friend, (nor even one who means well but is accidentally betraying you as Peter was in the actual usage of that phrase), nor speaking to you at all, nor in your day, but seven years ago, who is so distant from you that you can’t even find the right button to shout them with?
If you can’t put that simple exclamation in context, how could you possibly answer questions about ancient prophesies?
Three times you have misquoted your Lord, and I’m too far inside city limits to hear whether that comes with a rooster’s crow.
Jesus said He and the Father are One. The Hebrew word for one is echad, a compound unity, not yachid meaning singleness. The Heberw word almah does also mean virgin. Rebecca (Isaac’s wife) is described as an almah (same as Isaiah 7:14) and Rebecca was a virgin. Study the scriptures from the Hebrew text and you will see that Jesus is the grea I AM (He called Himself such) and that He was virgin-bord (almah means virgin).
GET BEHIND ME SATAN!!!
To B.O. GET BEHIND ME SATAN!!!
We need not to spot a fake christian for judgment, but for safety. Many people fake it like a “Con Man”
I agree with you completely, Jennifer. There are MANY ‘ con man, fake chritians out there. Beware. That’s why i trust very few ‘Born Again Christians ‘. Et cum spiri tu tuo, Jennifer. 😉
It is the ignorantly fake christians who are the danger. The ones with a false Gospel which is mere self-righteousness not salvation through Jesus Christ.
Salvation is of the LORD – All who believe in my name shall be saved . If man begins to ovewr analyse the simple and pure Gospel of JESUS CHRIST and what he said, we can end up with even more disunity and doctrines of men – this is why I believe the body of CHRIST is so fragmented
If ADAM caused all mankind to receive Gods judgement of death- and GRACE is superior to SIN , then why should we be concerned about disecting one anothers outward performance if JESUS says he will
I don’t understand how my husband can claim to be a Christian yet he chooses to mix alcohol and meds, get repeated DUIs, and to abuse me and cheat on me? He twists scriptures out of context to “justify” his evil choices, and he berates me and says if I don’t forgive him I will go to hell. He was an atheist growing up and got “saved” in his early 20’s. I’ve been a life-long Christian until his latest repeated betrayal finally destroyed my faith. He’s 59. I’m 60. He likes to quote scriptures, but he does not practice what he preaches.
I just read about a youth pastor in Virginia who shot his family on Thanksgiving day. This is yet another example of so-called Christians who are just plain EVIL How can God allow this? God gives everyone free will, yet He allows evil people to exercise their free will to hurt and kill others while He does not allow or protect good people’s free will to live in peace. God’s followers get shot in church- in HIS house! How can He allow it?
Your husband may not be saved cuz he thinks you get forgiveness by forgiving. You DON’T! You get it cuz Jesus bought it for you. You get it by believing that Jesus did! And then you can forgive only AFTER you already HAVE forgiveness. You get eternal life cuz the Holy Spirit gives it to you when you BELIEVE Jesus paid for it and it is yours free.
Those people who died in church, if they trusted in Jesus providing forgiveness and eternal life, are now with Jesus!!! And they will live forever in His new Earth He will bring!!! AWESOME!!!
Author
I’m sorry to hear about all of the hardships that you have gone through, Melanie. Your question about why does God allow so much suffering and why does God allow evil people to practice their evil is a fantastic question. It’s something that has perplexed so many people.
I’ve written multiple articles on my blog about it. Here is one article that I found from the archives that might be helpful. If it’s not, please let me know and I can share with you some others. Please feel free to message me privately by using the Contact link in the navigation on my blog.
https://notashamedofthegospel.com/controversial/why-does-god-allow-suffering/
To Martin Pierce, why is it that Christians think we are NEVER to judge another
Christian under any circumstances? The bible says in 1 Corinthians 5:12 that
we are not to judge those outside the church but we are to judge those inside
the church. Of course we should judge ourselves to see if we are in the faith.
But that does not mean we should not ever judge other Christians…..the
word says we shall know them by their fruit. How can we know them by their
fruit, or lack thereof, if we don’t judge them on any level?
To judge does not mean to pick someone apart, or judge on physical appearance,
or social status, or even style of worship…..it means to judge whether they are
who they say they are, and if they are living the same behind closed doors as
they portray themselves in church or around other Christians. We don’t have to
go snooping for that information, but we should allow God to show us if
someone we trust is worthy of that trust. I myself have trusted the wrong people
in the past and regret not going to God first to see if they were indeed trustworthy
or not. I’ve purposed in my heart to go to God about any relationship or
friendship in the future. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I’d done
that all along. I have a lot of discernment but sometimes ignored red flags, because
I like to believe the best about everyone.
Also, the bible says to test the spirits to see if someone claiming to
be from God is truly from God. None of us is perfect, but we should be becoming
more like Jesus as we grow in the Lord, and not just when others are around.
I know a man that attended my Assemblies of God church for years, hanging
around my group of friends and attending prayer meetings and get togethers.
Two years ago he told me he has now turned to New Ageism as he believes
they have “more power”. A year ago I saw him again and he was still into
that. And yet most people would have insisted that he was a true christian,
because he “seemed” to be one. Discernment and proper judging is more
important now than ever!!!
I have been so burned by the God 4 fraud Christians who steal just to live.They go to church tell anyone how to live,then cheat screw steal anything from anyone.This is @the same time earning 50+ million a year.They have folks in fear,I exposed them,my life has been in turmoil but I made them give a lady back 5k they stole.This was after my call to do a deposition to the FL.Ins Comm.WOW ! I know God is real why does he lay down for the 10million a year he gives the Church? Thank you for this forum.God bless you and all you love.
William J.Glennon
Good for you, William making the Fake Born Again Christian give back 5k to a lady he stole from.
that’s good the lady got her money back.
I for one am grateful for articles like this as a confirmation and comfort to my soul that the fake Christians that assault the REAL ones aren’t going to get away with it. They’re the ones who never read these things!
I was thinking the same thing.
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Know I do believe these are questions are valid but as the my age group 13-19 (Im 15) we are still growing and maturing so I believe that someone of these questions come with maturity and I believe christian maturity comes with talking to people older than your age (That you can/do trust) about things that are interupting your walk of faith, and find out answer that you may not understand without other guidance, then these question start to apply to the people around you. I have see some weeds weather and die out and be reborn again as fresh and happy new seeds, but I also have seen some move out of the Church of Christ. Either way God has a plan and I am positive it will work out in the end so let what happens happen. (Alot of people may confuse that last sentence with I’m not going to try to save people from being apart from Jesus but what I mean by that is I will not be upset by anything that I can not control)
That’s such great insight Ryan, I would have never thought that it came from someone who was just 15 years old 🙂 God has given you much wisdom my brother!
Thank You Peter. As my Answer may not be the wisest, I am training myself with God’s word and letting God unfold what path he wills me to take in life.
,
My son Peter & I Natalie true born again believers that love Jesus & serve him wanted to let you know that we have bought your 40 Days In The Word Campaign Resource Kit from our Kooyong Christian Book store here in Australia & we are waiting on having it delivered. We are mother & son who have been born-again for a while.
Mum & I are true born again Christians from Australia in the city of Melbourne Victoria that love Jesus & have lived in complete isolation for over 8yrs now. We don’t have any family or friends. We have been calling so many different Christian churches in our area as well as other areas in Melbourne in regards to supporting my bedridden mum with her illness as well as I having contacted different Mission Organisations in giving us support & they the so called Christians made so many petty excuses that their church was too far to come & help us & they only help their own flock. Mum & I tried reaching out to them & wanting to become a part of them, but they wouldn’t hear if it.
Mum & I can’t take their abuse, lies, false doctrines, & sociopathic behaviours of these so called Aussie Melbourne Christians. Mum & I are all alone on this Earth, even though we have one on one with God, but it’s not enough without the support of our brothers & sisters in Christ!! Where are they? My mum as well as myself are trying so hard in memorising our bible scriptures…Our mobile phone never rings…After we beg those Christian churches to give us support in helping us with the bible as well as supporting my bedridden mum about her health, but But get this, their excuse is always the same”They are 2 busy!” You want to blame me & my mum for staying away from a pit if vipers…Tell you what, mum & I live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt…
Not the liberal relative thinking that they say it means let him die. Our only prayer now is”God show mum & I one true Australian believers that knows you” And doesn’t lie like a drunk drinks. Mum & I need a place to belong with fellow Christians here in Australia/Melbourne…But until there are true genuine born again Australian believers that truly love God & their brother & sister such as mum & I,& also Worship God of the Bible, & not verbal a empty Platitudes with Schizophrenic derision of everything good….
Mum & I read our Bible, as well as we separately spend time alone with God on our own rooms, we both don’t need these so self rationalising abuse from the so worldly Australian so called Christians.however having said that we both find it very hard to memorise bible scriptures here @ home. Mum is on a Disability & has a slow learning memory. We hope this Resource Kit we bought will help my mum with her memory being on a Disability as she suffers Depression & Anxiety. I am her Carer & love her so much, we know we both have Jesus but without brothers & sisters in Christ it will not be the same. Mum & I we don’t have a church to fellowship because of their BUSYNESS & other excuses in not supporting us in our spiritual & emotional needs. We don’t even have family or friends. Just ourselves, the bible, & God..
Blessings & Greetings from Australia from your Sheep,
Natalie & Peter Capaldi.
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When did you post this article
Hi Emma, I posted this article in October of 2013.
,
My son Peter & I Natalie true born again believers that love Jesus & serve him wanted to let you know that we have bought your 40 Days In The Word Campaign Resource Kit from our Kooyong Christian Book store here in Australia & we are waiting on having it delivered. We are mother & son who have been born-again for a while.
Mum & I are true born again Christians from Australia in the city of Melbourne Victoria that love Jesus & have lived in complete isolation for over 8yrs now. We don’t have any family or friends. We have been calling so many different Christian churches in our area as well as other areas in Melbourne in regards to supporting my bedridden mum with her illness as well as I having contacted different Mission Organisations in giving us support & they the so called Christians made so many petty excuses that their church was too far to come & help us & they only help their own flock. Mum & I tried reaching out to them & wanting to become a part of them, but they wouldn’t hear if it.
Mum & I can’t take their abuse, lies, false doctrines, & sociopathic behaviours of these so called Aussie Melbourne Christians. Mum & I are all alone on this Earth, even though we have one on one with God, but it’s not enough without the support of our brothers & sisters in Christ!! Where are they? My mum as well as myself are trying so hard in memorising our bible scriptures…Our mobile phone never rings…After we beg those Christian churches to give us support in helping us with the bible as well as supporting my bedridden mum about her health, but But get this, their excuse is always the same”They are 2 busy!” You want to blame me & my mum for staying away from a pit if vipers…Tell you what, mum & I live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt…
Not the liberal relative thinking that they say it means let him die. Our only prayer now is”God show mum & I one true Australian believers that knows you” And doesn’t lie like a drunk drinks. Mum & I need a place to belong with fellow Christians here in Australia/Melbourne…But until there are true genuine born again Australian believers that truly love God & their brother & sister such as mum & I,& also Worship God of the Bible, & not verbal a empty Platitudes with Schizophrenic derision of everything good….
Mum & I read our Bible, as well as we separately spend time alone with God on our own rooms, we both don’t need these so self rationalising abuse from the so worldly Australian so called Christians.however having said that we both find it very hard to memorise bible scriptures here @ home. Mum is on a Disability & has a slow learning memory. We hope this Resource Kit we bought will help my mum with her memory being on a Disability as she suffers Depression & Anxiety. I am her Carer & love her so much, we know we both have Jesus but without brothers & sisters in Christ it will not be the same. Mum & I we don’t have a church to fellowship because of their BUSYNESS & other excuses in not supporting us in our spiritual & emotional needs. We don’t even have family or friends. Just ourselves, the bible, & God..
Blessings & Greetings from Australia from your Sheep,
Natalie & Peter Capaldi.
,
My son Peter & I Natalie true born again believers that love Jesus & serve him wanted to let you know that we have bought your 40 Days In The Word Campaign Resource Kit from our Kooyong Christian Book store here in Australia & we are waiting on having it delivered. We are mother & son who have been born-again for a while.
Mum & I are true born again Christians from Australia in the city of Melbourne Victoria that love Jesus & have lived in complete isolation for over 8yrs now. We don’t have any family or friends. We have been calling so many different Christian churches in our area as well as other areas in Melbourne in regards to supporting my bedridden mum with her illness as well as I having contacted different Mission Organisations in giving us support & they the so called Christians made so many petty excuses that their church was too far to come & help us & they only help their own flock. Mum & I tried reaching out to them & wanting to become a part of them, but they wouldn’t hear if it.
Mum & I can’t take their abuse, lies, false doctrines, & sociopathic behaviours of these so called Aussie Melbourne Christians. Mum & I are all alone on this Earth, even though we have one on one with God, but it’s not enough without the support of our brothers & sisters in Christ!! Where are they? My mum as well as myself are trying so hard in memorising our bible scriptures…Our mobile phone never rings…After we beg those Christian churches to give us support in helping us with the bible as well as supporting my bedridden mum about her health, but But get this, their excuse is always the same”They are 2 busy!” You want to blame me & my mum for staying away from a pit if vipers…Tell you what, mum & I live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt…
Not the liberal relative thinking that they say it means let him die. Our only prayer now is”God show mum & I one true Australian believers that knows you” And doesn’t lie like a drunk drinks. Mum & I need a place to belong with fellow Christians here in Australia/Melbourne…But until there are true genuine born again Australian believers that truly love God & their brother & sister such as mum & I,& also Worship God of the Bible, & not verbal a empty Platitudes with Schizophrenic derision of everything good….
Mum & I read our Bible, as well as we separately spend time alone with God on our own rooms, we both don’t need these so self rationalising abuse from the so worldly Australian so called Christians.however having said that we both find it very hard to memorise bible scriptures here @ home. Mum is on a Disability & has a slow learning memory. We hope this Resource Kit we bought will help my mum with her memory being on a Disability as she suffers Depression & Anxiety. I am her Carer & love her so much, we know we both have Jesus but without brothers & sisters in Christ it will not be the same. Mum & I we don’t have a church to fellowship because of their BUSYNESS & other excuses in not supporting us in our spiritual & emotional needs. We don’t even have family or friends. Just ourselves, the bible, & God..
Blessings & Greetings from Australia from your Sheep,
Natalie & Peter Capaldi.
I am so glad you posted this article it puts a lot of things into perspective.
I’m glad you enjoyed it Kayla 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and God bless you!
,
My son Peter & I Natalie true born again believers that love Jesus & serve him wanted to let you know that we have bought your 40 Days In The Word Campaign Resource Kit from our Kooyong Christian Book store here in Australia & we are waiting on having it delivered. We are mother & son who have been born-again for a while.
Mum & I are true born again Christians from Australia in the city of Melbourne Victoria that love Jesus & have lived in complete isolation for over 8yrs now. We don’t have any family or friends. We have been calling so many different Christian churches in our area as well as other areas in Melbourne in regards to supporting my bedridden mum with her illness as well as I having contacted different Mission Organisations in giving us support & they the so called Christians made so many petty excuses that their church was too far to come & help us & they only help their own flock. Mum & I tried reaching out to them & wanting to become a part of them, but they wouldn’t hear if it.
Mum & I can’t take their abuse, lies, false doctrines, & sociopathic behaviours of these so called Aussie Melbourne Christians. Mum & I are all alone on this Earth, even though we have one on one with God, but it’s not enough without the support of our brothers & sisters in Christ!! Where are they? My mum as well as myself are trying so hard in memorising our bible scriptures…Our mobile phone never rings…After we beg those Christian churches to give us support in helping us with the bible as well as supporting my bedridden mum about her health, but But get this, their excuse is always the same”They are 2 busy!” You want to blame me & my mum for staying away from a pit if vipers…Tell you what, mum & I live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt…
Not the liberal relative thinking that they say it means let him die. Our only prayer now is”God show mum & I one true Australian believers that knows you” And doesn’t lie like a drunk drinks. Mum & I need a place to belong with fellow Christians here in Australia/Melbourne…But until there are true genuine born again Australian believers that truly love God & their brother & sister such as mum & I,& also Worship God of the Bible, & not verbal a empty Platitudes with Schizophrenic derision of everything good….
Mum & I read our Bible, as well as we separately spend time alone with God on our own rooms, we both don’t need these so self rationalising abuse from the so worldly Australian so called Christians.however having said that we both find it very hard to memorise bible scriptures here @ home. Mum is on a Disability & has a slow learning memory. We hope this Resource Kit we bought will help my mum with her memory being on a Disability as she suffers Depression & Anxiety. I am her Carer & love her so much, we know we both have Jesus but without brothers & sisters in Christ it will not be the same. Mum & I we don’t have a church to fellowship because of their BUSYNESS & other excuses in not supporting us in our spiritual & emotional needs. We don’t even have family or friends. Just ourselves, the bible, & God..
Blessings & Greetings from Australia from your Sheep,
Natalie & Peter Capaldi.
you shouldnt judge people peter was a christian he even denied christ isnt that the biggest sin since jesus said if you deny me i will deny you before the father
,
My son Peter & I Natalie true born again believers that love Jesus & serve him wanted to let you know that we have bought your 40 Days In The Word Campaign Resource Kit from our Kooyong Christian Book store here in Australia & we are waiting on having it delivered. We are mother & son who have been born-again for a while.
Mum & I are true born again Christians from Australia in the city of Melbourne Victoria that love Jesus & have lived in complete isolation for over 8yrs now. We don’t have any family or friends. We have been calling so many different Christian churches in our area as well as other areas in Melbourne in regards to supporting my bedridden mum with her illness as well as I having contacted different Mission Organisations in giving us support & they the so called Christians made so many petty excuses that their church was too far to come & help us & they only help their own flock. Mum & I tried reaching out to them & wanting to become a part of them, but they wouldn’t hear if it.
Mum & I can’t take their abuse, lies, false doctrines, & sociopathic behaviours of these so called Aussie Melbourne Christians. Mum & I are all alone on this Earth, even though we have one on one with God, but it’s not enough without the support of our brothers & sisters in Christ!! Where are they? My mum as well as myself are trying so hard in memorising our bible scriptures…Our mobile phone never rings…After we beg those Christian churches to give us support in helping us with the bible as well as supporting my bedridden mum about her health, but But get this, their excuse is always the same”They are 2 busy!” You want to blame me & my mum for staying away from a pit if vipers…Tell you what, mum & I live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt…
Not the liberal relative thinking that they say it means let him die. Our only prayer now is”God show mum & I one true Australian believers that knows you” And doesn’t lie like a drunk drinks. Mum & I need a place to belong with fellow Christians here in Australia/Melbourne…But until there are true genuine born again Australian believers that truly love God & their brother & sister such as mum & I,& also Worship God of the Bible, & not verbal a empty Platitudes with Schizophrenic derision of everything good….
Mum & I read our Bible, as well as we separately spend time alone with God on our own rooms, we both don’t need these so self rationalising abuse from the so worldly Australian so called Christians.however having said that we both find it very hard to memorise bible scriptures here @ home. Mum is on a Disability & has a slow learning memory. We hope this Resource Kit we bought will help my mum with her memory being on a Disability as she suffers Depression & Anxiety. I am her Carer & love her so much, we know we both have Jesus but without brothers & sisters in Christ it will not be the same. Mum & I we don’t have a church to fellowship because of their BUSYNESS & other excuses in not supporting us in our spiritual & emotional needs. We don’t even have family or friends. Just ourselves, the bible, & God..
Blessings & Greetings from Australia from your Sheep,
Natalie & Peter Capaldi.
But why christians often can be good only for some instances and they will be become like others after that..Is that called fruit of Spirit..in that case even non-christians may also be called as fruitful..isn’t is?
Expecting honest answers 😉
Thank you.
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I have a friend who has told me he has become a christian….I don’t know if I should believe him or not because I have had 4 other people in my life say they have found god too and have turned out to be just users, saying they are christians so that they can benefit off my family or get close to one of us as a boyfriend. They have all wreaked havoc in some way or another on our lives. The problem is before he apparently found god I didn’t see alot of obvious sins he was doing. He was a non drinker, believed in no sex before marriage, was anti porn and pro respect of people and was always super encouraging, seemed to be helpful whenever he could and always admitted he was a sinner who needed to improve. But these I believed were all just to impress me or others or feel like a good person. The problem was he lied alot which he admits to now i brought up the things i didnt believe. I dont know what to look for to see any change in his life now he apparently knows god. The only physical thing I can think of him changing is not playig so much video games, which are only race car games anyway so arent blatantly sinful like zombie shooting games. I am quite happy to walk away but I fear I am just fearing the same outcome as the past 4 people who wormed their way into my life.
Rebekah, is this friend that you’re referring to just a friend or more than that, like a potential boyfriend?
Deffinitely just a friend im not attracted to him and he has stated he isn’t attracted to me multiple times. But then I dont necessarily believe that…..he has said to me all the right things that christians say about finding god, all the things I would say myself. But others have said the same and turned out to be fakes
Well, the Bible says that by their fruits you shall know them. Therefore, see if there’s any fruit of the Spirit in his life.
I decided to take everything he says with a grain of salt untill I see the fruit. But my question is, if he has a religious background and has been one of those ‘good’ people who go around helping others and being anti drinking and anti sleeping around……what fruit is there to look for? What should I expect him to change in his life? He is just 19 and runs his own screen replacements business. The only obvious thing I can see is that he still plays video games. I dont know what I should look for because if I were him I would just stop playing video games and eat healthier and invest time in learning to cook. I dont know what fruit to look for because I can’t count the so called ‘good’ things he was doing before he became and christian.
I think one possible area to explore Rebekah is his Jehovah’s Witness background. Since that is what his mom probably taught him growing up, that might explain a lot of his good deeds. Maybe you can investigate further.
His mother is a jehovas witness, he doesnt like her at all and he lives with a random lady paying board to stay in a sleepout. He has had anxiety problems and been very sick for the past few months due to this but now after saying he has found god he says he isn’t sick anymore and alot more relaxed about everything
Jesus Jesus Jesus … give him the law to expose sin and then give him Jesus.
The only way to “find God” is to find salvation thru Jesus!
Who is he trusting? His self-righteousness or Jesus’ righteousness?
Here is a great resource for anyone to understand salvation by grace thru faith in Jesus’ complete work. bit.ly/studyromans
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Thanks for the article, it’s a little over simplified so I wanted to elaborate more on the topic. Godly love is letting people know that without Jesus in their lives, they’re headed for eternal hell that they only reason they’re not in hell now is due to God’s mercy and grace.
Human love is not of the Holy Spirit, warm and fuzzy “Jesus loves you” doctrines fail. Human love is carnal so I avoid it at all costs. Instilling the fear of God into those who aren’t on the narrow path in life is Godly love. God loves those who fear and obey him. Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible because He came to save us from it. Regardless, I’m not going to spend my time promoting fake Christianity trying to convince Christians of my love for them since God is the only source of love there is. I don’t personally love anyone, only by God and my deeds on His behalf. Only by the Holy Spirit do people do real works for God, therefore I die to myself. I myself have no means of loving anyone without God loving them through me. God loves people through the Holy Spirit does the work. The “Jesus loves you” camp of believers are shallow and that phrase does nothing to convert people to Christianity.
I think that’s a very narrow point of view, and seems to me like you pick and choose what parts of the bible apply to you. It isn’t up to you to judge anyone. What about “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” It sounds to me like you look for reasons to hate people.
The big problem with Christianity today is that many fake Christians have separated the standards of God as many of them in the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and the gospels and Pauline epistels FROM the concept of the “Jesus loves you , so it is implied that your sins(heart centered ) are now not important.” This is the tell tale sign of a false christian headed to judgement and eventual death.
The signs of a true Christian are that the day a fortunate soul finds Jesus Christ and through the grace of Jesus Christ decides to REPENT OF ALL SINS (description of sin in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Corinthians, Romans, Revelations, etc.) This step can be described also for verification of authentic repentance( involves tears of sorrow, desire to be cleansed of sinful behavior, a feeling of guilt for the evil of sin and its malice, and desire to use one’s entire volition to avoid every sin for all eternity in the present and future. This involves active breaking sinful habits, active resisting sinful impulses and disgust at the very impulses and suggestions of the evil spirits. This is a stage in the new believers life that requires constant adherence to the spirit of repentance that is from the Holy Spirit as being the first stage of becoming a Christian.
THEN and to the degree in which a soul repents of sin, the Holy Spirit’s “fruits” as described in the New Testament become the mainstay of the person…..this too requires constant volition of faith in God’s standards inscribed in God’s ETERNAL WORD…..
There is another caveat…..a person can repent 10%, 30% , 80%. etc…all the way to 100 %..each step requires knowing the Word of God and then repenting along with the commands….this is why there is a parable in the scripture detailing how a person can have the Word of God accepted into the heart partially and still hold part of the heart to sin against God’s Commandments……the parable ends telling us what happens in this half hearted Christian scenario( very common today) the person ends with the Word of God not having the effect of salvation…and instead the cursed weed root eats up the soul leaving nothing good or Godly but only an unrepented evil sinner that failed to turn away from sin and fully accept the grace of Jesus Christ.
I realized I was still carnal(sinful) unlike Jesus Christ(even when I had done the altar call and spoke and kneeled in front of a Bible claiming to be a Christian born again…because I had held onto a part of my soul against the demand of Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Exodus, Romans, Corinthians , gospels)….this was proven in the lack of grace fruits of the Holy Spirit in my life….a telltale sign of a false therefore at best half hearted christian.
Sin is very very deceptive and will fool anyone who does not pay entire attention to God’s Commandments .
No matter how much a person tries to repent of their sins in their unsaved state, they will not change permanently.
Only by placing their complete trust in what Jesus did to save them will make them born again, a new creation free from the power of sin and able to repent from it.
God does the saving and the changing. We just agree to it and walk after the Spirit instead of the flesh. And, even if we did still choose the flesh after being born again, He will not cast us into Hell! If you are a part of Christ’s body, you do not need to fear Him committing self-amputation!
We no longer need the law to guide us. We have His Spirit!
For true salvation message, this is a great study http://bit.ly/studyromans .
Well said Benjamin.
I guess to really sum it all up ; You Must be Born again. Flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit/ flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. For the new birth to happen their must be a full and genuine repentance of sin and believing the Gospel that Christ has paid the price for our sin.
Some of the first words of John the Baptist and Jesus were after all, repent and believe the gospel.
Sadly many feel its part Christs’ sacrifice and part their own effort. No, faith means putting ALL your trust in Christ and in Him alone for salvation. God bless. Geoff Australia.
There is no such thing as a fake Christian. The work was complete on the Cross. Those who believe are saved. Transformation and change of mind starts with Amazing Grace piercing your heart like a Hammer and Nail. Religious people without the Cross try to “repent” by turning away from sin and trying to follow every aspect of the law and judging others in the process. Christian Repentance is turning to God solely through the Cross. We cannot turn away from sin. Thank God for Jesus on the Cross.
Author
I think there is such a thing as fake Christians. I think this was confirmed by Jesus when He gave the parable of the wheat and the tares.
I have an even better test
1) Do they support universal healthcare?
2) Are they less concerned for their taxes then for their fellow man?
3) Are they against the death penalty?
4) Do they oppose war-and especially unnecessary war?
All of the above will align with the teachings of Christ and the fruits of the Spirit. They will not align with the Evangelicals and most all Protestant and Catholic believers. That means that virtually all self-professed Christians are not real Christians.When Ghandi was asked if he liked Christians he said he wouldn’t know-he never met one.
Dear Mind Mix,
Ghandi used to be one of my heros when I thought I was a Christian but wasn’t. Ghandi was actually quite the jerk, there is a false mythology that has been fed to you. He was a racist, collaborated with the British to divide Pakistan from India (check out the court records of his assassin) and a horrible misogynist who thought his niece being potentially raped was a joke. He is nobody to quote from.
First question, where do you stand on the rights of the unborn?
Secondly, where do you find universal healthcare in the Scriptures? The universal health care act is actually a tax. That is why it is part of the IRS penalty code. It forces those who would wish to live simply, without money to interact with money just to avoid a penalty for not having healthcare. Simply because they have a body.
Secondly, please explain how there can constantly be “enough” for everyone on this planet. Whenever there is money spent or created that does not actually exist, ie, the Federal Reserve bailouts, etc., that cause inflation. Inflation harms the poorest of society first and those on fixed incomes. That is why in the 1970’s, the average gap between a company CEO and the entry worker was something like 40x vs today where it is closer to 400x. The wealthy have kept up with inflation, the poor have not. In the 1970’s, Nixon cut the last ties with gold and inflation went crazy.
The reality is that the more centralized a gov’t is, the easier it is to lobby, because there are just a few people to wine and dine instead of many. The other reality is that taxes rarely serve our “fellow man”.
Please do some open minded research and don’t be so naive. The Christian message is certainly anti-greed but it is also not prosperity for all. Our reward is in the next world, not in this world.
The test of a Christian is do they believe the word of God is inerrant and do they live in repentance.
I am wondering if just questions are enough and do
Christians really live by the commandments of God? It may look like it but do they
truly. When we read the Bible we see every person in the Bible sinning but God
still loves them. So can we compare sin and the love God has for us or does God
see past the sin and see our hearts like he did with King David?
A year ago a friends of mine lost her parents and a murder, suicide!
They were in the 60’s! The wife was leaving her husband and they were already separated.
The husband was a Pastor all his life. He was so possessed with his wife and
believed God do not want them to divorced, he ended her life by shooting her in
the back like a cowered and then took his own life! I started doing research on Christian murder/suicides.
I was shocked to find out how many times this is happening. Are the church
motivating men to kill their wives when they do not want to be with them
anymore? It’s better to die than to divorce? I can just feel the Christian
love!! I know about a woman now that wants to leave her husband, she fears for
her life! Her husband has turned her family, children, friend and everyone she
knows against her. Her husband refers to himself as a BIG Christian! Can
someone tell me what a BIG Christian is? His wife reached out to his pastor
last week and said she is worried because they had a situation where she needed
to get police involved. The pastor replied thank you for letting me know and
good luck! I can just feel the Christian LOVE!
I studied for a pastor myself and after going into ministry I
realized the deception going on. People are so brainwashed by the church that
they can’t even see real life anymore. That’s why they kill each other when a
spouse wants to divorce! I’m not promoting divorce but there is times in life
where this is the only option. Forcing it and living a lie is not the truth, it
is a lie so why do Christianity promote lies. I have become a Jesus follower
and found out there is a big difference between being a follower and joining a Christian
religion.
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That’s all talk.
The only way to know if someone is a Christian or not is to look at how they live their lives. This sola scriptura stuff is ridiculous, the Bible says multiple times that good works count, too.
Here’s my guide :
A true Christian will be poor, share what little he has with those needier than him in secret, will pray in secret and using his inward voice instead of yelling in Church or going into histrionics so everybody can hear him, do good works for others and will love and refrain to judge those he meets.
True Christian faith is an inward belief towards the love and grace of a personal God and acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus. As such, I would expect a Christian to live his faith in secret and let others use the gift of free agency that we are all born with to decide if others want to join him. The Good News have spread far and wide, everybody knows what Christianity is and if they want in or not, and so as the last criteria, I would expect a true Christian to both refrain from proselytizing and be outspoken about his faith as to let others use this free agency, and to support a State which helps the needy more than the rich (progressive taxation rates, universal health care, general welfare are all example).
90% of Christians will fail, especially the “Christian” Right lunatics. Then again, nobody said it was easy being a Christian. It’s exceedingly hard.
I am not a Christian, just an agnostic fielding his thoughts.
So were you at any point ever a Christian?
Yes, I was.
I even heavily considered in my youth to become a Catholic priest, to the point where I applied to college for a Bachelor in Theology with the Canon Grade, which would have given me access to the seminary. I eventually decided to go to law school instead.
As much as I’d like to keep the foundation of my moral education (my grandmother, who raised me, was a devout Catholic), I feel that higher education developed my critical thinking skills to the point that my ability to have faith is blunted, if not gone. I can’t seriously entertain that there is a God anymore, but neither can I entertain the other possibility – there is no God.
Too many things point to some kind of an unnatural order in the Universe, from scientific constants to the creation of our Universe itself. After all, if a sudden, unimaginably huge burst of energy created the matter we experience with our senses today – what caused this burst? If all the matter that we know today was contained in a single point in the vast nothingness with infinite density, that it exploded and expanded, and keeps expanding, how did it get there in the first place?
Nobody can say with full certainty that this one particular deity or deities caused this, nor can anybody say with the same kind of certainty that there are no deities at all, but neither can I say that deities are what created this order. Science cannot explain it to my satisfaction, but neither can religion.
In the absence of faith and in the absence of decisive, objective proof, I take the only position that seems clear to me : I don’t know. I do think that it is the most intellectually honest one, however.
But even if I had never been a Christian, I don’t say how that invalidates anything in my comment. The Bible stresses that the God of Christianity is personal, and Jesus, by his works, showed us what God expects of all of us. We can never live up to that example, but we can try.
Prayer is how we build up that relationship and is meant for God and for ourselves. I do not see the relevance of the practice of so many Christian groups to let themselves fall to histrionics that are not meant for God, but purely for themselves and their petty needs by praying openly and loudly in public. I do not see the relevance of so many people asking God for this or that (the most cognitively dissonant example being prayer groups for the abolition of the ACA) when it is written that nobody need ask, as God knows what we need.
Jesus never asked for money after healing the sick and the blind, he never amassed a fortune and used it to build a megachurch, he spoke of the necessity for a Christian to center his devotion to God inwards by prayer and outwards by good works doled out without regard to the beneficiaries’ circumstances, he taught us that even prostitutes deserve respect by washing the feet of one, and so much more. Thus, any Christian that supports right-wing, conservative theories of the welfare net, taxation, health care and so on, is not a Christian, in fact, is not even trying to be one.
“even prostitutes deserve respect by washing the feet of one” CORRECTION: Jesus never washed the feet of a prostitute…nowhere is it recorded in the Holy Scriptures…..you must be imagining things that aren’t there or mixing events wrongly. THE ONLY TIME JESUS EVER associated in any physical or spiritual way with ANYONE was when those persons were 1) volitional determined to obey God’s Commandments but for various reasons owing to the weakness of the sin condition of mankind could not leap the “grace” gap required to be healed/saved/ set on the stage to rebirth in the Spirit…..This proves that God willed the salvation of all mankind….but many people rejected the will of God by violating God’s Commandments…..this means some sinners repented owing to the Goodness of God’s Commandments shown in the grace of Jesus Christ perfected(and yes this standard seems impossible for all of us human beings…very hard known from personal experience as you yourself corroborate in your previous post) While others preferred sin(arrogance, greed, malice, foolishness, etc…common ailments of the souls of mankind) to the goodness of God’s grace…..so the fact that Hell a place of punishment exists is undeniable…and that souls go there due to their own volition against the grace of God is clearly the reason……the only heaven bound souls are the ones who repent wholeheartedly of every sin and hold entirely to the grace that is found only in Jesus Christ the Lord over all mankind…..and this can be verified by their lives which do not have sin anymore and instead they bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit(self control, morality, obedience to God’s Commandments(Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Romans, etc)
The only way a man can be on God’s path in life…is to be obeying God…the only way to be obeying God is to be following the Commandments of God in the Holy Bible(understood correctly) the only way God can be with us is if we choose to become virtuous(chaste humble, generous, wise, unyolked with unbelievers, morally upright, etc…) only under these types of conditions can God’s grace “flow” through us making us reborn in Him thereby SAVED……………………everything lacking these are signs of a false Christian.
Dear Christiana (lovely name),
Catholicism is NOT Christian. It has been and remains a false religion. The pope usurps the seat of Christ. It is founded on historical fallacy, political power, economics, and pagan ritual that dates back to Babylonian times. As a Catholic, the pope (not to mention Mary and the saints) are standing between you and Christ. There also is no such thing as purgatory or moral deeds that will gain you heaven. There are only the sheep and the goats, which is eternal heaven or hell. The sheep are only redeemed by Christ, they have no possibility of ever earning their way there on their own. Period.
A true Christian is one who is saved and understands perfectly well what they have been saved from – which is eternal damnation. To focus on saving people from the hardships of the world is fine when that is used as a vehicle to redeem souls, but restraining from evangelizing others is the ultimate test of who is a *false* Christian. There is no love or kindness in allowing another to walk blindly down the path to hell. This is as real as any house fire only it lasts forever.
That much abused verse on judgement refers to direct hypocrisy, not discernment. As in I shouldn’t judge you getting drunk if I am getting drunk too. The Bible clearly calls out us to judge others, particularly those false teachers who like to re-interpret the Bible to say what they want it to say instead of speaking God’s word.
Where do you stand on the rights of the unborn?
I will tell you flat out that if you genuinely ask God if He exists to show himself, you won’t have to wait long – but He will be the God of the BIble – the same wholly and righteous God that met Moses, not who you may expect to meet. I will say as a former New Ager who became agnostic who met the Living God to become born again, that once you open your mind, the Biblical evidence is overwhelming.
Check out some youtube videos on the real Mt Sinai and Exodus, read some Charles Spurgeon, listen to John MacArthur’s talk on youtube on Catholicism…
Turn off NPR and put Mother Jones on the shelf for a while and walk on the wild side. You won’t regret it.
Faith
The Bible is all about exposing our sin and revealing the one and only Saviour.
It is not about how to be good enough for God. It is about how we all fall so short of being even close to good enough and how only God himself as Jesus Christ was good enough on our behalf and died in our place and defeating death on our behalf.
You don’t even need to go to church to be saved…just trust God forgave you at the cross and your debt has been paid in full and Jesus’ righteousness is waiting to be credited to your account! HE will grant you access to Heaven by His grace! Believe Him!
Best study of salvation I have heard : http://bit.ly/studyromans
Peter,
These questions are a little deceptive for non-believers, because they have man’s definition of goodness, not God’s. So things like “fruit of the spirit” and “love” are self-defined by these folks instead of defined in God’s word.
How about…
Do they believe the Scriptures are inerrant?
Do they evangelize regularly?
Do they understand that salvation is only found through Jesus Christ and that everyone who is not saved is going to an eternal hell? Do they care about those that are unsaved?
Do they have the discernment to avoid false teachers and doctrines: Joel Osteen and the prosperity train, Catholicism, Mormanism, Jehovah’s Witness, etc. Do they warn others boldly?
Check out Ray Comfort for a great overview of this theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGuAz4QzpBA
Faith
Ask them question then say “do you think the Lord can do it. They say no they not Christian
I need to understand one thing my holy spirit directs me to turn away from my son due to a certain RELIGION that is causeing him to get possessed he chooses to not leave that church im not even hurt im leaving Jesus christ to put his hand on this problem he will deliver him
Very interesting. If this is really true, then 80% of the people at my church are fakers. Most “Christians” don’t even agree to the fact that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Peter Guirguis…How is it that a “real” christian can read the comments by Faith, Benjamin and Cherylmeril on this board, and remain unconvinced that those attitude’s are absolutely reflective of the reasons why people are leaving “the church” and organized religion in droves? If those words and attitudes are the “fruit of the spirit”, then the spirit is selfish, uncaring, and spiteful. I prefer the Jesus I was introduced to as a child, the one who loved unconditionally – black, white, poor, gay or straight. And millions of other people have walked away from these holier-than-thou evangelicals in search of that Jesus. It they are REAL Christians, I don’t want any part of that christianity.
Yes, there are plentiful of counterfeit christian in my community and work place. They professed Christ as their Savior and believed that Salvation is a free gift (true) and a permanent one (false) – they have “Once saved, Always saved” attitude. Hence, they continue living in sins (adultery, fornication, swindling others, compulsive lying, etc..) and do whatever they please as if there is no God to account for. Their behaviors and thinking are contradicting to the principles of Bible. It is serious abomination.
Yes, God is Love, merciful and full of grace. However, God is Holy, Sovereign, Just and He also has wrath and will be jealous if we worship idols (e.g. money, witch craft, other gods, etc..). God is not our buffet – we choose the portions (love, grace) we like and reject the parts we don’t like it (Holy wrath, jealous, God cannot lie, etc..). Instead, we need to take the Bible as a whole to truly appreciate God for who He really is.
Jesus has emphasized not all who called Him “Lord, Lord..” will enter the kingdom of heaven. In Romans and Revelation, those who practice lawlessness, adultery, idolatry,.. will be cast to the lake of fire. If we love Jesus, we should keep His commandments and He has promised to take care of His people. Fake Christians need to confess their sins and repent (stop practicing and turn away from idolatry/witch craft/adultery/etc..) before it’s too late.
Fake Christians cannot be saved by turning from their sin because that’s not how we are saved. We are saved by grace thru faith in the blood of Jesus which cleanses us. These people probably don’t know the real Gospel. Just throw the seeds of the gospel out to them all the time for them to truly believe. God will make their hearts ready by convicting them of sin. Pray for His Holy Spirit to work in their hearts.
The people in Matthew who profess to know Him claim mighty works as the basis for their salvation instead of His blood. Talk to these people and find out what they truly are trusting in. Ask God to expose it.
Once you truly are born again, you just can’t continue in sin like that and think it is ok. He changes you into a new creation, sealing you forever. Once you are saved and sealed there is certainly no undoing that! It would not be salvation otherwise! Christ will not self-amputate and the Spirit cannot untie Himself from the new being He Himself has created!!! Nothing can separate you! So, get to the real issue…the saving blood as the only hope they are clinging to… not church attendance, “right beliefs”, nothing, just the BLOOD!
Hi,
I’ve been truly born again for many years but the real growth began happening in 2012. There’s a woman I befriended who claims to be a Christian but shows very little fruit. I find that when I’m with her I sometimes start to slip into her habits and after we part I become more angry. Like she’s rubbed off on me. I’ve decided to spend a lot less time with her because of her berating me and her vulgar language as well as her anger. I’m not claiming to be perfect. My idea of a true Christian though is someone with a conscience. While I sin I feel bad and work on improving myself. She has no remorse. I have prayed for her but must also guard my spiritual well being.
Thank you Jesus this just helped me a lot !
Just wanted to thank all of you for your comments. I wish to thank the moderator for the questions. I have done some bible reading (and research) and have concluded that a lot of so called Christians and religions are all fake and garbage. I have concluded that its all about love. Love God, Jesus, your neighbor as yourself, and just stop lying (or living the lie) about every thing else. The one single thing that moved me to God was something a supervisor at work (who went to church there times a week for 12 years) told me after bible discussion. She cursed me out and told me that the blood of Christ did not apply to people like me since I was not saved and was no a member of any church. Speakimg as a prophetess She told me that I was wrong, always wrong, and will always be wrong. I asked her to invite me to her church but she said that my heart was not right and that she was allowed to throw her pearls before swines. That when I decided to just read for myself. I soon realized that some people become Christian sodomites; become Christian informationalist, and other are actually transformed into life givers (following Christ example closely . . . through their perfection). I currently work with a Christian sodomite (pastors daughter/30 years in church) who lies, curses, can’t be reasoned with because she’s always right, and is ready to put her bible on the shelf and whip your @ss if she has to. It doesn’t matter. As a person who contemplates suicide often . . . it took the kind word of a real Christian to save and clean my brain. It was the love that saved me. God used the power of love and forgiveness through that one person not just to heal me . . . but let me know that not everyone is like that (honest and real) and not everyone is like there others (phoney killers of life)
My church was totally demon possessed. So how do I know a fake Christian? 1)do they attend a church 2) by their doctrine. If you attend a fake church and have false doctrine, u r a false Christian. Period! All churches are false now, we r in the falling away. Also do they do God’s Word. These r the 3 best ways to know if a person is false. This is a very deep subject to talk about but very simple. Leave the false churches and try and find the true believers. It is not easy to do. Satan doesn’t want his deception exposed and works very hard at that. Be strong and be courageous and endure until the end. Read the bible kJV and do God’s Word. The tribulation is very near.
Everyone I have met who say they are christian are liers who cheat decieve and screw anyone for anything. Mostly pastors deacons,family who are born again can’t tell the truth if God told them to. willygman1@gmail
Thank-you all the best you and who you love.
Author
William, may I please ask you if you believe in God?
Yes sir God is who I believe in. The only christian that I have met who is real is a Pastor Mike Henderson. My cousin introduced us,my cousin an every christian I’ve met are deceit based folks who cheat screw,lie an say all christians lie it’s sinful nature.They need to work for Hillary Clinton. I am man of integrity, can’t cheat screw anyone. God knows that.
I welcome your thoughts and prayers.
William James Glennon.
.
Hi All 🙂
I’m happy to find this website about false or real christianity. So I’m living in Ireland and I was facing with not real christianity many times. I was in the catholic priesthood about 15 years ago (I’m 43 now), but “I met” Jesus Christ and I realized that He is Real Person and He is my Savior, He took all of my sins and miserable life and God punished Him with His wrath instead of me…
He is my high priest as well in Heaven right now. Not only mine, but for all people who believes in His peace-offering:-) I think and believe it’s a great news.
We do not need to drink dirty water from the old water wells like our old nature commands to do it. But we can >>> and we have to drink new, clean water from God’s water well. That dirty water gave us death, because that is poisonous and satanic, everybody who drink from it will die for eternity… But everybody who start to drink God’s crystal clear water from His water well will LIVE forever.
This is the great news my friends 🙂
I’m happy to talk or pray with another christians about these things for example over skype or something similar chatlines. (anotherwell@outlook.ie)
So many times when I asked people here in Ireland about faith, reborn or salvation they answered only false and fake answers. I visited numbers of small or medium sized church here. I was talking with “pastors” and church leaders, but unfortunately many of them was only some kind of religious person, but not a real christian… I don’t know what to say about this phenomenon. People even offended to hear about Jesus Christ. They are not offended when they hear about religious superstition and nonsense, but Christ is violates they ears… So I still believe God want to create a church here as well, but maybe not with irish, because this nation opened only for religios idiocy, but not opened for real Faith in God.
They literally believes that when they die they will became angels, they will get wings and they will fly around God somewhere in clouds. This is only some kind of pagan superstitions, but not a Faith in Jesus Christ. This pagan superstitions is not from the Biblie for sure. This is the reason why this nation is cursed and miserable, because they rejected Jesus Christ.
I hope there is some real christians in YOUR countries, not only pagans 🙂
God Bless
I know God is real.christians are God for fraud money cheating maggots.I have found a nice church,real honest God loving folks no fake christians screwing people.A pastore who won’t use God for fraud to cheat and screw anyone out of everything.Its called Limitless Church in New Tampa,FL. What a house of REAL TRUTHFUL LOVE,not bang u in the butt for $$.
May all the best come to all you love.
William
We see the fake pathetic con job 4 Christ assoc. Is spread out more than one could imagine. What a sad reality. I don’t think God wants us to get screw up over this truth.
They’re more Fake Christians than true believers of God out there. That is how the world is and will always be until a stranger who is a believer of God or until the End Days would change all of that. The world is a cruel place indeed and the people who live in it are rotten to the core. I only prayed that more people will believe in the Lord as time passes on. They would come to understand the words of God and the Bible, but also the whole universes itself.
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I agree with this.It’s kinda hard to tell if some one is lying or not.But since I just learned how to spot the “fake Christians” it’ll be easy with Christ Jesus.
Most people are not going to go to Heaven when they die. It doesn’t matter how good, kind or whatnot the world see’s you as. I know It sounds unbelieveable or like some kind of typo. I don’t care how much you read the bible or go to mass. Or what self image you have of yourself. Once you think clearly about it. If you are going to live for an eternity, you really have to have your act together. There is a lot of bad scripture and false doctrine and malicious manipulation out there. Even if purgatory is true. You are not going to believe it is once you get there.
God does not need your help judging people.
God does not need your help defending him.
God does not need you to figure out God’s will.
He only needs you to follow Jesus.
Judging other does not win souls.
Defending God does not win souls.
Doing God’s will? – boiling people in oil, burning people at the stake,
Taking over an entire race and marching them in the cold to their death and taking their land,
Overthrowing democracies and installing dictators then telling them they are unthankful for all your help.
Yes there is a long list of what happens when people try to do God’s will.
Showing compassion for those less fortunate and not being so proud because you could be in their shoes tomorrow wins souls. You know the things Jesus actually stood for and not some cherry picked Old Testament verse. The 10 Commandments is still the 10 Commandments and intended to lead you to Jesus. The 9th Commandment is still in force by the way, so next time your caught in a lie at least own up to it.
Next time you pick up your Bible pay closer attention to those words in red and if they don’t go along with what your cherry picking from the rest of the Bible know this, the red letter words are the words of Jesus and the words you are supposed to be living by. If you do this you might do away with so much unfounded hate that others might be inspired to actually want to know Jesus.
At Antioch they were first called Christians, why?
Not because they called their selves Christians.
They were called Christians by those outside of the Church.
It was because they lived and acted like Christ.
They shared everything.
Not because they were better than anyone else.
They did not get up and declare they were Christians. It was the folks that saw how much their lives resembled Christ that called them this. The word Christian means one who acts like Christ. It’s not something to go around bragging about but is something that only others can see in you and that’s what wins souls to Christ. You going around saying you’re a Christian when you sin every day and then judge others only turns folk away from Jesus.
We ought to be preaching the Good News of salvation Jesus provided. We are saved by what Jesus did not by our following of the words in red. No-one gets saved by plucking out their eye or chopping off their hand. We are saved by believing our sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus. We need to tell others what Jesus did for them.
If you’re preaching any way other than the words in red you are not teaching what Jesus taught. If you’re doing anything different than treating others like you would like to be treated you are following false doctrine. You can only be saved by believing in Jesus. If you think the words in red are not the commandments of your savior then you are following a false religion much like republican conservative fake christians that believe in putting down those less fortunate, bragging about how big a christian they are and worshiping the rich.
Then you are damned cuz you probably have not chopped off body parts to save your soul from the fire. Do you also pray to the Father to forgive you just as you forgive others? If your forgiveness is based on that, then you are damned.
I have been crucified with Christ so I do not have to amputate anything.
I already have forgiveness thru Christ’s blood whether I forgive others first or not so I do not ask for what I have already received.
What is it Jesus asked to chop off? Try reading what Jesus actually said to do, you know the words in red. The average Bible illiterate can’t name the only 2 commandments of Jesus, yet go around telling others how to live and bragging about how good they are living.
I’m a fake Christian because I absolutely cannot believe the Bible but my “atheism” started to have disastrous effects on my social life. People thought lower of me. So now I’m going to just fake believing in order to avoid persecution by all the Christians in my life. Any advice at all? What makes you believers? How can I convince myself it’s the truth?
You sin. You are going to die. Jesus took your sin and died then rose again to defeat death. No other hope to live forever without promising us a resurrection, is there?
Strange how I came across this site today,as I was feeling very much alone as a Christian,I grew up as a Jew and when I found Jesus 8 years ago,every Jew wanted nothing to do with me,including my own family.When I found Jesus I really began to change in so many ways,that my wife and everyone around me recognized the changes in me.When you truly know Jesus ,your heart is really filled with love.I pray all the time and know the truth,so all those people who are no longer in my life have no affect on me as I draw all my peace and sanity from Jesus ,who is so alive in my life .I have been healed and literally came back from death.Matthew 7 says ,Do not judge others so God will not judge you,for God will Judge you with the same measure as you Judge others.So I started to just pray for the lost,this includes many a christian and pastors who are lost in the ways of the world.When they actually meet Jesus ,they will experience the change that I went through,I love the way John explains it,those who continue to sin after they have met Jesus,never knew him at all.Keep praying and God will show up in your lives,as God says draw close to me and I will draw close to you.For those who want me to pray for them , I am on Face -Book,my name is Jonathan Swartzman and I live for Jesus.
Author
Thank you very much Jonathan for sharing about what God has done in your life. I’m sure many people will find it encouraging just like I did. May God continue to bless you richly ?
I have encountered professing Christians in whose mouth butter would not melt. They constantly use flowery little Pics with Quotes on their social network page, they do continuous lip service to how “great God is” and how “His mercies are new each day” but the reality of their life, their behavior is in conflict with their image. I’m not talking about how the genuine Christian stumbles and has faults but strives ever to be more Christlike by the power of the Spirit. I’m talking about narcissistic people who dress up as Christians but inside, they are nothing like Christ. Literally, they think they can live a dual life, and without sounding like I think God can’t change even the most stubborn heart, I have my doubts about His success rate with that kind of deluded soul.
Author
I wonder Mary if you can even classify those kinds of Christians that you referred to in your comment as Christians in the first place. To me, they sound like they are tears among the wheat. Sounds to me like they might be false converts.
Fake Christians , I have lived with them . I became a Christian and it was my desire to marry into a Christian family . I was so excited to live with people who know Jesus as their Lord since generations . But my experience was far from anything nice . I realised none were born again in their family including my husband . He was just a guy who knew how to talk like s Christian . I didn’t know that anyone can sound Christian coz some people were born in church culture . But that’s all you get . Inside they are full of the world . They idolise their status in church and pulpit , love to be called ministers / servants ..most self centred . I prayed and waited things will change but no use , they are deaf and blind . They talk of Jesus twenty four hrs a day but Iam sure even if Jesus came to live among them they won’t recognise Him , Iam so disheartened . Praying for the Lord to lead me to right people in his kingdom who have the born again nature . I don’t know at times I get angry on such people and at times I pity them , coz they are so blind
You are not a fake Christian first of all . Fake Christians don’t say they are fake , infact they have holier than thou attitude . You just are not a believer yet , but sure ur genuine to confess what’s in ur heart , that’s the last thing a fake Christian will do , they speak the opposite of what their actions reflect . You guess you just need to invite the Holy Spirit to lead you to the truth, coz no one can say Jesus is Lord unless it is Revealed thru the Spirit . What you have is information on Jesus and the bible , but when the Holy Spirit Reveals it you , opens the eyes of ur spirit , conviction will come . Just be sincere and seek the Holy Spirit .
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How to spot a fake Christian: when they make articles like this!
We don’t get special powers to change overnight when we decide we want Jesus Christ in our life so unless you were walking with me on a daily basis you wouldnt know how to spot these things even if you tried.
The facts are if you “looking” for a fake Christian, you’re probably one of them.
Only God can judge the heart of a man so if you are not being led by the Holy Spirit to recognize if you should have a encounter with a person or not, then please be quiet and sit down.
So many are focused on finding flaws, lol they looked for and rationalized Jesus’s faults even though He didn’t have any. When it comes to “man” all they can see is what they want to see so if you looking for bad that’s what you will find because that’s all you want to see.
Praying for all yall that are! Love ya!
You do get a super power to change overnight. His name is Holy Spirit. You don’t get saved by wanting Christ in your life. You get saved by trusting He took your sins away to save you and He defeated death to give you eternal life.
Good morning,thank you for this message today.It is what has been missing in my walk.
If thats the case B.O. then why is there a cause for repentance or dying daily.. Nothin is completed overnight with/without the Holy Spirit. Even JESUS CHRIST had to walk out the plan even tho it was already done.. We walk by faith not by super powers.. Which is why so many leave the church so easily.. Because people like you share the lie of a microwave change… But I digress.. My comment was for the writter.. Good day..
People leave the “church” cuz they are fed a diluted Gospel by self-righteous pharisees who tell them to die daily and repent etc to be saved. They never get saved and never receive the Spirit (get born again). If they are saved, they need to live by faith that they have a super power within.
Yep. Pentacostals and many others are taught to become good people by groveling and giving lots of money to those who live off the sins of the people. Not good. No one can live up to the hype. I know of one respected person who took his own life. To this day the church has no clue. Others in church authority have fallen as well. They promote their own godliness. All following a false religion. Some are likey saved from themselves. They know they need Jeaus. Most are simply dont smoke dont chew and dont go with those that do. At this point I am happier being around real people drinking a beer. I think that might be closer to what Jesus did. I’ve had my fill of Church Christians.
I cant recall what i typed that led me here, but im here. I read all the above comments took a moment after each one to absorb it respectfully out of my respect for fellow Christians thoughts. After now 8 years born again having died, my flesh is still of this world but it is the spirit in me that has changed. I feel living up to other Christians expectations and their acknowledgement plus appreciation is somewhat of lessor importance i have my reasons to suggest this. The god that i know wants me to live and be what i can be from what i have been given. Honestly? I feel like theres no rules? I understand the laws written in the scriptures, but in a way it is as though im now on auto-pilot and the rights and wrongs i just somehow understand As its deeply rooted in my heart. I pick up the bible not out of guilt but every time for the joy of that moment of wanting to hear gods words again. In every despair and every sad moment that i have experienced there has also been an equal amount of clarity from looking for passages in the scriptures to guide me. In those moments of my utmost sadness i have all shared with god, and arise with new wisdom. The current topics in media that is truly testing bibilical faith is Homosexuality, abortion, war. I dont wish to share my views on those topics but those topics have lost us much fellow brothers and sisters and children of god, i think that alone addresses if we have conducted ourselves gracefully or not by the will of god. The only thing im still certain about? Is that learning is important as understanding and it is till the day we leave this earth.
This s an interesting and complete range of posts. The original list is also very interesting.
I lve in Lithgow NSW Australia where there is the Uniting Church. The Ordained Minister denies the Virgin Birth claiming even the Ceasars said they were born of Virgin. He denies the physical Resurection of Jesus. Even though each Easternhe will stand up and proclaim loudly “He is risen ndeed”. And last but not least he denies the ascension of Jesus to return back to God the Father. Yet he calls himself a Christian. How does this resolve with reference to the list above?
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Michael, this pastor does not sound like a Christian. All the evidence points in the other direction, especially that he denies the resurrection of Jesus.
Thank you for posting this article. It has helped me with a difficult friendship I have struggled with over the last couple of years. My family has grown close with a girlfriend of mine and her family. After knowing her for 3 or 4 years, I started to feel so much conviction after being around her in her “element”. Almost as if I was being spiritually attacked once I got home. I have finally realized that this friend claims to be a Christian and is actually not saved. Her behavior is very disturbing, drinking and using horrible foul language, some that is sexual in nature, even in front of our kids. She studied for years under the legalism of the church of Christ which is where I believe she was taught so much false doctrine. Since leaving the church, she has rebelled horribly and has very little trust for other Christians. What I don’t understand is why my other girlfriends don’t see it? I guess I have never actually asked her about when she was saved. I will be paying about how to move forward with this relationship in the future. Any advice you have is appreciated. Thank you
Author
Hi Dianna, from your comment, it sounds like the Lord gave you discernment about this girlfriend of yours. Maybe you can pray for her and also pray about sharing the gospel with her since she isn’t saved.
Thanks ? As a devout devil worshipper I now know how to fool those Christians in church and in public!! Very good read Peter, keep up the good work!!
I agree with you. The more I try to better myself, the more flaws I find. It’s almost like I am trying to achieve perfection but I am conscientious that I will never be…I sun with my words, with my mind and with my flesh.
Good afternoon,thank you for Not Ashamed of the Gospel.This alone has been a wonderful help to me.God Bless may everyone you love be blessed with health and safety.
William J.Glennon
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You are most welcome, William, God bless you!
So you are saying that Christ was born in vain. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are 3 in one. All three are our Savior, but they reside as one. Jesus was conceived as human so He could save us all from falling short of God’s standard. Keyword is all. Without Jesus we would be condemned to hell, which was not meant for humans, only the devil and God’s fallen angels. When you believe in God I would think you would have to believe in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, as they are all the same. If there were no Jesus, there certainly wouldn’t be any humans in heaven. It’s all written in the Bible, but maybe you need some help discovering it.
If I were you, I would read more of the Bible my friend. A couple things I noticed in your writing is that you think Jesus isn’t God. Jesus actually said that he and the Father are one. You also mentioned that the word “virgin” only means young girl. Well if that were the case, then why did Joseph have a dream of the angel telling him to not leave Mary because of her “virgin birth”? The only reason why he would have left her would be if she was unfaithful and was with another man, but the dream was specifically to tell him that this was a conception by the Holy Spirit. Make sense now?
Actually you should notice your sins less and less as you grow closer to God. For in Hebrews it says we should have no more consciousness of sin. This grace message does not set you free to sin as you would have it, but this grace and Gods love knowing His Blood has set you free from ALL sin , sets you free from sin. I have actually began to sin less accidentally then I ever have on purpose before once I believed these truths. 1 Timothy states that the grace of God teaches us to DENY ungodliness and unrighteousness.
I totally get what you are saying though, I was on that side of the fence before until I found in and they the Word that I am free from sin by the Blood of Christ.
Blessings.
You know you are truly saved when God won’t leave you alone. Also a child of God has wants in them like reading the Bible praying witnessing etc. even if they don’t do them that want is still there. Or that voice that says I need to pray. Or I need to read Gods word etc.
also to grow in the lord and to understand salvation study study study.
God. Will show you. Also it is a great thing that you are bothered by this. It shows you love God and you just might be saved but doubting because you don’t understand Gods word so your faith is not secure or strong in God. Go to face book look up Travis Holloway. Ten. He will help you. Also I love to hear Greg Laurie sermons.
God bless you and keep you
Thank you for the help it means a lot 🙂 I know I have new desires or at least stronger desires than before to read God’s word witness and pray etc sometimes I just pray without realising at times like a natural instinct I also THINK I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit because I was doing something I knew I shouldn’t and didn’t really want to because it wasn’t right in God’s eyes but I had a wobble and I intended to do what I was going to but I felt in easy and just couldn’t do it where as normally I would of done it and had no feelings of I cant do this sort of thing so I am hoping that was the Holy Spirit because I know he is there if it was. Yea everyone says that about me the fact I am bothered means I am ok because it shows my love for God and I know I do love him and want to walk in his light I do have trouble with God’s word both understanding and knowing where to look for certain things I also heard someone say when they prayed for Jesus to forgive them and asked for the Holy Spirit they felt him fall on them I’ve never had that I don’t think is that a bad thing ? Thanks again 🙂
All we have to do is be born again through faith in what Jesus did to save us.
So is Donald Trump a true or Christian or not?
I don’t believe the bible. The bible is simply written by men. Was the world populated through incest or did God create others besides Adam and Eve? That is not logical and maybe jesus is a fake god.
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Are there any spiritual books that you do believe in?
Hi Mike, I hear what you are saying. I struggle with assurance too. I was a prolific sinner from my teens and believe that i grieved The Lord in the end. I began as a catholic, then converted to evangelical. I am now so ‘churched out’. I have never met so many liars in one single place. Most of my non-Christian acquaintances and work colleagues are more honest!
I asked Jesus into my heart, told Him i was so sorry for letting Him down and The Lord forgave me.
I try to listen or read His Word every day. Its the only thing that helps. Im done with ‘churchy’ people now. There are ‘tares’ in the church who are basically religious fruitcakes, sorry, but its true.
Please pray for me to find real Christians, and I will pray for you too. Jo ✝
Jo, have you prayed about finding a new church other than the one that you’ve been going to that has so many tares?
I pray that His will be done, i visit churches now. No commitment, but no giving or recieving fellowship either 😞
I know its obvious that i need to build relationships first. Catch 22!
Its just that i Can’t cope with any more fruitcakes messing with my head and distracting me from The Lord.
Im too scared (and too old)
Thanks for your reply
The Lord bless you and keep you ✝
Going to one church for four years; I began to see what I read in the bible about false teachers, and counterfeit believers. I noticed they didn’t rely on the Word for the problems in their life, nor did they encourage others with the Word. They were full of envy, gossip, and slander. I started seeing them as workers of inequity, bearing rotten fruit. I never knew how to see if someone’s fruit was good or not until I went to that church. God opened my eyes. I prayed for boldness to confront these leaders. They accused me of imagining everything I heard. Then started calling me names, and invalidating me. The Pastor asked if I was done airing my dirty laundry… I said yes, and left.. Humiliating, but necessary, I guess.. It hurt me so bad to do that. I had a lot of respect for those leaders. I guess they took it as well as any false teacher would – with arrogance, and blame shifting accusations. I never went back. They began a slander campaign to make even my church friends think I was evil. Even saying I tried to get him fired.. That lie hurt the most. He didn’t see what I was doing as an act of love.. This leader also contacted my family members telling them I was wicked. Everyone sided against me because they didn’t see these leaders after church like I did, or they believed God himself ordained this man to be an authority over us. (That verse gets misused/abused). No one else could see the hypocrisy they lived. How would you like knowing your Pastor called you names behind your back? Or slandered your character, and made you look irresponsible? This guy had so much bitter hate, it was bubbling out of his mouth. I send prayer cards to this Pastor still, telling him I forgive him for bearing false witness against me, and that I wish him well. He responds with more accusations that I am imagining everything, and that he only answers to God. I reminded him of Matthew 18:15, but was rebuked for trying to use it. Pastor claims there’s no way to biblically confront him for sin, and that God will sort him out. The bible doesn’t say this. 1 Timothy says to rebuke leaders that sin in front of the church, so others will fear. This false teacher pastor and leader have hurt me more than words can describe, but I still love him, and want him to acknowledge his sins that I’ve seen and heard. A word of warning: I have no church, no family, no friends because I confronted them. Do you love God enough to lose your happiness in this life, to gain a better one? It I knew I was going to lose everything except my life; I might not have confronted them. So I thank God it happened too fast for me to rationalize it. Jesus was sent by God as an example of perfect Christian living. He confronted hypocrites in the church. Like the article says: Jesus is our real $50 bill. We must examine him with all our mental ability to fight the counterfeits from slipping in. I thank God that he gives us the spiritual gift of discernment so we will not be fooled by the counterfeits.
Rejoice
Im sorry for everything you’ve been through.
I always believed in God. I left catholisism, because i knew something was wrong (I was a terrible witness for The Lord as a believer)
However, our priest was the most humble man I’ve ever known.
I joined an evangelical church, full of hugs, forgiveness and ‘joy’ and thought i’d come home at last. I came to full faith in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour there, not by any pastoral teaching, but by reading the New Testament and studying Theology.
that church fell to pieces and has not recovered seventeen years later.
I started just reading The Bible, taking it literally.
I joined another church, no breaking of bread, fellowship or prayer…i met a few religious nuts, who i allowed to distract me from My Lord and My God…had enough.
I have been found guilty of idolising Priests and pastors throughout my life. I refuse to continue do this.
‘Love The Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength’
Let’s pray for one another to find faithful believers in The One True God
The Lord bless you and keep you ✝
I don’t know what to think of myself. I believe I know the Lord but sometimes I look at my life and I just look like a hypocrite.
If I’m not saved but yet already firmly believe the Bible and have truly “tasted of the heavenly gift” how can I be saved? Every single day of my life is a struggle wondering “am I saved and does Jesus know me?”
My life did change drastically when I first believed and it still isn’t the same. I don’t want religion and I don’t want to be confirmed or comforted I just want the truth.
I need help. Please someone who truly knows the Lord reply to me.
Hi Garrett,
Your sins were all taken upon Jesus! That is what saves you! That removal of sin from you and Jesus’ defeat of death for you! That is the only way to be saved and given eternal life! Jesus did everything He could to save you and all that He did will save you! BELIEVE! That is all. Simple faith in His blood for the forgiveness of sins and defeat of death for eternal life! JESUS came down from Heaven as your Messiah to save you! Abraham believed God when He promised the world would be blessed though His seed. Now, it is your turn to believe that Jesus is that seed and that the blessing is FOR YOU!
Garrett,
thank you for being so honest (makes a refreshing change)…I get you and am struggling the same myself, however, this is what I know with all my heart;
The truth is this; Jesus Christ is THE sacrifice for human sin(s). Nothing and no-one else has or can pay the price for yours or mine. All humans have fallen short of The glory of The Lord God. We were all conceived in sin, so even before we were born, we were condemned to die eternally.
I know it seems unfair that we should pay for adam & eve’s sins when we didn’t commit that sin in the first place, but how much fairer is it that by one Man, all sins, committed by all humans who believe (in Him) are atoned for! (Romans 5).
Faith is the key for both of us. Lets pray that The Lord will increase our faith.
Please keep reading your Bible, don’t give up…faith comes from hearing The Word of God, and i am confident that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ ✝
The Lord bless you and keep you
Jesus Christ is God made into flesh…Immanuel- God with us
Questions 5 and 6 have no problems. I agree with everything you wrote on this blog.
“5. Is their fruit in their life?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22- 23). True Christians will have these spiritual fruits in their lives.”
I’m not going to claim that all true members of the Body of Christ possess all these fruits of the Holy Spirit. But i think the more you walk with the Lord, the more aware you want to be like Him, and you’d want these fruits in your life, you’d want self control so you don’t stumble others in your walk, you’d want joy so the enemy won’t rob you from any. You’d want love so people will be drawn to the ultimate love of Christ you emit, you’d want live when you speak the truth, so people are not condemned but be comforted and have hope by Christ’s love through you, etc. I was greatly comforted by a preacher who confirmed what i have been doing is not wrong. Which is: it’s okay to “nag” the Lord to Change you, get rid of your flesh thoughts, evil heart, sinful nature, aka your within(mark 7:20-23). Because the Lord is Faithful and He will. So i continually pray for His heart to replace my whole heart and my entire within, and Fill my every being with His Holy Spirit.The more closer we are to the Lord, the more we’ll be aware how much we hate even the slightest existence of our sinful nature that needs to be put to death.(Romans8)
“6. Are they becoming more like Jesus?
The true markings of a Christian is that he or she is becoming like their Master. If someone isn’t becoming more like Jesus, then chances are they are not a follower of Jesus.”
In response to why i totally agree with this is because, He daily Reminds me of that anticipated future meeting i will have with Him when I’m literally joined to Him, glued to Him for eternity 😊 . In addition to this, my daily life is continually being brought to exposure of things that need to be repented from and be Changed by Lord Jesus. The more i walk with the Lord God, the more I’m aware of my sinful nature and the more I’m desperate for the Lord to empty me and Change me. Because of my deceitful heart, i don’t have the ability to be aware of my flawed sinner self, it is the Spirit of the Lord God alone Who convicts me of my condition, and Bringing me to repentance. He’s already at work in my life, continually changing Molding me to become more and more like Him. The only way i find out this is because of the people surrounding me making comments like that. So it’s a very unique walk in life. God Makes me aware of my stinking attitudes and sins by His daily Grace and faithfulness, and He Leads me to repentance. That’s between God and me. So I’m humbled and i know i’m crippled and i can’t trust my own judgements without my Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, people do notice the Works of God in my life. That between the Lord God and the witnesses. So i thank God Jesus Christ because only He can Take what was a decomposing trash(me) and Continually in this journey will Make a gold(Job 23:10) out of me according to His timing and His Way.
Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light . The yoke and burden of men is hard and heavy, the doctrines and wisdom of men is foolishness to God. May we FULLY believe in the finished work of our Lord And saviour, our Advocate and Great High Priest who is the Authour AND finisher of our faith. It is by the faith of Him that is my victory, my justification, my peace. Who knows the mind or the heart but God alone.The Lord will always meet us at the place we are at when we cry out to him he will save us but pride is such a stumbling block for so many. Faith as that of a little child, childlike faith , confounds man! ‘ where can I boast in that’!!. Love in Christ. Philip.
My question is easy.
Did you support Trump?
Then yes, you are a fake Christian. Just like most evangelicals.
You don’t get to decide what a real Christian is, not to mention you didn’t write the bible.
You must be born again. You can like christian, talk christian, and kinda walk that way, but true born agains are the salt of the earth. Not for boasting, but for hard work in service to God the father. Saved by grace throughthe blood of Christ. I dont believe there is God——I am Born Again—–I KNOW it. hE revealed himself to me for his glory. That makes born agains a powerful witness with a iron clad testimony.
Jesus the Light of the World
…18I am One who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me also testifies about Me.” 19“Where is Your Father?” they asked Him. “You do not know Me or My Father, Jesus answered. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well.”
Born Agains know the father, —-we know others in Christ as well.
Your story made me cry. I pray you find real believers to minister to you in your area. Yet when we feel alone, if we have Jesus we are never truly alone.
To find scriptures you may try simply googling them. I’ve found it of great value even if I remember half a scripture, even often times when not remembering then word for word. I put in something like Bible if any lacks wisdom, the I find the scripture. A Bible study website should come up like Bible hub. Also speaking of lacking wisdom. I too, found it helpful just to ask God empty handed for wisdom in understanding scriptures. You may just humbly pray before studying. Sometimes I understood right away, sometimes some days later I was lead to read something with the answer. Some things I think I know but they may be bigger subject matter and I await confirmation. That is I want to be very certain I k ow that I know on those matters. Yet I’ve noticed God’s help.
Do you know of any Christian communities that live like they lived in Acts.?
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I personally don’t know of any currently, Sam. Have you tried searching on Google?
There is a great quote by George Mueller, “the beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.” Thought that might bring you some comfort. Realizing we have to let go, and let Jesus be in control! I have to remind myself of this a lot because I’m a naturally anxious person!
i really believe in christ from my deep heart but when go to church i feel nothing special even i feel people are fake and making fool around us specially when they talk about offering and say its very important to offer god….but i believe why we need to offer god because god make everything only god whan from us to follow his way,love each other, trust, believe and humble…..and help who really need help….give food to poor people…..and also i believe that people make this business in the house of god….i really dont know why i think like this even i dont know im write or wrong,,,,i cant trust the people pastors,fathers or any else from church specially when they talk about money????????please reply me
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If you’re having problems with the current church that you’re in, is it possible that it’s time to look for a new church that has people that you can trust?
peace-on-the-outside-comes-from-knowing-God-on-the-inside?
You should have said that, peace on the outside comes from the gift of the Resurrection or the gift of Jesus on the inside by the Holy Spirit!
You don’t know God unless the Holy Spirit is in you by The New Birth!
You don’t know God, God knows you, if the Spirit of God is in you then your Spirit and his Spirit are One!
See people can take the knowing God on the inside meaning that God is in all of us and that can be used as a false doctrine?
Sincerely;
Panhandle Saint Pete
Fake Christian RIGHT THERE.
Do you support the law or not ? Do you judge others or not ?
Men… You MUST distance yourselves from destructive women like this. Every time some well meaning but ultimately weak man saves one of these they multiply.
Sorry for the very late reply my email moved the notifications to my junk anyway @Peter the problem is I dont know if im born again because I did accept Jesus and believe the gospel as far as I know but theres so much confusion doubt and sin in my life my hunger isnt there anymore or its very minimal I wonder if im.one of those who had the word snatched away or fell of rocky ground from the parable Im just in such a state if im saved I can rest in Gods promises and just keep moving forward but if im not God wont even hear my prayers so I dont know what starting point should be because I dont know if im born again or not I just dont know what to do 🙁
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Hi Mike, sounds to me like it was God’s providence that you would come back and make your way to find this comment. So if you are living in sin, can you just repent and return to your first Love?
Well im not living in sin exactly I keep falling repenting falling repenting on and on it goes Im ok for 2 weeks or so then the desires get to much to bare so I cave in and I dont know I keep asking God for help and strength and I still fall I feel crushed and want God to pull me out but ive asked Him for lots of things sucj as help Him to reveal Himself give me assurance of salvation and nothing has really changed I dont know if God is waiting for something or what the issue is im just so confused
Author
Well if you keep on repenting then that’s a good sign that you are humbling yourself before God and see your need for Him. You don’t lose your salvation every time you fall into sin. Plus, we all fall short of the glory of God every day.
If you’d like to speak more privately because you want to discuss the situation further, feel free to send me a message using the Contact link on the blog. Or, you can continue to have this conversation through the comments section of the blog like we are doing now. I just wanted to give you a more private option if you wanted to take it.
Thank you that means a lot I may e mail privately soon my problem is I repent but then in time go back to the same sin again and again is that real repentance if I keep going back ? I want to hate my sin and love God but I feel my flesh is to powerful I have asked God for deliverance and help but I have not improved I’m just confused on why I have gone back to old sins and cant seem to get out God would surely help me if I am His but He dosent seem to be I’m just extremely confused :S
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Mike, do you remember when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive somebody for the same offense? Peter thought that it was up to 7 times. But then Jesus replied by saying that it was more like 7 x 70 which is 490 times!
Most Bible commentators believe that the 490 times isn’t an exact figure but that God is saying that we should continuously forgive others for their offenses even if it’s the same offense. If God is saying that we should have this practice, then how much more does this reveal how God is gracious and merciful to us?
Honestly, Mike, I think there are some sins in my life that I have repeated hundreds and maybe even thousands of times. I have confessed those sins to the Lord and I even get tired of confessing them. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lacked repentance because I keep on repeating the same behavior. But repentance just means that I changed my mind. Sometimes, it’s taken me years to gain victory in an area. The flesh is so weak sometimes.
I think the enemy is trying to discourage you and to make you feel like you are not repentant because you keep on repeating the same sin over and over again. But just don’t give up and keep on confessing and trying to stop that bad habit that you keep on falling into. Keep turning to Jesus and keep on confessing your sin. Eventually, you will gain victory.
Yea that is true I understand its a pretty bad sin im battling an addiction I would say theres other sins in my life but that one is the worst that does make sense Gods forgiveness is unlimited if someone truly asks for it and doesn’t abuse it I think you maybe right the enemy has me beaten up in a lot of ways I definitely wont give up though and I will keep seeking Him 🙂
Jesus took ALL your sin upon Himself almost 2,000 years ago. BEFORE you even existed! THAT is what brought you forgiveness! So any sin you ever commit is already paid for! It is already taken off your account cuz it was put on Him! Just BELIEVE it! Trust He saved you! Your sin is gone! And your death has been defeated by His Resurrection! Eternal Life is yours! ALL cuz JESUS came and lived the perfect life on your behalf, died with your sin, and rose to defeat death for you!!!
I have a question. My roommate and friend claims that she is a born again Christian and hears god talking to her. However, she also claims that she is a very humble person and she is superior to other people, including her friends and family, because she is “pure and holy” and we aren’t. Is that humble? Do humble people claim they are humble? I always thought it was something said about us, not from us about ourselves. Is boasting about being humble actually a sign of humility? Is boasting about our purity and holiness actually a sign of a truly spritual person?
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Sorry Klara, that doesn’t sound like humility to me.
I agree in prayer for you.
You mentioned, “listen to John MacArthur on youtube.” John MacArthur is dealing with a scandal involving millions of dollars paid to his son in law and his University has its acredidation in suspension due to breaking the laws of the Clergy Act. You raise interesting questions that brings much to think about. The Catholic church was the only form of Christianity during the time of Christ for over 400 years after Jesus was crucified and it continues today with its continuing popes going all the way back to Jesus. It is the only recognized continuation of Christianity from an Apostle after the instructions by Jesus. We know that Jesus told Peter, And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. – and Peter did just that – he built the church for Jesus, the Catholic church. More importantly, the gates of hell has not prevailed against it. Every Christian religion that has fallen away from the Catholic church after 400 years has been man made with a growing distortion of the bible with over 30 thousand man made changes to the original bible of the Catholic Church – the true Apostolic church built by the Apostle Peter upon this request by Jesus. This is why all of the Apostles letters were compiled there with the creation of the only bible at that time. Following the many man made changes to the bible to include the KJV in the 1600’s, King James not only provided his approval to the publication of the KJV but included these changes with mythology – unicorns. King James, a lover of mythology and called “Queen James,” by Sir Walter Raleigh for his preference for men over women, also believed it was important to re-publish another book on Demonology called, “Daemonologie,” as king James involved himself with witchcraft and witch hunts. There is a lot to think about if you were to travel back in time. What form of Christianity would you follow before a man created a newer version to the bible of the religion you follow today? Remember Revelation 22:19; “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book.” The first, original and only bible on this earth until Martin Luther made the first change was the Catholic bible. The bibles that followed have over 30 thousand changes to the original wording and are absent of 7 books to include Gods word that Jesus preached from when He gave readings as proclaimed in the bible. The KJV mentions these readings from Jesus with these missing books when Jesus read from the scrolls, yet incredibly, they are absent in the KJV. God bless.
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John, may I please ask you, are you born again?
Why did the Catholic church kill tons of people? Why does it look very much like pagan ancient Babylon? Why does it set a pope in the place of Jesus, the only mediator between God and man? Why does it not look like the love of God?
This is exactly why I can’t stand some “Christians.” You walk around judging others and deciding whether or not they are going to hell. Who do you think you are? Are you God? Can you know what someone believes in there heart? Can you know what people are really struggling with? Can you know how many demons a saved person is battling? Are you perfect? Can you cast the first stone? Do you not have any sin in your life? Have you never sinned? Who elected you as judge, jury, and executioner? You did. I was looking for an uplift concerning some problems I’m experiencing with a “Christian” organization, but instead all I got was just more of the same kind of judgmental crap I’m trying to escape. Your judgement will fall on your own head.
If you think a Christian ought not to share their faith, you have no idea what happens to a person as soon as they trust Jesus saved them…just as the rest of the world has no idea. They have no clue what Christianity is. It’s not some religion you just decide to join or not. Jesus came and paid the death penalty we are all under on our behalf! He then defeated death by resurrecting! So, all who trust in Him alone for everlasting life will have it. And you will be changed inside forever!
What if you have peace about your salvation but not peace or joy in your circumstances?
I know someone who professes to be a Christian and yet takes pride in attacking my faith in order to steal, kill and destroy it by saying “God never loved you.”
Them saying God never loved you shows their fruits which reveals them to be liars and antichrists who goes against what Jesus said in John 3:14-21 that says:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
John 3:14-21
So you say, that those who believe in Jesus without obeying him are unsaved. Why, then, does he also send to hell those who obey him without believing?
If there are no sheep (believers) who do not love the “least of these” among the population (the parable of the sheep and the goats), why is it that there are goats (unbelievers) who DO the virtuous things listed among the sheep, but are still sent to Gehenna anyways because they somehow still aren’t sheep?
If I reject a False Christ presented to me by False Christians, and simply proceed to follow my conscience according to what light I am shown (John 3:19-21, Romans 2:15), obey Jesus in everything BUT name, still hoping that God is atoned with me, why would Jesus reject me and hand me over the exact same unlimited torture for punishment (contrary to Luke 12:47) as those who worship Christ in name only, say “Lord, Lord” and are rejected for their evil attitudes and abuses?
If a false Christ is the only one I know, is it not idolatry to follow him?
i’m happy a lot of people found jesus and i hope a lot more will go to heaven.
I know and I can see and I can spot a fake Christians aside the scriptures given in the bible and also by experience going to various denomination churches. It’s very simple and easy to spot them just by their actions, (words, thinking, and attitude) not to judge them. Of course I can only pray for their real true conversion and changes in their live. To God be the glory forever, Amen.
There is this guy named Jack Wellman he is a fake pastor using his Google account to threaten you because you don’t believe the nonsense he put on his fake page. He has a mental illness he’s very sick. People got to make sure they don’t talk to him and don’t believe anything he says.