DO YOU REALLY FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST? PART II

Enter by the Narrow Gate that leads to Life

EASY CHRISTIANITY FOR PROTESTANTS

In part 1 we have seen how the people who want to follow Jesus deserted him later. Some wanted to but could not follow him because the burden of the Cross is just so hard and difficult to carry for ordinary mortals. It is just hard to accept that to follow Jesus is to carry our own cross. The Protestants, however, found the answer, where there is no need to carry our own cross, and still follow him. They have taken the cross from Jesus. They brought him down and only accept him minus the cross that Jesus said we too must carry in order to follow him.

They have found the way by combining the teaching of St. Paul with the word alone perpetrated by Martin Luther who came up with "We are justified by grace through faith alone". By adding the magical word "alone" at the end of the actual verse, Luther has made a perfect doctrine for those that want to follow Jesus without the cross. It was, in fact, one of the Pillars of Protestantism, Faith Alone or Sola Fide. By Faith "alone" we have been justified or made righteous by God and there is no need to do anything else. Since its a free gift from God, it is permanent. All we have to do now is to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and presto we are permanently saved even if we sin. Because our sin has been owned by Jesus Christ. Here is the teaching of Martin Luther that will really make you winced and twist:

”If you are a preacher of Grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says, we look for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. . . . Pray boldly-you too are a mighty sinner.” (Weimar ed. vol. 2, p. 371; Letters I, “Luther’s Works,” American Ed., Vol 48. p. 281- 282)

SIN BOLDLY! Martin teaches. He found an answer to his own weakness. He was deeply in sin and something in him that he could not control. His urged to sin so he was looking for a way out. How can he sin and still be saved? Presto Faith Alone and with that, we are saved not by works of righteousness but by grace. This is the precursor of another heresy, once saved always saved. But this is a complete opposite of the bible Romans 6:1-2 that states "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?"

The Protestant way of following Jesus is proven to be for convenience as we have shown in Part 1 that is why many Protestant bible believing Christians are really pseudo-Christians and heretics. They transfer from one church to another because they are looking for convenience, for their own preconceived idea according to their desire of what it is to be saved and still live the life they want to live. There the Protestantism of Luther exactly suited them for he was like them. 

HOW THEN DO WE REALLY FOLLOW JESUS?

To Follow Jesus is not just to believe in him, but to love him. When he was asked what is the greatest of the commandments, He answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like, unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Between faith and love, love is the greatest as 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; 13 states:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.

And now these three remain faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

There, we must have faith, hope, and love with Jesus Christ but first, we must love him. And how do we know that we love him? He said, If you love me you will obey all my commandments. Jesus demands obedience from those who will follow him. Just as God in creation demands obedience, Jesus the son of God wants obedience for his followers which is how he measures our love for him. So what are his commandments? Are you following all his commandments or are you only picking up some that are convenient and beneficial to you? If so then you are not truly following Jesus Christ. 

I AM THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

If we follow the way of the Lord, that way will lead us to his church which is the Pillar and Foundation Truth. The church, therefore, is the narrow gate, the truth that leads to eternal life in the kingdom of God. The key to that kingdom is given to the church and there is no other way that we can follow Jesus except by entering through the narrow gate of the church that he founded. That is why in the general sense, Jesus told the crowd that where he is going they can’t follow because only those who are called and have answered the call will be able to follow him in his church. He has spoken in so many ways that many will seek for him, but where he was going, they can’t follow. They won’t find him anymore. Only a few will be able to enter the narrow gate, the church that leads to life AND THAT LIFE IS JESUS in the Kingdom of God.

Many will enter the wide gate that leads to destruction and many go through it because they were deceived by the Rebel houses, Protestant churches and the religions that proliferated as the poison products of rebellion against the true church of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church. The wide gate is widened by countless heresies of the Protestants and pseudo-Christians and because they are so attractive to eat and look delicious many enter the wide gate of rebels not knowing that they are following a different Jesus, one of their creation not the real Jesus Christ.

=To be continued....

By Bro. Manny, OTFS Chief Apologist

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