Frank – You mean will I be personally alive?
I took that to mean on the Day of Judgment.
Frank – That’s correct. I think what a Christian should try to understand is that the Day of Judgment that we refer to is someday in the future, but it is in fact upon us at the moment. The moment that we talk about between now and when we go to our Day of Judgment will either be in the next moment, or it will seem like the next moment. One way or the other, it’s the next moment. If you go to sleep at night, you spend eight hours in bed, but the next morning it feels like you were only there for two minutes. God is not subject to time. So we’re standing before that judgment as we speak, we just don’t know it yet. I believe that we catch up to that time. We’re actually creating our judgment as we go. So it becomes really important for a person to understand that the action you do now, you really are making a difference. Back to your question, Something’s Coming Our Way … in my perspective, it’s coming our way and it’s already here. It is what we make it.
I’ve never really talked to anyone who practiced Orthodox Christianity. I know that we do things differently here in the south, but this is pretty different from what I’ve learned from other sources. It's more in-depth in a lot of ways. One of the things I’ve had trouble with is that in many churches I’ve attended, God is portrayed as this really mean old guy who’s just waiting for a chance to “get you” and Jesus is portrayed as the total opposite side of the coin – kind of a wimp who really doesn’t care what you do, as long as you say your “I’m sorry’s” and they sound convincing enough. Fire insurance is the phrase that comes to mind.
Frank – I have studied for many years. Not necessarily my own understanding of the Orthodox faith, but the other faiths as well. In my opinion, you’re right with what you said. They have turned Jesus into a modern college professor, slightly into gay rights. This is just not what it is. One of the most used precepts that came out of “new age Christianity” - (you can call it born-agains, you can call it new age, whatever you want to call it) – was the precept or concept of “unconditional love”. Now that sounds very good on the outside and it sounds very promising. But it’s wrong. The love of God has been conditional from the beginning of time. The condition is simply obedience to God. It’s a condition precedent to Adam and everyone who came after him. Every prophet, ever seer, every apostle, disciple and writer, including Jesus himself, spoke of these conditions. Yet, in our society, people have this idea of unconditional love. Don’t worry about what you do, anything goes, because you can say you’re sorry. This is a mistake. God will forgive you, if you mean it. There’s the condition again. IF YOU MEAN IT. It’s conditional love. They have changed the religion of God. We know where the changes are coming from – the adversary. That’s who has an interest. The adversary is the one who has an interest in teaching children that they came from monkeys. If Genesis is not true, neither is Jesus. He attacks the foundation. If you can break the foundation, you break the whole castle. What is it that breaks the castle of Jesus? The Genesis story, the Word of God as told in the beginning, is the foundation of why Christ came. If there is no need for Christ, because there is no need for a Genesis story, everything goes. It all goes down the tubes. People will prove things to people by showing them scientific stuff. Science is amazing and I like science. But liking science is like liking a ruler. I like a ruler because it tells me how long an object is, but it doesn’t create my object! There’s a difference. If a man has to go about proving to people that God exists, that person will not come to faith. He’ll come to conviction, but not to faith. Faith is the most important thing a person can have. The demonstration of that faith that a man submits to is trust. A person who is not trusting of God can not be trusting of anything. It’s not about belief. God doesn’t want our belief. The bible says “Even the demon believe and shudder”. He doesn’t want us to say, “We know Jesus”. That’s not enough! When Jesus came to cast out demons and they said “What have you to do with us Son of the Most High”? They knew him! Because they knew him, he doesn’t say, “Oh, you know me! Hey – where did I meet you before? Don’t worry. You can stay there”. They knew him but he still cast them out. There’s a lesson in these parables. They are more than really pretty stories.
