The Tragedy of the Lost Soul

 More than anyone else in this world, the Christian should understand the tragedy of the lost soul. The Christian has had new life given to them freely when he/she was saved. For me, it was like a whole new world had been exposed to me and it was. A new life was given to me and every other person who has experienced salvation through Jesus. Our spiritual eyes have been opened and life has been given to our spirit. The Holy Spirit came to live within us and has allowed us to see and understand who God is and to know He is real. But the unsaved person is lost. They are spiritually dead and can’t know anything about God. We can tell them about Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us but unless God, through His Holy Spirit, draws them to Him, they will continue to be spiritually dead.

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.  He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.   Eph 2:1-2

They are not only spiritually dead but they refuse to listen to anything concerning God. They continue to reject Him and mock Him and criticize those who have been saved. They call Him a fairytale and claim He doesn’t exist. They refer to Christianity as a cult and those involved are being brainwashed and are being falsely indoctrinated. They claim if you’re a Christian, you ignore or don’t believe in science. Now, that is a dumb statement. Any Christian who knows the creation account knows that God, through His Son Jesus created the universe in six days. When that is broken down, there is a lot of science there. He spoke it all into existence. He made something from nothing. But the nonbelieving naysayers reject this account and want us to believe that two objects collided in space and the result was a big bang and when the dust cleared, there was the universe. I think I’ll stay with creation by Jesus. But how can they believe when they are spiritually dead? We can’t expect these people to believe what the Bible tells us about science. Whether it’s creation by God or what God says to Job about His creation.

We should never attempt to argue any of these points since they will never believe or agree until they have been spiritually enhanced by the Holy Spirit. That’s what happened to each of us who are now saved. Before we were saved, we didn’t believe or even understand any of this or whatever the Bible says. We were lost souls stumbling through this life in our sin. We truly believed, as many still do, that we were in control of our lives and we didn’t need any kind of ‘religion’ to help us. How wrong we were. We didn’t have a clue about how wrong we were and those who are still lost don’t have a clue.

I remember a story I once heard about a young Christian girl who repeatedly told her elderly neighbor man about Jesus. He always told her he was fine and didn’t need Jesus. Finally, on his deathbed, she visited him one last time and urged him to reconsider. Then she quoted this Bible verse to him.

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.  Heb 9:27-28

The old man opened his eyes and said, “Judgement! I will be judged!” He then asked the young girl to pray for him and he was saved. We never know at what moment in time Jesus will save the lost soul. We pray for them and never stop praying for their salvation. In love and kindness, we continue to tell them about Jesus and His gospel message. But we must remember it is not us, the person, who does the work of salvation, it is God.

I read an article on a secular web site today about the gathering at Asbury University. This gathering is being called a revival and has attracted people from across the country. These people have traveled to the university to be a part of this revival. The article shared some details, made some dumb statements and as always when I read anything about the Church or Christianity on a nan-Christian site, I always read the comments which follow. This gathering was referred to as a cult gathering, a gathering of illiterates, and God referred to as nonexistent and a pie in the sky fairytale. Not one of those comments surprised me nor did they anger me. What else should I expect from non-believing people of this culture and this society? They don’t know God and have probably never been proper introduced.

They have grown up in a culture where church, Jesus or the Bible has never been a part of their family lifestyle. Maybe they are or were college students and were or are being indoctrinated and taught to believe God does not exist and for those who do believe He does, they are uneducated simpletons looking for a religious crutch to get them through life. So, after 20+ years of this type of indoctrination, what else should we expect from them? But that shouldn’t stop us from telling them about Jesus. They will hit a bump in their road of life and will experience serious issues and situations. These will leave them wondering how to deal with it or who to turn to. Be there for them and help them understand that Jesus loves them and has actually died for them. But they must also know He rose from the grave, defeating death and giving us eternal life with Him. He has the answer or solution to our problem before we even go to Him.

The lost souls of this world come in all different types of lifestyles. They are not all indoctrinated college students or professors. Some are every day people who believe they need no God in their lives, some are addicted to drugs and alcohol with no hope at all and need to hear about Jesus. And some are simply squeaky clean, good people who believe they are in total control of their lives.

Everyone knows the first verse in this passage but pay attention to the verses which follow.

 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.   JN 3:16-19

Jesus came the first time to save but when He returns again, it will be to judge. After death, everyone is judged. The believers will not be judged for their sin because Jesus took that sin upon Himself at the cross and when God the Father sees us, He doesn’t see our sin, He sees the righteousness of Jesus which He has covered us with when we were saved. But those who die in their sin, rejecting Jesus, will be judged for their sin. This will be their fate on the day the Lord judges all those who refused to accept Jesus and died in their sin.

I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.   Rev 20:12-15

This is not a fairy tale like so many now believe. The extreme suffering which follows the judgement is eternal and never ending. Hold your hand over an open flame, if you can, and imagine that torment forever. But here’s a fact which many, even Christians, don’t get. We all deserved this eternal torment. Not one of us deserved salvation but because of the love God has for us, His prized creation, He sent His only Son to die in our place to pay the price for our sin. And it is only by His grace and our faith in Jesus we are able to be saved from this eternal torment. One final point. Many claim this is a cruel god and how could he allow people to suffer this eternal torment? Sin cannot stand in the presence of God and many lost sinners would never want to anyway. He is a just God, not a fairytale god.

If you have read this far and don’t have a relationship with Jesus or don’t know Him as your savior, He is real and He is waiting with arms wide open ready to save you from the wrath of the Father and give you new life. You will no longer have to be a lost soul who has only to look forward to a tragic eternity. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sin and He will save you. It’s that simple. This is a God of love and mercy. He is not a god with a cattle prod waiting for us to mess up. He is a forgiving God who loves us. Come now and be forever saved.

-Bill Petite

 

The Amazing Love of God

Have you ever taken the time to reflect on the amazing love of God in your life? Of course, if you’re not a Christian, this question might not apply to you since you are not saved. But it’s not too late. More on this later. It is my opinion that many Christians fail to stop and consider the love that God has for them and has had for them in their lives. When I stop and think, or are reminded by God, of the love He has displayed and shown me in my life, I’m in awe. I will apologize in advance for using myself as an example but for me, I am the best example I’m most familiar with. But understand, this not about me but about God.

I was reminded this morning of all that God has brought me through in my life. That includes before and after I was saved. You see, I believe God choose me for salvation before the foundation of the world.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.  Eph 1:4-5

Was I aware of this situation in my life before I was saved? No. Even following my salvation it was after some intense Bible study that I was able to understand this. But the point is, after all I had been through or done in my life prior to my salvation, God still called me and delivered me to Jesus for salvation. A salvation which is for all eternity. I know and I realize there are numerous disagreements with the process of salvation and its eternal security but that’s not what this is about.

Christians need to realize that regardless of what we might have done in our past or what we might have experienced, God’s love for us is greater than anything this world can oppose it with. I believe my first experience with hearing from God was when I was about seven years of age. Following a Sunday morning church service and after hearing my uncle preach about heaven and hell, I decided I needed Jesus in order to stay out of hell. That’s called fire insurance and I’m not so sure I had really given my life to Jesus. But that didn’t matter because the Lord had called me and the time would come, on His timetable not mine, when I would surrender my life to Jesus and be saved.

As I have looked back on my life and now as a Christian, I can see the many times the Lord was there for me and I didn’t even recognize Him. As a young boy and on into my teen years, life was pretty good for me. We weren’t a wealthy family but we always had what we needed. But at the age of fifteen, my dad died as a result of an auto accident. God strengthened my mother and she reassured us that Jesus was taking care of us. To me, those was just soothing words. The truth of those words never hit home. But Jesus was taking care of us. It was just me and my younger brother at home at the time.

Two years later, my mom passed away from cancer. Now, at the age of seventeen, I had lost both of my parents and my future looked extremely dim. I didn’t have a clue as to what I would do from there. My mom had always encouraged us to do good and do our best but now she was gone, and I didn’t know where to turn. I was eventually given a choice to make by my older brother. I could allow him to get me a job where he worked or join the military. The military? The war in Vietnam was still raging on but I wasn’t ready to punch a time clock yet either. I wasn’t even able to make that kind of decision in my life yet. But I did and I chose the military at a time when any person representing a military branch was looked upon as being the lowest level of society. But I choose to be a Marine and to this day have never regretted making that choice.

I believe God was directing my path at that young age and I truly didn’t realize what I was about to experience. I had lost my father and two years later, my mother and one year after that, I found myself in the middle of the war zone with the Marines. For those four years of my life, it seemed that the theme was death. Were my thoughts attempting to try and figure out why God was doing this to me? No, not at all. I didn’t know God and never gave Him much of a second thought. Until I got to Vietnam. While I was in Vietnam, I prayed every day to a God I didn’t really know. All I knew were the things I heard my uncle say when he was preaching and the things I heard my mother telling us.   

I believed Jesus was real but that was the extent of my belief. My older sister had her pastor come to the house and baptize me before I went to Vietnam but all that resulted in was me having water sprinkled on my head. I still wasn’t saved. During my time in Vietnam, God walked me step by step everywhere I went. In the first two months, while I was walking point, I had stepped over five booby traps, some which could have blown me in half. If anyone is going to hit a booby trap, it will be the point man. God had stepped my feet away from them and they were discovered by those in the column behind me. I vaguely recall one of the guys commenting on my luck. At the time, I didn’t realize it wasn’t luck but God Himself directing my feet away from them.

Did I ever consider the love which God had for me when I was missing those booby traps? No, I didn’t yet, but I continued to pray and ask Him to get me out of there alive and in one piece. In the twelve months I was there, I was hit one time with shrapnel in my right face cheek. It was like a thud. There was no pain and I think I was more afraid than anything. It was what I refer to as a cheap purple heart. The point is, even when I did get hit, it was not life threatening or didn’t cause any physical damage. But if that small piece of shrapnel would have been an inch or so higher, it would have hit my temple and probably killed me. That fact didn’t sink in until after I was saved and realized that God had been with me during my entire tour. When I decided to write a book about my tour in Vietnam, God reminded me that I needed to include him in the writing and detail how He had walked me through some horrific situations and how He had protected me and my life. I did just that when I wrote, Memories of Vietnam[1].

I returned home and left the Marines and began a life of alcohol consumption which made life miserable for everyone around me. For the next fifteen years, alcohol was a major part of my life. I was classified as an alcoholic by counselors who I had met with.

Finally, at the age of 34, I heard Jesus asking me, “Are you ready to let me handle this?” It was crystal clear and in response to me attempting to get the booze out of my life which I couldn’t do. It came following an all-day Saturday drunk. I was in my bed and just waking up to what I thought was going to be another miserable day of having to face my wife and children. But before I could even get out of that bed, I heard Jesus asking me that question. Now, I know a lot of Christians don’t believe we ever hear the voice of God but it was loud and clear and from that moment to right this minute, I have never had any desire to even have a taste of alcohol. It was gone! That’s what I call, among other Godly things, the love of God in my life.

I’ve heard the phrase, the hound of heaven, many times in my Christian life as a reference to God’s continued hounding us to surrender and that’s what He was doing in my case. But in all that I experienced and all that I had endured, God was always right there bathing me in His love. He never stopped loving me and He never gave up on me. And I have to mention that the love He has bestowed upon each of us is also displayed in the love we have for others.

I can remember being prejudicial toward Asians following my tour in Vietnam. I was bigoted toward people of color and others who didn’t think like I did. But that was all gone when I was saved. I began to see people with the love of God and realized all the love He had for me when He should have kicked me to the curb and forgot about me. As I matured in my spiritual growth, I began to know and understand this love which can only come from God. It’s not a physical love (phileo) but an unconditional love (agape) He has for us. People whom I detested for one reason or another before I was saved, I now saw differently and that was through the eyes of God with a love He had put in my heart.  Only a person who knows Jesus as their savior can understand this love.

And that brings me to those who are not saved. God might be hounding you right now to surrender your life to Jesus. It’s possible He has been after you for years but waiting for the right time, His time, for you to surrender your life to Him and be saved from your life of sin and misery. He has loved you and kept you from severe harm just to bring you to this time. Today could very well be the day of your salvation. And then you will look back and see when and where He has covered you with His love and you didn’t even realize it. The love of God is a very powerful thing.

Look around at the world we live in. There is so much hatred and contention. And the love, the worldly love, can never bring a peace to this situation. It will never be about ‘love wins’, because that’s a worldly love and not the love of God. Only God’s love can bring real peace. Always remember the love God has for you and recognize it in your heart and in your life.

-Bill Petite

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[1] Memories of Vietnam, Bill Petite, Amazon Books

The Church Has Changed

The Church of the 21^st century has changed drastically in the last twenty years or so. The Church has changed in ways that should make a Christian’s head spin. But one of the problems is it isn’t making Christian heads to spin. I really wish I could write encouraging posts but there seems to be something heretical popping up all the time. The Church has been invaded by so many anti-God ideas, programs and teachings. The doors to the Church have been thrown wide open and the world’s influence has been invited in. The following statistics prove and show how far the Church has fallen away from the absolute truth of God’s word and the truth of God Himself. I read this in a weekly newsletter I receive from Midwest Christian Outreach.[1] 

When the 2022 State of Theology Report came out last year, the results were far less than encouraging. For example:

– 43% of US Evangelicals agreed with Statement No. 4: “God learns and adapts to different circumstances.” In other words, for nearly half of US Evangelicals, God it not omniscient or all-knowing.

– 53%, over half of US Evangelicals, agree with Statement No. 16: “The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true.”

– 42% of US Evangelicals agree with Statement No. 27: “Gender identity is a matter of choice.”

– 46% of US Evangelicals agree with Statement No. 28: “The Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today.”

– 56% of US Evangelicals agree with Statement No. 3: “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” (the heretical view called perennialism)

– 43% of US Evangelicals agree with Statement  No. 7: “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”

 

So, let’s take a look at these. We see that 43% of Evangelicals believe that God has to adapt to us and our society and culture. He is not all knowing? This percentage of people have simply illuminated God from being God. The God of the Bible is 100% God. We don’t serve a crippled God.

 Also, 53% believe that parts of the Bible are not true and believe some of it is ancient myths. Why would God give us His word which is not 100% truthful? How is it that these 53% can believe that? John 1:1-2 tells us that Jesus is the word. If you read that chapter, you will understand that is true. So how can Jesus not be 100% true? A percentage of the Church has a very skewed view of Jesus and who He is and what He has done for us. That’s 53%, over half of those polled, who believe the Bible is not 100% truthful.

 

42% believe gender identity is a personal choice and that is tainted with a lack of Biblical knowledge. (That’s probably the problem with all of these) Genesis 1:27 tells us God created them male and female.

His creation did not include a choice clause. God decides the biological gender of each person and there are no choices involved post inception. Again, a lack of Biblical knowledge.

 

How can 46% of Evangelicals believe that what the Bible says against homosexuality doesn’t apply to us today. The Bible is clear in its statements that homosexual practices are a sin. Is the Bible 100% true or not? Where is it found that what the Bible says in its original writings are not true today? Here we have the culture and all those who have been influenced by it, attempting to dictate to God and tell Him He doesn’t have the authority to tell them what is right or wrong or what is a sin and what is not. People can’t change what God has written in His word and they don’t have the authority to change what He has said. The Bible isn’t old fashioned as they say. It is as relevant for today as it was in the time it was written.

 

56% believe that God accepts the worship of all religions.  For those who actually believe that they are not worshipping the one true God themselves. God doesn’t accept Buddhists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, the mind science movements or any other religion which doesn’t acknowledge and worship the one true God of the Bible. Christians are told in 2 Corinthians 6:14 not to be yoked to anyone who is not a true believer of Jesus. So many Christians who are not in step with Jesus fall into this trap. Speaking of associating with anyone mixed up in a cult and allowing themselves to be indoctrinated by the false doctrines of that movement, is wrong in God’s eyes. Actually, this verse applies to any worldly association but in this case, to believe all religions believe and worship the same God and God accepts them is definitely wrong. God only accepts worship from those who have been saved by belief in Jesus, having been saved by their faith in Jesus and by the grace of God. All others are on the outside looking in.

 

The final stat is that 43% of Evangelicals believe Jesus was a great teacher but not God. Again, here we have a serious lack of Biblical knowledge and truth of who Jesus is and not was. So, where does their salvation come from? How did they acquire salvation? Surely it couldn’t be at the cross, if they even believe that is true? If Jesus is not God, what is their faith based on? There is so much evidence in the Bible and the gospel accounts that tells us Jesus is God. But there you have it. How often do they read their Bible and how much of it do they believe?

 

You might ask, “How did this happen?” Well, as I mentioned earlier, the Church has allowed the influence of this culture to come into the Church by a variety of ways. Books which have been written by self-proclaimed Christian writers have had a major influence on some Christians. The book appears to be a valid writing on a Christian topic, but it is stuffed full of lies and does not align with the Bible. But if a Christian is not reading the Bible, how will he/she know what is truth and what is not?  There have been a number of ministries based on diets, exercise and other self-help topics which can have an eastern philosophical influence. Some Christians are simply not well enough informed concerning truth, and it is very easy for them to get caught up in the lies of these ministries.

And, of course, if the church they attend does not preach or teach the truth of the Bible but instead social issues and politics or just feel-good sermons, those in attendance will never hear the truth. Also, we don’t know who these people are or who was included in this survey. Many people in this country identify as a Christian but are not really saved. They might base their belief in something like a family tradition or a part of the country where they live. “Everyone in this area is a Christian.” But I truly believe that the Church has simply bought into so much of the secular culture and bases its beliefs on our current day society. This didn’t happen overnight. This has been happening for years right under our noses and right in front of us. But too many were and are too involved with their personal lives and activities and don’t bother to observe the doctrines and messages which have invaded the Church.

 

Law authorities have been telling people in this country for years that if they see something that looks suspicious, report it. Well, that’s a good rule for the Church also. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right according to the Bible, check it out. Don’t just let it go. Check it out or talk to a trusted Christian leader. But the best weapon against all of this is reading and studying the Bible and being in prayer. It really is not a surprise to see stats like we see in this post. The Church has been traveling down this path for many years and some Christians simply cannot tell the truth from a lie. When we stand before the throne of Christ, we are all going to smell like smoke, but you don’t want singe marks on your clothing. 

 

Remember this one thing. Many will stand before Christ and proclaim all the work they did for Him, but they will not like what they when Jesus says, “Away from me, I never knew you.” (my paraphrase) Mt 7:21-23 Many of those are people who are like those recorded in these stats. They went to church every week and maybe multiple times a week. But they were never saved and never heard how to be saved and wouldn’t listen when approached by a true Christian. Some of them simply believed they were being judged and said so. The Church has bought into so many lies and fads over the years and many people were deceived into believing the lies and have missed out on true salvation. They actually believe they are Christians because of the nonsense they are listening too tells them so. If you know someone like this, pray for them and ask God to open a door so you can speak with them and help them understand that they are not hearing the truth.

 

-Bill Petite    

 

 

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[1] Who We Are | Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc (midwestoutreach.org)

Is The Bible Not Enough?

Down through the years in recent Church history, there have been many books and publications which have attempted to stand in the place of the Bible. Back in 1950, Norman Vincent Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking. Peale had been a well-grounded Biblical preacher and teacher of the Bible. The Bible had been his one and only source in his ministry. But then he became close friends with a psychiatrist and he was influenced by this secular philosophy which then and now has masqueraded as a science. Peale then wrote his book on positive thinking. Positive thinking is used in many eastern religions and basically says if you will only think positively about something it will happen. That’s a crude explanation but true. Trust me, that doesn’t work and it will never replace the sound doctrines of the Bible.

 At the turn of this century, Rick Warren wrote the Purpose Driven Church and others which played off of that book. Many local churches gobbled that stuff right up. It was basically a marketing scheme for church planting and church growth. The 40 Days of Purpose book was being taught in Sunday morning church services in place of the Bible. Churches across the country began to follow this format and some even took it to their own extremes. When the Bible was used, it was watered down in its content and sound meaning. Churches were grown and given new life but at what expense?

 Other books were written. Books such as The Secret, Jesus Calling, The Shack, The Prayer of Jabez and others which were either based on New Age philosophy or an outright distortion of the Bible and its truth. But Christians bought these books and read them and believed their messages and untruths. A series of books which were written in the late 1990s and early 2000s was the Left Behind series. These books were written by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye and were written with extreme care to follow scripture and even had references to scripture and scripture passages in the side columns. These books were written with fictional characters and events concerning the rapture and the years of tribulation. But they were novels and fiction based on scripture. But yet, there were many who would refer to these books instead of the Bible when discussing the end times. These books were later used to make a series of movies.

Some Christians just seem determined to read and follow these types of writings instead of the Bible. Is the Bible that boring or not interesting enough? Is the Bible not enough for a Christian when it comes to reading what God has done for us through His only Son Jesus? I have read some of these types of books but only to know what they say and be able to comment on them when asked. Otherwise, I find them to be so out of touch with the truth of the Bible’s message.

As I mentioned the Left Behind series being produced into movies, there have been many attempts to produce movies based on the Bible and/or its events. Going back to Cecil B. DeMille’s production of The Ten Commandments, there have been other productions which were not as close to following the scripture as he was. Many have taken liberties with what the Bible actually says in comparison to what is seen on the screen. Many in various ministries have been outspoken about the ways Jesus has been presented. The Bible gives no description of what He looks like and many believe He should never be presented in a movie, or a TV series being portrayed by an actor.  

But in the most recent production of a TV series, The Chosen, Jesus is heard speaking with a Hispanic accent. I thought Jesus was a Jew. Actually, I know He was born a Jew to Jewish parents in the royal line of King David. So why the Hispanic accent? Since I have mentioned this series, there are other issues here. First, it is a Mormon production and the creator of this series, Dallas Jenkins, has been quoted as saying the Mormon Jesus and the Christian Jesus are the same Jesus. This is absolutely not true. For anyone who does any research on the Mormon faith will discover that they believe Jesus and Lucifer are brothers. Lucifer is a fallen angel and Jesus is the Son of God, the second Person in the Godhead and is God. Jenkins has refuted rumors that he is actually a Mormon.

But the series has taken far too many liberties with what is actually recorded in the Bible. I watched the first season of this series and decided it was way of off the rails when it comes to following the truth of the Bible. It’s understandable that when a movie or TV production is put together, there are going to be inserts included to bridge gaps or fill in the blanks in order to allow it to make sense. Cecil B. Demille was able to do this without distorting the truth of the Biblical account.  But still, some Christians believe this TV series is absolutely fantastic and a true Biblical account. In my opinion, and many other Christians, it is an embarrassment to and a butcher job on the truth.  There are other productions like The Bible which was produced by Mark Burnette and his wife Roma Downey and were so far from the accuracy of the Bible and people just loved it. What’s probably the worst thing about these butcher jobs on scripture is that a person who is not saved can see them and believe they are true and accurate.

Now, I am not saying that all Christian themed movies are junk. I have watched many that were inspiring and entertaining. But these productions were based on Christian living concerning life situations. And for the most part was accurately based on what the Bible tells us about living the Christian life.

Finally, there are, and have been, some fads or non-Biblical fads or themes which run through the Church. Regardless if it is based on a book, as I have mentioned, or a diet program or an unproven non-Biblical activity, it just seems like some Christians are always ready to jump on that out-of-control bandwagon. The most recent fad, and most certainly unbiblical, is The Enneagram. Some refer to it as a personality chart which appears as a circle with nine points on it and each point describes a personality trait. Today you may be feeling like a 7 and yesterday you were a 3 and tomorrow you might be a 6. It’s all based on the New Age philosophy, and it is not Biblical, never has been and can never be considered as a Christian tool. But sadly, it is promoted in this manner. The following is a description of the material included in a book written by an Enneagram coach in his latest book on relationships with others and how the Enneagram helps with that.

 In How We Relate, Enneagram coach and host of The EnneaCast podcast Jesse Eubanks invites you to discover who you are. In this illustrated guide, he expertly utilizes the Enneagram to lead you to the heart of Jesus, where you will find the wholeness you long for. 

As you peel back the layers of your False Self, encounter Jesus, and experience the redemption of your True Self, you will discover how to:

·         Understand your personality and the personalities of others

·         Explore your distinct approach to relationships

·         Discover how Jesus empathizes with and heals your unique core wound

·         Interpret the Enneagram through the gospel story

·         Experience more meaningful relationships with God, others, and yourself

 

Life is about relationships. It's time to transform yours [1]

 

It has always been my belief and understanding that the Bible is the only way to find your way to Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us we are saved by God’s grace and not by any work or works. So why would we need a personality chart to tell us how to find the heart of Jesus? How can your salvation be dependent on how you feel today? It is alarming how so many Christians, who have been saved by the grace of God and the work Christ did on the cross, can be lulled into believing this lie. It’s just like what Paul told the church in Galatia.

I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.  Gal 1:6-7

 

Whether it is the Enneagram or a book or some TV series or movie that is so far from the truth, don’t be fooled. God’s truth can only be found in one place and that is the Bible. The biggest problem with why some Christians fall for these lies is because they don’t read the Bible. Everything God wants us to know about Him, salvation and how to live the Christian life is in the Bible. Know what it means to use discernment, knowing the truth from a lie, and use it. Be a Berean (Acts 17:11) and check what you hear against the truth in the Bible. The Bible is the story which God has written for us. It tells us what we need to know about Him and what He has done for us. Yes, the Bible is still relevant and extremely important in our Christian lives. Don’t fall for the lie which worms its way into the church, on the screen or in a man written book.

 

Bill Petite

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[1] How We Relate: Understanding God, Yourself, and Others through the Enneagram - Kindle edition by Eubanks, Jesse. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.