Christ Paid it all No Need to Pray for the Dead

Today, on a "Christian" ministry, I heard a "Protestant Pastor" say, "We should be praying for Charlie Kirk and his family." It upset me because I am a former Catholic who left behind all Catholic verbiage when I left the Catholic church.

Why would any born-again believer use a phrase like "pray for the dead"? Yes, I agree with praying for his family, but why would I pray for him if he were saved?

 
The dead who have been saved by God no longer need our prayers; they are with God. What would we pray for when praying for the dead? Those who believe in praying for the dead believe the person who died could not go into the presence of the Lord without first finishing the punishment themselves in a place called Purgatory, which Christ paid for on the cross. They believe in purgatory as a form of finishing work that the human does, as though they could add anything to what Christ did for them.

2 Corinthians 5:8 "but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord."

Unbiblical ideas, coupled with a lot of biblical language, are not something to ignore. Why were the other two hosts on that program not correcting the one who was calling for a prayer for the dead person? Fear of offending someone is the lie of Satan; correction is necessary when dealing with Biblical truth.

 
Christians ought to stop adopting the language of the unsaved to placate them. This is exactly what Catholicism did to entice the pagans to become members of the church many centuries ago. Over time, there became more paganism in the church than Biblical truth, making the church more fully cultic.

The idea that just "joining a church gathering" will make people Christians is itself a pagan idea. People do not become saved by being a member of any cult or pseudo-Christian organization. Nor do they become Christians by joining an authentic Christian gathering.

 
I began to understand when Kirk proclaimed to a Bishop that he was "very close to becoming Catholic." Whether or not he was saved, I do not know, but I thought his testimony was one of salvation. Now, I am confused. But none of that matters when we are focused on Christ instead of people.

 
Since most Christians in our day are more focused on political leanings than on Christ, I see how they might be easily fooled by emotional deliveries in which the speaker says all the right words. This is why it is important to focus on Christ and what He says in His Word and not on people who "appear" good.

 
The antichrist will say all the right things in the beginning, fooling many apostate Christians. He will do lying miracles, promising prosperity and safety. It will sound so good that most people will clamor to follow him.

 
It is human nature to want to follow and elevate a person they can see with their eyes. The danger with this is that it can and often does lead to worship of man above Christ. It is very subtle but amounts to the same thing.

 
I do not judge Kirk's Christianity based on anything he said, but I do take issue with declaring that a dead Christian person must pay further sacrifice with his own body to secure his salvation, and I reject the idea that we should pray for or speak to dead people.

 
Let's keep our focus on Christ, take a lesson from martyrs to follow Christ even if it means our death, not to follow a person, but to follow Christ.

What About Socialization?

2 Timothy 3:1-5
Godlessness in the Last Days
"3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people."

Next time someone tells you "what about socialization" in reference to homeschooling, say something like this:

 
"The public schools are now placing weapons detectors at the doors of the schools and locking the children in like prisoners to protect them from the bullies that might try to sneak guns and drugs into the schools. Those places are dangerous and wicked."

 
And

Say: "You mean drugs, alcohol, disrespect, and bullying? I don't think my children need that kind of socialization."

 
The intimidation that a parent is a bad parent because they do not place their children in harm's way every day, to an out-of-control culture, is the devil's lie.
Why people think the family is not enough "socialization", is beyond me. Absolutely silly that we need to be like the culture to live in.

 
We have no need nor desire to fit in with the culture; in fact, God commands us not to fit into the culture.

 
Most homeschooled children I have met have been more respectful, better educated, and higher achievers than those who go to public institutions. Those places train them to emulate foolishness more than they teach academics that will provide good skills for obtaining jobs when they leave. They are less respectful in those places and more self-absorbed under the teaching of self-esteem. They do not teach confidence; they teach selfishness, a very big difference. 

The socialization people think they are missing something, but only ruin the health and well-being of children lumped into a crowd every day with those who don't love them.

 
Deuteronomy 6:6-8 "6 These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. 8 Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads"

Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

These instructions were given to parents to train and teach their own children, not to hand them off to government institutions.

 
Just saying!!!!!

Changed By Christ not by Ourselves

2 Timothy 3:1-5 Godlessness in the Last Days
"3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people."

In this passage of 2 Timothy, for some time I wondered why "pride" and "arrogance" were mentioned because it seemed to me to be the same thing, why mention the same problem with two different words.

 
Then, as I discovered, at least in the English words, arrogance is pride on steroids in the sense that pride is a condition in which the person has excessive pleasure in themselves, thinking too highly of themselves. Arrogance is the condition of believing one is better than others.

 
Often, these two mentalities go together, as it is difficult to think of oneself as wonderful without also thinking that one is better than others.

 
What is sad is that anyone who is fully satisfied with themselves usually condemns others as inferior to them. It is challenging to distinguish between pride and arrogance, as one often leads to the other.

 
God couldn't have been clearer in His Word, the Bible, that all people everywhere have a sinful nature that will lead them to hell. No one is better than anyone else, and all sin leads to hell.

 
There are sins that have greater consequences than others, and sins that can easily be hidden because the impact on one's life seems minute compared to others. The problem is in measuring one sin against another. It is the heart condition that God looks at, not the size of the offense. A person who steals a piece of gum from someone else is going to hell as much as a murderer, but not because of the size and nature of the sin, but because they have a heart of theft that needs transformation. It is the heart condition that is the problem.

 
It doesn't matter how small a sin is; it is the nature of a man whose heart is sinful. Have you ever met a person who has never done anything anyone could point to as sin because his life was seemingly perfect without flaws?

There are people who think rudeness is not a problem as long as they don't hit someone. But the rudeness is a sinful heart that hits a person with words or subtle dismissiveness as though they are better than the one whom they believe does not deserve respect. The rudeness defies the fruit of the Spirit that is in every born-again believer.

Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

This person was never arrested, never used drugs, didn't beat their wives or kids, treated everyone well, and even gave to the poor. Their life appears to be picture-perfect. And yet, everything they did was to appear special to others. This person is not saved because their life was exemplary; they still had within them the sinful nature that made everything they do based on themselves.

 
Christ does not save someone because they have anything good in themselves; He saves those who know they have been entirely selfish, prone to self-exaltation without true love for others, who are broken over their own sinfulness and desire to be changed by Him into a new creation.

 
Everyone, no matter how good they look, needs to confess their sinful nature. Without confession, there is no cleansing. Christ does the changing and cleansing in those who want Him.

 
It is only when we realize how sinful we are and the need for Christ to cleanse us that we will be changed. If we are attempting to change ourselves, we are still depending on ourselves, remaining sinful.

 
Our sinful nature is what makes us worthy of death and hell. Christ went to the cross to die a brutal death on our behalf to pay our debt of sin. We must trust in Him to change us and cleanse us.

 
Anyone who is depending on themselves and their own goodness will not be saved. CHRIST DID THE DYING FOR US; HE MUST DO THE CHANGING IN US. Everything in our transformation is Him; He does it all when we hate our sinful nature and want Him to transform us.

 
There is no "revival" of the soul that can happen; it must be a total transformation. Revival implies there was once good there that must be revived, but there is no good there at all, and never was any. It is only the transformation by Christ that changes our very nature.

When someone becomes born again, they have been changed by Christ into the opposite of what they were before. They think completely the opposite of how they thought before, leading to actions that demonstrate righteousness. God gets all the glory, we get none.

 
Philippians 1:11 "filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

Notice this phrase; "that comes through Jesus Christ", not through our own efforts.
No one who is born again by the hand of Jesus Christ can ever think more highly of himself than he ought. If fleshly pride remains because we are trapped in the body of sinful flesh, then it must be expunged through prayer. Asking God to remove in us what is displeasing to Him will be what produces growth in holiness.

Psalm 51:10-19 "10 Create in me a clean heart, God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,"

Those who become born again but do not continue to self-reflect according to the standards of the Bible will be disciplined by God. And if sin is not confessed, the Holy Spirit will stop communicating with the believer who remains stubborn.

 
Psalm 66:18 "18 If I regard wickedness in my heart,

The Lord will not hear."

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 "19 Do not quench the Spirit, 20 do not utterly reject prophecies, 21 but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, 22 abstain from every form of evil."

Quench, meaning to put out the fire. The Holy Spirit will remain for ever in one who has trusted Christ but there will be discipline for everyone to grow in holiness.

 
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"

Those who are born again are sealed by the Holy Spirit and eternally saved at the point of salvation.

 
Ephesians 1:13-14 "13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

When we have sinned after becoming saved the Holy Spirit will not allow us to be comfortable in that sin until we confess it to be cleansed.

1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

1 John 2:1-2 "1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.…"

After you have been changed by Christ, never allow anyone to tell you that you have lost your salvation. If anyone could lose their salvation by sinning, then it was not Christ who changed them. It is the Spirit of God who removed our sinful spirit but we remain trapped in this sinful body of flesh that we must battle.

 
Notice the body does not go to heaven with the believer when he dies. Nothing sinful can go to the Father in heaven, so the body remains while the changed Spirit of the believer goes straight to God.

 
2 Corinthians 5:8 "but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord."

Anyone who is depending on themselves to keep their salvation is not depending on Christ and does not believe He was the One Who changed them permanently by His Own hand.

 
Those who are depending on Christ have great joy except when they are sinning, then they grieve and have no rest until they confess it to be cleansed.

 
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Trust Christ alone always!!!!!

What God Hates

Symbols Lead to Actions

Symbols lead to attitudes and then actions. The man uncovered is a symbol of Christ, the woman covered is a symbol of the Church.

The man is to protect the wife as Christ protects the church! And the wife is to look to her husband as her protector. If there is no husband, then the covering for the woman demonstrates her protection under Christ.

Everyone is under Christ, married or unmarried. The head covering or no head covering in the case of the man, are just symbols.

This has nothing to do with modesty!!!
Modesty is another subject entirely, but these symbols have greater meaning than just covering hair.

For the Sake of the Angels

Legalism is obeying man's rules God never made, and obedience is following what God gave.

 
Even if our husband is gone, we are still under Christ, and the covering is not for our husband or about our husband; it is for the sake of the angels and because it is what God told the woman to do as a demonstration of a symbol of the Church.

 
The man uncovered is a symbol of Christ and His protection for His church. The woman covered is a symbol of the Church under the protection of Christ.

 
1 Corinthians 11:10" 10 For this reason, a woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels."

Just Knowing is not Obedience