J) Doctrine (Salvation)
For a Christian, salvation is a grace gift from God accomplished
by Christ on the cross, brought to our heart by the Holy Spirit and acquired by
us through faith (Eph 2 :8). Our
salvation is once and for all delivered to us (Jude 2) and can never be lost
because we are preserved in Jesus Christ (Jude 1). Fellowship with God is made possible by our
salvation because He sees us as perfect, through Jesus Christ. The common salvation (Jude 3) is what binds
all Christians in the Body of Christ and it is what makes us bold, courageous
and persevering. Why would anybody want
to die for Christ (Cassie) if there was not a spiritual assurance that our
place is reserved in heaven (John 14 :6). Just before Stephan died, the Bible says in
Acts 7 :55 that : “he could see the glory of God and Jesus Christ standing on His
right-hand side.” There have been countless martyrs throughout the
centuries and in the face of unbelievable hardship, the assurance of their salvation
is what made them persevere. God is the
only One that can save us; we can’t earn our salvation or stand by
ourselves. God, in His graciousness,
made it very simple for us to become citizens of heaven :
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you
will be saved--you and your household." Acts
Once saved, God begins the process of sanctification in us and
for the rest of our earthly lives, we become more and more like Jesus
Christ. What the Lord has begun in us,
He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6). When we die and go to be with the Lord, the
righteousness of Christ, that was imputed to us at the time
of our salvation, translates us into glory and we shall be forever with
the Lord.
L) Religions of the World (Astrology)
The word astrology appears nine times in The Bible, in various
forms and each time, words such as stargazers or magicians accompany it. It is, of course, condemned by God in the
Bible (Deut 18: 9-13). The wise men
from the East who searched the King of the Jews followed a star that God had
supernaturally placed in the heavens as a guide to bring the Wise Men to the
young child Jesus Christ (Matt 2: 1, 2).
There are several other times, in the Bible, when the stars are used as
a guide or as a sign or even to describe the number of one’s descendants. So the stars do have their position in the
overall plan of God but, curiously enough, the Bible takes only 5 words to
describe their creation (Gen
The unsaved world however, has taken astrology for a myriad of
uses all of which, are purely satanic. Astrology encompasses many occult practises;
some of which are: horoscope, crystal ball gazing, tarot cards, palmistry,
numerology etc, etc
The worst thing about all this is that some people can actually
predict the future. You say what??? I’ll explain.
Lets say someone goes and consults a tarot-card reader and the person
gets told that a “very good thing”
will happen in that person’s life; it could be anything! The person goes away and either knowingly or
not trusts Satan and he (Satan) will influence this person’s life so much that
the “good thing” sometimes
happens. This seemingly
future prediction is not due to the tarot-card reader but to Satan and his
fallen angels. I know of a person who
actually studied astrology for three long years and when he became a Christian
and started to read the Bible, he realised that astrology and true Christianity
were absolutely incompatible. From that
point on, he strongly suggested to people who used the various occultic
paraphernalia that they destroy them; preferably with fire as they did in Acts
19:18, 19. Christians have no business
playing with astrology; it is deadly and satanic.