I guess I am going to keep on harping on the same old theme. We Christians must start keeping the commandments of Christ and His Apostles. This is what I think the Lord has burdened me to put on the Internet and I think I had better be obedient.

Recently a brother showed me a newsletter from a prominent Christian writer. In the newsletter the statement was made that people must keep God's commandments and if they do not there are penalties.

Then he spoiled his whole exhortation by reminding us we are saved by grace, meaning whether or not we keep God's commandments we will go to Heaven anyway.

This is what drives me nuts!

The writer of the newsletter, beyond all question, is devout, intelligent, and well educated, with a good command of the English language.

This tells me that the blindness, the illogic, is spiritual. For whatever reason God has permitted a veil to blanket the perception of intelligent Christian leaders that they cannot see what is stated plainly in the New Testament.

Or maybe it is a case of the emperor's new clothes. Maybe we are so afraid of one another we fear to buck the party line.

All the editions of the New Testament I have read follow the party line. They chorus with one voice: "You shall not surely die!"

It is no fun to be a maverick and it doesn't win you many friends. (The few you do have are marvels of faithfulness and integrity.)

Let's do this. Let's take a verse or two from the sixth chapter of Romans, a passage from the Book of First John, and finish with verses from the fifth chapter of Ephesians.

I have gone through the sixth chapter of Romans in previous essays and so will only mention a verse or two. But the entire sixth chapter of Romans proves beyond doubt that current Evangelical teaching is 180 degrees off course. Read it and see for yourself.

The Book of First John is one long exhortation to Christians to quit sinning, warning them that they are liars if they say they belong to Christ and continue in sin.

You know what? My Evangelical edition of the New Testament says that the theme of First John is to give believers assurance of salvation. If American Christians have any more assurance of salvation the nation will perish. I'm okay, you're okay, sin is okay, the country is okay, Satan is okay, God is okay. The only problem is, fetuses are being aborted, children are being molested, the youth have little or no (or the wrong kind of ) moral training, the adults are drowning in lust, pornography, the amassing of money, sports, entertainment, violence, drunkenness, and witchcraft, and the older people are retiring from life when in the prime of their ability to contribute to society.

To be continued.