What Is True Christianity?

What Is True Christianity?

This is a serious question and one I will answer, but first, I want to update you on what is happening to my Bible study on prophecy and talk about doing personal Bible studies.

I am putting aside my prophecy study until after we attend a Bible prophecy conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on April 3rd and 4th. At the end of this blog is a link for you to check out this conference. We would be so pleased if you could attend with us so do consider it, okay?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, let's talk about doing personal Bible studies:


I remember when I was a fairly new Christian and would question my pastor (Vernon George) about different doctrines and beliefs. He usually asked me this question in return: "What does the Bible say about it?" He often advised me to search the Scriptures and then to come to him when I found what I believed was the answer. He also told me not to debate with him about what I believed unless I could back up my opinions with sound doctrine from the Bible.

Like most Christians I was lazy about studying God's Word (I would read my Bible but with no in-depth studies). Therefore, the majority of my opinions about doctrine was based on what I "felt" was right and not on what God's Word said was right. What my pastor was trying to teach me was to NOT depend on my feelings and the current "wisdom" of the day... but to base my opinions on God's Word alone!

I want to know where the pastors are who tell their congregation to search the Scriptures daily (as the Bereans did) for the truth? Have we fallen into the same lazy pattern as some (like I was) who depend on a mere man to explain what is truth rather than on what God's Word says is truth?

Jesus said in John 15 that we need to be pruned so we can bear more fruit. How can God prune us unless we read and study his Word? A fruit-bearing life is a life that prays and studies God's Word.

There seems to be am on-going trend with Christians to try and read the entire Bible in a year (and this is a good thing). So, they start out with one Bible reading system or another but soon give up. This happened to me many times until I discovered one very important truth. First, it's more helpful to do systematic studies on different subjects than to read the Bible through.

Now, I realize I'm on very controversial ground here and if you were to suggest this to most Christians they would disagree (you may even disagree with me).

I have a friend who is a wonderful Christian but she doesn't do Bible studies. Once I talked with her about doing a personal Bible study and she said she had read the Bible through (as though that was enough). It made me wonder how many people have read the Bible through, but don't know a thing about what it says. From the online Bible study group I have I've discovered many have tried to read the Bible through and failed (year after year), but never tried doing in-depth studies ---thus the reason for what I'm saying about Bible studies vs. reading the Bible though.

So, tell me, why is trying to read the Bible through such a failure for most Christians, but in-depth studies are successful? I believe it's because in-depth studies are interesting --- and you know you're learning. Just to read through the entire Bible will not gain you some magical insight into it ...nor will it give you some mystical, "spiritual" strength. It will give you the satisfaction of knowing you've read God's Word in it's entirety (and as I said, that is a good thing)... but that's all you will gain; and I'm not making light of reading the Bible through! Just don't think by reading the Bible through that you will suddenly become a spiritual giant (it just won't happen).

However, doing in-depth studies will gain you spiritual strength and will gain you spiritual knowledge and will gain you confidence in God's Word. So, if you decide to do only one thing concerning the Bible this year... let me encourage you to pick a subject you've wondered about and do a study on it. Then go from there to another subject... you can get ideas from the back of your Bible in the index, or dictionary/concordance.

When you do a study remember the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and no other book is 100% perfect so be careful not to rely too heavily on other books for God's truth. Having said that, I do believe it's a good thing to double check with commentaries some of the Old Saints have written for our benefit.

Dr. Ironside (1876-1951), said, "Every system of teaching can be judged by what it sets forth as to these fundamental truths of the faith. "What think ye of Christ?" is still the true test of every creed. The Christ of the Bible is certainly not the Christ of any false "-ism." Each of the cults has its hideous caricature of our lovely Lord. The "father of lies" deals in half-truths and specializes in most subtle fallacies concerning the Lord Jesus, our sole and sufficient Savior."

Again, reading through the entire Bible is a good thing and something every student of God's Word should do... but beginning a study of God's Word is more important and much more profitable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, the answer to my question: "What Is True Christianity?"

As a Christian you may wonder why such a question is being asked. But do you really know what true Christianity is?

True Christianity is summed up in this statement:

Placing your faith entirely in the person of Jesus Christ as your savior and trusting Him for your salvation. It's in Jesus Christ alone... nothing more! If your church believes you have to do more than this simple statement to be saved, then your church is in serious error and in danger of being a cult!

Below is a short doctrinal statement of what I believe:

1. I believe in the eternal trinity of the Godhead, There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

2. I believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal, future return to this earth in power and glory to rule over the nations.

3. I believe the Bible is inspired and the infallible and authoritative Word of God.4. I believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit.

5. I believe in the total depravity of man by nature.

6. I believe Salvation is through faith in the crucified, risen and glorified Christ.

7. I believe in one divine baptism, the operation of the Holy Spirit, by which all true believers are made members of the Body of Christ being identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection.

8. I believe in the in the resurrection of the body.

9. I believe in the personal return of Jesus Christ to reign on earth.


If you are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation then you are a true, born-again Christian.

However, living out your "True Christianity" (your santification) is certainly different than being a "true Christian", and how to live it out can be summed up in these few short verses from Paul's writings. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Wow! Do you think you can live a life like this 24/7 apart from God? Of course not? But we try, don't we? When we refuse to read and study God's Word it leaves us venerable to all kinds of false doctrine (Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." ). Only God's Word can help us to live out our Christianity the way it's meant to be lived ...in the truth of His Word!

Paul said love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things and endureth all things. I think we need to expound upon those words so you won't misunderstand what Paul was meaning.

Gill says in his commentary on these verses:
1 Corinthians 13:7 -

Beareth all things,.... The burdens of fellow Christians, and so fulfils the law of Christ, which is the law of love; the infirmities of weak believers, and the reproaches and persecutions of the world: or "covers all things", as it may be rendered, even a multitude of sins, as charity is said to do, 1 Peter 4:8 not by conniving at them, or suffering them to be upon a brother; but having privately and faithfully reproved for them, and the offender being brought to a sense and acknowledgment of them, he freely forgives them as trespasses against him, covers them with the mantle of love, and industriously hides and conceals them from others;

believeth all things; that are to be believed, all that God says in his word, all his truths, and all his promises; and even sometimes in hope against hope, as Abraham did, relying upon the power, faithfulness, and other perfections of God; though such a man will not believe every spirit, every preacher and teacher, nor any but such as agree with the Scriptures of truth, the standard of faith and practice; nor will he believe every word of man, which is the character of a weak and foolish man; indeed, a man of charity or love is willing to believe all the good things reported of men; he is very credulous of such things, and is unwilling to believe ill reports of persons, or any ill of men; unless it is open and glaring, and is well supported, and there is full evidence of it; he is very incredulous in this respect:

hopes all things; that are to be hoped for; hopes for the accomplishment of all the promises of God; hopes for the enjoyment of him in his house and ordinances; hopes for things that are not seen, that are future, difficult, though possible to be enjoyed: hopes for heaven and eternal happiness, for more grace here and glory hereafter; hopes the best of all men, of all professors of religion, even of wicked men, that they may be better and brought to repentance, and of fallen professors, who declare their repentance, and make their acknowledgments; he hopes well of them, that they are sincere, and all is right and will appear so:

endureth all things; that are disagreeable to the flesh; all afflictions, tribulations, temptations, persecutions, and death itself, for the elect's sake, for the sake of the Gospel, and especially for the sake of Christ Jesus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christians everywhere are being wooed away from the knowledge and dependence on God's Word simply because pastors are not encouraging them to "study to show themselves approved, as a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth". Pastors and churches today are producing biblically illiterate Christians who have no accurate basis for discerning biblical truth from error. Sadly, the majority of Christians rarely do any kind of Bible studies even when encouraged to because they prefer to get their biblical doctrine from some other source.

An in-depth Bible study for a gem of truth is so worth the time and effort because it not only helps cement your doctrine, but it also pleases God. Let me quickly add that an in-depth Bible study isn't taking up your Sunday school lesson and reading it through. Although I have to say, that would be a great beginning (and something most Christians never do). We must be like the Bereans: Act 17:11 "Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so."


"And searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so: they did not dispute with, and cavil at the apostle, as the Thessalonians Jews first did, Act 17:2 nor did they receive the word, right or wrong, or with an implicit faith; but they immediately betook themselves to reading and searching the writings of the Old Testament, to see whether the things which the apostle preached, concerning the Messiah, his incarnation, obedience, sufferings, death, and resurrection from the dead, were agreeable to them, or no; determining, if they were not, to reject them, but if they were, to embrace them, as they did, John 5:39, and this they did continually day after day. They were neither backward to hear and receive the word, nor slothful to examine it." (From Gill's commentary)

Your dependence on God's Holy Spirit to lead you into His truth and having good Bible study aids is essential to helping one understand the more troublesome parts of God's Word. We can listen to a sermon one hour and forget it the next but if we have the right books we can always go to them for help and understanding. Don't trust any book you see in a Bible book store either! Remember, Christians from every walk of life and of different faiths go to Bible book stores to buy books. The store is there to sell all so-called Christian books to those who will buy them. Want to know what books to invest in? Go to your pastor and ask him for a list, or email me and I'll send you a list of books I depend on.

Dr. Richard Baxter (1615-1691 ) said: "Books we may have at hand every day and hour; when we can have sermons, but seldom and at set times. If sermons be forgotten, they are gone; but a book we may read over and over, till we remember it: and if we forget it, may again peruse it at our pleasure, or at our leisure. So that good books are a very great mercy to the world: the Holy Ghost chose the way of writing, to preserve His doctrine and laws to the Church, as knowing how easy and sure a way it is of keeping it safe to all generations, in comparison of mere verbal traditions."

And Dr. Baxter's guide to the value of a good book is asking oneself these four questions:
1. Could I spend this time no better?
2. Are there better books that would edify me more?
3. Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life?
4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God, kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come?

Dave Hunt said: "The chief error today in the evangelical church is that experiences (feelings, emotions, passions, intuitions, etc.) have become the guide for entering into and attempting to establish true spirituality. Rather than subjective feelings and emotions being present as a result of one’s adherence to sound doctrine, they have become the judge of whether or not something is truly Christian. Instead of testing a teaching or practice or situation by the Word of God, the arbiter becomes "how one feels about it." This puts the human imagination in the seat of judgment. That thought alone should provoke an emotion in the heart of every Bible-believing Christian: sheer horror! Doctrinally however, it’s even more frightening."

How true this is!

In Book of Proverbs we are told, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). In other words, if a man goes by what he thinks or feels, independently of what God has declared, as the way of sin and wickedness does, there is a great deal of company in it, it is a broad road, and is pleasant, and seems right, but it leads to destruction; so the way of the hypocrite and Pharisee that trusts to his own righteousness, and despises others, and even the righteousness of Christ; or does not submit to it, but tramples upon him, and counts the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and so is deserving of sorer punishment than the profane sinner; yet on account of his good works, as he calls them, fancies himself to be in a fair way for heaven and happiness; so Popery, through the pomp and grandeur and gaudiness of worship, through the lying miracles of the priests, and the air of devotion that appears in them, seems to be a right way; (From John Gill's commentary --- John Gill was born in 1697 and died in 1771).

Surely we would do well to take these words seriously! We will one day stand before our Lord and what shall we say about how we treated His Holy Word? Will we say we just didn't have enough time to study it? Will we say we depended on our pastor to expound upon the Bible and that was enough? Will we say we read it through but didn't study it? Will we have to say we didn't have daily prayer and Bible reading? Will we say we believed reading the entire Bible through was good enough?

I want to say, "Lord, I studied to show myself approved as a workman who is not ashamed. I relied on Your Holy Spirit to lead me in my studies and when You spoke to me from your word I obeyed."

I want to hear my Lord say: Matthew 25:21 "His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

I do want to hear this from God with all my heart but that doesn't mean I keep my nose in the Bible all the time... or even that I study as often as I should. But God's Word is important enough to me to desire it's knowledge and feel it working in my heart to lead me into His eternal truths. One thing I've experienced is when I put down my Bible and neglect it for a few days... I soon find myself reacting the wrong way to troublesome situations; do you have the same problem? Let's not neglect what many have shed their blood for, and God has left us for instruction and spiritual growth... His Holy Word, the Bible!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Bible Study Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma:
http://www.prophecywatch.com/Confer07Page2.htm\

Hope to see you there!

There is a call of God's Holy Spirit upon us to commit their lives to holiness. And then to yearn, yearn, yearn for the soon return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Listen to these glorious words from 2 Timothy 4 which Paul wrote from prison right at the end of his life: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; and in the future there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."

A special crown, a crown of righteousness will be given to every person who lives his life loving the appearing of the Lord. Will you receive that crown? Are you living your life yearning for the return of the Lord?

My friends, Jesus is coming soon, and I cry from the depths of my heart, "Maranatha!" Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

I treasure each one of you along with your prayers, encouragement, loyalty to my Bible studies and tolerance of my humanity. God bless you!

"The Lord bless thee, and, keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace " ~ Numbers 6:24-26.

In His tender care always,
Dot