An Open Letter To Christian....Including Myself
By T. F. Williams

A question has been on my mind quite a bit the last few months. It has been rolling over in my mind and challenging me to examine myself and my faith, especially in light of the issues being confronted in the Church among and within the various denominations. The question is do we really believe the revelation of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Holy Bible or do we only accept the parts of that revelation which fit our wants, needs and desire? If we don't we accept all the Word do we really believe?

I believe the Bible is the living, inspired, immutable, inerrant Word of the living, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God who took on human form in Jesus Christ to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. We are born with a sinful nature, what theology calls the Adamic nature, as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I believe the complete text of the Bible is to be followed as closely as possible to best of our ability, to submit daily to its instruction, to study the Word in prayer and supplication. I know I, or anyone else, will never be perfect this side of heaven and have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. I believe Jesus is who He said He is. His is God in the flesh, the I am. He said He is the way, the truth, and the life and that no human being comes to the Father but through Him.

We must admit our limited ability and our inability to be our own Savior; we must confess that inability by acknowledging our sins as a means to self awareness and the awareness of a need for Christ as savior. We rip away the veil of our narcissism and thinking of ourselves as our God. We have to acknowledge a need outside ourselves and that need is God. Our way to that relationship is an acceptance of Christ as Savior as the bridge between us and a Holy God. Jesus paid the debt of our sins on the cross enabling us to come without sin before God. We then ask for forgiveness and ask for Jesus to become our Savior.

The question for a Christian becomes if they Bible is truthful by identifying my need of a Savior and I have taken the active steps to accept Christ as Savior and promise my submission to God to change me and make me who He wants me to be why do I not accept the rest of the Bible as correct and true? Why do I not endeavor to continue to implement the revelation of God as revealed in the Holy Bible when it is clearly in contradiction to what I feel or think? If you feel these difficult sections are wrong how do you know the part of having a need for a Savior is correct?

I believe most people are like myself and have a difficult time giving up those areas of ourselves for which we feel conviction either from the study of the Word of God or through prayer or some other form of communication we feel is from God. We do not want to give up the throne of our lives to God even though we know it is what we must do to mature in our relationship with God. We do not want to give up control of our lives to others. Yet, we are required to submit ourselves to the revealed word of God and His teachings. We have free will so we have the ability to make those decisions; but, to follow the path laid out by Jesus Christ we must allow our free will to be subject to the precepts and laws of God with the goal of our will and God's being mirror images, allowing us to show those around us who God is and the love He has for them.