standard – La Vista Church of Christ

If the Bible Isn’t Your Standard… What Is?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:01:11 +0000

by Steve Wolfgang
via InLight Media

For centuries, the sola scriptura debate has raged on (most notably between Catholics and Protestants) over this primary question: is scripture sufficient as our only final, authoritative standard, or do we need some sort of council or magisterium to help interpret and apply it?

Why should we listen to a fallible human like the pope? On the other hand, what tradeoffs are we making when we reject the idea that there is still ongoing revelation from God? Steve Wolfgang and Andy Diestelkamp explore these and other pressing questions in our latest video.

These Three Words Are the Fabric of Reality

Jeffrey Hamilton — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 23:44:08 +0000

by Doy Moyer

These three words are at the heart of everything that exists — and every human being longs for them. But what happens when we try to define them without God? In this video, Doy Moyer explores why truth, goodness, and beauty can’t be grounded in human opinion, culture, or experience — and how Scripture points us back to the only true and perfect Standard: the Lord Himself. Paul said, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Every longing for truth, every search for goodness, every moment of awe at beauty — all point back to the God who made us to seek Him. If you’ve ever wondered why these things matter, or why the world feels so ungrounded without God, this message will give you a clear, biblical answer.

Is There a Standard for Our Worship?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 16:40:52 +0000

by Dave Hart

How shall we decide what should and should not be a part of our worship? A quick look at the religious world reveals many distinct worship practices and customs. Some hold that the activity of worship is not as important as the attitude of worship. Others maintain that activity and attitude are of equal significance. Is there a standard for worship, and if so, what is that standard?

Various Standards Exist

A host of would-be standards exist in the religious community. Some exalt tradition as the benchmark for our worship. With others, it is the rule of the majority. Synods, councils, conferences, and the like have held countless meetings to create, revise, and interpret creed books, catechisms, manuals, and other such documents of human origin, established to be authoritative for worship.

Some worshippers do so based on their own feelings and desires, perhaps even claiming that God has directly spoken with them and approved certain pursuits. Others exalt the preacher or church leaders as a source of authority for worship.

There Is Only One Standard

Many religious writers have affirmed that God's will is the divinely instituted system for worship. A seventeenth-century puritan wrote, "When we believe that we should be satisfied rather than God glorified in our worship, then we put God below ourselves as though He had been made for us rather than that we had been made for Him."[1] John MacArthur Jr., a well-known denominational preacher, has rightly penned, "...nor will He accept the worship of the true God if offered in the wrong way. Why? Because the worship of the true God is very specifically established in Scripture, along with the proper mode and manner."[2] Worship is not about our preferences or ideas; man's traditions or creed books do not direct it. Worship is about submitting ourselves to God's desires, as expressed in His word.

Jesus affirmed the existence of a standard for worship in these brief words: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). Not just any form of worship is admissible, but only that which comprises the correct attitude and action. Our worship will be dry and dead if we have the truth but are wanting for the proper spirit. On the other hand, if we have "spirited" worship but lack the truth, our worship has become frivolous and self-serving. In neither case are we the "true worshippers of God," for such must worship "in spirit and truth."

Worship with the Right Action

Improper action in worship has always been met with judgment:

Had Moses not intervened, God would have destroyed the entire nation of Israel when they worshipped the LORD through the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-14). As it was, 3,000 died that day (Exodus 32:28).
Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, were destroyed by God when they offered fire that had not been prescribed (Leviticus 10:1-2).
Saul's impatience as he waited for Samuel led him to offer the burnt offering on the altar (which was specifically to be done by the priests). As a result, his kingdom was taken from him (I Samuel 13:8-14).
A festive procession of Israelites, convened by King David to escort the Ark of God to Jerusalem, quickly turned solemn as God struck Uzzah (a Kohathite) dead, for he had laid his hand upon the Ark (II Samuel 6:1-9; cf. Numbers 4:15).

In Matthew 15, the Pharisees came to Jesus with an accusation that His disciples did not do according to the tradition of the elders (Matthew 15:2). In response, Jesus revealed that the Pharisees, by their traditions, were nullifying the word of God (Matthew 15:3-6). And thus, He concluded of them, "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'" (Matthew 15:7-9).

We must be careful to do according to the Lord's word. Acceptable worship is God-ordained, not humanly constrained. It has naught to do with human thought or injunction; rather, it requires us to rise above the thoughts and ways of man to the thoughts and ways of God (Isaiah 55:8-9). It is His will, not ours (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46).

Worship with the Right Attitude

Our attitude in worship is of equal importance to our action. Time and again, God rebuked the attitude of His people, Israel, through the prophets. They made many sacrifices and prayers, kept the new moons, Sabbaths, and assemblies, yet their observation of these things were "...a trouble..." to the LORD, causing Him to "...weary..." (Isaiah 1:11-20). Though they continued in all these commandments of God, their hearts were not pure. They lived in sin. Their presence at the Temple was nothing more than a trampling of that which was holy, and their sacrifices were futile.
God sternly rebuked, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence?" (Malachi 1:6). The people of Malachi's day viewed worship as "contemptible" (Malachi 1:7, 12). Serving the LORD was "weariness" (Malachi 1:13) to them. They declared, "It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts?" (Malachi 3:13). Their attitude polluted their actions, as they brought less than their best to the LORD (Malachi 1:8-9, 13-14). They had corrupted their ways (Malachi 2:8-17).

The apostle John tells us, "...this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome" (I John 5:3). For those who desire to be the true worshippers of God, His commandments are a joy to keep. It is both an expression of our love for the Lord and a response to His love for us (John 14:15; 15:10, 14). Love readily motivates the true worshippers of God to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

David asked, "Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?" Note his answer: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face" (Psalms 24:3-6).

Let us acknowledge God's standard for worship. There is but one standard—the word of God. If we are to be faithful worshippers, our actions and attitudes must be in accordance with God's commandments. If we approach the Lord with "clean hands and a pure heart," we will confidently "ascend into the hill of the LORD" and "stand in His holy place."

Footnotes

Charnock, Stephen, calvarychapel.com/redbarn/wquotes.htm.
MacArthur, John, True Worship. Word of Grace Communications: Panorama City, CA.

Standards (Moyer)

Jeffrey Hamilton — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 03:30:44 +0000

by Doy Moyer

Standards are common. The term can refer to a commonly accepted value, a recognized authoritative model, or something acceptable though not top quality (dictionary). In all these cases, there is a recognition that expectations of some kind are to be met and accepted by more than just an individual who might arbitrarily do whatever. Having standards means that we have lines that should not be crossed, good goals for which we strive, and expectations to do better based on some measure or rule that ought to be understood by all.

There are standards for food, driving, housing, athletics, pets, governments, and the list can continue. We might not always agree with the particulars, but we understand why standards exist. Rules are given for the common good (another term requiring a standard). Anarchy devolves quickly into chaos, and no one benefits save the selfish oppressors who run roughshod over those who have little power to stop them. “Might makes right,” some think, but it is hardly right, and it is certainly not godly. “Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?” (James 2:6, see the context).

People live by moral standards; I know no exceptions to this historically or contemporarily. Everyone has a line that is not to be crossed. The question is, what is the ultimate source of standards? When boiled down, there are not many options available. From the foundation up, the concept of standards comes from 1) an intelligent source (i.e., a Creator) or 2) a non-intelligent process (i.e., mindless, purposeless chance with no mind behind it). This is not delving into the nature of the Creator or the specific process, but just recognizing that there is either intelligence or not lying foundationally under moral reality. While humans are intelligent, they arose either from a mind or through mindlessness. What is the source of human intelligence? Why do we have a moral nature at all?

Moving a step further, if moral standards come from an intelligent source, then these standards would be what we might expect: universal, objective, and authoritative (the biblical position). However, if moral standards arose by chance, then they would be non-universal and subjective. Morality apart from God means that they are 1) self-made, whatever I decide for myself, 2) society-made, whatever society decides or practices, or 3) imposed by those in power. Perhaps it’s a combination. In whatever case, a godless morality means that either the individual or the culture gets to decide right or wrong, and the implications of this are enormous.

If morality is neither universal nor objective, then individuals and cultures are free to reject them with no moral culpability. If one society rejects the morals of another, they are free to put into power a Hitler with all attendant implications. What right would another society have to pronounce judgment or bring charges and enact penalties? If there is no “law above the law,” no God-given morals above rules created by people, then the majority gets to decide, and the powerful get to enforce. If they decided that murder, racism, and oppression are okay, then who is to say they are wrong? As outspoken atheist, Richard Dawkins admitted honestly in an interview, “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question.” (http://byfaithonline.com/richard-dawkins-the-atheist.../) Is that a genuinely difficult question for you? Why or why not?

Anecdotally, I have had atheists argue with me that morality is non-universal and subjective (personal preference). Then, I was called immoral for a certain belief. Anyone should be able to see the irony of that. If something outside of you or your chosen culture is immoral, then it can only be so based upon a standard that is universal, applying equally to all, and objective, standing outside our personal preferences. If you think we should have any sense of justice, accountability, or the right to moral outrage, then think deeply about where you believe moral standards find their ultimate foundations. Can brute materialism explain it?

One of the many reasons I believe in God is because I find it irrational to think that morality is the result of mindless, accidental processes based on chance. Raw material cannot account for universal, objective moral standards. These require minds to understand and at least have a grand Authority at its foundation, which makes moral behavior universally expected and to which we are finally accountable. What makes sense of this is what Scripture has told us all along: humans are made in God’s image. We are free-will beings who are morally responsible. Sin is our effort to dethrone God and decide for ourselves what is right and wrong (morality without the moral lawgiver, see Genesis 3:5; Romans 1). Though we are all guilty, God has reached out to rectify the problem in grace through Christ.

Consider your foundations if you want to talk about what is “better” or hold people morally accountable for anything. Is your ultimate foundation Mind or mindless chance? Is it universal and objective, or is it your personal or societal preference? How we answer these questions will speak volumes about our ultimate commitments and how we should think about one another.

Just What Exactly Are the Standards?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 18:44:23 +0000

by Terry Wane Benton

I got a notice from the powers that be that I would not be able to do anything for one hour because I did something (like publish a good post with biblical and godly standards) that did not comport with their “community standards.” They didn’t say exactly what I did wrong, but that had to be it because that was all I had done.

Biblical standards and worldly, immoral standards are poles apart. Jesus is the perfect standard, and His words will judge us all on the last day (John 12:48). Community standards that hate the light and love darkness will never be good standards to adopt. It seems that we have had a taste of the community standards that pushed for vaccines that were not proven and made bad guys out of those who questioned “the science” when there was no proven science.

The standards of a community that disapproves of the divine standard of the Bible is not a community that has a real standard except what it wants to make up and impose without good reason.

Freedom of religion is the American standard found in the Constitution. When a community standard seeks to silence the voice of religious conviction, it is a community that has set itself against the U.S. standard of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The highest standard is God’s standard expressed in the Bible. This standard must trump all other standards. Under the highest standard is the community of Christians Who have a divine (God’s word) and a civil (the U.S. Constitution) standard that trumps the standard of a community that declares that they will not respect higher standards than the ones they make up.

While I do not know what “community standard” of a social media organization I violated because they did not specify, I know that the only thing I did was in agreement with the higher standard of God’s word and in harmony with the Constitutional standard of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, thus, if I must violate God’s standard and the standard of the U.S. Constitution, I suspect that I will be targeted for posting the higher truth of God’s word. We will start seeing more and more of the “community standard” of the social media apparatus trying to push out the Christians of such determined persuasion. The forces of darkness are clearly at work to silence the truth. That is a pretty sorry “standard.”

I will voice Peter's great words when the Sanhedrin counsel ordered that he cease preaching Jesus: “We must obey God rather than man!” (Acts 5:29). Should the community standard ever come to this crossroads with the Highest standard of God, I plan to keep a steady course with the Highest standard, God's word, the Truth. As the old children's song said, "I know the devil doesn't like it, but it's down in my heart to stay."

Measured to Us

Jeffrey Hamilton — Wed, 24 May 2023 16:53:22 +0000

by Doy Moyer

“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2).

“Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” (Romans 2:1).

These are sobering thoughts. We sometimes wonder how God can be just in condemning anyone who lives by a standard different from what He has revealed, even if they were unaware of His special revelation. Here is a principle to consider. Those who entirely reject God still live by a moral standard with the expectation that others live by that standard. Atheists have moral codes and they judge others based on those codes. This is inevitable. No one escapes the moral sense of ought or the desire to do something about violations of the accepted standard. Think of all the cries for justice in the face of evil acts.

The problem is that none live perfectly consistent with the standard they accept and require of others. They violate that by which they judge and condemn other violators. If then they are judged on the basis of the standards they accept and by which they judge others, they will stand condemned. God would not be unjust in applying the same accepted standard by which unbelievers judge others because they condemn themselves by violating their own rules. Such will be measured back to them, and the problem is that there is no ultimate grace in the application. One might pay for a crime or receive a temporary reprieve, but the guilt remains.

God has a right to judge and He has the ability to do so perfectly and righteously. He has all information at His disposal and understands justice flawlessly. Justice will be given to those who reject Him, and the irony is that the systems of unbelievers are sufficient to condemn them if God simply applies what they have accepted and applied to others. That’s just, and God is not to be blamed for being unfair.

God offers a greater standard, however, and this is what ultimately matters. The beauty of this standard is that grace and forgiveness are found therein. People think God’s standard is harsh and unfair, but it is quite the opposite. The systems of humanity are harsh and unforgiving, and these standards by which people have judged others will be measured back to them. God’s standard, on the other hand, is meant to provide a path to forgiveness so that one need not be finally condemned (Romans 8:1-2). People stand judged and condemned when they reject Jesus because now their judgment will come from a place where forgiveness cannot be found.

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17-18).

If we want to avoid the judgment systems that can only condemn, our only option is to follow Jesus. Yes, we have all violated God’s standards and sinned, but what God has supplied deals with the sin in ways that no system of this world, devised by flawed humans, can match. “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).

One of the primary ways that we can know whether we have accepted God’s standard is through how we extend mercy and forgiveness to others.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14-15).

The standard of God is fully seen through Jesus Christ. “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Through Jesus, sin is condemned, God’s holiness is vindicated, and the seriousness of judgment is impressed upon us. But also through Jesus, grace is provided, sin is forgiven, and judgment need not mean our condemnation. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:7-8).

Shall we give ourselves over to the human systems that judge and condemn without providing ultimate mercy and forgiveness, or shall we give ourselves to the standard of God wherein we see the seriousness of sin while also being able to receive His solution? Shall we accept a human standard that will be measured back to us without mercy, or God’s standard with His offer of mercy? The standard we accept and apply makes all the difference.

In All the Churches

Jeffrey Hamilton — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 22:23:04 +0000

by Terry W. Benton

In the first century, you had churches in different locations, but all the churches were taught the same thing and practiced the same thing, and if they drifted away from that teaching they did not have God (II John 9-10; I Corinthians 4:17; 7:17). There was one standard and body of teaching, the apostles' Spirit-guided words (Acts 2:42; I Corinthians 14:37).

There were no such things as different creed books for different churches. The scriptures completely furnished the man of God (II Timothy 3:16-17), and if anyone spoke, they were to "speak as the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11). If anyone deviated from what the apostles taught, they were to be accursed (Galatians 1:6-10). All the churches were to claim the one faith (Ephesians 4:3-4) and contend earnestly for it (Jude 3-4). Following the doctrines of men made your worship "vain" (Matthew 15:8-9; Colossians 2:8) and robbed you of your reward in heaven.

All the churches were to recognize only one head or authority over the church (Ephesians 1:18ff) and have the same mind and same judgment (I Corinthians 1:10f). Dividing under different men instead of uniting under Christ was rebuked. As the years passed men began to change one thing and then another (I Timothy 4:1-3). These changes were not done with God's approval. These changes were from the influences of evil. The only way to have God and Christ is to get in Christ and abide in His teaching, the New Testament (II John 9-10), and refuse to fellowship those churches that settled on something different than the pure teaching of the scriptures.

The standard was set in the first century. All those churches taught the same thing and were rebuked when they ventured away from that standard. God has not changed His mind about this. Let's get back to that pure standard. If you can't find such a local church, then start one in your area. No name but Christ's name. No organization but local organization (Philippians 1:1), no form of worship except what you can read and prove was done by apostolic example and approval. No creed book but the Bible. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (Ephesians 4:3-4), "as in all the churches" that God approved.

What Is Your Standard?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 15:18:49 +0000

by Doy Moyer

What is your standard of what is true? How do you determine what is good?

Remove God from any answer and what will you have? Personal preferences? Whatever society says? Human experience? What other options are there?

Once God is taken out of the answers, no other standard suffices to provide us with what is universally true, good, or beautiful. Personal preferences provide no standard for anyone but self. We might as well debate the favored flavor of ice cream. What society says is in constant flux, and often one culture has generally accepted what others would consider to be immoral practices. Why are they wrong? There is no standard there. And human experience? Once we allow human experience to be a standard of what is true and good, just about anything will go, for human experience includes the most perverse evils conceived along with those who would defend the evils. Why shouldn’t they be allowed, too? None of these give us any standards outside of ourselves, and we are miserable makers of definitive rules. You can disagree if you wish, but what standard will you use to make your case? What if I reject your standard? Why would it matter?

Removing God from the answers leaves us lurching for something solid to grasp, and we aren’t finding it. We are trying to feel our way through a darkness that has no hope of light. This is why Paul’s point in Acts 17 is significant. We are reaching for something, but what is it? Paul argues that God made humanity “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’” (Acts 17:27-28).

We innately reach for God. Denying Him is pointless. The true, the good, and the beautiful find their answers in Him. With God, the standard does not come from within corrupted humanity, but from the outside. Only God has the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to provide what is universally needed because only He stands above the creation and sees the total picture of reality. Truth, goodness, and beauty are grounded in who God is. These are not arbitrarily imposed preferences coming from corrupted, finite, ignorant people. Our worldview matters because it says something vital about the standards we choose to accept and reject.

Again…

What is your standard of what is true? How do you determine what is good?

Negotiable Morals

Jeffrey Hamilton — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:41:15 +0000

by Terry Wane Benton

Do we, mere humans, get to negotiate with each other what morals, standards of right and wrong, should be? Can we negotiate changes over time? If so, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were treated wrong. They negotiated their standard and their negotiations brought them to the conclusion that their sexual preferences were their agreed standard. Read Genesis19. Should all the people of all the ages since that time apologize to them? We once abhorred such evil, and now we cheer such moral choices in our own time. If morals are negotiable, God was wrong. But God is pure and holy! He is never sinful and wrong! Therefore, God was right and Sodomites were wrong then and now. Morals are not negotiable. God calls all men to repentance! (Acts 17:30-31).

The man at Corinth who had his father's wife (I Corinthians 5:1ff) was wrong then, and all fornication is wrong now (I Corinthians 7:1-3; 6:8-10). Morals are not negotiable! Sex before and without marriage is still immoral. That is not negotiable! (Hebrews 13:4). Living together without marriage is setting up for fornication. Morals are not negotiable!

Drinking alcohol for the pleasure of calming the nerves also compromises sobriety in moral judgment. Sobriety is not negotiable. You don't see how close to the line you can play. That is not sober thinking. Sober thinking is to see danger zones and avoid them. Why? Because morals are not negotiable!

Morals are like guardrails, put up to avoid getting too close to danger and death, and that includes the dangers of spiritual death that sin can cause. Morals are like guardrails. They protect us. Defy them and ignore them and you pay a price. Morals are like railing around a high deck. They protect people from falling to their death. Discard them and you will certainly venture into places you did not anticipate. The rails are in place for your protection. They are good and right. They are not mere suggestions!

God gave us good laws. If our moral standards are not God's standards, then like the Sodomites, we make them up to our own destruction. God's standards are not negotiable! If standards are negotiable, then there are no real standards at all. No one should be held accountable for anything. If anyone is held accountable for anything, then the standard must be a non-negotiable standard from a higher authority than ourselves. That truth is not negotiable!

Is my repentance too late? Am I lost forever?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 23:03:07 +0000

Question:

I grew up going to Sunday school every now and then but never learning anything. I said the sinner's prayer when I was 22 while in AA at the time. I decided to stick with AA. I had a hard time believing in or contacting God. I didn't pursue church or the Bible until years later.

I met a girl in AA who was a church member. She flirted with me, and we ended up in a sexual relationship. She broke it off because of church and God, so I started going to her church hoping to win her back. She kept coming back and leaving me again until I told God on the way home from church that I didn't want His salvation if that is what it was going to be like. She ended up moving away. Then she called me one day to tell me she was pregnant, so I went to where she was. She lost the child in a car crash and shrugged it off the next day, giggling on the phone with her pastor back here. I came back home. Her dad was mad at me -- I don't blame him. She came back here, had sex with me again, and left to go to Bible college. She got married. I never saw her again.

I found out last year that she died. I hope she was saved.

Over the next few years, I cursed God and cursed Jesus because of how my life was. I wanted a girlfriend, but I was too shy. I was stuck with a job I hated. I was always having panic attacks. I didn't see anything in my life as sin. Occasionally I was daring God to come down and face me as a human. I won't repeat some of the things I said. I didn't think I would ever go back to a church, but I did.

After my first night going to church for myself and meeting people there, I came home and read about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The fear of God finally found me. I responded and tried to get saved in a Baptist church. I said the sinner's prayer, was taught about the church and was baptized a year later. That verse, as well as Hebrews 10:26 and Hebrews 6:4-6 always scared me because of the things I said and did. I struggled with porn. The harder I tried to stop, the worse the temptations got.

I drifted in and out of the church for a number of years and had a sexual relationship during that time, which I quickly ended when I remembered the Hebrews verses.

I sought out other churches, one after another, but found no comfort. I was still struggling with sin and on disability, unable to work due to panic attacks.

One night I saw a universal salvation website. It said everyone will be saved. They gave convincing verses of Scripture to prove it. All fear fell from me. I thought I had finally found God. I felt at peace, but something in me got kind of curious. If all will be saved, then the scary verses must not be true. I remembered a verse that said "God is not the author of confusion" and since the Bible was confusing to me, I came to the conclusion He didn't write it.

I then thought the Bible was full of riddles I had to solve. As I started doing that, I think I opened myself up to a spirit. I thought I was speaking in tongues. I was seeing things. I saw another face in my mirror. It was sort of like mine, but different. The next day the comforting spirit was gone.

I saw something online about a man pretending to be poor. If anyone helped him, he rewarded them. I was inspired to do the same, but no one helped me. I got angry. I walked all through town that day cursing everyone, filling up with hate. At the end of the day, fear came over me. I was crying like a two-year-old. A friend prayed over me to drive out whatever spirit was attacking me.

This was just the beginning. a few months later my baptism certificate fell off the wall. I put it behind the bureau. I still can't find it. I was still under the universal salvation spell when I saw a website of a man claiming to have keys to the Scriptures. He was "decoding" Bible verses on his own. I got a notebook and did the same.

I started going crazy, talking to myself as two different people. I don't know where the idea came from, but I was convinced that Jesus and Satan were brothers and God loved them both. I went out walking that night and saw a man who looked very dark and evil. I came back home, had the thought that someone was around the corner to kill me, and then I slipped and fell on the ice. A few days later, I must have been really crazy because I thought I was Jesus. I ended up freaking out and was sent to the psych ward in handcuffs. The next morning when they wouldn't let me out, I cursed Jesus, which I swore to myself out of fear that I would never do again.

I got out a week later and smoked marijuana again. A bad mistake. While I was using I started decoding the verses again and I ended up back in the hospital. I went on and off the meds on my own, and ended up back in there again. This time, I lost most of my emotions. I went in due to paranoia and was paranoid when I came out. I couldn't laugh or cry, but I still had guilt and worry. I was bedridden for months.

The universalist sites held no assurance for me anymore. I started clutching at straws wondering what was going to happen to me when I die. I bounced around different websites and religions online. I didn't buy into them for long, but I went from Kundalini to Gnosticism to Yahuwshua is Yahweh (Jesus is the impostor) and another one that said that Jesus just came here to do the work of his father Satan. All these are ridiculous! I started hallucinating again.

I found a friend of mine on-line whom I cursed that day when I was pretending to be poor. I called him up because I remembered the things I said about him. I finally started to cry! I cried my eyes out in his car. He forgave me. I was always ashamed to cry in front of other people.

I reached out to a church of Christ and was baptized for the right reason. I cried there too and more often recently. I haven't been able to laugh yet, but I am finally out of my room and able to get out again. I'm excited to go back to church, but fears keep attacking me.

Is my repentance too late? Am I lost forever? Does God still want me?

Answer:

It sounds like you've had a rough life, mostly because you always used yourself as the measure of what was right or wrong. Until recently, you were not returning to the standard of God's Word. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Since you did not have the Bible as an anchor, you got tossed about by every doctrine that came along in your life. The reason Christ gave teachers, preachers, and elders in the church was to grow the members in the Word "till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting" (Ephesians 4:13-14).

Another problem is that you used to blame God for the sins of people claiming to be His followers—including yourself. "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone" (James 1:13). For much of your life, you wanted favors from God while ignoring Him in your daily life.

People frequently misread Hebrews 6:4-6 and Hebrews 10:26. I suspect many fear that they are hopeless. Sometimes, I wonder if some people want to be without hope. You correctly noted that God doesn't write confusing information (I Corinthians 14:33), so let's start with a clear fact: God doesn't want anyone lost, including you. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9). That doesn't mean everyone will be saved because there are lots of people in the world who don't care enough about God to listen to Him and so be saved. But when we are reading the Scriptures, we need to keep in mind that it is a man who keeps himself from being saved and not God refusing to offer salvation. "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2).

The warning in Hebrews 10:26 concerns a person who won't give up his sins, even though he knows his actions are wrong. See: Can you explain what "if we sin willfully" in Hebrews 10:26 means?

Hebrews 6:4-6 addresses Christians trying to rescue a fallen Christian from his sins. The point here is that it is impossible to persuade a sinning Christian to leave his sins when he has turned his back on the Bible. Since there is no other way to save a person, the Christian wanting to rescue his brother is faced with an impossible task. The only way the person will return to Christ is when he decides to return. The same answer in the previous paragraph also explains this.

Even Jesus' statement about blaspheming the Holy Spirit is because a person who knowingly slanders God to ruin His reputation before other people is not likely to give up his sin. He already knows he is wrong, but he doesn't care.

You are not in this category. Most of your life was spent ignorant of what the Bible truly said. You gave up your sins. You have come to Christ for salvation. Of course, God wants you for His child.