What is a Christian According to Christ? (Transcript)

CLICK TO LISTEN TO BOB BARNEY’S MIDDAY BROADCAST: What is a Christian according to Christ?

I had a question sent to my email, oh, maybe two months ago now, and I’m just getting around to answer it, and I let the person know I’d answer it on the show, on the podcast.

Hi, Bob Barney here for the Plain Truth Today podcast, brought to you by theplaintruth.com, and the question the person had was, they were listening to certain shows about what we were saying, Christianity, the real gospel of Jesus Christ and prophecy, and they asked a question, do you have to follow the Sabbath, follow the Holy Days, follow the diet, follow the idea of a Sabbath day, I think I already said that, and be a Christian, and if you don’t, will you not be a Christian? And I said the answer is kind of complicated, but it’s also kind of easy, but I get around to it when I had some time, as I always mention on this broadcast that my time is kind of full still, because I have a full-time job running a family business, my wife and I run a paint company, an automotive and marine and industrial paint company, and it takes a lot of my time, and I’m finally trying to catch up on some of the questions, the Ask Bob type show that I did last year, and there’s several that’s come in that I have not answered yet, I did apologize and said I’ll get around to them, another one has to do with the calendar, and how do we know that what I’m following is the correct calendar, and I’ll get into that, hopefully, you know, in a couple weeks now, we’re going to have the Feast of Tabernacles, and I try to do a daily program based upon the Feast of Tabernacles, and try to show how the Feast of Tabernacles is a holiday that real Christians should follow, but getting to this idea is, what is a Christian? Well, to be honest, the answer is very simple. A Christian is a person, in my opinion, and I think I can prove this biblically as well, a person that accepts Jesus Christ as both the God and the man, the God that had a pre-existence to his earthly ministry, and that he died for our sins, and their personal sins, your personal sins, resurrected from the dead, and is the firstborn from the dead, resurrected, and is alive today in heaven.If you admit that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and that you are sorry for your sins, and you want God to forgive them, and you know you must get forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and you believe he’s alive today in heaven with along with the Father, everything else is just icing on the cake. According to Jesus Christ, you are a Christian. Most people familiar with the Gospels, especially the Gospel of John in chapter 3, Jesus says in the famous thing, you must be lifted up so that everyone who believes can have eternal life.God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save it through him. People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. Those who do not believe have already been judged guilty, because they have not believed in God’s one and only Son. They are judged by this fact. The light has come into the world, but they did not want that light. They wanted darkness instead, because they were doing evil things. Many places in the New Testament, not just there, many places, and we’re not even going to get into the writings of Paul, which can be way misunderstood, we’re getting into the actual words of Jesus Christ, the words in red, and in many places he makes it clear that if you have the faith of a child, he didn’t say have a faith of a Rhodes Scholar in theology in order to understand him. He didn’t say that you have to have this deep understanding of his special message, and you need somebody to point it out to you, and how to follow it, and you cannot do it on your own, that you need some guidance from a minister, or a pastor, or a rabbi, or whatever. He didn’t say that. He said it was very simple, that you had to have the faith of a child, and a child doesn’t need to have too many scholarly books to read, because they can’t read them. So what you have to do is believe that Jesus Christ is God, and is your Savior, and he’s alive today, and if you do that, you’re well on the way of being a Christian. Now, here’s the catch, and I said it gets a little more in-depth than that. Well, the catch is, after you are believing that Jesus died for your sins, and you’ve asked him to be your God and Savior, there’s another thing that comes along right afterwards. You have to admit your sin, which we said in the beginning, but after the fact, you also must admit that you will obey whatever God teaches you is his way. Jesus Christ came with a gospel message. The message was not about himself, really. That’s maybe 25% of the message, but the message was mainly prophecy, and a future world government that he is coming to bring, and bring salvation to all the earth that wants it. He is not trying to make things hard. In fact, he said, my yoke is easy, his burden is light. He’s come to make everyone able to find salvation. It is not God’s plan for anyone to be lost. So when you go to these churches, and you listen to these theologians who try to make it so hard to understand what the Bible is saying, realize there are deep meanings in the Bible that after many years of study, you will keep finding new ones. And I’m not saying you should not be doing that, but that is not the number one important thing of being a Christian. The number one important thing of being a Christian is accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, understanding that he is God, and he was God in the flesh, and admitting to him your sin, and telling Christ when you are convinced he is real, that you will obey his voice. Now, where do you hear Christ’s voice? Well, unlike what people are going to tell you, you don’t hear it from Babylon, and people think that they can speak in tongues in Babel, which is just Satanism on steroids, helping the false gospel and false churches to permeate the earth, and that’s what’s going on all over the place. You must obey what God teaches you in his word, and his word is the Holy Bible. And you can basically get any translation. This is my suggestion to most newbies in the trying to find the faith of Jesus Christ, and to obey him, and to understand his way. I would get an easy-to-read Bible. I would like you to get the plain truths Bible, which all the words of Christ in the Old and New Testament are in red. It makes it very easy to study, plus there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of study notes that helps you explain what you’re reading in an easy-to-read Bible. But if you can’t afford that, then you could also go get like a New Living Testament, or a Living Testament Bible, or a New Century Version Bible, something that you can read in everyday English, and understand what the concept is in everyday English. Do not try to make doctrine based on like the New Century Version, or the New Living Testament, or the Old Living Bible, because that is a thought-for-thought translation, and that is not meant to be a word-for-word translation, as is, for example, the King James Version of the Bible. So, the one Bible I would buy would be an easy-to-read Bible. If you could afford it, it would be the plain truths Red Letter Bible, in the exact order that Christ wants you to read that Bible. And by the way, if you can’t afford that, and you can’t afford, you can go to our website, and I believe you can look at the first few pages, or you can go to the Amazon website, look at the first few pages, and if not, I can publish real quickly, if anybody asks me to, the real order of the Bible. There is an order of the Bible that modern-day Bibles are not in that order. First of all, modern-day, not Catholic Bibles, but modern-day Protestant Bibles have 66 books.66 symbolizes man’s Bible, by the way. Man is six. God’s Bible, believe it or not, all the New Testament have 49 books, meaning completion.49, seven times seven, is completion. God’s number is seven, man’s number is six. What they did to get 66 books, same books that you will have in the plain truths Bible, for example, would hold only 49 books, what they did was they took books and they split them into one and two, or into just different books. I’ll give you an example. There is no book of one and two kings. It’s kings. There is no one and two chronicles. It’s chronicles. There is no one and two Samuel. It’s just plain Samuel. Then also in the Old Testament, you have a book called Ezra and Nehemiah, two separate books, but in the original, the Bible that Jesus read, there was only one book called Ezra and Nehemiah. So you can see that the modern 66 books, when you condense them into proper order, becomes the 49 books that you see in the plain truths red letter Bible, for example. But at the same time, it also should be realized that they’re not even in the order that God wants you to read them, because the people who put together the English Bible and even the Hebrew Bible before that, or I wouldn’t say the Hebrew, but the Latin, they put the order of the Bible, some of the books are in the right order, like the first five books of Moses, but they purposely put the book out of order, even the New Testament’s out of order. So it makes it more confusing. Satan had his hand in putting together the Bible just as much as he has his hand in most false Christian churches in the world today, with the doctrine that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. But getting back to the topic of what is a Christian, I just want to say you have to follow Jesus Christ, you have to believe in him, and more importantly than ever, you have to promise Christ on your conversion that you will obey him when he proves himself to you through his word, and his word, like I said, is the Bible. So you get an easy-to-read Bible, and you should get a very good study Bible, which is either the King James Version or the New King James Version. Both of those versions are word-for-word translations. The New King James is really based off the Old King James, except that it’s got more modern language in it. But be aware of this, there are mistakes in all Bibles, in all English-language Bibles, including the venerated King James Bible. There are mistakes in there, and some of the mistakes are mistranslations that the people who translated the Bibles had their biases of what they thought the Bible’s words should mean, and when they didn’t really mean the way they thought they should, they translated things a little differently.For example, the word for soul, the word for soul comes from, in the Old Testament, comes from the word nephesh. Nephesh can be an animal, can be a human being, and in Genesis, for example, and it says man became a living soul, the actual translation should be man became a living being, or a living animal, because the same word nephesh is used for animals. And in fact, before the mention of man as a soul, the same word nephesh in the first chapter of Genesis is used when it is talking about the animals in creation.And the scholars that translated the King James Bible just basically did not want, was not honest enough, or they were so into their doctrine that they already had preached, judged, that they just did not let the English reader realize the same word was being translated animal in one place and living soul in another place, because they believed in the immortality of the soul, which is nowhere taught in the Bible. So when I say get a good study Bible, you got to realize even some of the tried and true Bibles, like the King James Bible, has mistakes in it. And so that’s why the third thing you probably should try to do is get a good concordance. You can get this online, by the way, you can look up any Hebrew word you see online, but some of these study Bibles actually have the concordance in them, and they underline the words as you read them in the Old and New Testament. And you go to the back of the Bible and you can see all the different translations of a particular Hebrew word. It’s very interesting. And I say it’s what you should do once you believe in Jesus Christ and you want to please him, but it’s not what saves you. Believe in, for example, prophecy and knowing who the players are. That’s what this broadcast is a lot about, about understanding today’s news and understanding today’s news has been predicted long ago by God Almighty, and that God is a newscaster in Jesus Christ .God also sends his prophets, which are nothing but newscasters of the future. And God is the author of history and of your future. And so, therefore, a lot of the Bible is prophecy or news. But at the same time, the most important thing to realize, you don’t have to know who the players are. You don’t have to know when the Sabbath day is. You don’t have to know that Christmas and Easter are pagan. You don’t have to know about most things of the Bible. As long as you go to Jesus Christ, ask him to take over your life, understand that he is God and your Savior, and obey him. And as you start reading the Bible, when you come to something that just does not pass the smell test, the first thing you should do is, if you were reading, let’s say, the New Century Version, go to the New King James Version of the Bible, see if that translates a little different.If it’s about the same and it still don’t pass the smell test, then you have to think of one of two things. Either both are making the same error, and you can do this with an internet search to find out if there’s other opinions of a particular verse. It’s easy to do. Or, better yet, you can start wondering, am I saying something that doesn’t make sense to me because I have a bias because I don’t want to believe what it says? For example, in the Old Testament, and this has never been done away with, in the Old Testament, it says a boy must be circumcised on the eighth day. And I know a lot of Christians, even seventh-day observant Christians who follow the holy days, try to say that in Acts 15, when circumcision was not required among the Gentiles in order to convert, simply do not understand circumcision is not part of Mosaic law, as they would say. It was given to Abraham, who was far before Moses, and that circumcision is still a requirement of the law and of a Christian, but it is not a requirement of a full-grown male to be circumcised in order to become a Christian. Because in order to become a Christian, you admit Jesus Christ is God, you admit that he came as a human being, you admit that he died for your sins, and you promise to obey Jesus Christ the best you know how, and accept that he will show you the best you know how, and that’s how you become a Christian. Everything else is just icing on the cake. Everything else is how you can edify yourself, make yourself a better Christian, by reading the Bible, hopefully daily if you have the time, and studying the words, studying the concepts, and when you come to something you don’t want to believe in, because it’s just against your beliefs, then like I said, you’ve got to start searching your soul, because you said you would obey Jesus Christ, and you said that.You said you would obey it when he proves himself in that Bible, when he talks to you through the Bible that he inspired, and in many places wrote parts of it, including the Ten Commandments with his own fingers on stone. So when you come to places that you say that, well, I just, I don’t believe this can be, then you’re the problem here. You are failing the test of being a Christian of obedience.Remember, it is Jesus Christ as God of the Old Testament who says, I require your obedience more than your sacrifice, and your mercy more than any offerings. God wants us to be merciful, and he wants us to be obedient. Once you’re obedient, everything else falls in place.Another thing that’s very important to realize is that to become a Christian, it’s a lifelong process. You’re going to continue to sin your whole life. You’re not going to stop it.Contrary to what some holy roller wants to tell you, you’re not going to stop doing it. You’re a human being, and you’re full of human nature, and human nature cannot please God, and human nature will never please God, and human nature cannot follow the will of God until you’re born again of spirit. It’s just that simple.There’s only one human being that was able to follow the law completely, perfectly, and that was Jesus Christ. And if you think you can do it, you’re making yourself out to be Jesus Christ, and he didn’t have to die for you, and that’s not the case. So you’re going to always make yourself, try to make yourself, I should say, part of God’s plan and do his will, but always be aware you’re going to fail from time to time, and God is going to pick you up.Remember the story that Jesus gave about the two people that came to the temple to pray, and one was a Pharisee, self-righteous Pharisee, I should say, and the other was a tax-collecting sinner, and the Pharisee said, I’m glad, oh father, that you’re not like, I’m not like the rest of the people out here, like that sinner right next to me who’s nothing but a sinner. I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth right down to the mint, and I do everything righteously, and he goes away, and Jesus said the tax collector doesn’t even look to heaven and says, oh please forgive me God, because I am a rotten sinner, and Jesus said it was the sinner, the tax collector, who walked away justified with God, not the Pharisee. And another case, Jesus makes it clear that if you believe that he is from God, and that he is God, and he has taken away your sins, then you are a Christian.You’re going to be saved, and God is going to make sure you make the test, and he’s, if your heart is willing, and you are willing to obey whatever you’re told to do, then God is going to make you make it. It is that simple, and sometimes I know when people are listening to these broadcasts from me, they kind of think I make it too complicated, because I’m getting into things that I think maybe people should understand, but it’s no part of your salvation. Salvation is between you, God, and Jesus, and it’s about your heart, your obedience, and that’s it.But I will say, once you become a Christian, there are certain things you’re going to have to find out as you read the Bible. Your nature is going to change, because man’s nature is all about himself. That’s the truth.You’re about get, not give. People don’t really want to give things away if they don’t have to, but once you have the nature of God, you have to start thinking about giving to the people who need help. And one of the things you read in the Old and the New Testament is about widows, orphans, and aliens.You know, right today we have a problem with people who want to deport every single alien who illegally came into this country, but is that something that God really is for? That’s something you got to ask yourself. I’m not going to answer that question, but go to the Bible and just see what God says about you were an alien. You were a foreigner in the land of Egypt, and you were mistreated badly, and I rescued you from the hand of Egypt.Remember, you were a foreigner when you’re dealing with the foreigners living among you. You read some of those chapters, and you learn about mercy. Again, God says, I desire your mercy rather than your sacrifice.You can go to church every Sunday, or if you know better, every Sabbath day, which is Saturday, and you can give more money than anybody else in that congregation, and you can still mess your whole life up with Christ if you do not show mercy. If you are an unmerciful person who wants to retaliate against anyone who’s ever done you wrong, I’m not saying, and I did a show on this, that you are to forgive every sin against other people. If somebody kills a loved one or your next-door neighbor, you have no right to forgive the person who did that.You can say, may God forgive you, but only God can forgive sins against other people. You can only forgive sins against what people do against you. So when people harm you, you should ask for their forgiveness.You should show mercy. You don’t have to, by the way. You see a lot, like King David saying, you know, slaughter my enemies, right? He’s a man after God’s own heart.But God does like you to show mercy and compassion when you’re dealing with other people, and if you do so, and your heart melts a little bit, and you are moved to compassion, that moves God towards you and to help you when things are bad for you. Because like everybody, things are going to go good for you, and there are times things are going to go bad for you, and sometimes how you have treated others when things were going good for you is going to come back to haunt you when things go bad for you. And it’s just an important concept to realize that having sympathy and mercy is something that most Christians, professional Christians, even Christians that I think are Christians, lack.You can’t take the law into your own hands and have retribution because you were wronged. Remember these well-worn words of the Bible, and that was from God Almighty. The spokesman was Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, Repay no one evil for evil.Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peacefully with all men or women and men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath.For it is written, and this is from Deuteronomy, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. So sometimes when we want to get even with our enemies, listen to me, Donald Trump, it is far better to leave the vengeance up to the Lord, for the God can do things to your enemies that you cannot do to your enemies. And if God wills it, he will repay what evil things have been done to you.So many times you should practice the teachings of Paul, Jesus, and Jesus in the Old Testament by letting God be your defender and the person in charge of your defending, because God can do a better job defending you against your enemies than you will ever do yourself trying to revenge, take action against those who’ve done you wrong. That is where the forgiveness that Jesus talks about comes in. And all I can say is, when you do this, and as you read the Bible, and you read the compassion that God wants you to have for others in the Bible, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your might, he says, but love your neighbor as yourself.He didn’t say, by the way, love your neighbor above yourself or below yourself, but as yourself. You’re supposed to look at everybody like they are equal to you. I don’t care if you’re a millionaire or a pauper, you’re the same in God’s eyes.If you are a Christian, you’re the same created thing, being, man, in God’s own image that God made you. And so there is no class in the kingdom of God. There is no poor person or rich people.All are rich with the Spirit of the Lord. And so, again, to end this show about what is a Christian, being a Christian is the most simple thing you can ever do in your life. Jesus said so.Believe in him. Ask him to forgive your sin. Admit that sin first.Don’t say, oh, this is not a sin. I always say this, and I’ll end it with this. I always say this about the homosexual community.A homosexual who says, which most do today, what I do is not a sin, and I refuse to say it’s a And then the homosexual who says it is a sin and I can’t help myself. Please, God, let me help myself. Well, God has already forgiven the second person, but he has not forgiven the first person.When you’re arrogant and you refuse to admit your sin and you parade your sin, as the Bible calls it, then you are not forgiven and you are not a Christian. But you can live a wrong life if you’re trying and admit that it’s a wrong life and trying honestly to change your life. My friends, you’re not going to change your life overnight.You might have this idea, I’m going to follow Jesus. I’m going to obey Jesus. I’m going to change my ways.I am a sinner. I’ve done this wrong. I’ve done this wrong.I’ve messed around on my husband or my wife, and I constantly do it, but help me. God will eventually help you, but he’s not going to change you overnight. It’s a lifelong process.Being a Christian is a lifelong process, and you have to work at it all the time, and it’s easy to become one. It’s sometimes hard to maintain that status, because you must then obey what Christ teaches you through his word, and when you get to that point of obeying what he teaches you or not signifies if you’re going to die a Christian or not. Well, that’s the show for today.This is Bob Barney for The Plain Truth today. A little bit of dogma here, but I thought it was very important to answer that question, to realize being a Christian is the most simple thing you’ll ever do in your life. There’s no great mystery to it.There’s no great special prayer you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do but admit your sin, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, know he’s God, know he died for you, and that he is alive today and in charge of your life, and you will obey him when he shows you what you are doing wrong. That’s it.Well, until tomorrow, Bob Barney for The Plain Truth today, saying thank you for listening. We do appreciate you. Bye-bye.