Back once again

I de-activated my Facebook account and intend rather to post my thoughts and essays here on my blog, though I have been inactive for a number of years. Facebook is a social media kind of thingy, which I find less than useful, really.

First, let me remind any reader than might happen along that when I use the word Christian, I am using it in a narrow sense, and NOT in the colloquial sense that it is used in popular culture today. For me a biblical Christian is one who has been re-born spiritually and is living a transformed life. A biblical Christian is a regenerate person, one born from above by the Spirit of God, and not one who merely attends Christian services or claims the name Christian based on any association with a church or sect or religion that calls itself Christian but does not reflect the changed life of the regenerate person. This is such a vital distinction, for it is chic today to identify as Christian but no so chic as to live a changed life in accordance with the Scriptures. For me the two go hand in hand: the regenerate person is changed dramatically from a life of sin and degradation to a life of obedience to Christ and righteousness [as defined by Holy Scripture].

For instance, the Catholic Church self identifies as Christian, but is Christian in the most superficial way, that of adopting a convenient name and admitting somewhere in their doctrine that they believe something about a man named Jesus Christ. But for me to be a Catholic is NOT Christian at all, as they do no believe in the doctrine of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit unto salvation by faith alone.

Nor is the average mega-church member a Christian in my view, as they have reduced the term Christian to its lowest denomination. Most, if not all of them, are what orthodox theologians call "decisionists." In their way of thinking, to be "born again" is a mere act of the will to "receive Christ in my heart," a formula that is absent in Scripture but widespread in modern culture and modern church society. I am not talking about these at all, for the mere decisionist is headed to eternal damnation as sure as Satan. Let them all take warning: "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy," and "who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God."

So, then, in summary, so that all will know when I use the term "Christian," I am meaning something far greater than what is called "Christian" in modern times. I am talking about a person who has been regenerated, born from above, born of the Spirit of God, one who has passed from death unto life, one who has gone from darkness to light, from death to life -- all by the monergistic work of the Spirit of Jehovah God, father of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who sends the Spirit into the world to draw His own unto Jesus Christ, for "no one can come to me [Jesus speaking] unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."