We, History?

The Ten Commandments were inscribed on stone before the Old Testament was written; The Law of Moses was now open to all--everyone's sin was exposed to them (1400-1500 BC).
39 books make up the old testmament; timelines, wars, history, family lines, and prophecies were spoken throughout these books-- the Law of Moses was stated among the books that Moses wrote (400 BC).

27 is the number of books that are in the New Testament; The Gospel, good news, prophecies fulfilled, instruction for the Christian walk after the veil was torn, the Great Commission of Christ, and the warning of Judgement day is stated throughout these books (100 AD).

Now, lets take a look at these times for a few minutes... God picked specific people to write these books of the Bible, they were God "breathed"; meaning yes, men wrote them, but God gave them the words to speak in these books; earthly/wordly ideas are not found in these books-- but God's Law's and ideas are. People don't condemn themselves...just ask yourself!
Back to the point, at the beginning of human time, the Garden of Eden, we began breaking God's Law-- Eve ate of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil; God's Law was not to eat of the tree, and what did the woman have to go and do?? Eat it and Adam just had no idea what was going on! ;) God's Law was broken at the very beginning and so the sad song of humanity begins... The point of this small scene from Genesis is that we were tricked, decieved into not believing God's Word, God's Law. The serpent hardly had to question Eve and she gave in. Oh, what sad creatures we truly are... How long does it take to break in a wild horse? It can take months for them to even begin to trust us... It took Eve what, like 3 minutes max to believe Satan and his lies against God and His Law. From the beginning of time God's Law has been under attack... As we move through history into the years of the Old Testament we see God's Law (10 Commandments) being tried all over; fornication, lies, murdering, lusting/adultery, idolism, etc. Everyone had the Laws but they did not truly fear God's wrath; God gave instructions to be under His protection throughout those years, before the veil was torn and yet people corrupted His Laws. Thanks goodness we had good ol' Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel (plus others) professing God's words and making prophecies that would one day come true...

Now onto the time of the New Testament and Jesus walking among us; prophecies were fulfilled by the birth of Christ. As a man Christ began proclaiming he was the Son of God, and that He was the way to God. God was giving us a new way to be reborn through Him so we wouldn't have to pay the penalty of our sins. Christ and his desciples continually taught that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). This was another of God's laws, God made another way for us to be with Him eternally, and yet people still strayed. Jesus knew the people would though; the pharisee's denied Him and stated that they followed the Law of Moses and He was a blasphemer; even though prophecy states that the Son of God would be born unto the world to save us from our transgressions, and that we would not see Him. During the time of Jesus we still were blind to His Law and ways, and he was right in front of us to have.
After Jesus rose again he fulfilled more prophecies and proved to those who didn't believe. Jesus instructed His desciples to show the way to Him, through the Law and Jesus' love for them. And look what happened to the twelve--all Martyrs, except for John, who was blessed with old age so he could bring witness and proof of the Judgement day to come in the last book of the Bible, Revelation.

By 500 AD the Bible began circulation everywhere and it was translated into over 500 different languages. And then by 600 AD all translations were outlawed except in Latin. And only few knew that language; in that time there was a lack of Latin literature because it was being withheld from the people. The 'Dark Ages' as we call it now was a time that God's Word was kept from the people and new ideas were being born, the Renaissance era took place during this time. The term 'dark ages' isn't used in texts very often anymore because apparently it gave that time a "negative connotation" but really people were being "enlightened"  by new ways of thinking; in other words, people learned that if they stopped following and thinking about God then their conscience would be free from guilt. The 'dark age' time can stretch  from 400 AD clear up to the 1400's. God's Law was being hidden from the people but of course truth, God's truth, can never be diminished.
Now John Wycliffe, 1328(ish)-1384-- He was quite the rogue. He was an english theologian, and reformist, quite the combination! He was a university teacher and he had followers called the Lollards, which, like Mr. Wycliffe, were a rebellious group who fought against the clergymen of the Roman Catholic church and like to focus on biblically sound reforms. John Wycliffe translated the Vulgate Bible (Latin translation) into English in the years 1382-1384 with some help from associates.It became known as the Wycliffe's Bible. Among these associates he had a student named John Hus (actually Jan Hus if we want to get technical). After John Wycliffe died Mr. Hus continued to fight for a reform of the Church. Mr. Hus was tried and found guilty of heresey against the Roman Catholic doctrines and was burned at the stake in 1415; Hus's last words were, "In the next one hundred years, God will raise up a man who's call for reform cannot be suppressed." Can anyone take a guess??? None other than good ol' Mr. Martin Luther himself! In 1517 Martin Luther translates and publishes the Bible into German using the Gutenberg Printing Press; and the Word began to spread... Martin Luther stood up against the Roman Catholic Church with his theses--he stated that the Roman Catholic theology was not biblical. The Catholic church at that time was teaching that faith alone could not justify nor save man-- but, had to be active in charity and "good works" meaning donating money to the church. Martin Luther states in his theses that forgiveness is God's alone to grant; people couldn't "pay" for their sins.
Luther posted this theses on the doors of All Saints Church on October 31 1517.
And this, my friends, was the start of the church reformation! Though keep in mind that John Wycliffe was labeled as the morning star of the reformation.

Now, I could go on forever and give you a history lesson up until now, but then we would never get back to my orignal point-- which I lost sight of myself there for a bit! The point I'm trying to show you is that from the very beginning of time, as we call it, God's word had been perverted, changed and tampered with.
And yet, the Truth of the pages always seems to make it through any trial... that alone should be enough evidence to people of its actual truth.

Now on to today...what are we seeing and hearing in our churches? Mainly we see license, which is the opposite of legalism. We see a "watered down" version of the gospel. The "backslide" rate of born-again Christians is phenominal! I think it's somewhere around 80%!! We are missing something here, aren't we Christians?? Why are the people of the Bible so much more spiritual? Why are they so strong? Why is it that when the Bible says the Holy Spirit went into someone, it actually brought about a major change in them, and today is seems so...lukewarm?
Why aren't Christians telling everyone they can about Jesus?? And when they do, why do they always seem to fall away??

It seems so hopeless, doesn't it? Why isn't the message getting through?? Well, I can probably tell you the answer but it didn't originate from me, and it didn't originate from anyone in this day and age--it came from the Master, the one who walked among us with a blameless life, the one who came to show us the way, the one who came to take our blame away. Yes, Jesus Christ...the one and only =) Jesus came to save the world, not to condemn... BUT the biggest point that seems to be hidden from us, left out of the equation is the fact that we are already condemned!
John 3:18 tells us that those who believe in Jesus are not condemned, but those who don't believe stand condemned because they don't believe...And what condemns people?? It is the piece I was missing from my witnessing for years...The Law! The Law of Moses! The Ten Commandments! These are the Laws God set WAY back when. This shows us our sin, and keeps us from justifying ourselves! This is the tool Jesus used all the time. The woman at the well, the adulteror, the rich young ruler, etc...This is the key being left out of the teaching and preaching today. The church today is teaching only one side of the equation. They are teaching the "Jesus Loves You" part. Which is great but without the other side, it's almost irrelavant! People don't care that Jesus loves them and is full of grace if they don't know why they need His love and salvation. If they don't see their sin and what law they've violated, then they really don't like to hear that they are condemned and going to Hell.
You have to show them their sin through the Law which God gave us, and then explain to them that our God may be good and loving but He is also just and perfect--so He can't let imperfection into His Kingdom. He can't let the murderous, adulterous, lying, thieving people go...there must be justice or He wouldn't be considered a good judge, He would be considered evil.
BUT, if you let people know that someone has walked into the courtroom and paid their fines for them it's going to matter to them that this person is Jesus. Then they will understand why they need his love, mercy, and grace.

Now, don't think me to be enlightened or inspired here, I am simply educated through so many different influences that we have in our time today; people who are finding the key to re-opening the door to our Savior that seemed to be lost for so many years.

Del Tackett
Ray Comfort
Kirk Cameron
Lious Giglio
Frances Chan
Bill Weise
And so many others...
But most importantly, the one who never lost it, Jesus.

So, my question is: Are we about to go through another "Reformation" in our churches today?