Author K Nelson Rybolt provides a bold new look into the dangers that face our nation by marrying religion and politics. K Nelson Rybolt insists the separation of church and state must be taken seriously now more than ever before due to these polarizing changing times in our nation and our politics.

THE CONVENIENT CHRISTIAN

WHEN IT SUITS YOUBy K Nelson Rybolt

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2012 K NELSON RYBOLT
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-4958-4

Contents

Introduction..............................................................................ixONE- Interpretation of Scripture..........................................................1TWO- Abortion.............................................................................19THREE- Homosexuality......................................................................31FOUR- False Claims of Ownership Rights to God and Salvation...............................41FIVE- The Threatening Powers of satan and Threats of Burning in Hell!.....................51SIX- Religion and Politics................................................................55SEVEN- The Solution.......................................................................59

Chapter One

INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE

Jesus was asked which commandment was most important. Jesus's response was,

"The most important commandment is this;

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. Love the Lord your God with all your strength and with all your heart and with all your mind and soul. The second is this; Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these."

(Mark 12:29-31)

* * *

How many professed Christians do we think really hear and discern those words, spoken by Jesus himself, that do not even include the name of Jesus within this scripture? What about the other eight commandments?

"For he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

The commandments;

Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandments there might be, are summed up in this one rule;

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no harm to its neighbor.

Therefore: Love is the fulfillment of the law."

(Romans 13:8b-10)

* * *

These are literal words that can be found written in every single Bible available to mankind. But do all professed Christians believe these words? Note that there is no mention of a Sabbath Law. There is no mention of Jesus Christ. The entire all-encompassing message I hear is love. What about you? What do you hear?

"For he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Therefore: Love is the fulfillment of the law."

And this is love; that we walk in His obedience to His commands.

As you have heard from the beginning,

His command is that you walk in love."

(2 John 1:6)

* * *

To believe in God is to obey His command to walk in love. How can those who claim to believe responsibly interpret these words any other way?

Jesus was asked by an expert of the law in order to test Jesus;

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

To which Jesus replied;

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

(Matthew 22:34-40)

* * *

Again, these are Jesus's words. They are clear and to the point. How is it then that so many professed Christians continue to misinterpret Jesus's own words? I suspect it has more to do with the convenience of convincing oneself it is far more important to claim belief in Jesus Christ, accepting him as one's personal Savior, than it is to actually listen to and seriously heed his words. Much like brownnosing and kissing up to the boss—excuse me for saying so.

This, by the way, is true. It is easier to lay those claims than it is to love other people. And Jesus is not talking about just certain select other people to love. He is referring to all other people, including those who hate us and who are our enemies. Jesus tells us to love and to pray for them. That is easier said than done. If that has anything to do with any real measure in the end, we are all doomed. This is why I suspect so many of us hang our hat on laying claim in believing in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior to be our ticket in instead of actually accepting God's Word to love others, as if the two are, in fact, not one. (John1:1) "Jesus is God's Word made flesh."

The best one I saved for last.

"When asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus responded, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

"He answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.'

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you shall live."

(Luke10:25-37)

* * *

These scriptures are undeniable, indisputable, and left open for no debate. It would be impossible to misinterpret such clear words spoken by Jesus. It is simply not possible to lay claim to being a true Christian and not believe those words Jesus clearly spoke. Jesus confirmed in the scripture above that love is our ticket in. Yet again, there is no mention of Jesus. How can this be? I personally hear Jesus telling us again that God's Word is also the two greatest commandments. God's Word is our ticket in. God's Word is the measure, the one and only measure, for all mankind—before and after Christ—to cashing in.

"Jesus is God's Word made flesh" (John 1:1). Jesus represents this seemingly impossible love we are incapable of fathoming, much less obeying. To lay claim in believing and accepting Jesus within any and all professed Christian beliefs is pointless if one does not also believe in and accept God's Word. John 1:1 confirms they are the exact same thing. Jesus confirms this as well, within the previous scriptures I have included. Jesus did not mention himself personally when asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Instead Jesus confirms the way to eternal life is through obeying the two greatest commandments. To all professed Christians, Jesus is the only way in. Therefore, the two must be the very same thing. As in, the two are one. Jesus is God's Word, which is equal to the two greatest commandments being God's Word. We cannot separate the two and expect to properly interpret the rest of the scriptures.

What about the other multitudes of musts Jesus spoke regarding to eternal life?

"No one comes to the Father except through the Son." (John 14:4b)

"Unless you become like one of these small children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:1-3)

"Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not inherit eternal life." (John 6:54)

"You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven." (John 3:3&5)

* * *

The list is long. It is very long. It is fairly easy to discern that all the above scriptures are equal to God's Word, which is equal to love. Love is clearly the fulfillment of the law, and Jesus answered the man, "Do this and you shall live," confirming that the man will indeed inherit eternal life.

We can replace the words "Love is the fulfillment of the law" with "Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law," or with "God's Word is the fulfillment of the law." All would be correct.

How about this? "No one comes to the Father except through love," or "No one inherits eternal life except through God's Word."

The most complicated of all musts Jesus spoke—to me personally, anyway—is the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of his blood in order to obtain eternal life. It's like eating and drinking love. Not literally. In the same way, we cannot literally become like a child or literally be born again. What we can be sure of though, is that both have to do with love. The thought of really loving other people is not so scary, is it? If that is God's Word and the measure to eternal life, let us just hope and pray there is more to God's plan than meets the eye.

Jesus's Gospel means "good news." The actual word Gospel means "good news." It does not mean bad news. Jesus's Gospel is not tricky or difficult to discern, so long as one is using this gift of free thinking and choosing that God gave them.

Mankind realizes the enormously difficult task of obeying a command like loving others, including our neighbors whom we don't even like to our enemies we despise; to those who are unlike us by way of religion, race, nation, gender; to gender preference. So instead of focusing on what the real deal is all about, mankind has chosen to spend, if not waste much of their time adding all kinds of additional laws, traditions, rules, and misinterpretations of the scriptures in order to fit their own exclusive religious agendas of which there are just too many different agendas to follow.

Like the Apostle Thomas, I ask, "Why? Why should I just blindly believe what mankind tells me is true?"

Besides, Jesus tells us,

"If you only love those who love you, what reward will you get?"

(Matthew 5:46a)

* * *

This is a really good scripture to read and to hear what is actually written.

"God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross."

"Therefore; do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath Day."

I quoted Colossians (2:14&16)

I welcome and encourage others to view the longer version.

(Colossians 2:13-23)

* * *

The old laws, the written code that is said to have been canceled and nailed to the cross with Jesus, can be found in the First Testament book of Leviticus. It consists of about 130 pages of laws God gave to the Israelites after being freed from captivity in Egypt, laws saying that those who profess to be true Christians would—and should—accept Jesus's word. Those laws no longer exist for us to bind ourselves to. This is the good-news message Jesus preached. We are now free to simply place our entire focus on loving one another. We are no longer bound by the old law which commands a man to not sleep with his wife while she is on her period. We are no longer bound to the laws that spoke out against homosexuality, adultery, and divorce, unless of course they violate the law that command us to love our neighbor, our fellowman.

These old laws, along with hundreds of Old Testament laws, do not conflict with the new law Jesus brought us: believe in God and love others.

God fully understands what a difficult task that is. After all, He created us. Nevertheless, it is in fact the law.

If we, as Christians, believe Jesus came here to free us from the yoke of the old laws, going so far as to have it written and hung on the cross with Jesus, why then do so many religious groups fall prey to going right back to those old laws just to find laws to judge others by? Jesus—not me, but Jesus—likens that to a dog going back to his own vomit.

Love is the fulfillment of the law. We do not have to go back to the old laws. Furthermore, there is no written account of Jesus ever repeating the Ten Commandments. Jesus repeatedly stressed the importance of the two greatest commandments as being our focus and measure to eternal life. Jesus did not repeat the Sabbath law as being a measure to one's eternal life, which is not to say that people cannot come together to worship God in their own church, temple, or mausk, be that on a Saturday or any other day of the week. Which is also good news to most professed Christians who do choose to attend a church. The Sabbath is Saturday. It was, it still is, and it will always be. Saturday is Saturday. It is not Sunday or any other day of the week. As Christians, according to Jesus, we are not bound by the Sabbath law. We are even told not to allow others to judge us according to laws such as the Sabbath law. We are told not to allow others to judge us by way of any of the old laws. Jesus tells us that now, all prophets and laws must hang upon the two greatest laws—period.

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.

The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder,"

"Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule:

"Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor.

Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

(Romans 13:8-10)

* * *

Once again, I ask, as true Christians, do we believe these words found written in all bibles are true? I believe the vast majority of us do believe. I do not expect for many people to dig so deep, read, and study, searching for answers to so many questions as I or others do. Nor is it a requirement to do so. I just happen to enjoy it and find it very intriguing. I feel compelled to share what I find with others.

Often, I find many disturbing things as well. The religious rivalry within Christianity breeds not love but rather division, ugliness, hatred, violence, name-calling, exclusion, bloodshed, and sometimes war. I prefer not to call these ones false Christians, cults, or even satanic because it is not up to me to judge. I simply call these ones Convenient Christians.

I have found that the Convenient Christian's best excuse for disregarding the words which Jesus spoke that are clearly written is "Well, Jesus was speaking to the Jews when he said those words. He didn't mean for those words to apply to us."

Of course Jesus was speaking to the Jews. My free gift of choice informs me that they were his greatest and most convenient audience at the time. Common sense tells me Jesus was not directly speaking to Eskimos, Americans, Hindus, or Christians for that matter. The Convenient Christian conveniently denies Jesus was speaking to anyone else but the Jews when Jesus's words do not fit their religious agendas. A perfect example of this is found in Matthew; Jesus spoke these very words:

"Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees. You HYPOCRITES!

You travel over land and sea just to make one single convert.

And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."

(Matthew 23:15)

* * *

Of course, Jesus wasn't speaking to us, right? Jesus was only referring to the Jews of his own day who used the art of converting a person away from their religious Jewish sect and over to another Jewish religious sect. As if that were the key to eternal life. As if religion-hopping had anything at all to do with fulfilling God's Command to love their neighbor. Jesus never so much as mentioned anything about an exclusive religious belief as being the measure or way to eternal life. He did, however, speak out against it.

The Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, the Zealots, and whatever other Jewish divisions that existed during the days of Jesus practiced this religious art of conversion within the Jewish faith. Jesus's point was very clear. Jesus more than confirms that the truth cannot be found within religion as a form of competition and rivalry. People can stay in the religion they are in, or are not in, and still obey God's command to love others. People can also choose to change religions and still obey God's command to love others. However, to be convinced that changing religions will somehow change a person's insurance policy for eternal life is just not true.

The conversion must take place within one's heart and mind. No one will be judged based upon the religious group they are or are not a part of when they die. God's Word is clearly the measure, not religion. Religion, just like the Bible, can be used as a tool in order to further seek out the truth. In the same way, it can be misused and abused to lead others astray from the truth. It can also be used as a tool to instill the fear of satan and hell in others, blinding them from the truth and tying them up, as if in prison. Or it can be used as a tool to set people free, which is one of the key reasons Jesus tells us he came here for: to set us free. We are free to see, hear, read, and think for ourselves. Any true religion will encourage their followers to do just that.

The apostle Paul writes,

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares."

(Romans 2:13-15a)

* * *

God tells us,

"I will put My Laws in their minds and hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying; "Know the Lord." For they will all know Me! From the least of them to the greatest."

(Hebrews 8:10-11)

* * *

Again, the question is do we believe God has the power to put His Laws in all our minds and hearts? Do we believe we are no longer bound by duty or limited by confusion that it is necessary for another man to teach his neighbor or brother who the Lord is? Do we believe that God possesses the power to have all of us know Him, from the very least of us to the greatest?

These are the scriptures that separate the true believer in God's Word from the Convenient Christian.

The Convenient Christian is likened to the beautiful fallen angel. They want a piece of the action. They want a little, or a whole lot, of say as to what should be put into our minds and hearts in regard to God's Word, God's Laws. It is an awesome power; however, it is completely wrong to convince oneself that they have more power than God Himself to teach their neighbor and their brother who God is when God has assured us He would take care of that Himself.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from THE CONVENIENT CHRISTIANby K Nelson Rybolt Copyright © 2012 by K NELSON RYBOLT. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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