Bill
freddy – i was talking to some people who said that when we die we sleep in the grave, where i was taught that our body gos (SIC) to the grave but our souls go to be with God, they use the book of ephesians for their point, what do you say about this.
Freddy
Your characterization is correct (assuming that the person has received the Lord). What religion or denomination is the person who told you we sleep in the grave?
Bill
jw
j. witness (Jehovah’s Witnesses)
Freddy
JWs don’t believe in hell. If you are not a JW, they believe you will just die with no eternal existence.
Bill
they showed me a verse cant remember where in the bible that stated when you die you rest in the grave, i asked but not the soul? they (said) the soul also
Freddy
When false religions try to justify their false beliefs using the Bible, they ALWAYS take verses out of context, AND they ignore all other Scripture that goes against their beliefs. JWs are notorious for that. You can, literally, “prove” any false belief using the Bible if you use that methodology. It is a lie!
Bill
they are hard to talk too, not as bad as muslims
Freddy
They do tend to be hard to talk to. One of the main reasons is that they tend to know more about their own beliefs than most Christians know about theirs. It is a problem in the Christian church.
Bill
i agree
This is a conversation I recently had with a friend on social media. Bill (not his real name) is a Christian, and is quite typical of a large percentage of Christians I know. Occasionally he comes up against something related to his faith that he is not quite sure how to deal with, and will shoot me a question like the one above.
Of course, I am happy to answer his questions to the best of my ability when he asks. My greatest passion is to equip the body of Christ in ways that help Christians become more knowledgeable of and confident in their Christian faith. I want them to be able to more effectively share their faith in Christ. And while I am happy to answer questions (and none of us ever get to a place where we know everything), I really want believers to advance to a place where they don’t need me. But how can that happen?
Every genuine Christian is somewhere on a discipleship continuum. It begins at the “baby” level, where they know virtually nothing about the Christian faith and Christian life, and moves to higher levels of knowledge and experience in living out the faith. Of course, no one ever achieves perfection this side of eternity, but it is possible to continually grow in the faith.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to exactly characterize every step along the Christian discipleship pathway, so this article will not try to do that. There are, however, certain markers that are able to give us a sense of where we are on our growth journey, that may be helpful to understand.
Baby Christian
The concept of a “baby Christian” is not as completely straightforward as it might seem. As a generic definition, it is someone who has become a Christian, but has virtually no clear understanding as to what that means in a practical sense as they live their lives.
Perhaps most Christians, when they hear this term, think immediately of a new Christian. That can certainly be the case, but it is also possible for a person to have been a Christian for a long time and still be a baby Christian. There are several scenarios that can be considered.
Some people who become a Christian later in life were raised in an environment where they never learned anything about the Christian faith – or perhaps in a family that was even hostile to the faith. They grew up where an entirely different set of values were the norm, so when they do receive Christ, they really have no idea how to live based on biblical beliefs and values.
There are other people who grew up in a nominal Christian environment where belief in Christ was asserted, yet the values and lifestyle of the people they grew up around was not consistent with the teachings of the Bible. So while some of these may have genuinely received Christ, their understanding of the implications of a genuine Christian life is very shallow.
A word of caution should also be mentioned here. There are people who were raised in a faithful Christian family and, over the years, have been culturally assimilated into the life of the church, but who have never personally invited Christ into their life. These people appear to be Christians, but in actuality they are not. They know all of the right lingo, how to operate within the church culture, and are perhaps even active in the church organization. Some of these people may even appear to be quite spiritually mature. But in fact, they are not even baby Christians – they are not Christians at all. The first requirement of being even a baby Christian is that you have personally received Christ into your life.
Stagnant Christian
The very idea of a “stagnant Christian” implies that there was a time in the past when an individual’s relationship with God was strong and vibrant. For whatever reason, however, that vibrancy has been lost. Even in that, however, the person has continued to go through the motions of Christianity. They still claim their Christian faith, and are probably still active in the church – even if not as faithfully as before.
The Christian faith, in its essence, is centered upon a personal relationship with God. When fellowship with God dwindles, even while still engaged in religious forms, a person becomes spiritually stagnant.
Ignorant Christian
An ignorant Christian is a person who has accepted Christ, but has never made any effort to grow in their faith. Ultimately every individual Christian is responsible for making personal decisions that move them forward in their spiritual life, but there are different dynamics that may affect those decisions.
For some, their ignorance is because no one has ever taught them of even the necessity to grow. The situation comes to mind of a people group on some mission field that is totally unfamiliar with the gospel, and when it is brought to them, they accept it but the missionary doesn’t teach them how to grow in their faith.
Another possibility is a person who has been brought up in a Christian church that does not have a tradition of training their people to grow. In these situations, the tendency is to train their children and youth that they need to accept Christ and continue in church, but never train them on the spiritual implications of their Christian faith. This does not absolve people of their personal responsibility to grow, but that kind of ignorance is difficult for many to overcome.
Backslidden Christian
Sadly, there are people who, when they receive Christ, do so enthusiastically, and actively grow in their faith – and even seek to share Christ with others. But at some point, they lose their enthusiasm and settle into a life where their faith is put on the back burner. Sometimes this happens because they allow some kind of sin to enter their life and they basically quit participating in their faith life altogether. For others it is because they have allowed material things to overtake spiritual matters in their lives. Still other times it might be more a matter of becoming so comfortable in participating in church life, that the reason for the participation gets lost. In any case, these people basically just lose the personal fellowship with God they once had.
Growing Christian
God’s ideal for every one of His children is that we become a growing Christian. A growing Christian is one who intentionally and continuously seeks spiritual growth opportunities, and works diligently to implement that in life. There are several things we can do to work toward that goal.
Reading
One thing we can do is to learn from others by reading. There are many people who have knowledge and experience in their spiritual walk who have recorded it in books, audio recordings, video recordings, and the like. Making the effort to learn from these other believers can certainly give us a leg up in our own spiritual growth.
But there is an even more important source of knowledge for spiritual growth that we should be taking advantage of – Scripture. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself and His ways that was given specifically to help us grow in our faith. We should be very diligent in reading and learning from God Himself.
Faithfully Attending Church
Living a faithful Christian life in modern society is not an easy task – especially if we try to go it alone. God made us for relationship – not only with Him, but with our spiritual siblings, as well. Within the Christian community we are able to encourage and learn from one another, as well as give and receive all kinds of other help. If this opportunity is used well, there is no other place that is better for spiritual growth than a community of believers. The Bible admonishes us to not forsake meeting together with other believers (Hebrews 10:25).
Prayer and Meditation
The very essence of the Christian faith is our personal relationship with God, and spiritual growth is impossible if we don’t actively participate in the relationship. This means not only reading the Bible and listening to sermons, but to actually spending time talking to God and listening to His communications to us. We do this in prayer and meditation. Prayer is the actual communication we engage with God as we talk and listen to Him. Meditation is the act of contemplating that communication.
Being Mentored
Another place where Christians can find growth opportunities is in being mentored. This is where an individual finds a more mature Christian who is willing to work with him one-on-one to facilitate spiritual growth.
Mentoring
It is a well known fact that in the act of teaching, the teacher generally learns more than the ones being taught. It is the teacher who spends extra time and effort to not only learn the material being taught, but also background and context information. Mentoring is a form of teaching and provides the same kind of benefit to the mentor. It causes the mentor to think more deeply about the spiritual lessons he is imparting to the mentee.
You Get to Decide
Spiritual growth is not an automatic process, but one that must be intentionally engaged. At this point, you are at some stage of spiritual growth – hopefully not as far along as you will be as you continue to live your life. But you get to decide. Will you stay where you currently are? Will you regress? Or will you decide that growing in your relationship with God is the most important thing in your life and begin increasing your efforts to make it a priority? We all know God’s will in this matter. So what course will you take?
© 2022 Freddy Davis