Let’s Get Down to Basics: An Introduction to Christian Living

64 page, soft cover

$5.00 cost plus $2 postage. (PayPal or checks accepted.)

For purchase, contact me on Facebook/Rick Blumenberg


Let’s Get Down to Basics—An Introduction to Christian Living is a 64 page book for persons wanting to investigate the Christian faith. It is also good for new Christians who want a good beginning for a life-time commitment to Christ and for mature Christians who want to review some basic teachings of the Christian faith.

The biggest problem with this book is the small print size. I used the small print so I could get all the text into only 64 pages to save money and because I was young and had better eyesight.

 “Basics” is written from the Wesleyan-Arminian perspective as curriculum for a new Christians’ class but also works well as a stand-alone read. Here is an outline of the chapters with short explanations about what each teaches.

Chapter One: Bible Study is Basic, teaches the importance of regular and sustained Bible study for those who want to live a Christ-like life.

Chapter Two: Am I Really a Christian? This chapter helps the new Christian to confirm their relationship with Christ so they can live with assurance so they will not be confused when Satan tries to tempt them to doubt their faith and dessert it.

Chapter Three: I am Stronger than Temptation. Chapter 3 deals with the reality of temptation and helps the new Christian know how to face it victoriously and defeat it any time it rears its ugly head.

Chapter Four: Prayer is My Privilege. Prayer is the greatest privilege we have as the people of God and is our greatest help for normal everyday living. God gave us prayer because he loves us and wants to be constantly available to us. Prayer is his method.

Chapter Five: I Can Discover God’s Will. This chapter introduces and explains the concept that God’s will for us is what is best for us and that when we seek and find God’s will, we also find the best life has to offer.

Chapter Six: What Do You Mean…Stewardship? Giving to God through tithes and offerings is an important part of Christian living, but it is sometimes difficult for the new believer to accept. It is important and this chapter will help you understand why.

Chapter Seven: A Second Step. Salvation is not the end of the Christian life, but the beginning, or first step. Step two is learning to surrender our lives to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and allow him permanent residence in our heart, mind and life. He is the comforter, counselor and guide for whom we are most grateful.

Chapter Eight: I Have a Spiritual Gift? Explains the concept of spiritual gifts, how we receive them as gifts from God and how to develop them for greater effectiveness to bless our own lives and the lives of those in our sphere of influence. We don’t choose them. They are gifts from God, given at his discretion to bless our lives and build his kingdom.

Chapter Nine: Living Holy. God’s plan is for his Spirit to live in us and our call from God is to surrender our lives to him so he can make us holy, like he is. As Christians, we are sacred temples in which God lives when we allow him access or invite him in. This chapter tells in understandable language how to make this happen.

Chapter Ten: I Can Tell Others! Evangelism: sharing our faith with friends and family, is one of the greatest joys of the Christian life, but one that causes the most consternation and feelings of failure. This chapter will help you to understand it and hopefully help you to witness to your faith with greater confidence.

Chapter Eleven: Symbols of My Faith. Ordinances practiced by many Christian groups include baptism, communion and foot-washing. These are symbols of faith—symbolic actions that are living pictures of spiritual realities. You will learn their importance and how to practice them in the church.

Chapter Twelve: My Faith as a Parent. Parenting is at the same time, the most difficult and most rewarding task you will ever attempt. The Christian is privileged to parent under the leadership of God, who is the best parent and is both our parent and our best example for parenting.

Chapter Thirteen: The Last Chapter. This title has a double meaning. The literal last chapter of the book, it deals with the church age, the last chapter in Kingdom history. It gives an amillenial view of last things or the way God plans to finish his earthly program.
   

Squabbles in the Family of God

Christians are a lot like oil companies—we all think our brand is the best, even though any one of them will get us where we want to go, whether we’re talking about fuel to get our cars to the grocery store, or faith to get our souls to heaven. But once in a while we get all in a dither about the specifics of our beliefs and when that happens, the greatest arguments usually come, not from those who are farthest apart, but from those who are closest. A recent example is the book Love Wins, by Rob Bell, former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The media, who love Rob Bell, jumped on his latest book and the fact that he is a bit wishy-washy about whether or not anyone will go to hell. His rationale for questioning this is that the Bible makes it clear God does not want anyone to go to hell, so Rob’s thinking is that since God is God, he can always get whatever he wants and since he wants all people to be saved, maybe they will be. His conclusion is that since the Bible talks a lot more about grace than eternal damnation, maybe we should preach more about grace and eternal damnation, not so much. The media then acted as if Pastor Bell didn’t believe in hell and as if he were a Universalist, who believes that everyone can be saved in any religion. (Sort of like how it would be if our cars would run on any liquid instead of just any gasoline.)

The biggest criticisms seemed to come from Rob’s Reformed “friends”, such as Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. who has been quoted as saying Bell’s “Love Wins” book was “theologically disastrous”. While his Reformed and Calvinist friends seem to think Bell is a heretic, we Arminians have always thought God was more about salvation than condemnation (even though our preaching has not always made that clear) but when Rob says God wants all people to be saved, we say, “Welcome to the Wesleyan-Arminian world of Christian theology.”

The problem, of course, is that if you accept the concept that God wants all people to be saved (as is clearly stated in 2 Peter 3:9 which tells us God doesn’t want anyone to perish, but instead, wants everyone to come to repentance. Or, I Timothy 2:1-4 where we are urged to pray for everyone because God wants everyone to be saved. Then you begin to have serious reservations about “unconditional election”, the concept that before the world was created God chose some people to be saved and others to be eternally lost with no hope of salvation. I don’t know if Rob Bell considers himself to be among those with this Calvinist-Reformed theology, but I think they have always claimed him and now this revelation in “Love Wins” stirs up a plethora of  squabbles among our Calvinist brethren. It will be interesting to see where it leads, if it goes anywhere at all, or if it just flutters out and disappears.

Rob’s writing also suggests we need to be open to the possibility that an opportunity for salvation may exist after death. He sees this as a possibility that can be found in scripture rather than an anti-biblical heresy. On the Mars Hill website they have FAQs about the book “Love Wins” and it is written “Love Wins helps us have a biblical imagination that leaves room for the hope of the redemption of all while recognizing humanities free will to continue to reject God.” That definitely requires imagination, but I’m not convinced it is biblical.

What I do know is that our faith should be big enough for us to love each other even when we don’t fully agree on the details. I thank God for all those in the family and out because I believe we are all created in the image of God and all valid subjects of His amazing grace and love. I thank God for Rob Bell even when I’m not sure I fully agree with him. I even thank God for those Christians with whom I greatly disagree. As Bill Gaither wrote, “There’s plenty of room in the family” and I do greatly love the family of God even in the midst of and in spite of our family squabbles.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

The Idolatry of Creationary Evolution

The most widespread, vicious and prolonged attack on the concept of the Divine origins of our universe comes, not from atheists, but from those who claim to be atheists while espousing and worshiping the god of creationary evolution. Of course one hallmark of religion is the presence of faith—there are some things that cannot be proven and must be accepted by faith because there may never be objective proof or scientific evidence. Faith, however, to be worthy, must be rooted in something that is provable beyond reasonable doubt by evidence that is authentic and in enough abundance to not be an aberration. Creationary evolution fails miserably to meet such criteria. Creationary evolution scientists want us to accept by faith that the world came into being by purely natural phenomena. They insist that Darwinism is genuine science and Christianity, or any faith that teaches Creation by Divine fiat, is foolishness and fiction. They deride faith while actually being people of blind faith, if they really believe what they claim.

Now you may question why I call creationary evolutionists people of faith, but I ask you, where is the proof of their creator? Where is the evidence of their creation story? It doesn’t exist and only those who have blind faith in an unproven theory with no supporting evidence could possibly believe such nonsense.

Where is the fossil evidence of even one species that has mutated to a totally new species? Such evidence is a requirement for their claims to be taken seriously. Even Darwin, himself, I am told, said for his theory to be accepted as fact, it would need to be proven by evidence in the fossil record. Now, on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s theory, that evidence is still missing, but the blind faith of creationary evolutionists is so vocal and determined to obliterate any concept of Divine creation, that they ridicule scientists who believe in intelligent design. The resistance is sometimes so strong I’ve heard they seek to trash believing scientists’ careers and drive them from scientific professions. People of blind faith cannot allow critical analysis of their faith or it will be proven inadequate at best and at worst, totally false. If you are a creationary evolutionist, clinging to a fallacy on blind faith there is nothing more frightening than critical analysis of your unsupportable theology.

On the other hand, where is the evidence of Divine creation? Does the universe indicate the presence of a creator? How likely is a mixture of chemical soup to grow into such an amazing thing as a human body in all its magnificence, or a human brain that can contemplate such possibilities? And the galaxies of the universe—how could they just happen, with no intelligence behind them? There is much evidence there must be intelligence behind the creation of our universe.

The difficulty, of course, is that evolution is a proven fact, so the preachers and priests of creationary evolution try to parlay this into proof that creation came about through evolution and that is where their argument fails.

The concept of the separation of church and state was created by thoughtful people who wanted to protect genuine religion from the rule of politicians. Now the religion of creationary evolution is being taught in our schools under the guise of scientific truth but the primary purpose is not scientific truth, but the destruction of genuine faith in the Creator God. We need to recognize this religion and reveal it in the public square for what it is—a false religion and pseudo science. It is a false religion that seeks to usurp the rightful place of truth and reason—and replace it with the absurdity of creationary evolution.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.