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I
have read Malcolm Muggeridge’s The End of Christendom and
find it most encouraging. This man is a real wonder! I plan to
encourage all who get my new book (Searching for Real
Christianity) to get his and read it first. You will notice that
in my book I do not equate the churches of Christ with Christ’s
church universal. --- Ted Cline, 3849 W. Encanto Blvd., Phoenix,
Az. 85009.
I
was baptized in 1979 after being a Presbyterian. I am writing to ask
you a very important question: Do you believe a sincerely penitent,
non-baptized believer, like a Presbyterian, will be saved if he dies?
--- Arnaldo J. Hernandez, Rio Piedra, P.R.
(One
is not lost because he is unbaptized but because he is a sinner. It
is when he turns from his sins, resolved to obey God in all things,
that he is accepted, as Isa. 62:2 indicates: “I am pleased
with those who are humble and repentant, who fear me and obey me.”
One can obey only what he understands, so God holds us responsible
for disobedience, a rejection of what we know He wants us to do.
Baptism is the act that formally marks our covenant
relationship with Him, but not necessarily the time that he begins
to be “pleased” with us, to quote the prophet. And I
hardly conceive of one as lost with whom the Lord is pleased, and He
is pleased so long as we obey what we know to obey. --- Ed.)
My
family and 1 have recently left a congregation where we were members
for years. A new Church of Christ has formed, and now we are trying
to decide whether we should join them or go somewhere else. We were
forced out of the congregation because we would not judge and condemn
people for their opinions. There has been so much pain that we do not
want you to use our names or identify us in any way. But if you could
write something on churches binding their opinions on others to the
point of causing them to leave I would appreciate it. --- Name
withheld
(This is the heart of our heritage - In opinions liberty - but it is a heritage we have forsaken. The reason one wants to leave when opinions are made into law is the same reason one wants to get out of prison, to be free. The tragedy is not that many are leaving, for they are our freedom-riders, but that so many stay and yield to the system that enslaves them. So with prisons, for some don’t want out, actually fearing to be free. There are many others who have “left” even though they stay, people whose hearts and minds have long since renounced the system, even though for one reason or another they are still bodily present. These await the coming reformation --- Ed.)
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