Richard T. Ritenbaugh said that perhaps the most famous line from the quill of American patriot Thomas Paine is the sentence that opened his pro-revolution pamphlet, The American Crisis, No. 1: "These are the times that try men's souls." We are not living in the same kind of revolutionary period, despite the rebellious rumblings coming from Americans who vehemently disagree with the radical transformation of America envisioned by the Obama administration. Yet, we do live in soul-trying times—in fact, these days rank high on the list of periods in which men's souls, if you will, are at their greatest spiritual risk.

As Herbert Armstrong often said, this is a time of great religious confusion, and it has only become worse since his death in 1986.

There are literally thousands of different Christian churches and hundreds of denominations. Beyond that, the religious seeker must contend with the crusading fervor of Islam, the enduring presence of Judaism, the growing influence of Buddhism and other Eastern belief systems, and the persistent appeal of New Age and occult "spiritualities." There is also a rather militant, activist advocacy of atheism to contend with, along with its secular partners, the isms of relativism, multiculturalism, feminism, socialism, and the like, which are simply intellectual and/or political religions—idolatries of the ungodly.

Where is a person who is truly seeking God to turn?

Jesus Christ tells His disciples in Matthew 16 ". . . on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades where the dead are, the grave shall not prevail against it." This is both a prophecy and a promise, and it is based on the authority, power and faithfulness of God. In this first mention of the Christian church in the Bible, Jesus informs us of its source and foundation: Himself. He is the Rock on which the church rests, and the whole structure built atop it is also His. That is why nothing, not even death, can hope to defeat or destroy it. The church will continue until it has accomplished its purpose—which means that the true church of Jesus Christ is still in existence on the earth, and it can be found.

Of course, one cannot simply decide on one's own to seek it and find it. Many think they can, but they have deluded themselves on this matter. Jesus says very clearly in John 6:44, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." No one! Currently, He is working through a small body of people called "the elect," who are firstfruits of His Kingdom as mentioned in Revelation 14:1, 4-5 and James 1:8.

Students of the Bible know that "many are called and few are chosen" Matthew 20:16, 22:14. As the Parable of the Sower and the Seed Matthew 13:1-9 depicts, God casts the gospel far and wide, but only those on "good ground" produce results. These are the chosen, the elect, the little flock (Luke 12:32) of true disciples of Christ. These few are the church or ekklesia ("assembly," "those called out") of God.

The church of God then, is not necessarily found in one human organization or denomination; instead, the church is a spiritual organism composed of individual true Christians, wherever they may be.

So it was in the first century, when the twelve apostles and Paul scattered over the face of the earth to spread the gospel, raising up congregations everywhere. Whether under Peter or Paul or John or another apostle, the truly converted members were all united in the spiritual body of Christ despite having little or no contact with each other and working within different organizations. Revelation 2-3 more than suggests that the end-time church members will be similarly scattered among at least seven "churches." Whether these are real church organizations or spiritual designations in the mind of God, we cannot say for certain. Nevertheless, to consider only one physical church organization to be the only true church ignores biblical reality.

Even so, there are larger church organizations in which true disciples of Christ congregate. In Romans 8:14, Paul gives us the most important clue concerning how to find the true church: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons ( and daughters) of God." True Christians are those who show by their words and behaviors that God is directing them. God, through the prophet Isaiah, speaks of His people, "'You are My witnesses,' says the LORD, ‘and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He'" Isaiah 43:10.

This puts a great deal of pressure on church members to represent Him properly before the world.

Perhaps the simplest test to find members of the body of Christ is one spoken by Jesus just before His crucifixion: "If you love Me, keep My commandments" John 14:15. In other words, Christ's true disciples will be keeping God's commandments—all of them. They will not pick and choose which ones they will keep; they will in faith follow all of them to the best of their abilities.

Obviously, a search for the true church of God will not be an easy one—like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. It takes a great deal of study on the part of the seeker to know what God's true disciples believe and teach, and it is likely such a person will go through many worldly churches before He finds one of God's churches. However, if God is indeed drawing the individual to Christ, He will put him on the path to make contact with the true church.

I believe there are a few true Christians who have been "called out" right here on Mindsay. One or two of the remnant exist right here.

They have been filled with God's truth. They do not desire to argue or cause division, they love you, and sharing how they received that love and new life is all that concerns them. Their desire is that you come to know the one true God but at least that you see and hear enough to decide if you believe or not.

If God has called a few of the "elect" to Mindsay, then you are important to Him, more than you can ever know in this lifetime.

Just listen, consider carefully, see if God is not drawing you to Christ and a new life for you.

From a young 17 year old boy to the editor of the S.E.Calgary News:

I’ve been reading the polls that have been in the news lately. Faith is on the decline in the United States and agnostics and atheists are on the rise. What is also on the rise are disillusioned ex-church goers and bitter fist shakers.

Bill Maher’s movie “Religulous” did well in the box office last year and authors like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are becoming increasingly popular writing books like “The God Delusion” and “God is Not Great”. Even in  “Family Guy” the pet dog is an atheist.

As a young guy who has found faith, as a Christian, and a believer of God, I wanted to write a letter to you, the fist shaker, the ex-church goer, the Atheist and Agnostic. It’s a short letter, but I mean it from my heart.

To all Angry at God,

I’m sorry.

You might not have expected something like that from me, a Christian. But I mean it. I’m sorry because as a Christian I haven’t done the greatest job I could in showing you that God is great, that religion doesn’t poison everything, and that Jesus may not look like you think he looks like.

In some ways, I understand. Sometimes Christianity can be negative. Sometimes it makes people more racist, more intolerant, and more judgmental. Sometimes it is thrown into politicians speeches that you may disagree with, or worse, the person that might have hurt you worse in your life might have been a Christian.

I’m sorry.

I believe in the depths of my being, that God is good. That He does love you.

I think you would love Jesus. I really mean it.

If you could have seen Him healing the ear of one of His enemies, or feeding the hungry, or healing the blind. I think if you saw Him in action, you might even like Him.

You might be surprised at how opposite He was to how some people make him out to be.

I know we might not see eye to eye on a lot of things. We have gotten into some good debates before. But I don’t want to debate today. We can later if you need to. I wanted to tell you something first.

Did you know that Christians used to be known for their love? I know that seems crazy with our politically driven message today. But it’s true.

The 300 years after Jesus died was a great time for Christianity. A Faith in Jesus went from a small group of people into impacting millions of people.

Back then if someone had a baby they didn’t want they would go throw them in the woods or outside the city. It was the Christians who went and got the babies and raised them as their own. In those times sometimes people were so sick they were left alone to die. The only people that cared for these people were Christians. As they nursed the sick back to health a common question was “why did you do this for me?” and the answer was “because Jesus loves you”.

People wanted to know what could give someone so much love. People back then were amazed by what Jesus could do in someone’s life. A little different to the gospel tracks you might have gotten on the street.

That’s how Christianity grew so large. It was through love.

I know you may not agree with all my views. But if you saw the sincere love that is cultivated in someone when they have a faith in Jesus, you might not be so bitter.

Maybe if you see less Christians with picket signs and more at the soup kitchens you might change your mind about us.

Maybe if a Christian was the only one there for you when you lost your job, bringing you groceries and praying for you, you might not have such a big issue with religion.

Maybe if your local church opened their doors to you when you needed them, you would feel a little different.

But, maybe you haven’t been seeing that lately.

We really haven’t been doing our best in showing what Faith can do in someone’s life. But from the bottom of my heart I know that God is good.

I’m writing to tell you that I’m going to change. I want to start to show you what God can do for someone. I want to start to show you what Jesus is really like. I want to show you something so beautiful that maybe even you would want to know more about it.

Forgive me.

Thanks,

A Christian

John Macarthur goes on to say that it really does matter whether we believe the Bible is true or not; and it likewise matters whether our faith is earnest or not.  To any sober-minded person, the importance of thinking rightly and seriously about God is obvious. 

Certainly, no intelligent mind in past generations would ever have suggested that what we believe about God doesn’t ultimately matter much. Study the history of philosophy, and one feature that stands out most prominently is this very theme. Philosophers have always been obsessed with God. Whether they have assumed His existence, questioned it, denied it, or looked for rational arguments to prove or disprove it, they have universally understood that what a person believes about God is basic to everything else.Of course, one of the central themes of the Bible is the importance of believing the truth about God.

This is not something the Bible merely hints at or lightly glosses over. Statement after statement in Scripture emphatically declares that our view of God is the most fundamental spiritual issue of all: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). In biblical terms, the difference between true faith and false belief (or unbelief ) is the difference between life and death, heaven and hell.

Until the past few years, no Christian who claimed to believe the Bible would have entertained the slightest doubt about the importance of a right view of God. But these days it seems the visible church is dominated by people who simply are not interested in making any careful distinctions between fact and falsehood, sound doctrine and heresy, biblical truth and mere human opinion. Even some of the leading voices among evangelicals seem intent on downplaying the value of objective truth.

Look at it this way: of all the things you might ever study or reflect on, nothing could possibly be greater than God. So your view of Him automatically has more far-reaching ramifications than anything else in your belief system. What you think of God will automatically color how you think about everything else—especially how you prioritize values; how you determine right and wrong; and what you think of your own place in the universe. That in turn will surely determine how you act.

The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible Is Scientifically Accurate, by Andrew Parker an introduction to natural history with a hint of Genesis thrown in.Oxford evolutionary biologist Parker does not profess to be a particularly religious man, but he is intrigued by a simple question. How did the writer of the first chapter of Genesis - the biblical creation story - basically get it scientifically correct? Never mind the seven-day part, which the author easily dismisses. Parker is astounded that the order of creation described in Genesis follows the order of geologic and life evolution as science understands it. 'Either the writer of the creation account of Genesis 1 was directed by divine intervention,' he writes, 'or he made a lucky guess.'

This mystery is the Genesis enigma. Parker believes a lucky guess to be all but out of the question, and he views the accuracy of the creation account to be a proof of the existence of God, or at least a higher being of some kind. The author takes the reader step by step through the creation story,explaining how each segment aligns with an era in the evolution of the earth and the life inhabiting it. The creation of the sun is followed by the creation of the earth, with its oceans and land masses, followed by the earliest life forms, etc. Eventually Genesis tells us that lights divide day and night, a step which Parker ties to the development of eyesight in life forms and the evolutionary revolution that ensued. Aquatic life came before land life, though the writer of Genesis had no scientific way of knowing this; birds have their own special mention in the story, and they are indeed evolutionarily distinct.

Parker raises plenty of interesting questions, but he focuses almost exclusively on natural history,barely scratching the surface of the background of the text he is highlighting. Only in an appendix does he begin to delve into the rich textual and historical research about the creation story in Genesis.