The modern Church in the west is a weak Church. There is nothing further from the truth. It is because of the fear of man and the desire to be independent of Christ in thinking it knows the right way to worship God, that the modern Church in the west is full of error, errors which fall short of being heresies, but spiritual errors nonetheless which hurt spiritually. Such hurt hinder others in their walk with Christ, or from being able to carry out commands of Christ in the most fulsome way such as preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Zeal is needed to be able to be saved right unto the end. Salvation is a process, not a one-off transaction like so many of us make it out to be. It is a process. The Bible contains more references to 'being saved', rather than that a person 'has been saved':
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:15).
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:2).
'Being saved' is in the present continuous tense, not in the past perfect tense of being 'already saved'. This indicates that salvation is a process. This has huge implications for those who desire to live a godly life in this world. Such a person must not only humble oneself before God, repent and cry out to God for mercy so that he may be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who paid the price for his sins, so that he may be saved from the just wrath of God. He must persevere right to the very end in living a holy and righteous life. This is what Jesus Himself said:
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all[a] these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,[b] and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:4-14).
In Matthew 10:21-22:
“Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
In order to persevere to the end, one must fully submit oneself to the Lord God, and His alone, fully trusting in Him and Him alone, and in nothing else. It is a lack of faith, that is belief in God in the sense of trusting in Him that leads people to fall away. It is because of this tendency that all of us are susceptible to that we all need constant exhortation to remain faithful to God. Hebrews 3:12-15 makes this clear:
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
See also:
http://illbehonest.com/two-reasons-for-spiritual-error
http://illbehonest.com/series/the-christians-self-cleansing
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/passages-on-enduring-to-the-end-with-faith-and-zeal
Zeal is needed to be able to be saved right unto the end. Salvation is a process, not a one-off transaction like so many of us make it out to be. It is a process. The Bible contains more references to 'being saved', rather than that a person 'has been saved':
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:15).
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:2).
'Being saved' is in the present continuous tense, not in the past perfect tense of being 'already saved'. This indicates that salvation is a process. This has huge implications for those who desire to live a godly life in this world. Such a person must not only humble oneself before God, repent and cry out to God for mercy so that he may be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who paid the price for his sins, so that he may be saved from the just wrath of God. He must persevere right to the very end in living a holy and righteous life. This is what Jesus Himself said:
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all[a] these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,[b] and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:4-14).
In Matthew 10:21-22:
“Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
In order to persevere to the end, one must fully submit oneself to the Lord God, and His alone, fully trusting in Him and Him alone, and in nothing else. It is a lack of faith, that is belief in God in the sense of trusting in Him that leads people to fall away. It is because of this tendency that all of us are susceptible to that we all need constant exhortation to remain faithful to God. Hebrews 3:12-15 makes this clear:
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Hebrews 3:12-15 is meant as a warning, and not a compliment those who do not fall into unbelief. To expect a compliment, or to even think you deserve some compliment for not falling away is the height of pride. It is an obligation on part of the follower of Christ to remain faithful, and not something that deserves any praise. If that is the case, then you being saved deserves praise when it certainly does not, as it is not by your works that you are saved, but only by the works of Christ. Rather, it is that falling away from Christ deserves condemnation.
Hebrews 3:12-15 is a warning to every follower of Christ, so don't you dare think it does not apply to you, or that you could never possibly not fall away.
Do not be deceived. The journey of following Christ is not smooth sailing. There will not only be spiritual dangers from the world. There will be spiritual dangers within the professing Church. Even those who are fellow followers of Christ may be a spiritual danger to your salvation. Yes, even those who are followers of Christ by their spiritual error which they not only believe in, but impose on others.
One could spend all day listing all these spiritual errors which hurt one's walk in the Christ. It is not an emotional or psychological pain. It is a spiritual pain that can have eternal consequences for the person being hurt spiritually. The true follower of Christ will be and is angry at anyone, including a fellow Christian, who causes him or her to be exposed to, or influenced by spiritual error. What do I mean? To cause someone to be exposed to or influenced by spiritual error means to cause him to believe such error, such that he will live in accordance to it and therefore, not be able to carry out God's will with the greatest zeal and fervour one can have.
Simply rebuking a true follower of Christ in spiritual error, under the guise of providing 'godly rebuke' is itself enough to cause such spiritual pain and stumbling. It causes serious spiritual bondage to the person hearing the words and who believes it even to the slightest. I can testify to this as I have experienced this before. There is nothing more despicable to the true follower of Christ than to have a professing follower of Christ cause him or her to stumble into spiritual error, under the guise of 'godly rebuke'. Such people who cause others to stumble by the spiritual error are anathema. Yes, they are anathema. They need to be cut off from the person who has fallen, not the other way round where the person who is spiritually hurt has to cut oneself off from the vile person who influenced the person by his error.
Spiritual error is a danger to the eternal Salvation of people. This includes spiritual error espoused by true followers of Christ which fall short of being heretical, but are nonetheless unbiblical and therefore dangerous. Such error needs to be militantly, aggressively and zealously rooted out from the Church of Jesus Christ, and purged and cast into Hell. This is why Christians need to be aggressively militant in seeking the truth, tolerating no error and aggressively confronting all error that causes people to stumble and fall away.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
See also:
http://illbehonest.com/two-reasons-for-spiritual-error
http://illbehonest.com/series/the-christians-self-cleansing
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/passages-on-enduring-to-the-end-with-faith-and-zeal
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