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Re: "Correct" - but Wrong

"But what I do, I will also do, that I may cut off the opportunity from
those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the
things of which they boast.  For such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.  And no
wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according
to their works." (2Cor11:12-15)

Many complain that we so frequently label "[c]hristians" as being
-unsaved-. That we "..cut off the opportunity.." of the pretenders.

A short little object lesson this time:

A couple of you already know about this... please bear with me for the
sake of everybody else. My main computer is not particularly high-tech.
By today's standards, a 233Mhz is "slow". But it does everything I need
from it.  I'm also running on Windows 95. I don't need/want all the
bells and whistles of the newer operating systems.

But, it had one very annoying problem, the solution to which eluded me
for the longest time.  With Internet Explorer, if I viewed any graphic
that was larger than the screen, requiring 'scrolling' to see the whole
thing (like photos from NASA), anything that had been 'under' the edge
of the screen became 'erased' once I scrolled it back out. Netscape,
Opera or any other graphics programs did not have this problem.

This was the problem.

The solution, and 'understanding' of the reason for the problem came
after doing a complete rebuild of the main hard drive, and reinstalling
Windows 'fresh'.

Without getting all technical here, I have two drivers (software)
available to me for the computer's video card. One that comes with
Window's setup files. The other, that comes on the CD that accompanied
the video card.  While they are both listed as being for the same video
chip, the drivers are of different versions and dates.

Question: If you didn't know any better, 'which' driver would you
suppose would be the 'preferred' driver to use? Well, any reasonable
person would assume that when a CD accompanies a video card, and it's
driver is also newer, 'that' is the preferred driver. Right?  I thought
so, too. But I was WRONG!!

I won't bore you with the details of how I came to discover this
matter. (It's a long story, and many wasted hours!) Needless to say,
the Windows driver causes Internet Explorer to display the large
graphics correctly. The newer "correct" driver from the CD does not.

My video driver CD is a perfect example of what we continually harp on
regarding the label "C/christian". The CD (by association) 'claims' to
be the correct driver for my video card. But it messes up.

There are -MANY- who "..desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we 
are in the things of which they boast.." (2Cor11:12) In other words, 
there are many who claim to be "Christian". They make their "boasts" of 
having various "gifts", powers, visions, and miracles in spiritual 
matters; claiming it to be of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  They
conduct meetings, and have large crowds following them from stadium to
arena.

My "correct" (CD) video driver did 'most' (99.999%) things right. If I
had never wanted to use Internet Explorer, I would never have known
anything was amiss. In similar fashion, these "false apostles" and
"deceitful workers" appear to be "ministers of righteousness".
(vs13,15)  They do not proclaim sin and debauchery.  They proclaim
living decent moral lives, etc. They even talk about "faith in Christ".

But when I would go to a website with large graphics, things would just
start disappearing off the screen once I would do a little scrolling up
and down. I would come to a given website and think I had 'arrived'...
the status bar would declare, "Done"... scroll down and look around at
the content, and back up... and it was all "gone".  Poof!

There are many "[c]hristians" who think they have arrived at "Heaven"
through all that they are following. These "ministers of righteousness"
introduce them to "Heaven"... They spend a lot of time being
"spirit-filled"... but without the right [Holy] Spirit 'driving' them
(Rom8:9), they will scroll around down in this world, and then when the
time comes to scroll back up to meet the Lord in the air, looking for
the "Heaven" they thought they had seen earlier...

Poof!  It's all gone!

"Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of
Heaven...many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord...have we not done
many works of power in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who work out lawlessness!"
(Mt7:21-23)

Amen!

Beginning of this mini-series - Q/A -Pagan Christendom: a discussion - Where will you Spend Eternity?

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