The Context of the Study

“Behold I stand at the door and knock. . . (Rev. 3:20) “

The Context or My Testimony

When I was a boy of seven years, I went to my Mother and my Father and stated with certainty, “I want to be a Christian.” I had grown up in the church for as long as I could remember and I was convicted that I needed to be a Christian. It was a Sunday.

So, my parents took me to the church that same afternoon and I spent time with the pastor of our church who explained to me what it meant to be a Christian. He used a visual aid that he wrote from scratch that I still have framed in my house. This is basically what it included.

This is how he explained how to become a Christian. All of us were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). However, we all have sinned against God (Romans 3:23) and the punishment for sinning against God is death (Romans 6:23). However, God made a way for us to be redeemed through Jesus Christ death and resurrection (Romans 10:9 – 13). Once saved by Jesus, our responsibility is to obey God as Jesus instructed.

(Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” –Matthew 22:37 – 40 NIV)

This presupposes a couple of main ideas.

1. There is one God who is the creator of everything including time and space.
2. God is also infinite in holiness, power, love, goodness, etc.
3. Mankind is part of God’s creation and is made in God’s image.
4. Every human being has sinned against God at some point – meaning done something against God that caused us to be separated from Him.
5. The only judgment which can be rendered to sinners is death – which includes a permanent separation from God.
6. Because of God’s holiness, the judgment had to be met. Because of God’s love, He sent Jesus to pay that debt.
7. We are each given a choice – to accept the gift of God’s substitution for the payment of that penalty or to pay that penalty ourselves.
8. If we choose to accept the substitution (which also means making Jesus the Lord of our life) then we have a responsibility to live according to God’s will going forward.

This is the context in which this study of end time prophecy will occur. in the next post, I will give you more of my testimony. I would like to say that ever since I became a Christian everything was smooth sailing, but that would be far from the truth.