A young couple found they were expecting a child. As the pregnancy progressed, they found out they were going to have twins. What an excitement. Yet, what a problem. What if they were identical twins! How would they tell them apart long enough to teach them their respective names? The idea of mistaken identity feared the mother more than the father. To the father, this was a bridge to be crossed at a later date; now was not a time to panic.
Perhaps you do not have a set of twins as your children nor any twins in your family. I am sure you know of twins somewhere in your life. Are they identical twins? Can you identify them by name correctly?
There was a set of twin girls near me when in grammar school through high school. One had a small mole on one cheek; the other did not. I had to know which had the mole and which did not or I had them mistaken one from the other. Their mother, before they grew older and the one obtained the mole, parted their hair differently to tell them apart.
Mistaken identity is a fact of physical life here on earth. Humans have to have identities for everything. When a child is born, from the first breath they enter a world where identification of things is mandatory. Humans have to have an identifying aspect of every object, place and person to distinguish one from another.
God has given humans five senses by which to make an identification of things different from other things. Sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch are those tools by which we identify all earthly things. In our physical realm we use these senses every waking moment.
Humans have developed a method to identify persons, places and things which are like twin siblings. We add more identifiers; sub categories to the main identifier. If two or more people look similar, and have the same name, we have given them an additional name called a last name. Humans cannot bear to not have the ability to distinguish people, places and things from other people, places and things.
Humans cannot bear to not be identified separately from others. Our world is filled with the necessity to stand out and be different. Yet, man desires as much to be approved by those of like character traits and common ideologies. So people walk, talk, and dress alike so as not to be too different from those they desire to associate. However, they reserve a small area to be different to be recognized. The necessity to be recognized is very powerful in the minds of humans.
People desire to be like the world in all but a maximum of four hours per week. In those four hours, if they choose to participate in all four, they choose to be like those of which they assemble. You get the picture; those four hours max is when they attend a worship service Sunday, Sunday night and one night during the week.
Humans are social beings. They must belong to an association of like-minded persons. They must have an identifying characteristic. They are proud to tell everyone they belong to such and such a group.
I knew a lady who grew up attending a certain church assembly identified by; I will use ‘X’. When she married, her spouse identified with a certain church identity I will call ‘Y’. Many years into life and having moved away from that church location, they attended church ‘Z’. If you asked her which association she belonged to, she would say, 'I am a ‘Y’’.
She could not bring herself to be identified with anyone associated with church 'X’ or ‘Z’. She did not wish to be known with a mistaken identity; one of which she did not approve.
Where did this notion of church identity begin? We see man’s desire to have identities for everything under the sun; including their religious preference.
God told His chosen people, Israel, to follow Him as God and not follow, nor be found imitating any other god. His first commandment to Israel was, 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:3. Israel was God’s identifier of His people. God had changed Jacob's name to Israel. They were to follow only Him as their God.
Man soon identified two classes of people, Israelites and all others. They soon identified Almighty God as the living God and all others with a different identity, Baal.
Religions are identified by different names. The term ‘faith’ is the proper term to identify a spiritual religious entity. Such faiths are: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism.
Who gave these religions an identifier? MAN. Man has had to have an identifier to separate one person, place or thing from another.
When the religious development of those following Jesus Christ began, people soon had to create an identifier to distinguish those following Christ from all other religious associations. Saul began to desire to extinguish those of ‘this way’. Acts 9:1-2. 9 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
This new religion was different from Judaism. It was different enough it needed to be identified as different. At this time it could only be identified as a ‘way’ of religion not yet known.
As people began to identify more and more with the teachings of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, man began to call them ‘Christians’. The term ‘Christian’ means follower of Christ or believer in Christ. Acts 11:26. 26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
Man made an identifier for followers of Jesus; they called them ‘Christians’. Men near Antioch did this. It soon held and all persons who believe or follow Jesus are called ‘Christians’.
Christians are different from Islam, Buddhists, Hindus, or Jews. Christians have their own identity. It depicts a difference in what they believe or do in their religious assembly and worship to God.
This is not enough. Man cannot just be called ‘Christians’ even though they are believers in Jesus. They must have a more finite way of depicting the differences in personal scripture interpretation. Christianity has more denominations than any other religion. Satan loves the dissension among followers or believers of Jesus Christ.
People read, 1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 2 Peter 1:1.
The phrase here, …to them that have obtained like precious faith … is not as men desire it to be. Man has a mistaken identity. It is not to them who have a like precious denomination. It is not an identity of those who believe an interpretation the same as I. It is an identity of those who are Christians verses Islam, Hindu, Buddhism or even Judaism.
Faith here is a noun depicting a certain religion. It is the identifier naming the difference among all known religions. The ‘Faith’ Peter is speaking of is the faith in Jesus The Christ; not Mohamed or any other man made prophet of God.
Too many times man has to identify their religion as a denominational name other than Christian. Man lives by a mistaken identity. Just like the lady I spoke of earlier. She desired to be known as Christian’s religion ‘Y’. To her it was a more correct identifier. She had to use a man made name.
How many of us are separated from God because we have placed a man’s identifier above God?
When man believes and is doing as Jesus commanded, following all his statutes, and has been washed in the blood of the lamb for the remission of their sins in the fashion God designed, they are added to the church by the Lord. Acts 2:47. 47 …. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. The Lord does the adding to the ‘Faith’ of Jesus and of God which man calls ‘Christians’.
After the conversion, what man does is to be judged by God. With all the denominations of Christianity, no wonder man is confused. Man is following man and man’s doctrine instead of the Doctrine of God and Christ.
Isn’t it about time righteous followers of Jesus ‘love’ Christ as he commanded? John 14:15. 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:21. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
To those of like precious ‘faith’, religious faith of ‘Christianity’, who truly love Jesus, they will keep his commandments and Jesus will manifest himself to them. All others will not have Christ manifested to them.
Not all who call upon the name of the Lord but do not follow his commandments will be saved in the ‘Last Day’.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Mt. 7:21. Here we see man has mistaken identity when it comes to man’s identifiers of Christianity. If man does not follow the commandments of Jesus, Jesus will not manifest his will on them and they will be blinded from the truth. They will be true followers of Satan with mistaken identity.
With the different faiths we have identified, Buddhism, Hindu, Judaism, Islam, these are not the ‘faith’ of which Jesus manifested himself into ‘Christians’. Jesus said, …I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6. No other ‘faith’ shall save man. No subcategory of any of these different religions shall save man either. Only he that doeth the will of the Father.
Jesus also said, …my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Mt. 11:30. If Jesus’ yoke is easy and the burden to be a Christian is light, and only through Jesus can man come to God the Father, man can find the truth through God’s gift to believing man; the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit; the Comforter, etc.--names of the Spirit of God) has been given the task of bringing truth and life to all who abide in the will of God. He is at their request to know all truth because it is by him all truth is manifested. God and Jesus tell the Holy Spirit what to say and do unto the saints. God controls His Spirit and Jesus, in obedience to the Father, is aways in agreement with the Will of God for the saints.
John 14:26. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Did you notice ‘in my name’? The Comforter does all in the name of Jesus. If man asks for things ‘in the name of Jesus’, and they walk in the ‘Light’ of God, the Comforter shall do righteously to them.
1 John 2:27. 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Are you living with a mistaken identity? Are you being carried away by Satan with his deceitful manner? Do you identify with something other than ‘Christian’?
Satan desires to cause confusion, deception, and discord. If man can get caught up in dissension among brethren, man will create sub-categories for his need for different identifiers of denominations of Christianity. No wonder there are so many new names of religious assemblies developing daily in this country and being carried into all other parts of this world.
We do not need any other identifiers to associate ourselves with the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. Christian will suffice. Because the term ‘Christian’ means believer in and follower of Christ. I do not need any other mistaken identifier. If asked what I believe, I will say, “I am a Christian”.
With man’s habit of needing multiple identifications, no wonder man cannot identify with the Spiritual Nature which influences our literal Physical Nature. No wonder the world cannot decide whom to follow, God or man. No wonder there are new assembly identifiers being created daily. Man is confused about their salvation.
With this habit, Satan wins! Identify with Christ and be ye separate from the world.
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Cor. 6:14-18.
