More Than Mere Men

By Michael Edward Collison

The wheat and the tares live together, but no matter how long a tare lives amidst wheat it will never become wheat, likewise the wheat will never become a tare. The day of harvest is coming and it is difficult to tell the difference between the wheat and weeds; not because the weeds try to blend in with the wheat but because the wheat envies the tares. Are we not made a new creature in the likeness of Christ? How is it that we who are made righteous defile ourselves with base, unholy, and unrighteous deeds. It is not enough to be a Christian in name, Christ is coming back and He knows the sheep from the goats.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 26, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462841073

Michael Edward Collison

Michael Edward Collison was born and raised in Melbourne, Florida. He grew up under a rich heritage of ministers for the Lord’s work, but he himself was not converted in heart and mind until March of 1999 at the age of eleven. Through a series of providential circumstances Michael and his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri where he finished high school. Upon graduation from Tri-City Christian School he attended Maranatha Baptist Bible College. He has now finished his third year of higher education and is seeking the Lord’s will for his future.

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Copyright © 2009 by Michael Edward Collison.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

All excerpts of the scripture are taken from the King James or Authorized Version, which is an accurate copy of a quality translation of a copy of a copy of copy of a copy of a copy of the verbal, plenary inspired original texts given to us by God through the Prophets and Apostles.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Introduction

Section I

The Race of Men

Chapter 1

Anthropology

Chapter 2

Characteristics of the Old Man

(Homo-Antiquititus) or Damnare

Chapter 3

Characteristics of the New Man

(Homo-Novus) or Redimere

Chapter 4

General Gifts

Chapter 5

Disciplines

Chapter 6

The Blessed

Section II

Chapter 7

The Church; The Fallen Walls of Christendom

Chapter 8

Pharisees and Sadducees in the Church

Chapter 9

Essays & Portraits of the Church

Section III

More than Mere Men

Chapter 10

The Fruit of the Spirit

Chapter 11

Awaiting our Ascension

Chapter 12

The Race at War

Chapter 13

Strategy for Success

Conclusion

The Path

to Eternal Life

Contact Me

Dedicated to the Church, it is for the Church whom I write, I love Her because my Lord loves Her, and it is because I love Her and my Lord that I must confront Her with Her wickedness.

Terms:

Beatus: Blessed in Latin

Church: with a capital C refers to the entire congregation of the redeemed, regardless of denomination.

church: with a lower case c refers to the local church congregation, denomination varies with use.

Christendom: Another name for the Church.

Melchizedek, the Order of: The collective of the Redeemed regardless of the era or dispensation in which they lived, the one and only true priesthood.

Regenerate: The children of God, The elect of God, Born again believers, Redeemed mankind.

Unregenerate: The children of the Devil, Those who have been allowed to continue in their damned estate, the Lost.

Passages Used and Eluded to in Biblical order:

Genesis 1; 2; 3:15; 12; 14:18-20

II Kings 2:1-18

Job 1

Psalm 110

Jeremiah 17:9

Matthew 5:3-11; 7:1-5; 7:17; 21:22; 25:1-14

John 3

Acts 1:23-26

Romans 13:10; 13:12

I Corinthians 6:19; 12:12-14; 14

II Corinthians 5:17

Galatians 2:11; 5:22-23; 6:15

Ephesians 5:13-18

Philippians 2:3-4; 3:10

I Timothy 3

II Timothy 3:10

Hebrews 7:2-4

I Peter 1:15-16; 2:1-2; 2:12-15; 4:9-10; 5:5

II Peter 1:8-9

I John 3:4; 4:6

Revelation 2; 3

Introduction

I have talked with Christians as well as non Christians as to a variety of subjects regarding the Christian Church and their perceptions. Having grown up in the Church all my life and trusted Christ as my one and only Savior, my eyes are accustomed to seeing Christians at work everyday. It did not take long for me to see that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Church today, and by the Church I mean the whole of God’s elected saints which are alive and remain, as Paul said.

Thus I began to do my research. I studied the Bible foremost, and other Christians also. Finally I began interviewing my subjects of study, though some of them didn’t know they were being interviewed at the time, and that I did on purpose so I could capture their candor not the polite responses. What I found is that most people looking at the Church from the outside, un-churched if you will, reject Christianity as a whole not because of the message of the gospel but because the people of the Church are no better off than they themselves. Looking from the outside all an individual might see is bad blood and competition between individuals, churches, and denominations.

Then, coming to the Christians, I talked to people mainly within my generation, looking specifically for those who truly believe and work out their salvation rather than those who have been indoctrinated with preprogrammed responses. Most of those with whom I spoke agreed that there is a definite problem with the Church today. Whether or not they understood the problem or had any interest in solving it was a different story.

The problem of the Church today is not the music issue, the denominational bitterness, errant doctrine, declining membership, the economy, the government, competition, or apathy. Those are symptoms caused by the problem. The problem is that Christians do not act like Christians or rather like Christ. So if you, like me see that there is something dreadfully wrong with the system of our common faith, let us break the system down to it’s basis, the Word of God and usher in a new age of the Church not one given over to greed, lust, bitterness, or apathy for these are things of the world. Rather, let us become more than mere men, like Christ.

What is a Christian? How are Christians any different from the other close minded restrictive, hate breeding religions out there? Most people today, sadly even many Christians, have forgotten or have failed to ever see the difference between true Christianity and everything else. The Western mindset of a melting pot culture or that of mosaic culture in which every idea and practice is acceptable has blurred the lines between the just and the unjust, the good and the evil, the right and the wrong.

It is of foremost importance that my reader realizes that one believes only what one wishes to believe. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Familiar advice given today is to follow your heart; following your heart is the stupidest thing anybody could ever do. A captain of a ship does not tell the yeoman to follow the rudder, but he gives a course, a direction from outside the vessel, not a feeling from within. Your heart, your faith and feelings will always try to lead you astray by telling you what you want to hear. No amount of logic or evidence can sway the deceived mind. The mind believes what the heart tells it, it can do nothing else, and the heart will only tell the mind what it wants to hear.

For a few years now, I have been traveling from church to church with no regard to denomination, conference, or affiliation searching for the elect of God, wherever they could be found. God does not see the Church by denomination or creed, He sees their hearts, and I see the works which demonstrate the position of the heart. So I studied each church and the people which make up the body, to get a clearer vision of where the Church is today. I sat amidst congregations being drowned by the milk of the Word, and imbedded in the pews of churches which seemed as graveyards full of those dead asleep for lack of interest in the preachers metaphors.

Overall what has happened is the Church as a whole has adopted a pluralistic philosophy allowing for a plethora of different doctrines with no regard to their veracity. This has lead to a great deal of confusion within the Church and about the Church. Many distinctions of the believers between the regenerate and the unregenerate have been lost as a result; in fact many unregenerate people live comfortably within the church even serving in places of authority!

These serious problems have provoked me to write in the hope that some will realize the sorry and inexcusable estate of the Church as it stands. The problems of the Church do not rest upon any single individual or movement. The responsibility can be shared by all, for their actions and lack