Some Things a Young Christian Should Know

By Dr. Edet Esara

Most Christians err in the faith because they are ignorant of the background of their faith and do not care to investigate precepts before accepting them from the pulpit. The series, Some Things a Young Christian Should Know, aims at bringing to the attention of young Christians information that any Christian who wishes to better understand the faith should know. The style aims at motivating readers to investigate whatever may be the prevailing teaching to which they are exposed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: May 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546292500

Dr. Edet Esara

Dr Edet Esara is a retired forensic physician. As a child, his early understanding of the Bible was at his mothers feet. At twelve years old, he won a provincial Bible knowledge competition. Other contestants in the final round included ordained ministers, some mature Christians, and a Barrister at law. This seed was later watered by the Full Gospel Business Mens Fellowship International, and was energized for fast growth and boldness by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. He has not had the benefit of seminary training or theological university education, but he depends on the Holy Spirit. Dr Esara writes mainly from the revelations he appropriates from his encounters, which he crosschecks with the canonised Bible.

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© 2018 Dr. Edet Esara. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  06/20/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9249-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9250-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many friends were requested to read the manuscript of this volume, which is part of a series, but they were too busy to give it attention over a long period. We could not satisfy the pecuniary reward that some others demanded in order to read the manuscript and make comments. Therefore, many thanks go to Pastor O. T. Ayuk for summoning patience and time to cheerfully peruse the manuscript and make comments with no strings attached.

We are also grateful to a bishop who would not come to the fore because of his ecumenical office but read the manuscript repeatedly and made sincere comments.

Those friends both in the UK and abroad, who attempted to read the manuscript but gave up when they met biblical truths they would not like to write, deserve my thanks. They believe powerful people may be offended by some truths exposed herein. As we would rather obey God and tell the truth, their actions gave me the audacity to continue because I believe this volume unveils issues that may urge some Christians to change or modify their practices.

I thank Dr S. Manthri, the male forensic physician who was of another faith but read the manuscript at its early stages and was edified. He made useful comments.

The Canonised Bible is our standard. We give glory to God.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1:     The Young Christian

Chapter 2:     Holy

Chapter 3:     God’s Holiness

Chapter 4:     The Jealous God

Chapter 5:     Christian Giving

Chapter 6:     Rumours

Chapter 7:     How To Handle Rumours

Chapter 8:     Jesus’ Teaching About Offences

Chapter 9:     Slander And Libel

Chapter 10:   Knowledge And Wisdom

Chapter 11:   Wisdom

Chapter 12:   The Church

Chapter 13:   Denominations

Chapter 14:   An Abridges History Of The English Bible

PREFACE

The expression Ignorance is bliss, is attributed to the eighteenth-century erudite academician Thomas Gray.¹ In his poem, "On a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Thomas Gray inserts a line: Where ignorance is bliss, ’Tis folly to be wise." This proverb suggests that one should play foolish amongst fools. It also connotes that if a person is unaware of a truth, or ignores it, the rule of that truth may not affect him. Considered another way, it may suggest that one should remain ignorant amongst ignorant people. There is nothing further from the truth than that notion. One cannot become ignorant, in his mind, because he cohabits with an ignoramus.

In mundane issues ignorance of the law excuses no one. This principle implies that a person will not be excused of his liabilities only on the grounds that he was not aware of the law.

Ignorance of the saving grace of Jesus Christ may lead to forfeiture of eternal life. One who does not know may not accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. This has been the bane of the world since the days of early Christianity.

Put another way, ignorance of the fact that redemption is freely given by the grace of God, and gained through faith in Jesus Christ alone, May not exempt one from missing eternal life. This is because our God is a righteous Judge.²

In verbal communication, words are strung up into sentences, sentences are strung up into arguments, and accepted arguments are crafted into principles. So it is in Christianity. Each word has its meaning, each term may be specifically identified, and relevant terms are crafted into doctrine of the faith. Thus a misunderstanding or a misquotation of any word or precept may have a far-reaching, if not an opposite, effect from the original intention.

The young Christian needs to be sure of what he is doing. Every Christian who can read has or can access the wherewithal to investigate and get grounded in the basis of the word of our faith. The contents of this book will provoke a young Christian to investigate and be sure of what he believes and practices.

This word of our faith is the gospel, and the canonised Bible is the standard.

This volume, What a Young Christian Should Know, is extracted from Sunday school notes I prepared and used over a period of years. It is aimed at motivating young Christians to put effort into understanding the word of our faith, appropriately apply the true word of our faith, and learn without fear or favour. The contents of this book show, with examples, a way of going about this art.

The book is birthed by the inspiration and compulsion of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit of God will direct young Christians to duly apply the truths therein.

The first chapter addresses the Young Christian.

Chapter 2 gives an exegesis on the word holy, being a concept and an attribute of God. A misunderstanding of this frequently used word can lead to its misapplication. This should be the case even with other words that appear in any version of the canonised English Bible or Christian religious writing.

A misapplication would lead to wrong practices and an inadvertent, misleading teaching. A multiplication effect of these would lead to a complete loss of the original meaning. Without stating it in the main body of the book, we believe that misapplication of words and concepts in our faith is the surreptitious work of the enemy of the gospel.

The third chapter gives illustrated examples of how to go about understanding God’s holiness. Here we apply the principles of understanding the word of our faith.

Chapter 4 speaks about another nature of the God of our canonised Bible. He is jealous in our interest.

Chapter 5 gives some details of an example of giving, and shows that biblical giving for the work of the ministry is encouraged.

In chapter 6, we have made an attempt at dissecting a devil’s weapon (rumours) used against the unity of the Church. Chapter 7 gives an example of how to handle this devil’s weapon and its cohorts.

In chapter 8, we attempt to elucidate the teachings of Jesus on how to handle offences. Chapter 9 gives further details with an example of that genre.

Chapter 10 talks about Knowledge and Wisdom in general while chapter 11 lays emphasis on Wisdom.

Chapter 12 discusses what the real meaning of the word that was replaced by Church, and other examples.

Chapter 13 discusses the problems that led to proliferation of denominations.

Chapter 14 is not the last word I shall state about our faith. However it gives an abridged history of the Bible in the English language.

Should this book motivate a few Christians to find out more truths about our faith, I shall rejoice to the glory of God.

In an uncommon style, the references in this book are copious and put as footnotes on the pages they occur. This is for ease of reference. These references, where they are from the Bible, are from the New King James Version. Where another version is used, it is clearly indicated.

May the Lord open the eyes of our understanding, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

CHAPTER 1

THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN

You sin if you refuse to obey the Lord. This sin is as bad as to do evil magic. You think that you know better than God. That is a sin which is like the worship of idols. You refused to obey what the Lord said. Now the Lord has refused you as king.

—1 Samuel 15:23 Easy English Version³

The Lord has led the author to communicate to His body some things in the canonised Bible every young Christian needs to know in order to obey the Lord. Who is a young Christian? In this book, we define a young Christian as one who is still growing in the Lord. The author is one of them. Being a young Christian is not age related. It has to do with the conviction of the Christian that he or she has more to learn and is learning more daily about the faith.

I find the need to emphasise our use and definition of the young Christian because in my experience, some people object to the expression because they believe it is unclear. Our definition is not ambiguous, and the author is one of them because he is still growing in the Lord.

This book is not for those Christians who are convinced they are fully grown and have nothing to learn. It is for us. However, we anticipate positive reactions even from mature or fully grown Christians.

Is the young Christian under attack here? No! God forbid. Otherwise, I would be attacking myself. The essence of this book is that the young Christian, or any reader, may be up to scratch about his or her religion and no longer be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. It is so that the young Christian may not be derailed by the trickery of the world, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting⁴ of men and women. That is why we do not express our opinions but share what the canonised Bible states.

Referring to when he lived his zeal, jealously protecting his culture as Saul of Tarsus, Apostle Paul indicates that he received mercy because he acted in what he calls ignorance.⁵ Some of us are like Saul in certain ways. Saul knew a lot about God before he met the Lord Jesus, but that could not be compared to what he learned after he met the Lord. Some of us have similar experiences. We thank God that Jesus, our high priest, has taken care of our weaknesses⁶ and deviations.⁷ We may now change our minds at will, at any point, and enjoy additional knowledge from the Scripture.

The contents of this book are not meant to generate controversy. However, if one considers any content controversial, the person may kindly understand that I found it to appear controversial—hence the motivation to look into it. Paul advised us through the Epistle to Timothy⁸ and the Epistle to Titus⁹ to avoid quarrel. It is better to study this book, and the rest of the series, and meditate on the references with the advantage of becoming a better teacher. That motivation is the purpose and intention of this book.

In our contemporary world, people hurry to make decisions while they are oblivious of the whole facts. Even when they are unsure, they judge by their feelings. Yet feelings, being fickle, change with situations.

When people relying on their fickle feelings have access to the machinery of power, they use their inadequate, uninformed, and changing conclusions to frequently upset the fragile equilibrium of world peace. By so doing, they reset the world for a worse trend. This is happening in the world now and can happen in Christendom if it is not yet evident to the reader. This book will not set Christendom on a negative path because it is founded on years of research into the canonised Bible and other sources. This book brings to realisation things in the Scripture that have been hidden from some believers for many years.

This series should motivate further study of the topics treated. Therefore, hear me out and study the references. This will help you to improve your approach to understanding the faith.

To those who appreciate and are current with the truth contained herein, be assured that nothing false comes from the truth.¹⁰ You are welcome to share with others what the Spirit of God has led us into realising. Where I fall short, please educate me.

In a previous communication titled Consider the Benefits of Obeying God 1, an instruction in the Ten Commandments was slightly expounded. An authority labelled the publication a Handbook.¹¹ Others might give it any label that suits them. I label the same book a skeletal guide or outline.

Why do I refer to the book as a skeletal guide? I believe that most teachers of the Word of God could easily graft more ideas to the contents of that book. Some teachers of the Word may have deeper understanding of every issue in that book; hence, they can make greater expositions. Yet the young Christian may need to be guided to obey God within the contents of the canonised Bible.

In that first book of a series, some words and expressions were used that some young Christians might misconstrue. That book is not the only culprit to use common Christian parlance some people misunderstand. I believe other books share similar issues.

I also believe that some teachers of the Word inadvertently use words and expressions that their hearers—Sunday school participants and conference attendees—may misconstrue. Some members of congregations and some readers may take away certain communications without understanding the full and correct meanings. This series attends to some of those misconstrued words and expressions.

God informs us through Prophet Hosea that His people perish for lack of knowledge.¹² Some flesh will be put on that reference later in this book. However, we do not want to be amongst those who perish for lack of knowledge, especially when the knowledge is freely available.

By faith, the Bible is the book that contains God’s truth. Where Jesus taught that we shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free,¹³ English translations use the definite article the. The truth is therefore definite. It is not multiple as when it is subject to any person’s own interpretation.¹⁴I believe that if the Word of God were malleable, or always has multiple meanings in the mind of God, Jesus would have said truths, as in many truths. The mind of our God is too stable to be confused or befuddled.

According to James Strong,¹⁵truth as it is used in that passage means what is true in any matter … respecting God and His execution of His purposes through Christ. Being so definite, there should be no necessity to add anything to the Word of God. From another view, taking anything away from the Word of God or diminishing renders it incomplete. This book contains what I found out from the canonised Bible and further research.

The canonised Bible instructs that we should not add to or subtract from its contents.¹⁶ The Bible considers doing so a serious offence. This offence is considered so serious that the Bible contains serious curses for it. There are not many offences described in the Bible which necessitated prescription of a curse. No curse in the canonised Bible is as serious as those associated with adding to or subtracting from the words of the canonised Bible. These additions or subtractions refer to alterations with the intent of presenting such changes as being part of the original.

To some, it might be strange to find that there could be punishment for adding to our source of doctrine. Some may ask, What is the source of our doctrine? According to 2 Timothy 3:16, the canonised Bible is the source of Christian doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction towards right-standing with God. It is also the manual for training towards all good work.

The following are Biblical curses that attend those who add to or subtract from this origin of our doctrine.

If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; And if anyone takes away from the words of this prophesy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Live, From the holy city, And from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18B–19)

After that decree and declaration, the Lord stated that He is coming soon, and the book was concluded with a prayer. That was the last statement. An earlier warning is in Deuteronomy 4:2. The reader may study this reference.

Last statements are important. The consequence of this particular last statement is like that of a will and must be taken seriously. Therefore, we handle any doctrine of a Christian organisation and any non-Orthodox denomination which cannot stand rigorous scrutiny of the canonised Bible with great care—if we do not discard them.

Orthodox denominations base their doctrines on revelation, tradition, the Bible (canonised Bible), and liturgy.¹⁷ Others are ecumenical council decisions, writings of holy fathers’ inclusions, saints, canons, the Church art, and more. Because tradition is the on-going life of God’s people,¹⁸ it is bound to change and necessarily temporal. Other leaders change it. In fact, some canons of the Orthodox churches are changeable.

The Orthodox churches also consider the Apocrypha, the non-canonical books of the Old Testament, in their doctrines. In view of these, the doctrines of the Orthodox churches are outside the reach of this book because I can neither exercise their authority nor have the experience to explain their doctrines. The doctrines this book and series try to follow are limited to that of the canonised Bible.

The necessity to duly understand the truth and not err against the last declaration in the canonised Bible suggested the investigations that led to this book.

Some people have considered the canonised Bible to contain the will¹⁹of God to His people. This is founded on the belief that the earth and everything in it, including all the inhabitants, belong to the Lord.²⁰ In order that they may not perish or miss the benefits of the will, His people need to know the book of the will of God. Like any other will, the beneficiaries must understand the contents and ensure that the contents are correctly interpreted to and by them.

This book does not add to the canonised Bible. The reader shall meet occasions of repetition for reinforcement purposes in this book. I am not attempting to programme readers, but reinforcement of facts is a common teaching technique.

In the Great Commission, Jesus instructed the disciples to go and teach²¹ the rest of the world whatsoever He taught them. Apostle Paul, writing to the Colossians²² and to the body of Christ, instructed that they should let the Word of God dwell in them richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. I believe that this is the reason why Jesus gave gifts to some members of His body to build up the Church to maturity.²³

Note that the gift of teaching was the last to be included on that list of gifts from Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:12–14). Some think that the gift of teaching was mentioned last because teaching is the least of the gifts. Others differ and believe teaching was mentioned last so that by reason of recency effect, we may not forget the importance of teaching. Simply put, recency effect is the tendency to remember the last thing mentioned in a list of items.

Sometimes the last item is not the least in order of importance. In this circumstance, it appears to be the most important to us. Not all should be teachers.²⁴ Without teaching, young Christians would be ignorant of Christianity. Users of partial truth may lose the benefits of their calling. Worse still, they may go on to perpetuate errors.

Not being ignorant of Christian doctrines was very important to Paul. At least eight times, Paul stated that he did not want the early Christians,