So, Marvin Cooley's evil twin is back in full force, in one breath decrying cults and in the other trying to form a cult himself by proclaiming that only HIS word stands as the word of God, and that everyone else, even Christ Himself, is suspect in their teaching.

He believes that Christians do not need to lead a good life. That they can do whatever they want and treat other people like garbage, and that they will get to heaven, and God will smile and say it's all good. But the phrase "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" appears nowhere in the Bible and is the world's biggest cop out for a church that won't even TRY.

Ironically enough, in America, there are many that echo his belief, that if you pray to God once for forgiveness, it doesn't matter what you do with the rest of your life. Oddly, those are the same people trying to put the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and public square and to institute school led prayer and the teaching of intelligent design and abstinence only education in every public school. So while this individual may be unique in Africa, he's got a lot of company in the US.

But the truth is, the Bible doesn't say that salvation comes only by a simple prayer. It has lots to say about being made a new creature, about salvation being evident through works, about running the race. And in fact, what the good old Baptist preacher won't tell you is that it wasn't homosexual sex that did Sodom in, it was "pride and excess of food while the poor and needy suffered outside her door" (Ezekial 16:49). Now I'm no genius here, but I'm thinking if being greedy, selfish dillweeds was enough to make God wipe out a city, seems to me he's not going to be crazy about alleged Christians continuing the practice, no matter how pure the gold is on the cross around their neck. It also seems to me that living that way, might, just MIGHT tick Him off and have the reverse effect.

Real Christian living is not expressed through bumper sticker sayings or cop outs. I'd tell him this on his thread, but he's deleting at a furious pace so it won't likely remain. Real Christian living is expressed in LIVING as Christ did while He was on earth. No, nobody can expect to be perfect. But they SHOULD expect to try and to somehow evidence SOME change in their life!