SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM BINARY EXPRESSIONS

William Andrew Dillard
In the discipline of math, much is made of binary expressions. Moreover, since God is the author of all truth, including that of math, we may glean a lot of understanding of spiritual truth from it as well. Consider the binary diagram above. It is not meant to produce a headache, but to give you rejoicing as you understand it.
Out of the universe of all men only a fraction of them have any relationship with God. Circle 1. represents all men who are saved. Circle 2. represents all men who are baptized. Circle 3. represents active church members. Now notice how the lines overlap or bind. Some saved men are active church members, but have never been baptized, 1 & 3. Some baptized men are active church members but have never been saved, 2 & 3. Some are saved and baptized, but not active church members, 1 & 2.
While God wants all men to trust Him and thereby be saved, He also wants saved people to follow Him in scriptural baptism. But it does not stop there. He wants all saved, scripturally baptized people to be active and learning in the fellowship of His New Testament church.
Therefore of all the possible positions that men may find themselves in spiritually, there is only one position that is totally compliant, and submissive to the will of God. That is the area where all three circles intersect noted as 1, 2, and 3. Where do you fit?

REDUCED TO COMMON DENOMINATORS

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

William Andrew Dillard
REDUCED TO COMMON DENOMINATORS

There is an acceptance in “Christianity” today that the Bible does not teach. It has to do with reducing the premise to the lowest common denominator. Please think with me for a moment.
From childhood’s earliest days of introduction to mathematics, instructions consistently emphasized reducing numbers, especially fractions, to the lowest common denominator. It made such problems so much easier to solve. It is still a great rule of business math. Such rules, including this one, are good and helpful in various avenues of life, but it is important that those rules not be bent to accommodate other disciplines where they do not belong. The results can be disastrous.
In the field of Christianity, reducing tenants to the lowest, common denominator, allows for blatant contradiction which makes the entire structure of it to be meaningless. If you are still with me, hang on!
The right standing of one’s spirit with God has always been by grace through faith since the first human sin in Eden. It is not new to the New Testament, but it is predicated upon it. The doctrines of our Lord in the New Testament is what creates Christians, as per Acts 11 in Antioch, where the disciples were first so-called. There was not then nor is there now any accommodations for lethargy, inertia, sluggishness, or stoppage of advancement following initial repentance and faith in Christ. The Bible has nothing good to say about those actions, and it is inappropriate to label those who embrace them as “Christian.” That is nothing more than employing the mathematical reduction to the lowest common denominator. The “fire escape” plan that the God of mercy provides from Eden to the end of the millennium does not a Christian make.
It is a belief in and practice of the faith once delivered to the saints whereby one becomes a Christian. That term is peculiar to the New Testament, but it definitely denotes much more than initial faith in God which multitudes of Old Testament saints had but were never known as Christians.
Modern times have seen a myriad of institutions spring up, all claiming to be Christian, and most all of them denying the fundamental Bible teachings by which Christianity has been known throughout the age. Any attempts to set those things straight is immediately met with the unwillingness to discuss it further on the premise that anyone who professes Jesus as the Son of God is a Christian, so there is no need to be contentious about it. Hmmm! So why will there be a judgment seat of Christ for His people if it matters not what they believe or how they carry on in ways adverse to the New Testament? Color me as you wish, but do not reduce me to the lowest common denominator! I won’t fit there!