Shield of the Trinity

Salvation
Before a person can call himself a member of a religion, the person has to go through many things. But a person can be saved, be born again and be declaring himself a Christian just by believing a few points below. These points can be used to check whether a person is just a nominal Christian.
1) To know who Jesus Christ is: The Heavenly Father (is not The Son), Lord Jesus Christ The Son of God (is not The Spirit) and Holy Spirit (is not The Father) co-exist as one and only God. Jesus the perfect God incarnated as an uncreated perfect man by virgin birth. Although sinless, Jesus was nailed to the cross and died. One time shedding of Jesus' precious blood is able to forever atone for any sin for any living person who confesses, repents and accepts Jesus as Savior, so that he or she shall not suffer eternal punishment after death for the sin that he or she has done. Jesus resurrected on the third day. Jesus ascended to the right side of Heavenly Father. The date and time of Jesus' return to this world shall be unknown to anybody.
2) To admit that you have sinned and to be willing to repent.
3) To accept Jesus Christ's salvation.

Salvation is by faith alone and cannot be lost, or else it cannot be called gospel / good news. It is free. You just need to take a few seconds to get it. We do not have to give anything or fulfill certain conditions to receive salvation, such as:
1) to get someone to pray with you. Salvation can be obtained via DIY.
2) to promise to Jesus Christ not to sin anymore.
3) to live like a monk, using own effort to resist from sinning. Resistance from sinning will come automatically after salvation. It is useless / futile to force ourselves to resist the sin before the salvation.
4) to give yourself to Jesus Christ. How to do that anyway?
5) to invite Jesus Christ to go into your heart / life. You do not have to ask for this because it will happen when you believe in Him.
6) to ask for forgiveness. Hebrews 10:18 "Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
7) To attend church. Once a person is saved, that person will want to look for church to attend.
8) To get baptized.

Do you think you can bribe God for salvation with your good deeds? And how many good deeds should be done to purchase the salvation? The salvation by faith is free anyway. Why make it difficult? The sequence should be "salvation - natural good deed" instead of "deliberate good deed - salvation". But that does not mean we have to deliberately go out to scout for some good deeds to do. In fact we just avoid doing the wrong things while we live on our usual daily life. We do not have to try stopping a person from doing wrong things. Just make sure the person gets the simple salvation. Then let the Holy Spirit takes over (Romans 5:5, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 5:22, 2 Thessalonians 1:11). Real faith will result in real resistance to sin.

The effect AFTER being saved (from the eternal damnation after death) and born again:
a) Resistance to sin increases.
b) Mental stress decreases due to a).
c) Believe that Bible is God's words so it is free of error.
d) Eager to interact with other Christians.
e) Accept to be baptized.

Gospel preaching
Gospel is called good news because salvation can be obtained by just faith and cannot be lost.

Before sharing the gospel, ask permission from the person first. Example: Are you interested to know about Christian gospel? If the person says no, then move on because he has chosen to close himself from anything Christian and we should respect his choice. Further attempt of sharing may drive him further away from the gospel.

Preach the gospel clearly only one time to one person. If the person rejects it, move on. Other Christians may preach to that person too after us. We do not have to preach seven times to one person ourselves but it is better to have seven Christians preaching to that person one after another, one time each. Of course, if the person is our direct family member, then we can preach as many times as we want.

When we share about gospel, try say things that can build up the faith of others. If someone asks question that may not build up his own faith but may bring further argument, then we do not have to answer it. It will waste our time and his. Avoid talking something that others will gain nothing after listening such as
a) too much biblical knowledge / Bible verses. That makes people feel that they are talking to a cold metallic robot.
b) shortcoming of other Christians (e.g. improper way of gospel preaching). They are our brothers and sisters so we should show unity.
c) shortcoming of various religions. People will be annoyed.

Christians should not invite people who are not Christians to go to church. Christians should get them saved. Once they are saved (and become Christians), they will automatically want to go to church that they choose themselves. Churches just have to make sure they are up all the time (including a website) and publicly accessible.

If a Christian attends church regularly, as long as the person's church is not a cult, it is pointless to invite the person to your church.

Bible
Do you think God expect us to understand everything in the Bible? Do not let the urge of understanding the Bible be the stumbling block for us to read His word. Reading His word itself is already a blessing. God used only word to create this world. The only book we can use along with the Bible is a dictionary. If we write down the meaning beside the unfamiliar word, we do not even have to use the dictionary anymore next time. If we want to read other people's explanation about certain things the Bible, then we should find the material ourselves. We should not accept recommendation by others to avoid biasness. I was once recommended heretical materials all published by the same company.

When we encourage somebody to read the Bible, we have got to ensure he or she reads the "correct" Bible. There are some so-called Bibles that have some obvious deviations. These Bibles are automatically rejected by all non-cultic denominations. I do not think God is happy with existence of many versions of Bible in same language. We all, regardless of our denomination, should refer to one version of Bible. I recommend King James Bible (KJV or AV) because it has been being used since year 1611. I think that is the year the Dark Age ended and the development of English to an international language started. A copy of it is available for download at the bottom of this article.

Church meeting
Interact with brothers and sisters. Of course in the meeting you should talk more about God and His words, not gossip etc. Even just say hi and walk away is better than nothing at all or else it kind of defeats the purpose of going to meeting. Do not either just learn to interact with God or just learn to interact with people. These two aspects must be parallel.

We should not choose the church for people. Instead we should provide them a list of cults to avoid and tell them how the church should be. How the church should be in my opinion:
1) There is no certificate of baptism. When a Christian says he or she has been baptized, the word is to be taken as it is. The world was created by word anyway. Jesus Christ was not given such certificate by John The Baptist.
2) Meetings are not made compulsory (with gift or penalty).
3) Bringing newcomer is not made compulsory (with gift or penalty).
4) Baptism is given only if a person knows that he is already saved. Salvation is by faith alone.
5) Members are not encouraged to leave family.
6) Members are not encouraged to socialize only with fellow members, further to date and marry only fellow members. Christians should get along with anybody just like Jesus Christ did, but that does not mean following people to do things that do not manifest God such as hanging out at a pub late night.
7) Members are not encouraged to read only materials published by the church.
8) Members are encouraged to exercise physically. Weak body does not manifest God.
9) The church does not claim that it is the only true church or that a person can only become a Christian when baptized by that church.
10) Confessing sin or private thought to an individual is to be stopped.
11) Members are not pushed to shift to live near to the meeting hall. Practically we should live near to our working place.
12) Only Bible verses should be read out and discussed in meetings, not any other Christian publication.
13) No names other than the ones in the Bible are to be mentioned frequently. If a newcomer hears Spiderman or Superman a lot in the meeting, that person may misinterpret that Spiderman is as important as Apostle Paul, and Superman is as significant as Jesus Christ.
14) One can leave the church (e.g. becoming a non-believer) without any problem. Do not ask the church because all will definitely say yes although some in reality do not release its member easily.
15) Every week the church reminds all to read Bible at home. Only churches that do not want Christian to be constituted with truth do not encourage Christians to read Bible themselves.
16) Gospel is preached merely to get people saved, not to increase people in the church.
17) The date of doomsday is not discussed.

The meeting should not have practices that may make newcomer uncomfortable:
1) I think passing offering bag or tray is good but having an idle non-transparent offering deposit box is better. The box can be placed next to the exit so that the offering act by an individual is not that obvious because he or she just drops the offering in the box on the way out. Envelope is not needed. Banking into church's account can be a way too.
2) Male and female sittings are not separated. There is no such teaching in the Bible.
3) There is no high decibel of sound (from yelling or music).
4) Anyone can talk (share or ask question). The main preacher should not rush to finish a certain topic by shunning off people's participation. For this to be achievable without microphone, the congregation should not be too big. When the congregation is growing, then new meeting place can be set up. The new meeting place is chosen by member's vote.
5) Doubt about the church doctrine can be openly discussed without facing hostility.
6) There is no speaking that cannot be interpreted (1 Corinthians 14).
7) There is no chanting-like speaking. For example even a single word like amen may be perceived as chanting if it is repeated habitually. If some members want to say amen when hearing a preaching, they should be sure that they understand the preaching. Only then it is a true amen, not a habitual amen. Isn't it a lie if we say amen to something that we do not understand? Verbal repetition of word is risky as it may lead to mind control. We should not even chant the name of Jesus Christ.
8) There is no candle in the meeting. What's the purpose of having candles in meeting? It ain't no candlelight dinner or blackout.
9) The meeting is open to public that anybody can walk in (Luke 11:33).
10) If possible, avoid calling the meeting as "worship". This may stop unbelievers from walking in because they think they will worship something that they do not believe in yet. Plus we should worship God all the time, not only in the meeting.
11) People who do not give attention to sharing will not be scolded as long as they do not disturb the meeting.
12) Members should approach newcomers to give self introduction before (for newcomers that are there before the meeting) or after (for newcomers that walk in during the meeting) the meeting.

No denomination that men have created knows all the will of God through the Bible. When someone thinks that he knows better than others and tries to create a new denomination, he is living in his own world of fantasy. We have to attach with one denomination anyway (of course not cultic one). If we realize the errors of the denomination where we are in now, just bear with the errors. We may try not follow the rest to practice the errors ourselves. The most we can do is to write a book about what we understand and declare in the last page that it must NOT be used to create more division. Creating one more denomination will bring further division to the body of Christ. The only way to destroy the division is to have all the existing denominations combined in one. But how? The division caused by existing denominations still seems to be irreversible. Any church should admit that their own church is not perfect. Any church has some deviations from what the Bible really wants and it is just a matter of more or less and major or minor. As long as there is no major deviation, then God will still bless the church. When a church starts to say that it is a true church, then it falls into cult category. Come on, if you are truly handsome, you do not have to say it. Only if you are not a truly handsome person and you want to gain support that you always proclaim yourself to be one. Self-glorification about knowing God is dangerous.

Others
Even other Christians practice something that God do not like as shown in the Bible, do not condemn them. We ourselves just do what God want. This does not only save us tiring argument, but also save us from the risk of becoming like fallen angel due to thought that we are more superior than other Christians.

We do not have to go around telling others that we are Christian unless people ask us. Nevertheless, we can state our belief in our profile or resume. I notice that the people who always say they are Christian usually do something religiously extreme. They are also usually some cult members that need recognition from others.

Although God have given us some guidelines on what we should not eat, God will not be angry, let alone 'decrease our credit', if we eat unclean meat. In other word, you are not a bad guy if you eat unclean meat. The only benefit of following the guidelines is we will have less physical illness. Do not purposely speak to other brothers just tell them to avoid unclean meat because many things are not as important as salvation itself (see Col. 2:16). Only tell the brothers that you yourself avoid unclean meat. When the brothers ask why, tell them the ill-causing effect of the unclean meat such as pork. Tell them too if you personally do not like the taste. Only when they understand the ill-causing effect, then proceed with asking them whether they know about Leviticus 11 and let them read it themselves. Similarly God have allowed you to eat meat (Gen. 9:3) but if you choose to be vegetarian, that should be just personal preference and do not try to influence others to follow you. And you have to walk closely with God. Note that now there is no longer vitamin B12 in vegetables because it has been eliminated by modern agricultural practice. We can guess that the farming technique before The Great Flood was healthier.

Not only the date is unknown and people know a friendly fat old folk in red suit more than Christ, Christ did not say that we should remember His birth. The world gives a strong reason to remember it: no birth, no Christ. Anyway, we should not argue with the people who do the celebration as that may create division. If we were asked to join the festival event, we can still join them as long as we do not organize the event ourselves.

Other ways Satan tries to control humans are to
a) tempt humans into polluting the Earth. When the Earth is not readily livable then life sustaining device will be manufactured to control humans. All flora and fauna created by God are to maintain balanced ecosystem.
b) influence humans to be ignorant about natural health. Then artificial health equipment and medical practice can be introduced to control humans. Satan wants people to die as soon as possible to minimize the chance for them knowing the gospel. This is achieved by letting doctors sentence patients to death.

If somebody tells us that he or she sees vision from God that we should / must do this and that, we have got to see if he or she has just banged the head on the wall or something.

(I do not represent any church in this article)
Download: king_james_bible.htm (4.5 Megabytes)