Jesus speaking: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Matthew 23:27-28 (NKJV) I believe firmly that such people still exist today. In fact, mankind has used what God graciously offered to him, in terms of His word and relationship, to create institutionalized religion in a number of places. And some of those have existed from a time not long after Christ's burial and resurrection- the events that signaled the power of His humbleness to conquer vast and powerful evil. It was Christ, who set aside His right title and position to LOWER Himself, for the benefit of all mankind, to suffer horrifically at the hands of His own creation, that fulfilled victory forever over all evil-including death, in the most epic war of all ...
A much loved spiritual mentor pointed out to me the difference between the Apostle Paul's past will (a life without Christ) and His new will that evolved after the Lord called Him. He then challenged me to define what my own new will would say... ...let my response be found here...
"It is not the title that people give to themselves that defines who they are; it is the fruit of what they produce." Graham Cooke