The Bullet of Authenticity: What is in a Name?
What is God going to do about denominational labels when “the true believers” arrive in heaven? I believe the answer to that question is that He will ignore them! The reality of what we are when we stand before God (and all of us shall) will not be determined by the labels we wore on earth but by the truth that possessed us in our living.
I am not against labels … even denominational ones! They help and they are necessary. But we must see them as a place of beginning rather than a conclusion. When I was a boy I developed a dislike for the child stare, Shirley Temple. To me she was just a prissy little girl who adults bragged on too much. In my immature resentment toward her I also included the name Shirley. It became my least liked female name! Never did I dream that I would fall in love with and marry a beautiful young woman named – you guessed it – SHIRLEY!
Too many of us blame a good label for the less than good people who have impacted our lives negatively! One bad Baptist, or Catholic, or Doctor, etc., doesn’t say a thing about the other thousands … only about the one. A label is only an indication of where a person has come from and not where he or she is going. The labels of our past should have little or no power over the goals of our future.
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