"Did God Really Say..." These are the first recorded words of Satan. They were spoken to Eve in the garden right as Satan was wanting to convince her to eat the forbidden fruit. This question of "did God really say" seems to be a popular one in culture today, and the question serves the same purpose today as it did so long ago, which is create doubt and unbelief, so that one can be lead away from God's direction. The questioning of God's word is taking place all over today, and this is what I believe to be the primary reason why the church stands in such confusion as it does today. Churches today seem to have a lot of confusion about what is pleasing to God. Not in everything. I haven't met a church yet that thinks it's pleasing to God to not give your money, but there are a lot of issues where the churches disagrees, and while I think there are a number of reasons why this has happened, I think the primary reason is because Christians are not sure about God's word. Doubt has been cast on God's word in a variety of ways, however the way I want to focus on today are those who argue that we cannot truly know what God's word actually says. The statement usually goes something like this, "I believe scripture is the inerrant word of God, but not every interpretation is." This is a true statement, however there is an underlining principle which is false and that principle is, "we can't know which interpretation of scripture is correct." They say that the best lies have some truth mixed in there, and that is why this is such a good lie, and also why it is such a dangerous lie. There is some truth in it, however it is still a lie. This idea that we cannot know which interpretation of scripture is right, is not an idea people would have had 200 years ago. This is a concept that has arisen from the predominate philosophical worldview known as post-modernism. This worldview states that we cannot know objective truth, and so truth now becomes subjective, or left to the individual. So the secular post-modernist would say, "We can't know that the Bible is true." The Christian post-modernist would say, "We can't know the truth of the Bible." The Christian post modernist is willing to say that the Bible is true, but that it's truth cannot be known, the Bible might be the word of God, it's interpretations are not. While it is true that Biblical interpretations are not God-breathed, I think that Christians can learn with a high degree of certainty which interpretations are right and which are wrong. I think that if God has spoken to his people, He has spoken clearly to them. So through proper hermetical tools, and the aid of the Holy Spirit I can know fairly well what Scripture is saying. Yes I acknowledge that there are some parts of scripture that are unclear, however, I do think it is possible to have a good idea of what the author wanted to communicate in scripture. I seem to find myself in the minority on this however. Since it is the predominate view that Christians cannot know the truth of the Bible, because they cannot know which interpretation is correct, Christians are then called to look into their heart as an indicator of what God wants them to do. Again this is a post-modern thought, because it is making truth subjective, and predicated upon one's feelings rather than objective truth. The biggest problem is the fact that one must look into their heart, which scripture says is full of all manner of sinful things. My heart is fickle. Sometimes I feel good, and sometimes I feel bad. Sometimes I feel happy, and sometimes I sad. Don't worry this isn't turning into a poem, but my point is, that when truth becomes subjective, people are no longer conformed around it but truth is conformed around the people. This is what I see happening in many churches in the US, and it saddens me, because God's truth is that which sets us free, and we must remember that ultimately Jesus Christ is truth, and if we conform truth to suit our emotions then we are not really worshiping Jesus, we are worshiping a false Jesus that we created. Also when truth becomes subjective, it cannot rise any higher than the individual, which leads to confusion because some many doing all kinds of things, and calling it Christianity. It is like people moving all different directions, but they all say they are moving east. Casting doubt upon God's word is what Satan does best, but it is done in order to cause humans to suffer. Christians must fight against doubts raised by Satan, and those who have become participants with him in leading other into unbelief over God's word. One of the first steps to fighting against this doubt is by looking to the one in whom you trust, the one who saved you, which is Jesus Christ. For Christians it is a matter of trust. Do we trust Jesus? Do we trust the word of God, or will we be lead into unbelief? At the end of the day each person must ask, "who do I trust?" What God tells me, or what the world tells me? What do you think is a reason the church in America seems to have so much confusion, what did you think of this blog post, comment below and let me know .
1 Comment
Mark
6/1/2015 08:57:35 am
Did God really say? The seed of doubt implanted. I hear some people in our culture say What true for you may not be true for me and vice versa. According to them, truth is relative.
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