Remember Hurricane Andrew, where a reporter discovered one house standing firm on its foundation amid the devastation and debris. Extremely curious, the reporter approached the owner of the only house standing as he was cleaning up his yard. "Sir," asked the reporter, "why is your house the only one still standing?""Well sir," the man replied, "I built this house by myself. I built it according to the Florida State building code. When the code called for: 2 x 6 trusses, I used 2 x 6 trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane, so I did, and it did! I suppose no one else around here followed the code."
Are You Following "God's Code"
Tragically, many people today are not "following the code" as laid out in God's Word, the Bible. Yes, we may be prepared for the more obvious sins of life. Yet we may be completely oblivious to the more subtle sins of deception and false teaching that are so prevalent in the so-called "new spirituality" in America today—and even in many of our churches.In The People's Religion, pollster George Gallup Jr. finds that most people who consider themselves religious "do not see truth as a high priority." He writes, "While religion is highly popular in America, it is to a large extent fake and superficial. There is a knowledge gap between America's stated faith and the lack of the most basic knowledge about that faith."
In other words, people are claiming to believe in things but they don’t know why!This is why we are looking at the foundations of our Christian faith in our Tuesday night Bible-study. Non-believers, skeptics, seekers - they all raise this popular objection: If God is all loving, then how can He allow evil to exist in the world? Is God being cruel in allowing evil, or is He just not powerful enough to do anything about it? Does this prove there is no God at all? Find out how to give a reason for the hope that lies in you when these questions come up, we will also look at why evil proves that God must exist.
We are, for all practical purposes, studying theology! The Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, gave this warning years ago: "If you do not listen to theology that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones."
If you have the wrong theology, you may love the wrong Jesus.
The Apostle Paul reminded young Timothy, "Watch your life and doctrine (teachings) closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Timothy 4:16).
When it comes to building a strong foundation in our spiritual lives, there is no better place to start than with God Himself. According to Scripture, there is a single God who manifests Himself in three distinct persons, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the next message we will look at the most mysterious and misunderstood person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit, and answer the frequently asked question “Are you filled with the Holy Ghost?”.Read John 16:7-11
During the days that Jesus walked on the earth, His disciples could talk and listen to Him, gaze upon Him, and even reach out and touch Him. But on the day Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told His disciples that He would lead and guide them in an entirely new way—through the Holy Spirit. See you Tuesday!
I would argue most people believe and follow certain codes of conduct without learning the origin and evolution of those codes. When it's suggested they consider the history of their beliefs- how certain councils formed to debate issues of divinity and immortality, how nations conquered other nations thus influencing their belief systems and ours today, how the church as it relates to an institution (The Holy Roman Catholic Church) influenced the idea of "Christ-like behavior" (aka human behavior) forever by becoming a ruling empire- many people respond by rejecting or rather "guarding their minds" so much that they never learn why they believe what they believe. They simply accept the preachers age old easyout answer of "Well, God said so, and therefore it must be." When often God said nothing of the sort. Then they show scripture to validate themselves...except that one scripture belongs to a set of scriptures or rather a given story and when taken out of context can hold any meaning you wish to apply...because alone it is empty.
ReplyDeleteBut I suppose such an apprehension to learning the past/focusing soley on the present is natural. That's how most people live their lives huh? No matter if the issue is religion, spirituality, belief, politics, government, society, entertainment, culture, science, whatever! People are born, accept the world as they presently see it, and continue onward, most rarely looking back to see how that world/reality came to be because they see no profit in looking at the past. They are caught up in their own lives to notice the world they live in. Hence why history ends up repeating itself. C'est la vie!
P.S. I find this blog cliche and symbiotic with "scary words" as I call them but I suppose ya gotta start somewhere.
Scary words- (definition) words that are used to incite fear to promote action based on fear aka to cause people to respect. In the Christian theology, respect and fear are often seen as synonymous.
Katu,
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding! I agree with your opening line 100%. "Most people believe and follow certain codes of conduct without learning the origin and evolution of those codes." People should absolutely know why they believe what they believe and that's in large part why this blog was created as well as the Tuesday night Bible study for those in the Los Angeles area. You find the words in this blog scary? And as such symbiotic? Action based on fear to cause people to respect? Katu, all fear is not unhealthy such as the fear of God that I have and yes that also includes reverence and respect for God but I am not afraid to admit a healthy fear of the Almighty who spoke and the universe leapt into existence. It is however the love of God that compels me to live for Him! So, is having someone come to salvation in Christ Jesus out of fear wrong? To me it doesn't matter how a person becomes a citizen of heaven as long as they become a citizen of heaven which can of course only be accomplished by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour(John 14:6). Jesus spoke twice as much of hell as opposed to heaven, was this a underhanded scare tactic or was it to warn people of the torment to come if a clear and concise change wasn't made? The way Jesus described hell I would definitely not want to end up there so am I scared into a personal relationship with Christ? Is that a bad thing? What say you?