The Sunday school teacher stands before his class and reads a text of Scripture, several verses right out of the Bible. He points out a particular verse and asks each person, "What do you think this verse means, that is, what does this verse mean to you?" The verse was not particularly ambiguous, in fact, it was perfectly clear.
But dutifully, the people in the room begin to give their opinions on what the verse means to them. The explanation offered by Mr. Jones contradicted that of Mrs. Smith. Ralph Johnson opines that the verse doesn't say anything of the kind to him and puts a different viewpoint on the buffet of ideas.
The group waits to see what the Bible study leader will do with these contradictions and how he will handle the three conflicting ideas.
The teacher simply says that all three opinions sound good and tells the group that they must find out for themselves what the text means. Then the teacher proceeded to the next verse and the same process began again. Various people expressed varying opinions, each contradicting the other.
The teacher, unfortunately, has no idea the damage he's doing. His method of teaching (using the word loosely) is changing the absolute truth of the Bible into a relativistic miasma. Such relativism is dangerous. Under his leadership, the Bible has become putty in the hands of each reader; each reader makes the Bible say what he or she wants it to say. Subjectivity and relativism rule the day. We don't operate this way in the real world--in the real world, when a person says, "It's going to rain today," we aren't free to interpret that statement as "I'm going to pay back the money I owe you at 3 PM."
If you were to receive a letter from the IRS to submit your records for an audit, you're not free to interpret the letter to mean, "Your refund has been credited to your account." If you did that, either a padded room or a concrete cell will be your new home.
Such a teaching method defies all logic--two statements which contradict each other cannot both be OK. Both may be wrong. The teacher is promoting the idea that we can contradict one another and all is fine and dandy. We must not subject God's Word to our opinions. Instead, we should ask ourselves, "What does the text say?" We should work hard at trying to discover the best single possible meaning to the text is. We do this by employing the method of biblical interpretation called the literal, grammatical, historical method because that's the method Jesus and the Apostles used to interpret the Old Testament which was their Bible at the time.
This method of Jesus and the Apostles means that we take the words of the Bible literally (unless we're in a section that's poetry) or unless we're reading a metaphorical statement such as "I am the door." This method means that we use the rules of grammar and the historical (cultural) setting in which the authors wrote to arrive at the author's meaning.
Another danger of the what-does-this-verse-mean-to-you-method is that communication breaks down. The person who holds to that erroneous view takes himself out of the discussion--he believes that he can make the Bible say what he wants it to say and everyone else can do the same. Meaningful discussion becomes impossible because his viewpoint is corrupting language.
If you're in such a class, the odds are you're not going to be able to be a change agent or a "light in a dark place." You and I aren't to pretend that all's well in such a situation. Nor are we to go with the flow. The Christian, walking by means of the Spirit, will find that the Christian life is not one of "let's pretend" that such a method is, as the teacher said, "fine." It's destructive to the Bible.
Shake the dust off your feet and take as many as you can out of such a situation.
WITHOUT COST
Friday, March 29, 2019
Friday, March 22, 2019
LET'S ALL GO TO THE MOVIES
There's a movie out which is a documentary concerning the question, "Did Moses Write the Pentateuch?" That's not the title--the title is "The Moses Controversy." As you know, the academics, almost all of them, propagate the idea that Moses did not write Genesis-Deuteronomy because they claim writing hadn't been invented yet, other than hieroglyphics, that is to say, there was no alphabet and therefore, no Hebrew alphabet for Moses to employ. Besides that, they announce, the people were illiterate anyway.
The movie consists of many interviews, some with the university and seminary critics of the Bible and others with Bible-believing scholars at various schools. From the interviews, you'll observe many things about the critics: 1) they pontificate, speaking with absolute, infuriating certainty, coming across as know-it-alls sitting in their ivory towers; 2) they are arrogant and act superior; 3) they make pronouncements without proof; 4) they accept what their teachers taught them without question and transmit it without question; 5) they refuse to read anything that argues against their theory and say so; 5) they were raised in Bible-believing homes, but have rejected the faith. (What's happened to our Sunday schools?)
The documentary is presented as if you were sitting in a university classroom on the subject. It's well-done and worth the watching and re-watching as it shows that yes, Moses wrote the Pentateuch, that people were literate and that the invention of the alphabet was one of the greatest achievements in history and why it was the greatest. After watching the presentation, you'll never take A-Z for granted again.
It's available on DVD and I would suggest you host a showing at your church or in your home. That way, you'll have the ability to stop the fire hose of knowledge that's gushing out of the screen and discuss various topics as you go along. It's available at PatternsOfEvidence.com
And, oh yes, prepare for both an interesting and informative time, one with a built-in 12-minute intermission, if you see it in a movie theater, but by the time you read this, "The Moses Controversy" has come and gone.
The movie consists of many interviews, some with the university and seminary critics of the Bible and others with Bible-believing scholars at various schools. From the interviews, you'll observe many things about the critics: 1) they pontificate, speaking with absolute, infuriating certainty, coming across as know-it-alls sitting in their ivory towers; 2) they are arrogant and act superior; 3) they make pronouncements without proof; 4) they accept what their teachers taught them without question and transmit it without question; 5) they refuse to read anything that argues against their theory and say so; 5) they were raised in Bible-believing homes, but have rejected the faith. (What's happened to our Sunday schools?)
The documentary is presented as if you were sitting in a university classroom on the subject. It's well-done and worth the watching and re-watching as it shows that yes, Moses wrote the Pentateuch, that people were literate and that the invention of the alphabet was one of the greatest achievements in history and why it was the greatest. After watching the presentation, you'll never take A-Z for granted again.
It's available on DVD and I would suggest you host a showing at your church or in your home. That way, you'll have the ability to stop the fire hose of knowledge that's gushing out of the screen and discuss various topics as you go along. It's available at PatternsOfEvidence.com
And, oh yes, prepare for both an interesting and informative time, one with a built-in 12-minute intermission, if you see it in a movie theater, but by the time you read this, "The Moses Controversy" has come and gone.
Friday, March 15, 2019
CELEBRITY CHEFS
A professor at Dallas Theological Seminary is speaking in a chapel service. His topic is an exposition of Psalm 19. During his teacing of the psalm, he begins to talk about the various ways God reveals Himself. One of those ways, he says, is that God reveals himself through history, that is, God reveals Himself as a moral God. Then, he states the principle: "No nation endures that flaunts disobedience to God's principles."
THE STAGES OF DECLINE: DECADANCE
In one historian's opinion, the last stage of an empire, nation, or culture is that of decadance (a flaunting of God's principles). He defines the stage: "In the age of decadence many people choose to behave in ways that are unsustainable, apparently unaware of the consequences. They indulge in excessive, often conspicuous, consumption. An absurdly wealthy elite emerges, but instead of repelling the masses, it is admired and celebrated [by the masses].
"Those outside the elite aspire to similar levels of consumption . . . People become convinced that increased consumption is the key to happiness, but in its pursuit, they become measurably less happy. As David Morgan says, “You can never get enough of what you don’t need.”
CIRCUSES AND CHEFS
Rome had its calculated distractions to keep the attention of the masses off what was actually going on--they developed a celebrity-worshipping culture (the gladiators and the charioteers). Instead of gladiators slaughtering one another, a culture can become distracted by sports as well as by reality shows on TV. One historian noticed something else in his study of the characteristics of a culture in decline: the rise and celebration of chefs as celebrities who became members of the elite, wealthy class. They too served (no pun intended) to distract the population from the important issues of the day.
In the Decadance Stage of decline, an a-moralism pervated all the empires, nations, and cultures ripe for the plucking. They all lasted roughly 250 before the consequences caught up with them. Flaunting God's principles cannot be sustained.
SPRING BREAK
We need look no farther than the annual Spring Break baccanalian festivals tolerated on the beaches of South Padre in Texas and the Floridian beaches. Those beaches are an example of the "educated" and the wealthy who are hell-bent to satisfy their lust in the shortest possible time with the greatest amount of excess possible at the time.
On Spring Break, "people drink themselves to the point of unconsciousness and shamelessly collapse in the streets and the beaches. In Roman times, binge drinkers were left to their fate. Today’s debauchery is supervised by the police; its ‘victims’ are taken care of by hard-pressed health care professionals, placing further pressure on the public purse. And, all the while, supermarkets and corporations make a killing selling discounted booze to people barely old enough to buy it. This is our modern-day bread and circuses, with drunken, obese citizens literally becoming a burden on the state."
THEIR EDUCATION
It is this educated elite that have grown up, not only indoctrinated and in relativism, but also in the flaunting of it, trying to live without guilt, without shame, and without parents to say, "No. Not on my dime and on my watch!" To see the photographs of South Padre with its worship of Bacchus, and to hear the interviews of the hedonists staggering around in the sand, we're seeing those who believe it and live by the credo: "There are no consequences," with obscenties directed toward their parents thrown in for good measure.
There is no election cycle that will stop the decline into decadance; it's naive to believe that. The problem is the sin nature of man. Therefore it's a spiritual problem that can only be cured by deliberately going into all the world and making disciples, teaching them to observe all things [Christ] has commanded.
THE STAGES OF DECLINE: DECADANCE
In one historian's opinion, the last stage of an empire, nation, or culture is that of decadance (a flaunting of God's principles). He defines the stage: "In the age of decadence many people choose to behave in ways that are unsustainable, apparently unaware of the consequences. They indulge in excessive, often conspicuous, consumption. An absurdly wealthy elite emerges, but instead of repelling the masses, it is admired and celebrated [by the masses].
"Those outside the elite aspire to similar levels of consumption . . . People become convinced that increased consumption is the key to happiness, but in its pursuit, they become measurably less happy. As David Morgan says, “You can never get enough of what you don’t need.”
CIRCUSES AND CHEFS
Rome had its calculated distractions to keep the attention of the masses off what was actually going on--they developed a celebrity-worshipping culture (the gladiators and the charioteers). Instead of gladiators slaughtering one another, a culture can become distracted by sports as well as by reality shows on TV. One historian noticed something else in his study of the characteristics of a culture in decline: the rise and celebration of chefs as celebrities who became members of the elite, wealthy class. They too served (no pun intended) to distract the population from the important issues of the day.
In the Decadance Stage of decline, an a-moralism pervated all the empires, nations, and cultures ripe for the plucking. They all lasted roughly 250 before the consequences caught up with them. Flaunting God's principles cannot be sustained.
SPRING BREAK
We need look no farther than the annual Spring Break baccanalian festivals tolerated on the beaches of South Padre in Texas and the Floridian beaches. Those beaches are an example of the "educated" and the wealthy who are hell-bent to satisfy their lust in the shortest possible time with the greatest amount of excess possible at the time.
On Spring Break, "people drink themselves to the point of unconsciousness and shamelessly collapse in the streets and the beaches. In Roman times, binge drinkers were left to their fate. Today’s debauchery is supervised by the police; its ‘victims’ are taken care of by hard-pressed health care professionals, placing further pressure on the public purse. And, all the while, supermarkets and corporations make a killing selling discounted booze to people barely old enough to buy it. This is our modern-day bread and circuses, with drunken, obese citizens literally becoming a burden on the state."
THEIR EDUCATION
It is this educated elite that have grown up, not only indoctrinated and in relativism, but also in the flaunting of it, trying to live without guilt, without shame, and without parents to say, "No. Not on my dime and on my watch!" To see the photographs of South Padre with its worship of Bacchus, and to hear the interviews of the hedonists staggering around in the sand, we're seeing those who believe it and live by the credo: "There are no consequences," with obscenties directed toward their parents thrown in for good measure.
There is no election cycle that will stop the decline into decadance; it's naive to believe that. The problem is the sin nature of man. Therefore it's a spiritual problem that can only be cured by deliberately going into all the world and making disciples, teaching them to observe all things [Christ] has commanded.
Friday, March 8, 2019
THIS IS CONTROVERSIAL?
A grandfather makes an announcement regarding his granddaughter: "We're raising her as a girl."
Wait. What? One feels compelled to make an announcement like that? Isn't it obvious that one doesn't have to announce it or make something like an official statement about it?
But wait. It gets worse. His statement prompted protestations and demonstrations as there were those who took him and his family to task at what they believe to be an outrageous position because, according to them, biology doesn't determine whether a person is male or female. Not only that, but his granddaughter, according to them, should be free to choose, later on, boy . . . or . . . girl. Think about it for a moment: we've come to the place in which saying, "We're raising a girl as a girl" provokes debates, protests, and a demonstration.
ANOTHER CLASSIC CASE
This is yet another classic example of what we might call "The Pharaoh Syndrome" which is the loss of rationality due to the hardening of the heart which occurs when an individual says, "No" to God's revealed will--he loses the ability to think and therefore, eventually, God lets him proceed to his own self-destruction.
We see this syndrome in Exodus as Amenhotep II kept making decisions that wrecked the Egyptian economy, the nation's water supply, and the health of himself and his people, yet, so hardened was he that it's recorded he had "no concern" about the matter even as things continued to fall apart as he marched to the ruin of his nation.
This grandfather who made the announcement, who is he? He's fairly well-known. He's Jerry Falwell Jr., the President of Liberty University, the very, very, very large Christian university whose founder wanted to make it the Notre Dame of the South. Here's what he said, "“She’s our granddaughter, and we’re raising her as a girl. We’re not letting her have a choice. God makes the choice of what the babies are going to be and God decided she would be a girl,”
Now the drama intensifies--the protest and demonstration in opposition Jerry Falwell Jr., where did they come from? The world? Some secular, humanist, atheist group? No. the protest and demonstration came from students at Liberty University. Listen to one of them: A senior and demonstrator, said the group hoped to use the event to spark a shift in attitude on a largely conservative campus. “Our hope is to start a conversation that can hopefully lead to change within social perception and university policy. Hopefully, we can create an environment where comments like [the President's] aren’t welcome and aren’t normal.”
A news report stated, "Carrying signs in support transgender rights and waving a gay pride flag, a group of about 30 students rallied at the heart of campus [of Liberty University] from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m."
Yes, you read that correctly--the senior said that their goal was that such comments as the President of the university made should not be deemed normal on the campus of a Christian school. And furthermore, he said that their goal was to make certain that such comments wouldn't be welcome on the campus of a Christian school.
The Pharaoh syndrome is on the campus of a Christian university.
Wait. What? One feels compelled to make an announcement like that? Isn't it obvious that one doesn't have to announce it or make something like an official statement about it?
But wait. It gets worse. His statement prompted protestations and demonstrations as there were those who took him and his family to task at what they believe to be an outrageous position because, according to them, biology doesn't determine whether a person is male or female. Not only that, but his granddaughter, according to them, should be free to choose, later on, boy . . . or . . . girl. Think about it for a moment: we've come to the place in which saying, "We're raising a girl as a girl" provokes debates, protests, and a demonstration.
ANOTHER CLASSIC CASE
This is yet another classic example of what we might call "The Pharaoh Syndrome" which is the loss of rationality due to the hardening of the heart which occurs when an individual says, "No" to God's revealed will--he loses the ability to think and therefore, eventually, God lets him proceed to his own self-destruction.
We see this syndrome in Exodus as Amenhotep II kept making decisions that wrecked the Egyptian economy, the nation's water supply, and the health of himself and his people, yet, so hardened was he that it's recorded he had "no concern" about the matter even as things continued to fall apart as he marched to the ruin of his nation.
This grandfather who made the announcement, who is he? He's fairly well-known. He's Jerry Falwell Jr., the President of Liberty University, the very, very, very large Christian university whose founder wanted to make it the Notre Dame of the South. Here's what he said, "“She’s our granddaughter, and we’re raising her as a girl. We’re not letting her have a choice. God makes the choice of what the babies are going to be and God decided she would be a girl,”
Now the drama intensifies--the protest and demonstration in opposition Jerry Falwell Jr., where did they come from? The world? Some secular, humanist, atheist group? No. the protest and demonstration came from students at Liberty University. Listen to one of them: A senior and demonstrator, said the group hoped to use the event to spark a shift in attitude on a largely conservative campus. “Our hope is to start a conversation that can hopefully lead to change within social perception and university policy. Hopefully, we can create an environment where comments like [the President's] aren’t welcome and aren’t normal.”
A news report stated, "Carrying signs in support transgender rights and waving a gay pride flag, a group of about 30 students rallied at the heart of campus [of Liberty University] from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m."
Yes, you read that correctly--the senior said that their goal was that such comments as the President of the university made should not be deemed normal on the campus of a Christian school. And furthermore, he said that their goal was to make certain that such comments wouldn't be welcome on the campus of a Christian school.
The Pharaoh syndrome is on the campus of a Christian university.
Friday, March 1, 2019
SYMPTOMS OF A HEART THAT'S HARD
Case study: the hard heart of Pharoah. Source: the book of Exodus.
The hardening of Pharaoh's heart or anyone's heart is an extremely serious matter. The heart of the unbeliever can become hardened (Exodus 6 ff). The heart of the believer can become hardened (Heb. 3:8, 13, 15; 4:7). To harden one's heart begins by saying "NO!" in the face of and while staring at God's will. The process of hardening occurs when a person says, "NO!" repeatedly to God's will.
From a case study based upon the book of Exodus, we can see the symptoms a person, a church, or a nation will exhibit which clearly show a hardened heart, a heart and mind that stand ramrod straight against the will of God.
The symptoms of a hardened heart are:
1. A willingness to do things that are irrational. We see this as Pharaoh continued to say no even in the face of one plague after another, especially those which had a direct, deleterious effect on him, his wife, and his family even to the point of the death of his oldest son. Amenhotep II had seen nine previous plagues come true down to their last detail, yet when warned about the coming of the Death Angel, he still shouted, "NO!" He refused to let Israel go.
2. A willingness to do things that lead to one's own destruction. The Pharaoh's hardness against the will of God led to his own death by drowning.
3. A willingness to take others down and to harm, even destroy them in the process. The Egyptians suffered because of Pharaoh's repeated "NOs!" His "NO!" wrecked their economy with God's turning the Nile against them, ruined their water supply (except what they could dig out of the ground), damaged their crops, destroyed their food supply from the Nile (fish). Their health was damaged by frogs, gnats, and dog flies, a species which causes widespread blindness. In all of this, Exodus records Pharaoh's "lack of concern."
4. The loss of the ability to discern right from wrong. Right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. This is seen all through the plagues of Egypt. In the beginning, the sorcerers, according to Pharaoh, were right; the old fool Moses is wrong. We see this moral failure in the doctor who recently told a woman contemplating abortion, "If the baby is born alive, I'll break its neck." And our neighbors to the north furnish another example of this moral loss: Every elementary school in Ontario, Canada, will be forced to fly the gay pride flag for at least one week in June, which is Pride Month in the province. Greater Essex County District School Board nearly unanimously voted on the motion last week; the only dissenting voice on the board was swiftly shut down.
5. The overwhelming desire to save face. Amenhotep II and his people believed he was a god. To acquiesce to the old man Moses would be a blow to his pride. (His poll numbers would go down.) In the face of overwhelming evidence of the fallacy of evolution (the Secon Law of Thermodynamics, a professor at SMU said, "It (evolution) had to have happened anyway."
6. A hard heart will disregard any and all consequences of its actions in order to pursue its predetermined rebellion.
7. A hard heart will believe lies and deceptions, even to the point of clear evidence presented to the contrary. Even when Pharaoh was told by his court that something supernatural was happening, when he saw Moses' predictions, one after the other fulfilled, he still shouted, "NO!" He was in his bunker of unbelief and he wasn't coming out, no matter what, for nine plagues, that is, for one year of saying, "NO!, NO! NO!"
8. A hard heart will deflect and change the subject when confronted. Pharaoh says the Jews are lazy and underperforming in their assigned tasks when Moses' demands their exodus.
From the above infamous eight, the Christian is forewarned: it is a dangerous thing to say "NO! NO! NO!" to God and to continue in a persistent sin. A teacher in seminary refused to say "NO" to his pattern of lust and eventually broke into a woman's house, assaulted her, and is in prison today. A pastor refused to say NO to the same pattern, committed adultery, lost his house, family, and endured the humiliation of his own son's spitting on him.
The advice of Proverbs and I John 1:9, over and over again is to turn from "NO!" to "YES!"
The hardening of Pharaoh's heart or anyone's heart is an extremely serious matter. The heart of the unbeliever can become hardened (Exodus 6 ff). The heart of the believer can become hardened (Heb. 3:8, 13, 15; 4:7). To harden one's heart begins by saying "NO!" in the face of and while staring at God's will. The process of hardening occurs when a person says, "NO!" repeatedly to God's will.
From a case study based upon the book of Exodus, we can see the symptoms a person, a church, or a nation will exhibit which clearly show a hardened heart, a heart and mind that stand ramrod straight against the will of God.
The symptoms of a hardened heart are:
1. A willingness to do things that are irrational. We see this as Pharaoh continued to say no even in the face of one plague after another, especially those which had a direct, deleterious effect on him, his wife, and his family even to the point of the death of his oldest son. Amenhotep II had seen nine previous plagues come true down to their last detail, yet when warned about the coming of the Death Angel, he still shouted, "NO!" He refused to let Israel go.
2. A willingness to do things that lead to one's own destruction. The Pharaoh's hardness against the will of God led to his own death by drowning.
3. A willingness to take others down and to harm, even destroy them in the process. The Egyptians suffered because of Pharaoh's repeated "NOs!" His "NO!" wrecked their economy with God's turning the Nile against them, ruined their water supply (except what they could dig out of the ground), damaged their crops, destroyed their food supply from the Nile (fish). Their health was damaged by frogs, gnats, and dog flies, a species which causes widespread blindness. In all of this, Exodus records Pharaoh's "lack of concern."
4. The loss of the ability to discern right from wrong. Right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. This is seen all through the plagues of Egypt. In the beginning, the sorcerers, according to Pharaoh, were right; the old fool Moses is wrong. We see this moral failure in the doctor who recently told a woman contemplating abortion, "If the baby is born alive, I'll break its neck." And our neighbors to the north furnish another example of this moral loss: Every elementary school in Ontario, Canada, will be forced to fly the gay pride flag for at least one week in June, which is Pride Month in the province. Greater Essex County District School Board nearly unanimously voted on the motion last week; the only dissenting voice on the board was swiftly shut down.
5. The overwhelming desire to save face. Amenhotep II and his people believed he was a god. To acquiesce to the old man Moses would be a blow to his pride. (His poll numbers would go down.) In the face of overwhelming evidence of the fallacy of evolution (the Secon Law of Thermodynamics, a professor at SMU said, "It (evolution) had to have happened anyway."
6. A hard heart will disregard any and all consequences of its actions in order to pursue its predetermined rebellion.
7. A hard heart will believe lies and deceptions, even to the point of clear evidence presented to the contrary. Even when Pharaoh was told by his court that something supernatural was happening, when he saw Moses' predictions, one after the other fulfilled, he still shouted, "NO!" He was in his bunker of unbelief and he wasn't coming out, no matter what, for nine plagues, that is, for one year of saying, "NO!, NO! NO!"
8. A hard heart will deflect and change the subject when confronted. Pharaoh says the Jews are lazy and underperforming in their assigned tasks when Moses' demands their exodus.
From the above infamous eight, the Christian is forewarned: it is a dangerous thing to say "NO! NO! NO!" to God and to continue in a persistent sin. A teacher in seminary refused to say "NO" to his pattern of lust and eventually broke into a woman's house, assaulted her, and is in prison today. A pastor refused to say NO to the same pattern, committed adultery, lost his house, family, and endured the humiliation of his own son's spitting on him.
The advice of Proverbs and I John 1:9, over and over again is to turn from "NO!" to "YES!"
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