“Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God” (Rom 10:17). Faith also comes by hearing, and hearing things that are untrue. What you hear is filtered by what you believe. In order to believe right, you have to hear what’s right. So, what is right? Whether it is politics, spiritual or whatever, the truth is filtered by what you have already accepted as truth.
The truth that you have accepted establishes the foundation of your belief system. In order to change your belief system, you have to be open to investigating other information until you have enough information to persuade your heart otherwise or confirm what you believe to be true. It is natural to look for things that agree with what we already believe to be true. It also gives us comfort to know that there are those who agree with us. We tend to hang around with those who do. And therein lies the clog in our filter. Those with whom we agree can be our biggest obstacle to growth. We listen and read articles from those who we agree with politically or spiritually. We assume those that disagree with us are wrong. Politically, no one has all the truth. Spiritually, no one has all the truth. But there is a truth. There are two types of heretics; one is anyone that disagrees with biblical truth, the other is anyone that disagrees with us. There came a day when bubble boy decided potential death outside the bubble was worth more than one more day inside the protection of his bubble. Of course, he came to realize that leaving the bubble wouldn’t kill him; he had been lied to his whole life. It is said that there are over 30,000 different Christian denominations or groupings. So, what makes you think yours must be the right one? Because none of us have all the truth, including your pastor or whichever Christian teacher you listen to, it behooves us to continue an ever-increasing search for the truth. The enormous number of Christian books, teachings & social media in every wind of doctrine, are other obstacles we face. Even another obstacle is that we tend to stick to those with those in which we already agree with. Continuing to feed from the same limited diet causes spiritual malnutrition. Do you study just to find more scripture to confirm what you believe? If what you believe can’t take a “hit”, or challenge, perhaps it isn’t true. Do you have to ignore certain scriptures to make what you believe true? If you are a cessionist, are you open to the possibility of the gifts of the spirit being available today? If you are a futurist (pre-trib dispensationalist), are you open to the possibility of something different? If you believe you have to confess sin keep right with God, are you open to learn you don’t have to? If you believe _____________________, are you open to learn something different? Have you studied: Paterology, Pneumatology, Soteriology, Hamartiology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology, Preterism (partial & full), Futurism, Historicism, Idealism, Premillennialism, Postmillennialism, Amillennialism, Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, Kingdom-Dominionism, Inclusionist, Universalism, Oneness Theology, Open Theism, Pentecostalism, Restorationist, the differences within those groups, and much more? If you don’t know what one of those terms are, then you haven’t investigated them. That means you don’t know everything. So, when you investigate these things, pray God open the eyes of your understanding, always make sure that it “fits” with the whole of scripture, in context. Those things you don’t understand, set aside, but don’t discard. Use other resources, books, blogs, teachers, etc., but ALWAYS, ALWAYS, check to see if it fits with scripture. The Holy Spirit leading will always agree with scripture also.
0 Comments
|
About this blog:These are articles that I find of interest. Archives
March 2023
Categories
All
|