Category: Identifying and Countering Deception

Legalism Plays the Blame Game

Legalism plays the blame game and uses guilt to manipulate and motivate people. Psychologists recognize that we often deride and malign others in an attempt to bolster our own position or image. We also sometimes project on others the things of which we are guilty ourselves. This can be done malignantly to deceive or it can be simply a form of denial. We often fail to see in ourselves what we clearly see in others. We imagine that we are better than the person we judge, and feel comfortable accusing them, without realizing that, in so doing, we condemn ourselves.

Paul highlighted this sinful tendency in his letter to the church in Rome.

You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. Romans 2:1 (NLT)

Our propensity to judge others for the things for which we are also guilty reveals that we have not seen or accepted the truth about our own sinfulness.

A root of legalism is that we think we are better than we are.

Jesus told a parable (Matthew 18:21-35) about a servant who owed his master an enormous debt for which he no means to repay it. Rather than consign his bankrupt servant to debtor’s prison, the master amazingly completely forgave the debt. Perhaps such magnanimity was an affront to the servant’s pride, who imagined still that he was capable of repaying the debt. The ungrateful and deceived servant immediately set about trying to do just that by collecting much smaller debts that others owed him. When a fellow servant was unable to come up with the money owed, the forgiven servant threw him into debtor’s prison. When the master heard about this, he became furious and had the previously forgiven man also placed in the same prison.

The first servant’s main problem was his pride which kept him from seeing that he was a pauper, who fully depended on his master’s mercy. He thought he was better than he was and certainly better than the one who owed him money. Demanding from others what we cannot produce ourselves is a sure sign of pride and legalism.

When this is our condition, we do not appreciate the mercy shown to us and refuse to give any to others.

God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Matthew 5:3 (NLT)

We undercut the mercy shown to us when we refuse to give any to others.

By default, our sinful pride influences us all to gravitate toward legalism.

The false narrative of legalism is that we can improve ourselves and become acceptable to God, if we try hard enough.

Some of us have been engaged in a lifelong remediation project in the hope that one day, hopefully soon, we will finally arrive at our destination – the level of perfection we think is attainable. The Bible teaches that this is the surest way to frustration, anger, and depression. Pursuing perfection can totally demoralize us or turn us into mean spirited self-righteous judges.

The more we try to measure up to the demands of God’s righteousness using our own resources, the greater will be our failure.

Paul discovered this and wrote about it in his letter to the church in Rome (Romans 7:14-25). Until we realize how bankrupt we are, we will feel comfortable accusing and condemning ourselves, our leaders, the church, and everyone else, and, by doing so, unwittingly ally ourselves with Satan, the Accuser. (Revelation 12:10) Misery loves company.

The Price We Pay

When we judge others in an accusatory and condemning way, we heap judgment upon ourselves.

And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3  Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? Romans 2:2-3 (NLT)

Jesus also warned us about the flashback effect of improperly judging others.

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2  For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. Matthew 7:1-2 (NLT)

No one likes to be judged; yet, we often do it to others without regard for the negative consequences. Judging others restricts them and us. Judging others invites God’s judgment into our own lives. Judging others strips away our joy and peace.

When we improperly judge someone, we lose the ability to help or be helped by them.

When we judge and condemn those in authority, we may open the door for divine judgment to fall upon us. I am truly concerned about those who call themselves Christians and who seem to feel very comfortable railing at our president. (Acts 23:5).  If you are not familiar with the stories of those who decided it was fine to attack and criticize Moses, you should read those accounts, such as found in Numbers 16. It is sobering.

Examples
  • Sometimes I am surprised when church leaders say that the current broken state of society is the church’s fault. This presupposes that if we do everything right, everyone else will also do the right thing, which is totally false. Jesus did all the right things when it came to training his apostles: yet, one of them betrayed him. It certainly was not Jesus’ fault. God created Adam and Eve and gave them a perfect environment; nevertheless, at the first opportunity, they betrayed their Creator to follow Satan. Was that God’s fault? Of course not. Perfect parents, if there ever were such a thing, cannot guarantee that their children will turn out well.

Legalism’s false narrative is that if we can perform well enough, we can guarantee an outcome. The other side of the coin is that if we get a bad outcome, it was our fault.

If we accept the lie that the church is responsible to change the world through its performance, we fall into a legalistic trap that will lead to frustration, demoralization, or self-righteousness.

  • Some people teach that God always physically heals us when we ask him. They cite scriptures that bolster this position and insist that God is always true to his word. Therefore, they reason, if we do not receive our healing, the fault must lie with us. People are taught to deny that they are sick, since God has healed them already. They are encouraged to repeat over and over the verses that promise healing, in the hope that faith will grow and God will be persuaded by our persistence. I remember once when I heard that the family of a man dying from cancer would admit no one who did not hold the same belief about positively confessing healing. People who properly discerned that it was his time to die were not allowed to console and encourage him as he approached the threshold into eternity. I thank God for his promises. I thank him that Jesus paid the price for my healing. I believe that we should trust him to do just what he promised, but I also realize that it is in God’s discretion and timing how he dispenses his grace and gifts. Everyone dies eventually, and only God knows when it is our time. Jesus holds the keys of hell and death. When that moment arrives, nothing is going to stop it from happening. Likewise, before it is time for us to die, nothing can take us out by stealth.

Surrendering our lives and health to a loving and sovereign God is the surest way to peace and being able to discern what the Spirit is speaking to us about our situation.

We should beware of legalistic formulas that supposedly guarantee spiritual outcomes.

Instead we should make it our priority to grow in our trust in our all-powerful and loving God, who always has our best interests in mind. When we do this, we fully trust his promises but leave the outcome to him.

(You can read more about this important topic in my book, Seeing God’s Smile, which can be purchased on Amazon.)

Conclusion

Life is so much easier and more joyful when we admit that we are spiritual paupers who depend on the mercy of God and have no right or business condemning others. There is a proper form of judgment, which amounts to wise discernment, but never morphs into condemnation. It is important that we refrain from judging ourselves, too. We get enough of that from the devil and other people.

Share this post...

Legalism Tries to Control Us

Not only does legalism seek to measure our spiritual progress and standing, it also tries to control us. God gave us freedom when he created us, but we traded our liberty for bondage when we believed the devil’s lie in the garden. By pursuing what was presented as freedom from having to depend on God, we became trapped in bondage to sin and death. Jesus died and rose again to set us free, which we can experience if we are willing to surrender to his benevolent lordship. Freedom is found only in God.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 (NASB95)

Freedom is based in truth; whereas, bondage is founded on a lie. 

The gift of grace provides freedom; whereas, legalism, which is founded on the lie that we can and must earn and maintain our right standing with God, always produces darkness and slavery to sin.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 (NLT)

At the government level, the bondage of sin influences those in authority to seek to control those under their oversight. Sin, left unrestrained, will always trend toward the darkness of totalitarianism.

Totalitarian governments prey upon the fears of the populace by offering security in return for the surrender of personal freedoms.

The goal of the individuals at the top of such governments is total power, wealth, and control. Since bondage and the desire to control originate in Satan and are a product of our sin, the end game of totalitarian governments is usually quite sinister, including seeking to destroy those who worship and serve the God who gives freedom. Totalitarian governments suppress truth and anything that would work towards setting people free on the inside, such as faith in God and free speech. Propaganda replaces the sharing of truth. Thought and speech are monitored to make sure everyone is participating in the lie. Totalitarian governments usually strip from their people any means of self-defense. Where freedom exists, people are able to worship, speak, and assemble as they see fit. They are also allowed to have the means to defend themselves.

Totalitarianism can exist in churches, too. The principles at work are the same as in government.

Unscrupulous church leadership may take advantage of the ignorance and fear of their people by offering them a path to obtain security with God at the price of surrendering to church control.

Keep the rules, kiss the ring, and you can go to heaven.

The Roman Catholic Church maintained such control over most of Europe during the Middle Ages. As with governments, their goal seemed to be the accumulation of power and wealth. To achieve this, the church developed elaborate schemes to hold the populace in bondage to it, rather than preaching the gospel of freedom. The church presented itself as the only gateway for people to reach God. They taught that the church held the key to obtaining and maintaining a right standing with God. Only the priests could provide the sacraments which were the means of staying in a right relationship with God – baptism, confirmation, holy communion, confession, matrimony, holy orders, and the last rites. Common people, called the laity, were taught that they had no direct access to God, making them dependent on the the mediation of the priesthood. All of this is contrary to the New Covenant.

For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 (NLT)

(I have written several articles exposing the errors of Roman Catholicism, in which I participated up until the time of my new birth experience as a 19 year old freshman at university. You can access them by clicking here.)

The Reformation set dynamite to the Roman Catholic Church’s totalitarian tyranny, opening the gates to the masses to approach God directly without the mediation of the church or the priesthood. Proclaiming the banner of Sola Scriptura, the reformers taught that the Word of God is the only standard for judging what is right and wrong and acceptable to God, replacing the Catholic Church’s insistence that church tradition and the infallibility of the papacy trumped the Bible.

In the brave new world of the Protestant movement, the freedom to worship according to the dictates of conscience was restored, at least partly, which also introduced a greater degree of personal accountability. Reformers took advantage of this freedom to explore and develop their own versions of what it meant to follow God, resulting in an explosion of new sects and denominations. But the Reformation did not deal with the inherent sinful desire in humanity to control others. Soon the larger Protestant groups sought to control over some of the new sects which they regarded with suspicion. This extended even to actively persecuting these groups.

Today, in America, where at the moment we still have freedom to worship as we see fit, we often find legalistic control at the denominational and local church levels. We are free to associate with whatever church we choose, but sometimes we may suffer for it. We may even find ourselves being controlled by the church of our choice.

Because of sin, legalism is our default setting. It takes constant vigilance to ward off the tentacles of encroaching legalism.

Here are some of the things to which we should be alert in our quest to maintain our freedom.

The Insistence of Our Acceptance of Non-essential Doctrines

An essential doctrine is one that is required for us to be called a Christian. If God does not require it for entrance into heaven, it is not essential here on earth either.

We should be wary of any church or leader that requires members to adhere to doctrines that fall into the non-essential category in order to be a part of a local church. 

Church leaders sometimes use their influence to pursue personal “pet” projects. For example, the United Methodist Church has aligned itself with the LGBTQ+ position, forcing its members to choose between adhering to traditional biblical morality and leave the church or stay with the denomination as it careens away from biblical truth. Those members who have no firm anchor in God’s Word will likely be swept away by the church’s improper use of its influence and power. If you are in a church that is more loyal to a popular societal position than to God’s truth, get out before you partake in its judgment.

The Exaltation of Leaders

Totalitarian regimes, even in the church, always have a privileged ruling class. Jesus taught that a qualifier for leadership in his kingdom is being a servant.

But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27  and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28 (NLT)

If you see that your church improperly exalts its leaders, it should serve as a red flag. It is always appropriate to honor our leaders (1 Thessalonians 5:12, 1 Timothy 5:17), but never to put them in a separate status above the rest of the church.

The Attempt to Control Personal Decisions

Our forefathers in America during the Great Awakening defined slavery in a broad sense as not being allowed to follow the dictates of our own conscience.

They were willing to fight and die to secure this freedom, but today we meekly acquiesce when the government routinely strips us of the ability to make personal decisions, such as during the coronavirus lock down. During what was called the Discipleship Movement a few decades ago, church members were told not to make some family decisions, such as buying new appliances or a car, without checking in first with whomever was in their discipleship “up line.”

Parents make decisions for little children, but making decisions for adults strips away their dignity and hinders their personal and spiritual growth.

Paul made it clear that we are never to seek such dominance over the faith of others.

But that does not mean we want to dominate you by telling you how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm. 2 Corinthians 1:24 (NLT)

If you are in such a church, get out before you get used to being their slave.

The Attempt to Control Thought and Speech

Our society is currently being assaulted by the thought and speech police who run Big Tech. This censorship violates our First Amendment rights. We are being told what words we can use, what positions we can have, and with what political party we should align.

Sadly, the church has been known to participate in such tyranny by using its position as an arbiter of truth to influence its members to embrace a false narrative.

For example, some churches have embraced the lie that to identify sexual sin is tantamount to hate speech. However, if the Bible is true, we are asked by God to love those who embrace a sinful lifestyle and proclaim that their way of doing life is in direct opposition to the purposes and plan of the Creator and will ultimately end in their death and destruction. The gospel does not condemn us in our sin, but offers a way out. We condemn ourselves, however, if we refuse the offer. God’s judgment against sin stands. The only remedy is faith in Jesus and what he did to free us from the guilt and condemnation of sin.

The church operates in the dynamic tension between loving people who have been deceived and captured by sin while holding to the biblical position that all sin will be judged.

Jesus did this, and the Holy Spirit can help us to share the truth with love, too.

If we find ourselves in a church that tries to control thought and speech, we must flee and find somewhere that allows people to pursue God in accordance with our own conscience and understanding of God’s Word.

Healthy churches teach biblical truth and encourage their people to check it out for themselves.

And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. Acts 17:11 (NLT)
Conclusion

In writing this article, I have made the presupposition that the reader understands that freedom does not preclude the proper function of godly authority. The spiritual road we travel has two ditches to avoid: lawlessness and legalism. We live in a dynamic tension between freedom and a proper sort of control. True freedom is allowing God’s Spirit to control us.

He uses people to help us along the way, especially church leaders, who are responsible before God for the flock they oversee. They are charged with teaching God’s truth, encouraging the weak and faint- hearted, rebuking the headstrong when they plunge into sin and error, and even on occasion administering church discipline. 

We live in a dynamic tension between properly listening to those whom God placed in authority in our lives, without relinquishing personal freedom and responsibility before God for our thoughts and actions.

Likewise, church leaders must always evaluate how far their authority can be properly exercised without damaging their people’s relationship with God. As with government, less is usually better.

Share this post...

Legalism Tries to Measure Us

Legalism likes to hide in plain sight; so, in order to recognize it, we need to know where to look. One of the main characteristics of a legalistic mindset is the need to measure how we are doing spiritually. We look for ways to measure our righteousness against some established standard or against another person’s performance.

Those in the business world have developed standard ways to measure success. In some small businesses success might be measured in a variety of ways, including profitability, service to the community, producing a quality product, or customer satisfaction. When a company grows larger, it is often purchased by investors who simply want to obtain an acceptable return on investment, or ROI. When profitability is the only measurement of success, the things that made the company profitable in the first place or often sacrificed in the pursuit of a greater ROI.

We live in a time when a large segment of the church has adopted policies and methods from the business world with corresponding ways to measure success.

The modern church growth movement is largely responsible, but it is part of human nature to want to gauge how we are doing on our spiritual journey. Three Bs have been used by measurement-minded pastors for years: bodies, bucks, and buildings. Rate of growth, numbers in attendance, and new baptisms are sometimes factored into the body count. Many times, pastors try to leave their mark on congregations and build their resumes by being the instrument for pulling off a building project, often saddling the congregation with debt and the pressure to maintain a high level of attendance and giving.

Measuring success using worldly parameters pressures church leaders to present a version of church and the gospel that will draw and keep the largest number of people.

Jesus set the bar very high for his followers and often “thinned the herd” by reminding them of the high cost of discipleship. Churches that major on attendance often struggle between preaching God’s unadulterated truth and being seeker friendly enough to keep people coming back. The pressure to keep church income high enough to cover the cost of staff, programs, and facilities can put pressure on leaders to overlook the sins and offenses of large donors and to prefer the most prosperous segments of society in violation of Christ’s clear command not to do this. (Luke 14:13-14) Measuring success by financial gauges can also lead to an unhealthy emphasis on money that drives some people away from the church and the gospel.

When we grasp the extraordinary nature of the new covenant, it sets us free from any need to measure ourselves against any external standard of judgment.

The true gospel announces that salvation is by grace through faith alone.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8–9 (NASB95)

Since our Lord Jesus perfectly kept the Law and died in our place as a law breaker, he accomplished everything needed for our salvation. There remains nothing to be added to it except our faith and  allegiance to Christ and his promises.

The legalistic mindset, however, even though it may begin with grace, always looks for some way to measure a person’s spiritual progress or status by adding adherence to some outward standard of behavior or submitting to some form of control. The early legalists were called Judaizers. They insisted that Gentile believers not only must declare allegiance to Christ but also had to be circumcised and keep other elements of the law of Moses. Paul decried this demand as an affront to what Christ had already accomplished through his death and resurrection. The proof that God did not require this addition to the gospel was that God gave the Holy Spirit to believing Gentiles who had never been circumcised. If God accepted them without keeping the Law, how could the church not?

Paul refused to allow legalists to define Christianity in terms of adherence to outward standards.

For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20  My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21  I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. Galatians 2:19-21 (NLT)

A simple way to identify legalism is to ask ourselves if some standard is being used to measure our devotion to Christ other than our inner faith and outward verbal confession of allegiance to him. (Romans 10:9-10)

Legalism can be as obvious as a church forbidding its members to smoke cigarettes or as subtle as influencing people toward a political stance. It can be as easy to discern as insisting that only a priest can forgive our sins or as hidden as making non-essential doctrines a litmus test for church membership. Anything that attempts to measure our performance, demands that we adhere to some outward standard of behavior not connected to morality, or seeks to control us through spiritual means smells of legalism.

Trusting in God’s grace means we set our focus on Christ himself rather than evaluate our own spiritual development.

Think about it: can we ever really know how we are progressing spiritually? Isn’t trying to do so a trap? Paul wrote about this.

As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. 4  My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. 5  So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 (NLT)

By now I hope you understand that this article is only for serious disciples. If you are looking for an excuse to give yourself over to some form of sin in the name of freedom from legalism, you are going down the wrong path and in serious danger. But if we are honestly pursuing Christ, we need to be encouraged to disregard every man made report card.

There is no effective way to measure how disciples are doing spiritually because God does not allow it. It is a insult to God to measure what Christ has already accomplished, as if it were not sufficient.

Share this post...

Building a Biblical Worldview: What Will Happen After We Die?

Part of building a biblical worldview is contemplating what will happen to us after we die. Will how we live today affect our eternal destiny? What we believe about eternity is a natural product of what we believe regarding the previous four worldview questions.

The Bad News

As we discovered so far on our worldview journey, God created us in his image so that we can relate to him as worshipers who draw life and wisdom from him and fulfill his purposes for us here on earth, which are to love him and other people, to be fruitful and multiply, and to take dominion over and care for creation. God provided all we need to live happy, productive, and fruitful lives in fellowship with and dependence upon him.

But that did not satisfy Adam and Eve. They were deceived and lured into choosing to be independent from God, which sadly introduced sin, sickness, bondage, death, the corruption of the creation, and the distortion of God’s wonderful plan.

Adam’s enduring legacy was marring God’s entire creation.

Satan usurped the authority delegated to mankind and ruled over us as a tyrant. The situation seemed hopeless (Ephesians 2:12) because no descendant of Adam is able to live up to God’s holy standards or achieve the righteousness that could bring eternal life and reward. (Romans 3:21-24) Instead, our sin earned (earns) for us the just sentence of death. (Romans 6:23) As a result, every person deserves a bleak and hopeless future, since at the Last Judgment we will all be found guilty of sin and rebellion against God and sentenced to the fires of hell.

Good News

The Good News is that God so loved his struggling creatures that he sent his Son, Jesus the Messiah, to save us from this horrible end. (John 3:16)

As the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), Jesus lived the way God intended for the first Adam, in complete reliance upon and obedience to God. Jesus willingly offered his life as God’s Lamb, taking the guilt and punishment for our sins and rebellion upon himself, so that we could be forgiven and our relationship with God restored. (John 1:29) When he rose again three days later, he emerged from the tomb as the glorious, victorious Lord. Anyone who believes the good news that Jesus died for our sins and is now the risen Lord, will receive forgiveness, eternal life, and restoration to a right relationship with God! (Romans 10:9-13)

Through the resurrection of Jesus, who is the Last Adam, God inaugurated a new covenant and a new edition of humanity. (Isaiah 53:10)

All those who believe and declare allegiance to Christ are born again by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3), who lives within every believer as the internal fountain of life, the revealer of truth, and the one who inspires, assists, and empowers us to live for God. (John 7:37-39) This new generation of people are inwardly motivated to serve God, doing those things which bring joy to God’s heart and blessings to other people. (Philippians 2:13)

How Should We Then Live?

Jesus taught his followers that everyone lives and dies, after which there will be a resurrection and judgment, at which we will be rewarded or punished for what we believed and how we lived. (Luke 14:12-14, Matthew 25:31-36) Those who are born only once (physically, naturally) will die twice. They will die a physical death and one day be consigned to the Lake of Fire, which is called the “Second Death.” (Revelation 20:11-15)

Those who are born twice (physically and spiritually, through the new birth), will only die once – physically. Their eternal life and destiny are secure.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26  and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 (ESV)

 

Jesus taught us to live in such a way that will maximize our eternal reward. (Matthew 6:19-20)

If we truly believe Jesus’ teachings and the gospel, we will live accordingly. We will put what God values at the top of our own priority lists.

True believers will sacrifice what we cannot keep in order to gain that which we cannot lose.

We will lay aside sin and selfishness in order to pursue the things that bring God glory and honor. We will make the Great Commission our top priority, because others need to find out about this amazing offer from God called the gospel!

John the Apostle summed it up very well.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 1 John 3:2-3 (ESV)

How we live reveals what we truly believe and value.

What will my life, values, priorities, choices, and actions say about me at the Last Judgment? A biblical worldview teaches us to live in the present with our eyes firmly fixed on the prize of eternal reward at the last judgment.

Share this post...

Building a Biblical Worldview: How Can I Know Right from Wrong?

Without having a biblical worldview, how can I know right from wrong, good from evil, or moral from immoral? Universities teach ethics, and businesses provide seminars on the subject. Ethical and moral dilemmas abound in all walks of life. Life confronts us with difficult questions that demand thoughtful answers. How can we properly navigate a course that requires us to make judgments between good and evil, right and wrong, and true and false?

This article deals with the fourth worldview question in my series. Once we have wrestled with the first three worldview questions,

  1. Origins: From where did I come?
  2. Identity: Who am I?
  3. Purpose: Why Am I Here?,

we come to the subject of this article.

If we conclude that we evolved by chance out of nothingness, we may legitimately deduce that there is no basis for making such a distinction, since such concepts are mere human inventions capable of being overturned or changed at will. We will likely adopt Aleister Crowley’s satanist creed, “Do what thou wilt.”

However, if we answer the first question by affirming that we were created by God, all morality must also originate in him. God is our only dependable reference.

Why Do We Even Care?

Most people, even those who deny God’s existence, believe in both good and evil. No one could watch the torture of a loved one and simply shrug his or her shoulders and walk away thinking, “Oh well, what can we expect in an amoral universe?” Injustice rankles even the most atheistic. Why do humans, even godless ones, care so much about justice, if we live in a randomly evolved world in an unsympathetic universe? It makes no sense.

But, if we believe that a just God created us in his image, we must conclude that he planted a love and desire for justice deep in the human heart.

Each of us also has an inner moral guide called the conscience, which tugs at our hearts when we do wrong, unless we are sociopaths or have “seared” it through regularly practicing evil. Is the conscience merely a social-psychological construct, as viewed by Freud, or did our Creator put it inside us?

Those of us who believe the Bible understand that the conscience is part of our being created in God’s image. We have an inborn desire to align with his desires that produces unease when we do not.

Anthropologists recognize that, despite cultural and religious differences, there is a commonality of understanding across the breadth of humanity of what is right and wrong,

All humanity came from the same stock and possess a common basic understanding of right and wrong.

Who Told You That?

In the beginning, God did not want Adam and Eve to know good and evil for themselves in order to protect them from the “Pandora’s Box” of woes associated with possessing such knowledge.

Satan, taking the form of a talking serpent, introduced something new into their pristine minds – doubt. He planted mistrust in Adam’s and Eve’s minds regarding the integrity and goodness of God. He indirectly accused the Creator of being less than forthcoming and withholding something good from them. Falling for the ruse, our first parents judged God to be a liar and chose to disobey his command in order to gain firsthand knowledge of good and evil and be like God in that respect. They embraced a lie, and the effects of sin entered their lives – guilt, shame, and fear.

They introduced sin, death, and destruction into all of God’s creation in the vain attempt to become self-directed moral agents. Satan fooled them into thinking that fulfilling own will is more satisfying than obedience to God.

They did receive a new understanding of evil, but it was not at all good. They began to hide from God instead of enjoying fellowship with him.

God immediately recognized what had happened.

Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10  He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11  “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:9-11 (NLT)

Because Adam and Eve rejected God as the Source of truth and life and opened their hearts to knowledge from an evil source, they became aware of things that God, as a good parent, never intended for his children to know. Originally God intended that they simply do what he said, without needing to go beyond that. That way he could save them from the dark abyss of knowing evil firsthand.

Now as a result of Adam’s and Eve’s transgression, knowing right from wrong is a huge challenge for all of us.

How do we properly know things we were never meant to know?

By default we tend to lean to our own resources in the struggle to differentiate good from evil. Satan always is willing to provide his input, too, which invariably leads us away from God and robs us of joy. Is it even possible for us to get back on track?

Plugging into the Right Source Again

The Old Covenant Law clearly defined right and wrong with respect to morals, diet, sanitation, and religious rites. It pointed out how sinful we are without doing anything to help us keep the Law.

By exposing the depth and breadth of our sin problem, it revealed our need for a Savior.

Jesus came to introduce a new way of doing life called the New Covenant by which the Life Giver resides inside the believer, motivating and changing us from the inside out. (You can read more about this amazing new covenant by clicking here.)

All truth is God’s truth. Truth is part of God’s character and does not exist outside of him.

Jesus is the incarnation of truth (John 14:6), and unless we are reconnected to God through faith in him, we will always be confused and misled.

Through the new birth, Jesus, who is truth incarnate, comes to reside in us. Jesus taught us that God’s Word, the written Scriptures, are truth. This not surprising, since Jesus is the living Word of God, the “Word made flesh.” (John 1:14) All Scripture was breathed by God and written down by people. (2 Tim. 3:16) The Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of truth, inspired the authors of the Bible to insure its purity. (John 16:13)

Therefore, we must rely upon Jesus, the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit, if we are to grow in the knowledge of what is true, right, and good.

The church is also called the pillar and support of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:15) The assembly of those who acknowledge that Christ is Lord and Savior and who have the Holy Spirit living inside them functioning as their guide, teacher, and revealer of truth, have been given the responsibility of guarding, preaching, and applying God’s truth to daily life.

Therefore, we also need to be part of a local church that reveres the Scripture.

Going it alone is a repeat of Adam’s and Eve’s initial mistake. God never meant for us to do life as “loners,” because we are very liable to veer off course into error.

Steps to Getting in Sync with God

Sin began with deception, produces deception, and ends in deception and death. Jesus called Satan the father of lies, in whom there is no truth. (John 8:44) The entire world is under the spell of deception woven by the evil one. (1 John 5:19)

Jesus came into this world as the incarnate Truth to reveal God’s true nature and undo Satan’s lies about God.

  1. Profess allegiance to Jesus as Lord. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (John 14:6) The first step to knowing what is good, true, and right is to recognize who Jesus is and to surrender ourselves completely to him. On a personal level, this effectively undoes the rebellion against God that began in the garden.
  2. Submit to the Holy Spirit and God’s revealed truth in the Bible. We can trust the Spirit of God to teach us what the Bible means. (John 14:26) Unless we put God’s revealed truth at the top of our list as the most reliable source of truth, we cannot grow in the knowledge of what is true, right, and good. We also must commit ourselves to obeying God’s truth; otherwise, we will likely become religious hypocrites. (James 1:22)
  3. Connect with a local church that teaches and puts into practice what the Bible teaches. No church or person is perfect, but there must be the desire and commitment to pursue truth. Other believers in such a local church can help us stay on course during our discipleship journey.

If we do the above, we will be able to move forward in our quest for truth. However, no person or church or group is the sole possessor of truth. We must also pursue humility, realizing that we only have a portion of truth, not the whole, and that we need one another. Truth is found in a person named Jesus. Everything else points to him.

Share this post...

Building a Biblical Worldview: Why Am I Here?

One reason we build a proper worldview is to answer the purpose question: why am I here? A right understanding will give us purpose and clarity for life and protect us from being swept away by dangerous ideas that may attempt to lead us astray.

The standard answer found in some doctrinal summaries is that God placed us here to know, love, and serve him. Jesus corroborated this answer when he summarized the entire Law in one statement.

And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37–40 (NASB95)

We might think of this as the relational aspect of purpose. The job God gave us to fulfill during our allotted time to live upon the earth can be found in the first book of the Bible.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 (ESV)

Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Genesis 2:15 (NASB)

The basic responsibility of humankind, besides our call to love God and our neighbor, can be summarized in three points: multiply, take dominion, and tend the garden.

These commands were specific to Adam’s and Eve’s situation, but they are still in effect, since there is no record anywhere that God rescinded them. The “garden” should now be understood as the entire earth in which we live, tainted as it is by sin and our long occupation. These purposes apply to every human being in a practical and natural way. They also apply directly to the mission of the church.

Fruitfulness and Multiplication

The very first command God delivered to man was to be fruitful and multiply, which makes it an enduring priority.

This command was restated after the flood. (Genesis 9:1) The earth then and now needs to be populated. The Great Commission restated this foundational command after Jesus’ resurrection. “Go and make disciples” is another way of saying, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The earth now desperately needs to be populated with born-again believers who seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness.

The satanic world system seeks to depopulate the earth. Here are a few of its reasons.

  • There are already too many people. If we fail to reduce the population, mass starvation will occur and the earth will be ruined.
  • Children are too expensive and inconvenient.
  • The world is too evil to bring children into it.

Here are some of the false presuppositions found in the above arguments against God’s command to be fruitful and multiply.

  • The earth cannot sustain a very large population.
  • God is unable to supply the needs of large families.
  • The world has always been evil. We bring children into it so they can effect change as followers of Christ.
  • The self-centeredness behind not having children because they are too much trouble is appalling; yet, this excuse has led to countless abortions. Children have always required a lot of work and definitely limit our freedoms, but that is part of growing to maturity.

Because of our inherent rebellion against God, Western nations have embraced abortion, birth control, fear, unbelief, and a self-centered lifestyle in direct defiance of God’s command to be fruitful and multiply.

Many nations in the West now teeter on the brink of cultural viability because of low birth rates. The world will eventually fall into the hands of those groups which are still having large numbers of children.

All of us are influenced by this anti-God mentality. Even churches have adopted variations of these arguments.

Church policies and mindsets are dictated by the following guiding principles.

  • When we have a “large enough” church which can provide an ideal level of fellowship, financial viability, social status, and programs, we sometimes lose the desire to sacrifice in order to “go” and make disciples. We would rather stay and enjoy the fellowship.
  • We invest most of our finances in maintaining the building, programs, staff, and operational costs of maintaining the church plant, instead of spending time, energy, and money on pursuing the Great Commission.
  • Rather than put our people at risk by asking them to immerse themselves in lifestyle evangelism and connecting with broken, unsaved people, we prefer the safety of the Christian fortress called the church. We devise so many programs for our members that they are worn out and have little or no time for pursuing the Great Commission, even if they were willing to take the risks of associating with unsafe people.
  • Missional living is too much trouble. It is far easier to contribute money or volunteer to serve in crisis intervention programs than to get heavily involved in the lives of people who have untold needs and will make unanticipated demands on our time and finances.

Only by prioritizing the Great Commission will the church become the missional force God intends.

Taking Dominion and Tending the Garden

Taking dominion and tending the garden are also important commands. If the multiplied people on the earth and in our churches are to enjoy a good quality of life, we will have to control and tend the environment.

Through the process of being fruitful, taking dominion, and working, people grow to maturity. If we leave even one of these parts out, it can short circuit the process.

Young men and women usually enter marriage with little maturity. The demands of marriage and having children ensures that we “grow up”. Why would we think it would be any different in the church?

Taking dominion always needs to be balanced by the command to tend the garden.

In the spiritual context, taking dominion involves learning to identify with Christ’s victory and the internal work of the Holy Spirit in a way that allows us to be victorious over our sin nature, sin, Satan, sickness, legalism, death, and the demonic. Basically anything that seeks to enslave or destroy God’s people must be brought into subjection to Christ through our faith in God’s promises. (1 John 5:4)

The church can also “take dominion” and “tend the garden” by working in our communities to effect positive change.

Unless we learn to take dominion, we will not be able to properly tend and protect (keep) the garden called the church. Tending the garden means caring for the sheep. This includes protecting, feeding, guiding, equipping, and launching them into ministry – discipleship.

Conclusion

When we make multiplication, whether of children or disciples, our top priority, everything else tends to fall into place.

When young married couples have children, they learn to give their lives away for others. Having children, natural or spiritual disciples, changes our lives in a most fundamental and rewarding way. In old age, there is no greater joy than being with our offspring and their children, especially if they are in unity and serving the Lord. Late in Paul’s life, he rejoiced in his own spiritual children, when he wrote:

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! Philippians 4:1 (NIV)

We should not rejoice if our children never leave the home: rather, our job as parents is to prepare them to leave the “nest” in order to start their own families. This is how we fulfill the command to be fruitful and multiply at the family level. The church likewise must think in terms of launching people to start their own church families, which will also reproduce in time. This can be done at a small group level or at a larger church level.

Let’s make the Great Commission our top priority so that we, like Paul, can rejoice in our spiritual children and grandchildren (disciples of disciples)! Let’s make God’s first priority from creation onward our first priority and watch how everything else falls into place.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
Share this post...

Building a Biblical Worldview: Who Am I?

“Who am I?” is one of life’s most important questions. Where will we find the answer? From our parents, our peers, teachers, books, nature, God, the devil, or ourselves?

If we know who we are, we will be more likely to act in agreement with our true identity. If we believe a lie about who we are, we will probably fulfill the false image.

The devil made it his mission to defile what God created and loves. He could not directly curse God or his creatures; so, instead he tricked Adam and Eve to bring God’s judgment upon themselves through outright disobedience. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they chose to receive information about their identity from the wrong source. Satan only tells lies, being the Father of Lies, according to Jesus. Ever since, we have been bombarded with lie after lie after lie, each one pushing us farther from God and closer to destruction.

When we derive our identity from the master deceiver, it will always be warped and leading away from God. God asked Adam where he got the information that he was naked and needed to hide from God.

During the cool part of the day, the LORD God was walking in the garden. The man and the woman heard him, and they hid among the trees in the garden. 9 The LORD God called to the man and said, "Where are you?" 10 The man said, "I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid. I was naked, so I hid." 11 God said to the man, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from that special tree? I told you not to eat from that tree!" Genesis 3:8-11 (ETRV)

It seems obvious that, if a person believes in God, he or she should seek the answer to the identity question from the one who created us.

God surely knows exactly who we are. Not only that, for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, our identity has been recreated through the new birth, making us spiritual children of our heavenly Father.

Once again, we turn to Genesis for insight.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)
Questions from the Text

There are several things in the above passage that should make us ponder.

  • Who are the “us” mentioned in verse 26? We already noticed that in the opening two verses of Genesis, God and his Spirit are both mentioned. We also saw that the eternal logos or Word, who is later revealed to be Jesus (John 1:14), was also present and doing the creating. Therefore, right here in the opening chapter of Genesis, we have the beginning of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, the mysterious revelation that, even though God is one, he is an “us,” three persons comprising one God.
  • What does it mean to be created or made in God’s image and likeness? We will find out later in Exodus that God prohibits making an idol or image to represent him. The only genuine image of God for us humans is the one presented by the eternal Logos, who became a man, Jesus the Messiah. (Hebrews 1:3) Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. We learn what the Father is like by observing and listening to his Son. But, beyond that, what does it mean that people are created in God’s image? Certainly God shares with us some of his qualities or communicable attributes. Human beings are intelligent, creative, responsible, emotional, and capable of love, truthfulness, and faithfulness, to name a few.
  • What does it mean for us to have dominion over the rest of creation? The Hebrew word means to have dominion, rule, subdue, or prevail. We know from later verses in the Bible that God gave us the animals for food after the great flood. (Genesis 9:3) We also see that a godly person cares for his animals. (Proverbs 12:10) Putting all of this together, we conclude that mankind has been given dominion over the rest of creation, and he should use that dominion to provide for himself food and shelter, while also being a good steward of and kind toward the rest of creation.
  • How does our sexuality reflect God’s image? In his wisdom, God divided mankind into male and female. We understand from the totality of the Bible that God is a spirit and not a sexual being; however, masculinity is ascribed to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Femininity is ascribed to the church. Males and females have physiological and emotional differences, even though there is a wide variation among individuals. Marriage, the joining of male to female both physically and emotionally, and, perhaps, spiritually, provides a means for God’s image to be more fully revealed.
Some Things We Learn about God

From our opening passage, we also learn some things about God. We must ask ourselves why God chose to create the earth, heavens, and living beings.

  • Was it because he was lonely? The One God has existed eternally as a loving unified “trinity” of persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Loneliness could not possibly be part of that equation. Ascribing loneliness to God insinuates that he is less than complete in himself, which is not true. Why then did he create us?
  • In order to glorify himself by sharing his life and joy with others. Everything God does brings glory to himself because he is glorious and everything he does reflects that glory.
    • By creating the heavens and earth, both the visible and invisible parts of it, he demonstrated his amazing genius, goodness, and power for others to see. The natural response of the creature should be to recognize God’s hand in the creation and worship the Creator.
    • By creating people, God glorified himself through amazing beings who can think, choose, love, obey, worship, or the opposite of these things.
    • By creating us and placing his image in us, God set the stage for sharing his very life and glory with his creation.
    • We will learn later that it was his intent to show kindness to his people for all eternity. (Ephesians 2:7)
So What?

What then does it mean to us that God chose to create us in his image and likeness? Our first response should be one of humble wonder. King David illustrated this attitude when he penned Psalm 8.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; 4  What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5  Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! 6  You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7  All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, 8  The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 9  O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:3-9 (NASB)

David responded by worshiping and praising God. By doing this we can bring even more glory to God by making the choice to freely worship our Creator. This should be the default attitude in people. When we find something else, such as complaining, bitterness, the refusal to acknowledge God, etc., we know that sin is at work in a vain effort to deprive God of his glory and us of life and joy.

Humans Reflect the Triune Image of God
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (literally: soul). Genesis 2:7 (ESV)

God created Adam with a spirit, soul, and body. (If this seems like a strange concept to you, Paul confirmed man’s three-part composition in 1 Thessalonians 5:23.) God breathed his Spirit (ruach – wind, breath, spirit) into the body he formed out of the dust. This combination of spirit and body produced a living soul, consisting of mind, will, and emotions – our personality.

The spirit is the deepest part of a person, where we are able to connect to God after we are born again by the Spirit. When Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God in the garden, their sin introduced death into our lives, which affected every part of us. Spiritually it broke the life-giving communion Adam and Eve enjoyed at the beginning. Sin produced guilt, fear, and a desire to hide from God in their souls. Their bodies began to die, too. Every person who is born into this world since then arrives in the condition being “dead” in our sins, even though for a while we enjoy physical life. (Ephesians 2:1-2) In this condition we are by nature God’s enemies, with hardened hearts that are spiritually blind and deaf. Only God’s gracious intervention through the gospel and the inner working of the Holy Spirit can rescue us. That is why Jesus came. We learn about God’s incredible mercy and kindness through him.

Yes, the Word was full of grace and truth, and from him we all received one blessing after another. 17 That is, the law was given to us through Moses,♦ but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. He is himself God and is very close to the Father. John 1:16-18 (ETRV)

When a person comes to believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit causes the spirit to be “born again” or made anew in Christ’s image. (John 3:3-8) The Bible says that God’s Spirit and our spirit become one. (1 Cor. 6:17) God’s life and image is planted as a seed in the new believer’s being. (James 1:21) Like leaven in a lump of dough, that seed gradually transforms the person from the inside out. (Matthew 13:33)

For a more detailed explanation of spirit, soul, and body, you can click on the links in this sentence.

The newly recreated spirit is the seat of intuition, communion with God, and conscience. Because we have a spirit, humans are uniquely able to interface with both the spiritual and material worlds. Think about how amazing this is! What a gift God has given to us!

It should not surprise us that God would fashion us with three parts to our makeup. After all, he exists as three persons in one.

Just as it is often impossible to distinguish completely between the operation of the three persons of the Trinity, it is also extremely difficult to say where the spirit stops and the soul begins, or where the soul stops and body begins. Sicknesses are often labeled psycho-somatic because a link has been observed between the soul (Greek: psyche) and body (Greek: soma). Similarly, it is often difficult to distinguish between physical ailments and those brought on by an evil spirit. When Jesus ministered to sick people, he recognized both sources of illness and dealt with each in a different way. Only the Spirit of God and the Word of God have the ability to completely discern what is what. (Hebrews 4:12)

Having a spirit created in God’s image gives us a definite advantage over the animals.  By being able to commune with God, we can gain his wisdom and insight into life situations. In addition, we have the promise of eternal life and sharing God’s glorious rule over all things.

Sin and the Image of God

Because of sin, people in general no longer reflect God in the same way as did Adam and Eve. All people still carry God’s image as a result of being created, but in many cases it has been so marred that human beings reflect the opposite of what God is like. Some people make the mistake of thinking that all people are God’s children, confusing the created image of God with the implanted life and person of God, which is given at the new birth.

Although all humans bear the image of God to some degree, only those people who have been born again are truly God’s children. This is the identity God wants us to have.

This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Romans 9:8 (ESV)

The image of God is restored through the new birth and will be fully revealed at the resurrection of the just, at which time believers will be completely transformed into God’s image.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 (ESV) 

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53  For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55  “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 (ESV)
Conclusion

Our identity as beings created in God’s image was marred by sin. Because of the broken condition in which we are born into the world, most people have a false idea of who they are and who God is. We sin when we act in agreement with our sin marred identity. Jesus came to restore us back to the image of God through the new birth. As we learn to live out of our new identity, our motivation and goal should be to glorify God and worship, obey, and serve him from the heart.

Those of us who have experienced the new birth are commissioned to share this blessing by telling how Jesus came to redeem a people back to God. We do this in the hope that the gospel message will prompt people to put their faith and allegiance in Christ and be restored as children of God who bear the full image of God, our true identity.

Share this post...

Building a Biblical Worldview: Origins

The first essential question that faces anyone attempting to build a worldview concerns origins. How did we get here? If we see a turtle on top of a fence post, we can be sure that it did not get there by itself. Until the advent of evolutionary thinking, people understood that we and our world did not get here by itself. Now that idea is challenged by those who claim that the cosmos created itself. Which side we take in the debate has profound implications.

Origin determines identity, purpose, morality, and destiny; so, getting the answer to the origin question right is extremely important.

That is why the devil works so hard to get us off course in the beginning of our worldview journey. He knows that if he can deceive us regarding origins, he can more easily dupe us in the other areas.

Genesis opens with the following two verses.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV)

We learn from these verses that:

  • There was a beginning of time, and God was there, hinting that God is eternal.
  • God acted to create everything in the visible and invisible realms – the heavens and the earth, implying that he is extremely powerful.
  • The waters, light, and what we call earth were the first things created, destroying the Big Bang evolutionary theory of the cosmos.
  • Therefore, we were made by God, making us accountable to him. The Creator owns the creation.
  • Therefore, what God says trumps every other so-called source of truth.
Creation Reveals Much about the Creator

Whenever we examine anything that has been made, we learn something about the maker. A beautiful watch is a doorway into the mind of the maker. When we observe God’s magnificent creation, we learn about him, if we rightly perceive it.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 (NASB)

If Satan can pervert the origins narrative, he can distort how we view creation with the result that we will derive incorrect input regarding God’s nature and power and our place in the grand scheme of things.

Some of God’s attributes are “incommunicable,” meaning they are unique to him and divine. Others are “communicable,” meaning that he shares them with his creatures. Theologians call God’s attribute of power “omnipotence,” which means he is all powerful. It is interesting that Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God’s power is eternal, which is an inference we can make from seeing that God was present in the beginning. He predates the beginning. Later in the Bible we find out that God has no beginning or end. He is eternal. God has placed something in the heart of mankind that is drawn toward eternity. The author of Ecclesiastes wrote that God has “…set eternity in the hearts of men…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV) 

What can we discern about God’s divine nature? One of the children in our small group responded to this question by saying that God is “amazing, fantastic, and surprising.” (Not bad for an 8-year old!) We can also tell that he is creative and good. We gather that God appreciates beauty, complexity, and diversity by observing the world he created. Perhaps a very good exercise would be for us to ask ourselves, what else can we discover about God by thoughtfully observing his creation?

Is the Bible Narrative a Satisfying Explanation of Our Origins?

In order to be open and honest, we should ask ourselves if we have ever encountered another satisfying explanation of how things came to be.

Does the Bible’s explanation of origins ring true in our hearts?

There are certainly a variety of theories out there, one of which is materialistic evolution. This theory of origins usually starts with the “big bang,” which posits an extraordinary explosion which originated the cosmos. One problem with this explanation is that it is merely an hypothesis regarding the mechanics of how the universe came to be, without answering the question of origins. It does not tell us where the big bang’s matter and energy originated. In other words, what was before the big bang? This fails to pass the intellectual test and the heart test.

Evolutionary theory assumes the presence of the material world, without trying to explain its origin, and tries to explain life’s origin in terms of chemical and physical processes taking place over untold eons, without God’s being in the picture. Since this is not a scientific paper, I will not attempt to show all the problems related to this unprovable hypothesis. If you are interested, you can do your own research at the Creation.com website. A very informative video is available, entitled Evolution’s Achilles Heels, which I highly recommend. Let me summarize my objections by saying that science has already proved that it is impossible for matter to move from chaos to complexity without the application and maintenance of external energy. This is called the law of entropy. Things fall apart naturally, not self-create.

Our complex and ordered world demands a Creator.

The Bible’s explanation is that we and the cosmos were created God, whose genius we have been studying for centuries. For those who believe in God, the biblical account satisfies the heart, but intellectually we may find it lacking. This is because Adam’s and Eve’s first sin was to choose to understand things for themselves rather than simply trust in God. Since then, the devil has used the same ruse against us. Unsaved people do not want to rely on what God says. Instead, we want to figure things out for ourselves.

This is the test of the ages: will we believe God or our own intellect?

Once we decide that God’s Word is always true, the biblical account satisfies our intellectual curiosity. We can devote ourselves to discovering more about his creation without wandering down dead ends of human speculation.

The Deliberate Suppression of Truth

Those who refuse to acknowledge God’s existence usually work hard to refute the Bible’s creation narrative.

Sadly, in the pursuit of the world’s validation, many Christians have decided that the Bible’s account of creation is little more than a fairy tale.

Evolution, when it was first introduced, was readily embraced by communist leaders, because they thought it validated their atheistic worldview. If people are determined to believe that there is no God, it is easy to understand why Darwinism is so attractive. It appears to lend some scientific credibility to a biblically unsupportable viewpoint. Over the decades following, evolution gained wide acceptance, being taught as fact in our school systems. Those who wield power in academia suppress the teaching of creationism, insisting that evolution must be accepted as a scientific fact, when it is an unprovable hypothesis.

Those who accept the existence of the biblical God also believe that there is an archenemy, Satan, whose plan is to destroy faith in God as the Creator in young children in order to subvert God’s plan and purpose for their lives. It is revealing to see how creationism is suppressed in public schools. It is ridiculed, mocked, and ignored. Creationist teachers often face the wrath of other teachers and the administration. This is no accident.

On the other hand, the truth can stand on its on merits. Because of this, those who oppose God’s truth must try to suppress it.

Evolutionists fear the power of the truth they have chosen to suppress.

Children are naturally disposed to believe that there is a Creator, unless they are brainwashed to believe a lie. We are going to believe something; so, it is far better to believe the truth than to believe a lie. From where did this proclivity and necessity to believe come? If we accept the Bible account, we must conclude that it was built into us at creation. What a travesty it is when childlike faith is undermined by a deliberate suppression of truth!

Conclusion

No matter to which side of the origins debate we are drawn, all of us bring to the table certain unprovable presuppositions. The evolutionist presupposes that there is no God; whereas, the creationist presupposes the very opposite. Every worldview depends on such a priori beliefs.

After becoming a follower of Christ and accepting the truth of the Bible, I have found great joy in acknowledging the kindness, wisdom, and power of the God I serve! For me, the creationist approach to origins passes the heart test and the intellectual test.

One does not have to commit intellectual suicide to believe the biblical account of creation; however, we may suffer at the hands of those who hold a godless worldview. The suppression of truth requires those in power to use any means possible to slap down those that question their orthodoxy. 

Unless we are willing to endure suffering for the sake of truth, we will likely suppress our voices in speaking out against the lie.

When we admit that the heavens and earth could not possibly have self-originated and recognize that we owe our existence to the Creator God, it automatically sets us up to be able to answer the other worldview questions correctly.

  • We will see that knowing where we come from helps us to know our identity.
  • Knowing our identity helps us to understand our purpose.
  • Understanding our origin, identity and purpose gives us insight into how to determine what is right and wrong.
  • Finally, we will also be able to understand what is our destiny.

A proper understanding of origins is a fountainhead of truth, which is why we must make sure that we completely accept Genesis Chapter One.

It opens a path of revelation into the heart of God that, if followed to the end, provides us with the ability to live with purpose and joy.

Share this post...

Building a Biblical Worldview: Introduction

Before we can adequately recognize and counter the deception that is so rampant, it is foundational for us to consider and attempt to answer life’s crucial questions in order to build a biblical worldview. We all have a worldview of some sort; even if it is a patchwork of mutually contradictory beliefs. The technological world in which we live might be thought of as a satanic strategy to keep people’s minds occupied with trivial things – games, social media, etc., rather than ponder the kinds of questions that might lead us to God.

A worldview is a framework or perspective through which we view and try to understand the world in which we live.

A person’s worldview will not only affect how he or she understands life and reality; it will also heavily influence decision making because it will determine what is valuable to us.

In this series of articles, I will show how the Bible answers five of life’s most crucial worldview questions.

  1. Origins: From where did I come?
  2. Identity: Who am I?
  3. Purpose: Why am I here?
  4. Morality: What is right and wrong?
  5. Destiny: Where am I going after death?

If we think about these questions for very long, it will become obvious that each one is related to the others. How we answer the first question will greatly influence how we answer the others. If we get the first question right from a biblical perspective, it will make it easier to get the others right, too. Conversely, if we miss the mark on number one, we will automatically err on the others.

Presuppositions

In order for us to answer these worldview questions, we must agree that everyone has assumed certain things, which cannot be proved true or false.

Presuppositions are what we each consider to be self-evident truths which simply must be believed since they cannot be scientifically proved.

Our Declaration of Independence held that certain truths are self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (Originally the last item was property, which makes a lot more sense.)

The writers agreed upon the following presuppositions:

  1. People are created by God.
  2. All people are equal.
  3. All people have God-given rights, specifically, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is impossible to “prove” that these presuppositions are true; however, it was considered to be obvious by the founders of our nation. Where did they get these “truths?” The first one comes from Genesis in the Bible. The second one is found in the New Testament. The third one derives from the philosopher John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government, which was widely read by the colonists. The right to life, liberty, and property are supported in the Bible. Jesus is the source of life, which humans are forbidden to steal through murder. Jesus died and rose again to liberate us from satanic oppression, and property rights are delineated in the Law of Moses. Locke emphasized what is called  “natural law,” by which it was understood that the purpose of government is to protect these rights. This agrees with Romans Chapter 13, where Paul wrote that the government’s role is to ensure justice.

The colonists believed that their rights as citizens were being violated by the Crown contrary to English law, thus de-legitimizing the English government, which had become tyrannical instead of law abiding. By the time the Declaration was penned, these ideas were considered to be self-evident and beyond question. The colonists’ worldview, their understanding of right and wrong and the purpose of government, was Bible-based to a great extent and influenced their subsequent actions. People were willing to risk their lives supporting a revolution against tyranny in pursuit of what for them was required by their worldview. (If you wish to read a sermon by a Presbyterian preacher named David Caldwell, who lived in our area, click here. It lays out everything above.)

Perhaps some of my readers may not agree with our nation’s founders’ “self-evident” truths, but, whether we like to admit it or not, we all have such presuppositions. It is unavoidable. Even people who claim to be purely rational materialistic scientists have presumed on the validity of the scientific method, which presumes that there are unchangeable truths to be discovered, which presumes there is order and logic to the universe, which necessitates some unprovable reason for this to be so.

Using the Bible to Build Our Worldview

God has ordained that it is impossible for us to empirically prove many very important things in life, which, as a result, must be accepted by “faith.”

In other words, we all have to believe something, even if that belief is the self-contradictory notion that there is no such thing as unconditional truth. People jump to unprovable conclusions all the time because of our built in need to believe. That is one reason people fall for the false narratives of the media. We are believers by design, and what we choose to believe is all important.

God intended for us to depend on him to be our interpreter of reality and source of truth.

When Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s lie and rejected that way of “doing life,” humanity descended into the confusing darkness of trying to fathom the meaning of life by ourselves. We lost our way. That is why Jesus came, as he put it, to “seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

In an effort to reorient ourselves, it is a good idea for each of us to ask ourselves, “Where did I get my ideas about life and reality?”

If we are followers of Christ, who accept the Bible as the most reliable source of God’s revealed truth, we will start there to build our worldview. If we do not accept what the Bible teaches, we must find some other way to construct a view of life and our world that is both satisfying and consistent. This I believe is quite impossible.

My hope is that you will stay with me as we consider some of life’s crucial questions from a biblical point of view. Even if you hold different presuppositions from mine, I believe considering what the Bible has to say will be beneficial and thought provoking. The very first verse of Genesis answers our first worldview question. That is where the second article will begin.

Share this post...

Why Everyone Needs to Be Disillusioned

Everyone needs to be disillusioned some time or another. Disillusionment may be associated with naivete or betrayal. Plenty of people become disillusioned with spouses or others upon whom they had placed high expectations, perhaps unadvisedly.

Whatever the immediate reason for our disillusionment, at some point we had believed something that was untrue.

Humorous (for us, but painful for them) examples of disillusionment can be seen on old episodes of auditions for the TV show, American Idol. (Note the title, which points to the illusion of the glamor of being idolized by others.) Every season people who thought they were great singers were unceremoniously told that they could not sing by the judges. Someone had led these contestants to believe that they had great voices, and they believed it. They lived in the illusion that they were wonderful, when they were actually awful. The judges disillusioned them, which forced them to face the truth about their singing ability. Many of them became angry and lashed out at the judges, declaring they did not know what they were doing. It was meant to be funny, but it was also tragic and necessary. Afterward they would be able to move forward in their lives rather than waste their time in the pursuit of a fantasy.

Most of us serve illusions of one sort or another regarding ourselves, others, marriage, work, God, and the world in which we live.  While counseling young couples who are preparing for marriage, I usually inform them that the man hopes his wife to be will never change, but the woman hopes to change her man. They both likely will be disappointed or disillusioned. We try to put our best foot forward during the courting process. After we tie the knot, we tend to relax into our “normal” way of being and doing things, which may be an unwelcome surprise to the spouse. Sometimes young couples go into a marriage expecting that their spouses will be responsible for certain things, as they saw modeled in the home in which they grew up. I often ask the couple during counseling, “Who will clean the bathroom?” “Who will handle the finances?” “Who will wash the dishes?” “Who will do the cooking?” Where will you spend Christmas? Thanksgiving? Do you want children? How many? You get the point. These are things to talk about ahead of marriage to avoid unwelcome surprises later.

We all tend to be deceptive and be deceived to one degree or another.

Women wear make up to create an illusion of beauty that may not naturally exist. We all tend to act in ways that may be somewhat unnatural to ensure that (deceive?) people will like or accept us. Some people resort to being a comedian to hide insecurity. Others may be silent rather than reveal they hold an unpopular position. Ironically, however, if we deceive people into liking the illusion we project, we do not know if they really like the real us! We may feel required to continue the charade until we are at last found out.

True friends know what we are really like and love us anyway.

What a relief to get beyond pretenses! It is delightful to meet and relate to truly honest people, even if it makes us a little uncomfortable at first.

Illusions about God and Ministry

Most of us probably have illusions about God. It is popular today to imagine that God is all love and that he would never condemn anyone to hell. But that is not the God of the Bible, is it? When God revealed himself to Moses, he told him that his name is “I Am Who I Am,” not “I Am Who You Want Me to Be.” If we serve an illusion of who God is instead of the true God, are we not idolators?

A big part of life for a disciple is coming to terms with who God really is and surrendering as completely to him as we are able.

Many disciples have illusions about ministry, too. If we receive a “call” from God to serve him and others, we usually have ideas of what that will look like that may not be accurate. In our pursuit of God we may be heading for disillusionment as we come to terms with reality. Whatever ministry we may have will produce fruit according to God’s grace, not from trying to fulfill some fantasy of what ministry is supposed to be.

Happiness and satisfaction come from simply being the person whom God created us to be and fulfilling his true call upon our lives.

Illusions work just the opposite. Some of us labor under the illusion of inability and incompetence instead of believing that God can and will use us to do his work. Moses was just such a man. Early in life, Moses felt called to help the Israelites. He tried doing it in his own way, but was quickly rejected and became disillusioned. He fled to the desert where he spent decades tending sheep for this father-in-law. Then one day God appeared to him and commissioned him to go back to Egypt and liberate a nation. Moses came up with excuse after excuse. He had been so disillusioned in himself that he had lost faith in God, too.

We should be careful to never to allow our disillusionment to spill over into unbelief. The Lord wants us to move away from self-confidence toward God confidence.

Strongholds

Illusions are a type of lie that the Bible calls a “stronghold.”

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (ESV)

Beginning with Adam and Eve, mankind has shown a propensity for believing lies. Satan knows this and is a master deceiver. Jesus identified him as the “father of lies.”

In general, people accept lies more easily then they do the truth.

One salacious slander is usually more easily believed than a hundred truthful protestations of innocence. Knowing this, politicians use smear campaigns to “dirty up” and defeat their opponents.  People remember the dirt, even if it is later refuted. Sadly, once people make up their minds, it can be very difficult or impossible to change them. As Mark Twain once said, “It is easier to fool someone than to convince them that they have been fooled.” To be blunt, illusions are lies. If we believe a lie, we need to be disillusioned.

Disillusionment takes place when it becomes evident to us that the lie we once believed is not true.

This can be very traumatic. Some people simply choose to deny the truth and continue in deception, preferring the camaraderie of the lie over fellowship with the truth. Others never recover from their encounter with truth and enter the nether world of apathy and unbelief. Still others are able to learn from their past mistakes and move forward. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for a college professor who built his or her entire career on promoting Darwinism and evolution to come to terms with the truth of intelligent design and specific creation? Can you understand how challenging it is for those of us who abandoned the truth of Genesis Chapter One in favor of the pagan-inspired solar system to admit we were wrong?

The more invested we are in a lie, the more difficult it is to escape, but with God all things are possible. The key for us is to love God’s truth, no matter where it may lead us.

The Benefits of Peter’s Disillusionment

Just before his passion, Jesus told his followers that they would be scattered when he embraced his assigned destiny to die on the cross as God’s Lamb.

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32  But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 33  Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” 34  Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” 35  Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same. Matthew 26:31-35 (ESV)

Peter believed a lie about Jesus’ destiny, and he held on to false ideas about himself, too. He imagined that he was much stronger and more faithful to Jesus than he actually was. His confidence was based on trust in his own strength and convictions. He was proud and due for a fall, and he was not alone. The other disciples said the same thing, but Jesus chose Peter to be an example to us all.

When Jesus was first taken captive in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter sprang into action, just as he promised Jesus that he would. He took his sword and attacked those who came to arrest Jesus, cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Jesus commanded him to put away his sword and healed the wounded man. (Matthew 26:52-56)

Peter was ready to die fighting for Jesus and a kingdom he thought was imminent, but not prepared for the reality of God’s will. Peter was greatly disillusioned that night. He learned that following Jesus was not what he thought. In this state of confusion and fear, he denied his Lord three times, just as our Lord told him.

I believe Jesus forewarned Peter that this would happen to help him hang on by faith that he would be restored. Knowing that Jesus knew in advance about his coming failure certainly must have given Peter hope. Jesus did not condemn Peter for his faithlessness under fire, he gave him a promise instead. Luke’s account of the incident adds some important details.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32  but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33  Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” 34  Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” Luke 22:31-34 (ESV)

Knowing that God selected us to belong to him, despite knowing all about our sins and failures in advance, should give us all great hope, just as it did Peter.

Peter needed to be disillusioned. He needed to find out that he was not all he imagined himself to be. He needed to discover that God loved him despite everything. Disillusionment brought humility and security. I feel sure that Peter was never the same afterward. His faith in himself was less, but his faith in the grace and mercy of God was far greater.

The Peril of Judas’ Disillusionment

Judas was another disciple who became disillusioned, but he did not benefit from it. His idea of who Jesus was (and is) and what it meant to be his follower was overthrown. He gradually realized that Jesus had not put him on a trajectory to acquire wealth, power, and fame. Rather, he apparently became offended at Jesus’ disregard for money, when Mary anointed him with expensive oil prior to his death. It was just after that pivotal event that Judas agreed to betray Jesus for a fee. The sad part is that Judas never found room for repentance. His disillusionment led to his destruction.

What we do when we are confronted with the truth makes all the difference.

Principles for Handling Disillusionment

Following these principles can help us to profit during times of disillusionment.

  • Decide to follow Jesus, no matter what. Disillusionment will not rock the world of a surrendered person. We know we are serving a person who ultimately controls everything and is working all things for our good and his glory. (Romans 8:28)
  • Become well acquainted with the Bible. Disillusionment becomes necessary when we believe a lie. We can insulate ourselves from deception by embracing the truth of God’s Word. If we value truth above all else, we will be thankful when God delivers us from believing a lie.
  • Develop the habit of being thankful. Thankfulness reveals a heart that is humble and surrendered. The Bible teaches us that thankfulness glorifies God. (Ephesians 5:20) We will experience a new measure of God’s grace as we develop a habit of thankfulness.
  • Expect to encounter suffering and tribulation in life. One of the greatest illusions many Christians face is that following Christ should be trouble free. Quite the contrary, God uses suffering and pressure to make us more like Jesus. Those who are ready for such things will find it much easier when suffering arrives on the scene. (1 Thessalonians 3:3)
Prayer

Jesus, I am grateful that you love me past comprehension and are faithful despite my own unfaithfulness. Thank you that you are leading me into more and more truth. Please deliver me from any area in my life in which I serve a lie. Help me to pass through every period of disillusionment and come out on the other side a stronger and more devoted disciple. Help my faith not to fail, Lord. I give you thanks for how you are working all things together for good in my life. May I bring glory to your name. Amen

Share this post...
Share this post...