The Fruit of the Spirit

Posted on September 13, 2015September 13, 2015 by Petros

Why do humans want to try to self-generate those things that are freely given by God through Christ? God says that it’s because they love darkness rather than light. He says that they refuse to thank Him, glorify Him, or even acknowledge Him. Eventually, they become so calloused against Him that they are past any ability to hear His Voice, see His Face, feel His Touch, taste His Sweetness, or smell His Aroma. They have become separated from Him.

The book, “Reason,” while it uses a debate between Ken Ham (Christian) and Bill Nye (Non-Christian) as a backdrop, is really about choosing to accept God’s good gifts. It’s about submission to the Holy Spirit. It’s about allowing God to lead and guide. It’s about receiving His Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding. It’s about listening to His Voice so that Faith comes, giving certainty of knowledge rather than guesses and made-up stuff.

It has always been popular to believe that humans could self-generate love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and self-control. In reality, humans can only generate counterfeits of these. The human mind, and demonic entities, are able to counterfeit any of the good things that only come from God. Consider righteousness. Only God is good. He imparts His gift of righteousness to anyone willing to receive it. Yet, so many people try to generate their own righteousness. They end up being self-righteous and proud. Think about knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. All of these come from God. None of them can be received from God without deep, sincere respect from God. Those who are rebellious toward God persist in trying to self-generate knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. They are able to generate some pretty convincing counterfeits and to deceive many people. However, there isn’t any way for human beings to self-generate knowledge. Even Secularists know that they can never have certainty about anything without Divine revelation. However, they then make the insane, dogmatic assertion, based on made-up stuff, that God doesn’t reveal anything to anyone. Since they don’t have any hope of ever having certainty about anything, why are Secularists so dogmatic about this assertion? Because they have decided not to receive God’s goodness. They have submitted themselves to the spirit of Antichrist.

Some Christians also block the mercy and grace of God by trying to self-generate love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and self-control. They try to self-generate wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. These wonderful things that come to us as we stand in the Presence of the Holy One are not available to those who try to be double-minded. The self-generated counterfeits can never fulfill or bring satisfaction. Yet, every person who seeks Christ finds Christ. Every person who is willing to abide in Christ, seek Him, spend time in His Presence in submission to Him, is given all these wonderful things. They are imparted by God. These are the things that change the person into the Image of Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to want to be like Jesus. We need to lay down our own efforts and allow Him to think His Thoughts, speak His Words, and do His Acts through us with Power for His Righteousness, which leads to Holiness.

In every situation, you and I are faced with the choice of yielding to self-will or God’s will. Why not let yourself go into the wonderful gifts of God and just allow His love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, self-control, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to flow through you?

God Doesn’t Need Circular Reasoning

Posted on September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 by Petros

Secularists are forced to base all reasoning on logical fallacies. That’s because they can never have a true premise. Rational thought requires true premises. Secularists have no means by which to show a premise true. They can’t prove it without another premise–another premise that they can’t prove. An unproven premise can’t be used as proof for another premise.

Circular reasoning is one of the ways to hide this problem that all Secularists have in all situations. Circular reasoning is an attempt to prove a premise in this way. “We know the age of the fossils because of the rocks they’re in, and we know the age of the rocks because of the fossils that are in them.” That way, the premise for the age of the rocks is the age of the fossils and the premise for the age of the fossils is the age of the rocks. Of course, they never state it this simply. They make it complex with many fallacies to hide the circular reasoning. All aging methods used support any method of trying to assert that the Earth is billions of years old always involves circular reasoning. The circular reasoning is used to hide the fact that the stories about billions of years are pure fantasy.

Secularists love to ridicule Christians who say, “The Bible is the word of God. How do we know? Because the Bible reveals this about itself.” Some Christian teachers love to say it. Some Christians actually say that the highest authority is always circular. That isn’t true. God doesn’t have to resort to any fallacy.

When God says something, He doesn’t use circular reasoning fallacies. He appeals to His own authority. That’s not quite the same thing as a circular reasoning fallacy. An appeal to authority is only a fallacy if the authority isn’t qualified. God is well qualified. He’s the only One qualified to establish truth.

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,” Hebrews 6:13

That’s not circular reasoning. That’s appeal to His own authority, and authority that only God has.

I’ve personally gone away from saying, “The Bible says.” It may not be a big deal, but I have been saying, “God says, through the Bible.” In addition, I have been cautioned by the Holy Spirit that human interpretation of Scripture adds to God’s Words or diminishes them. This interpretation happens automatically. The fallen human mind wants to adjust what the Scripture is saying. For that reason, I pray that the Holy Spirit reveal to me the meaning of Scripture. Even then, I’m trying to hold my theology loosely enough that the Holy Spirit is able to correct me.

Logic is how God thinks. I’m pretty sure that human beings don’t understand it totally.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:7-8

God doesn’t use circular reasoning fallacies. Circular reasoning is just a way to give the illusion that made-up stuff is real. God doesn’t have to make things up. God doesn’t have to use any fallacy. God says what is true. He knows all things. He is the only Truth. He cannot lie. Therefore, we can rely on what He says. He speaks to our innermost minds concerning Scripture. “The Bible is God’s Word without error,” is one of the first things that He teaches new-born Christ-followers.

Every person who knows and follows Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. We may drift out of His Presence and into His Presence, but in those times when we are in His Presence, following Him, He is imparting His Divine Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding. Even when we’re drifting, His mercy sustains us. He still imparts His Divine Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding to us, or we would quickly die. He does the same for those Secularist who never intend to give Him the glory, to thank Him, or even to acknowledge Him. He explains to us that He does this so that they might have a chance to yet find Him.

Movies and Books about Heaven. Am I Missing Something?

Posted on September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 by Petros

I kept seeing various attacks against anyone who had given an account of having been in Heaven. The attacks often take the form of accusations that the accounts violate Scripture: “fanciful” “contrary to everything God’s word says about Heaven.” I wonder how many people took the time to read the accusations fully and to search the Scripture to see who is lying? I was compelled to do just that and to write this article. However, I’m not writing as an expert on this subject and I haven’t spent a great deal of time. If you happen to know more about this than I wrote here, feel free to let me know. This article only reflects what I found when I did my research.

These accounts were from people who were confessed Christians. The attacks were not from Atheists and Secularists. The attacks were from Christians. So, who do you believe? In these cases, the first place to look is in the Bible. What we need to do is examine the accusations in the light of Scripture. We’ll look at the various accusations one at a time and see if they are Scriptural. They all claim to be Scriptural.

1. The only Scriptural account of anyone going to Heaven and coming back is Paul. Paul was forbidden to tell about it.

1 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Some said that the Bible says, “no one is permitted to tell” the things heard in “Paradise.” However, the Bible doesn’t say that Paul couldn’t tell about his trip to Heaven. He wasn’t forbidden to talk about it. He was writing about it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That’s how we know about it. It says that he heard some unspeakable or unspoken words that it’s not lawful for a man to utter. Through Scripture, God doesn’t make the generalization that these folks made. That’s just how easy it is to add to God’s Words or to minimize God’s Words.

Suppose that the assumption is correct. What if Paul were commanded not to speak of anything that he saw or heard. This might indeed have been the case. If that hypothesis were correct, are we to assume that the same applies to every other person for eternity? Assumption is the thinking tool of Secularists, not Christians. Assumptions add to God’s Words or diminish them.

2. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Therefore, we don’t need any personal testimony of God actually doing anything real.

That conclusion is non sequitur. It doesn’t follow from the premise. The premise is that Jesus said that those who have not seen and yet believed are blessed. You have to add to what Jesus said to think that personal testimony is forbidden or that God doesn’t consider it necessary.

Consider this Scripture:

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2 peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

3. Stephen and the Apostles Paul and John were alive when they saw Heaven. They didn’t die or have a near death experience.

Well, that might be true, although it might not be true for Paul. However, even if it is true, how would a new law then be written that God can’t reveal Heaven to anyone who dies and is brought back to life like so many were in Bible days? The conclusion doesn’t follow from the premises.

This particular claim adds to God’s words. God asks us not to add to His Words.

4. Don Piper didn’t see Jesus or God.

Consider whether this is a disqualifying point. I don’t know of a Scripture that says that it would be impossible that someone should go to the outskirts of Heaven and be directed back without seeing Christ? Where is the source for this objection other than in human assumptions about Heaven.

Piper described a wonderful place but didn’t say that He physically saw Christ. Some have gone so far as to assume that this means Christ wasn’t there. When one Christian begins to assume things about another Christian, trouble starts. When a Christian begins voicing his or her assumptions implying that they are facts, that’s gossip.

James 2:4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

5. The Heaven described is far too human to be Heaven.

What criteria would such a person have to make a judgment about that” It would be either extra-biblical revelation or extra-biblical speculation.

6. The vision of Heaven was either “psychological” (What do you think that implies?) or “demonic deception.”

That’s quite an accusation based on no evidence at all. He didn’t offer the possibility that it was symbolic, as many visions are. He didn’t offer the possibility that the part of Heaven that Piper saw could have been exactly what Piper saw. It’s amazing how dogmatic we humans can become concerning things about which we know little or even nothing at all.

7. God doesn’t want us know know any more about Heaven than He has revealed in the Bible.

Where, in the Bible, does it say that? No Scripture reference was offered.

8. The books and movies about Heaven are made by people focused on themselves.

This is an ad hominem argument. It is a criticism against the person rather than dealing with the subject matter.

Focus on self is always a problem for any Christian who gets any attention. I would suspect that every preacher, author, singer, or other famous Christian struggles with the temptation to glorify themselves rather than Christ. In fact, looking at the way Churches are built, you will usually see that they are built with a focus on the speaker rather than being built for a 1 Corinthians 14 church service. Many organizations focus on a certain person. Even those that have several pastors, generally have a preeminent pastor. No such office is mentioned in Scripture. So, this argument can be used against every man and woman who teaches or preaches on radio or TV. It can be leveled against many pastors in many churches around the world. It can be leveled against many authors and singers if it’s valid.

9. The writing is of inferior quality.

Is there a Scripture that implies that the best writers are inspired by God and those who aren’t that skilled are unable to speak for God? No such Scripture was offered.

10. The teaching is simplistic.

Is there a Scripture that implies that teaching must be complex? None was offered.

11. Too long.

Is there a Scripture that sets the limits for the length of the book?

12. Too boring.

Is that a Scriptural method to judge ministry? To whom was it boring? I know some teenagers who think that anything to do with God is boring. Is the entertainment value and important prerequisite for truth? If so, I don’t know of a Scripture to support this.

Summary

I’m neither endorsing nor condemning any of these books or movies. I’ve read two of the books and seen one of the movies. I don’t think that we know enough about Heaven to judge. I wasn’t able to find a single Biblical problem. That doesn’t mean that the books or movies are correct in every detail. It just means that the articles gave a false impression. More importantly, the Church has been divided mainly by speculative doctrines that add to God’s Words and that diminish God’s Words. Those divisive doctrines have led to competitive organizations with a party spirit drawing people together around the organizations rather than around Christ. The intellect is worshiped, and the personal nature of the relationship with Christ is minimized while the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit is minimized.

The advertising for the articles written against these books and movies implied big problems with Scripture. Perhaps these authors are correct and there are grave problems, but I couldn’t find them. Am I missing something?

These books and articles certainly tell about things that aren’t detailed in Scripture. However, any personal testimony of any experience would also give details that couldn’t be found in Scripture. For that matter, when a teacher teaches from Scripture, that teacher invariably says things that are not written. Often that person interprets the Scripture based on whatever theological framework he or she learned. Sometimes, that person is acting as the oracle of God, which is what God commands all of us to be. Only spiritual senses that have been exercised by reason of use can tell the difference. I make no such claim.

If you, the reader, have spoken or written about others, reading into what they were saying, making them seem wrong and evil, I want to encourage you to put the best construction on everything. There is false doctrine, but there is no guarantee that your doctrine or my doctrine is absolutely complete and perfect rendering of what God is telling us through Scripture. Of course, every man’s way is right in his own eyes–women too. Yet, we need to realize that we are not all-knowing, and we don’t know everything God wants us to know. In fact, God says that if anyone thinks that he or she knows any thing (any doctrine, truth, concept, theory, science, etc.), that person doesn’t know it as he or she ought to know it. A demagogue gets his or her popularity by demonizing others. It seems to be a good way to succeed. So many popular Christians make their living this way. If you’ve done this, confess your sin to God. If you’re tempted in this sin, follow the Holy Spirit rather than your own fleshly nature.

The Foundation of Thought

Posted on September 11, 2015September 12, 2015 by Petros

Note the claim: “Every claim of an error or inconsistency in the Bible is based on at least one assumption.” You may challenge that. You may ask, “How could anyone know such a thing?” And that would be a good question to ask. The answer is even better than the question.

There are two ways that this can be known.

First, without Divine revelation, nothing can be known. Whenever humans try to reason without the benefit of Divine revelation, they must use a single method. Here’s another way to think about it. Without Divine revelation, humans have only one method of interpreting any observation or experience. That method is known as making stuff up. The fancy word for it is the axiomatic thinking fallacy. Axioms are things that are made up and declared true. Assumptions are about the same thing. Assumptions are unknown things that are treated as if they were known. Made-up stuff isn’t a good foundation for thought. In fact, a chain of thought is only as strong as its weakest link. If you allow yourself a single assumption, presupposition, axiom, unsupported assertion, or lie, you can prove anything to yourself.

Let me demonstrate. Allow me to assume that you don’t exist. OK. So, our starting point of thinking is that you don’t exist. Here’s the logic. You don’t exist. Therefore, you don’t exist. It’s pretty plain that if you don’t exist, you don’t exist. Therefore, your opinion doesn’t matter and you don’t matter.

Does that sound goofy? Would universities base huge parts of their teaching on this type of thinking? How about the assumption/axiom of Naturalism. Naturalism assumes that God doesn’t exist. Then, the logic goes like this, “Since God doesn’t exist, God doesn’t exist and is eliminated from consideration in science, ethics, politics, decision-making, or any other discipline. Most universities base huge parts of their teaching on this type of thinking. Beware of ungodly teachers. They’ll educate you into ignorance. Whoever you yield yourself as servant to obey, that’s whose servant you are.

Assumptions are dangerous if they’re taken seriously. If you call them by another name, for instance, “axiom,” they are no less dangerous. Logic is simple. Here’s a graphic that we use to illustrate how logic works.

Second, God tells us that the Bible is without error. He speaks through Scripture and through every method that is mentioned in Scripture to make this statement and confirm it by several witnesses.

Notice that I didn’t say “The Bible says.” Bibles don’t actually talk. Bibles don’t have personalities. In fact, an ardent Atheist can read the Bible and never hear from God. For such a person, the Bible is just dead letter in the same way that they can look at Creation and ignore what God is saying through Creation. Faith doesn’t come to the resistant Atheist, because faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the rhema (Utterance) of God.

When we, as Christians, interpret Scripture using our own fallen, deceitful, desperately wicked minds, we don’t hear God either. We add things to Scripture. We diminish Scripture. We do it without our conscious awareness, and we think that we are just taking Scripture as it’s written. We may interpret based on some theology we have always been taught. We may interpret based on new ideas that come from our fallen minds. We may interpret based on our own fleshly desires. We may interpret based on the influence of demonic spirits. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t interpret this to us, then we don’t have a clue.

Here’s the tricky part. God tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) If we try to regulate our deceitful mind with our deceitful mind, our deceitful mind will easily deceive us. We would be trying to solve the problem with the problem. The Holy Spirit must deliver us from our own mind. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. (Romans 12:2) Note that “the renewing of our mind” is in passive voice. We aren’t doing it. The Holy Spirit is doing it. What He reveals to us will amaze us as He shows us the deceptions of our own minds. As God says, “Who can know it?” We can’t. The Holy Spirit can. This transformation isn’t instant.

The Holy Spirit does it, but we have a part. Our part is to get close to God and allow Him to do it. Our part is submission and obedience. Our part is acknowledging Him in all our ways. Our part is to hold our theology loosely so that the Holy Spirit can correct us–even the theologies that we like to defend. We would all like to be 100% right and prove ourselves right, but that’s just our deceptive pride. Humility is more powerful than pride, because it stops worshiping our own minds and begins to allow Christ to have preeminence.

Since the Holy Spirit tells all of us that none of us know anything as we ought to know it, we can see that we interpret a lot of life this way. We interpret more than Scripture this way. We tend to interpret our relationships this way. We tend to interpret our experiences this way. We tend to interpret what we see this way. If we allow ourselves to drift, we’ll drift away from God.

Scripture tells us to seek the Lord. Generally, that means to inquire of Him. We need to seek His leading in every part of our lives. He created us for this purpose, that we would sincerely acknowledge Him in submission and respect. We are meant to live our lives in His Presence. We are blessed through Christ to be able to flow in the Holy Anointing of God, with the Holy Spirit leading and teaching us moment by moment. As we yield to the Holy Spirit in this way, God will restore His Church and make it holy. All the man-made orders will collapse. All the self-appointed ministries will be exposed. All the false teachers will find that no one believes them any more, no matter how popular and holy they looked when they were promoting themselves and their doctrines. The Church will come into unity. The Scriptural gifts, ministries, and offices will be restored with power and authority in Christ Jesus. What a day that will be! It’s already started.

A new book, “Reason,” will be coming out soon. It will answer many questions you may be having. If you have questions that need answering now, feel free to post them here.

Evidence for Christ

Posted on September 10, 2015September 11, 2015 by Petros

Sometimes, theology loses the simplicity that’s in Christ Jesus.

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

Knowing Christ is the evidence for Christ. That’s not circular reasoning. It’s a little bit like saying, “Knowing your dad is proof of his existence.” or “Seeing my car in the driveway is proof that it’s in the driveway.” However, there’s a huge difference between observing or experiencing someone in the carnal and knowing Christ. There’s a huge difference between seeing and interpreting a mountain by the weakness of human capability and knowing Christ by Divine revelation. When human beings observe or experience, they interpret what they see, feel, hear, smell, taste, and otherwise experience. It’s impossible to observe anything without interpretation. Interpretation must add to the observation or diminish it. It’s common to interpret through the filter of the worldview. The worldview is a fake reality that appears more real, to the person who owns it, than real reality.

Knowing Christ isn’t like that. Christ reveals Himself to us. He is the creator of your human spirit, mind, and body. He’s well able to impart knowledge of Himself and His Truth. He’s well able to lead and guide.

We, on the other hand, have a problem in that we tend to interpret what He says. When we read Scripture, we tend to dip into our worldviews and come up with various interpretations. Often, we don’t even ask Christ to reveal the Bible to to us. Even when we ask, we tend to get in there to give Him our help. He doesn’t need our help. In the same way, scientists tend to use assumptions. Business professionals tend to resort to assumptions.

Yet, every observation and experience can become part of knowing Christ. If we acknowledge Him in all our ways, we will become more aware of His teaching and leading moment by moment in every situation. In this way, He can reveal reality to you, whether in the physical realm or the spiritual realm. In this case, it isn’t you doing the interpretation. You don’t try to exercise your fallen mind to understand the people that you know. You don’t try to lean on your own understanding (assumptions, stories, and worldview) to interpret scientific evidence. You ask God about it. You hear His Voice explaining how it all works. The Holy Spirit speaks through Scripture, by the way, and never contradicts Himself. Don’t add to His words. Don’t diminish His Words. Don’t make assumptions. Listen to Him.

This is a progressive progress from glory to glory. It’s not about gaining a bunch of knowledge about things or theology. It’s about coming to know Christ and His truth. Through submission to His Spirit, we are actually changed, transfigured, into His same Image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.

A Secular scientist may think that this is quite different from the process of science. However, true science follows this process exactly. It’s progressive. It doesn’t get closure on theories that can’t be proven. A true scientist opens his or her mind to God to reveal the meaning of what they are looking at. A true theologian does the same when looking at Scripture. In both cases, current knowledge is to be held loosely since it’s imperfect, it’s incomplete, and it might be totally wrong. In both cases, the person who is looking for truth listens to the Voice of Jesus Christ.

“My sheep hear My Voice.” Jesus speaking in John 10:27

Circular Reasoning – NOT Circular Reasoning

Posted on September 9, 2015September 10, 2015 by Petros

The circular reasoning straw man is a favorite fallacy for Secularists. Is it possible that some Christians actually do use this kind of poor logic? I hope not. A follower of Christ never needs to be irrational. A Secularist can never be rational, since a Secularist must base every thought on made-up stuff. For every interpretation of any observation, any experience, or Scripture, a Secularist must use made-up stuff. The fallacy is known as “axiomatic thinking.” It includes all the various methods of using made-up stuff to reason. Most logical fallacies are simply smokescreens to cover up axiomatic thinking fallacies. There are only two types of fallacies in the most basic analysis: axiomatic thinking and smokescreen. Circular reasoning is a smokescreen to hide axiomatic thinking. In the image on the left, there are two Divine revelations that are being presented as if they were axiomatic thinking fallacies that are being hidden by circular reasoning.

Christians never need to use fallacies. However, there is no way that any Secularist can prove any premise true without using axiomatic thinking fallacies. They only way to avoid axiomatic thinking fallacies is to listen to God and avoid adding to what He says. Divine revelation is the only way to avoid committing fallacies.

When Secularists use the straw man, they’re the ones using circular reasoning. They pull the unsupported assertion, “There is no God,” from their worldview. Then they reason from that axiomatic thinking fallacy. Beginning with the axiom, “There is no God,” they conclude,”God can’t possibly reveal that the Bible is His Word, since He doesn’t exist.” Also, based on the same circular reasoning, God would not be able to speak through Scripture. That’s why you can clearly state, to the Secularist, your experience with Christ. The Secularist, blinded by his or her own worldview, translates that as the Secularist straw man fallacy you see in red to the left.

Some people teach:

“The highest authority is always circular in reasoning. For example, the Bible is the word of God. How do we know? Because the Bible reveals this about itself.”

God is the Highest Authority. He isn’t circular in His reasoning, though. He does appeal to His own authority, since there is no other authority. That’s not the same as circular reasoning. It’s also not a faulty appeal to authority fallacy, since this is the only possible valid appeal to authority. If a book has authority, as the Bible does, it only has authority because God wrote it, preserved it to us, and currently speaks to us through it.

Some Christians don’t believe that God is active and working in their lives. They believe that they just have to use their own fallen minds to figure things out. They believe in the Bible, but they don’t interact with the God of the Bible. They never experience His Presence, leading, or teaching. They’re born again, but they lean on their own understanding. I pray that they do reach out and touch the Lord. That they begin to experience Him with all their spiritual senses so that they can know the difference between their own minds and the mind of Christ.

Saved To Good Works

Posted on September 9, 2015September 9, 2015 by Petros

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

“And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17

Only God can do good works. God has called us to this.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

For this reason, God does His Works through us by grace through faith.

Faith comes by hearing. He speaks. We acknowledge Him. He directs our paths. Faith comes and gives access to His grace. Grace does His Works. If we get involved, other than our responsibility to yield our members to His free gift of Righteousness, we would just frustrate the grace of God. God doesn’t need our intervention. He needs our submission, since He won’t force Himself on anyone.

Secularists are people who can’t deal with the reality of the righteousness of God. Because they love darkness rather than light, they reject God and His Righteousness. They then end up rejecting all Divine revelation. Without Divine revelation, pretending is the only other option for interpretation of Scripture, Creation, or experience. That may be a shock, especially to Secularists. It won’t be that much of a shock to any Christ-follower who has tried to reason with a Secularist.

Sound reason requires a true premise and a conclusion that follows from the premise. For a conclusion to follow from a premise, nothing can be added to or diminished from the premise on the way to the conclusion. The Secularist runs into a problem in trying to prove a premise true. Denying Divine revelation, the Secularist doesn’t have that option. The Secularist can simply declare the premise true based on his own or another human authority. This is the axiomatic thinking fallacy. That’s a fancy word for pretending and thinking that make-believe is real. The Secularist can use circular reasoning, infinite regression, personal attacks, or hundreds of other methods to make make-believe seem real.

However, the Secularist isn’t having an intellectual problem other than trying to establish human intellect as a god of some sort. The Secularist is having a righteousness problem. Salvation is to God’s Righteousness and from human sin. Secularists love darkness rather than light. Because all Righteousness must come from God, the Secularist’s human-righteousness is evil and filthy rags. Only repentance and turning to Christ can save them from their insanity.

Secularists Can’t Prove Anything

Posted on September 9, 2015September 9, 2015 by Petros

Educated Secularists have conceded this–the part about not being able to prove their beliefs. However, they are generally unable to deal rationally with the consequences. Since they are used to rationalizing everything rather than using sound logic, they just rationalize this problem away in the same way they ignore the Almighty Creator God when He reveals Himself and His Wisdom to them.

Under Secularistic thought restrictions, Divine revelation is disallowed. God must be ignored when He speaks. That leaves axiomatic thinking fallacies and smokescreen fallacies to cover up the axiomatic thinking fallacies as the only possible options for Secularist thinking to interpret observation and experience. Keep in mind that the Secularist is trying to convince himself or herself more than anyone else. Fallacies are the means. All fallacies fall into one of the two categories: axiomatic thinking or smokescreens. Axiomatic thinking is making stuff up.

Axiomatic thinking is pretending. It’s making believe.

The result of Secular thought would be humorous if it weren’t so sad. Generally, Secularists just try not to think about their irrationality. If they are forced to think about it, the pattern is something like the following:

The only way that Secularists can interpret any observation or experience is using make-believe (axiomatic thinking).

Therefore, they believe that pretending (axiomatic thinking) is the way to truth.

Alternately, they pretend that there is no truth.

In addition, they pretend that Divine revelation is also make-believe–and they must be dogmatic about this illusion. They often resort to proof by repetition fallacies, which are merely smokescreens to cover up the fact that they’re pretending.

When confronted with the fact that God is verifiable, that everyone who seeks Christ finds Christ and that knowing Christ solves their problem, the spiritual problem comes to the surface. They refuse to look at the evidence. They refuse to seek Christ.

In a recent discussion, I asked a dogmatic trolling Atheist to just test this and gave him a list of things to do, much like the detailed steps of a scientific experiment. Steps are required because Secularists who have fallen to the level of trolling are very resistant to God. If you ask them to merely ask Christ to make Himself real to them, they will play games with that. They have fallen to the point where every discussion is a mind-game. The object is to avoid God at all costs. In this case, it’s at the cost of rational thought.

The Secularist loses the distinction between reality and make-believe.

The Secularist can’t offer any method by which the follower of Christ can verify the Secularist’s make-believe world. The follower of Christ can offer a method by which the Secularist can verify the fact that Christ is real and that He reveals Himself and His truth to anyone who persistently seeks Him in sincerity and respect with a desire to submit to Christ and to leave all thought, word, and actions that aren’t the leading of Christ. This requires yielding to the Spirit of Christ so that God can progressively bring righteousness and holiness. This is generally exactly what Secularists don’t want.

Just in case a Secularist does want to look at the evidence, here are the steps by which you can know. This is an explanation of what it means to seek Jesus and find Him. If you aren’t interested, perhaps some others who visit here may find this helpful.
1. Prepare yourself. You must be sincere. You must be prepared to be persistent. Your attitude is important to this process. You must be respectful.
2. Tell Him that you’re sorry for all the things that you’ve done that have been selfish and have violated His Love: not respecting Him, not responding to Him, not respecting authority that He has set, wanting things that He didn’t give you, sexual sin of any kind, hurting others with words or actions, or any such thing you might have done.
3. Ask Him to forgive you. He will.
4. Ask Him to be your Lord and to rule over your life. Make a commitment to follow His commands.
5. Ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you moment by moment.
6. Follow your commitment.
7. Over time, the Holy Spirit will show you the truth of the Bible and the fallacies of your thinking that made you think that the Bible wasn’t accurate.
If you truly want to know the truth, you’ll do this. If not, you won’t and you’ll continue to brainwash yourself in dogmatic Secularism.

Certainty

Posted on September 7, 2015September 8, 2015 by Petros

A common misconception of the definition of “faith” is that it’s blind belief for no reason. Faith isn’t rationalized, but without it, sound reasoning is impossible. That may seem to be a bold statement, but read on to understand.

Rationalization is a mental process by which insane thinking is made to appear sane. It gives the illusion of sound reasoning when the reasoning is irrational. Rationalization works using two methods: axiomatic thinking and smokescreens.

The first method is axiomatic thinking, simply making stuff up. Assumptions are merely fabrications that were made up and then treated as if they were part of reality. Unsupported assertions are concepts that are claimed true when there’s no certainty that they’re true. Axioms are unsupported assertions that are claimed true just because they’re claimed true. Lies are claims that aren’t true. Assumptions are lies in that they pretend the assumption is known when the assumption is, in fact, not known. It’s a lie to imply that an assumption is true. All assumptions are unknown. All of these fallacies fall under the heading of axiomatic thinking fallacies. On one or both sides of every debate, you will find axiomatic thinking.

The second method of rationalization is to try to make the made-up stuff seem to be real. It’s the art of making fake things look real. There are many methods that are used to do this. Some of them are simple and others are very complex. Usually, several methods are nested together, so these methods become very confusing and deceiving. Examples would include statistical tricks, circular reasoning, infinite regression, equivocation, ad hominem thinking, and appeals to human authorities, popularity, fear, emotion, ridicule, or any other thing that gives the illusion that the made-up stuff is true. Hundreds of logical fallacies are used as smokescreens to hide axiomatic thinking fallacies.

Those are the two elements of rationalization: axiomatic thinking and smokescreens. Rationalization is making believe. Whenever we rationalize, and we all do it sometimes, we lose the ability to tell the difference between reality and make-believe for that time and situation. We lose the ability to tell the difference between substance and concept. We lose the ability to tell the difference between what exists and what is theory. Scientific theories are concepts. Some scientists become so irrational that they claim that scientific theories are facts. They do this by rationalization.

When God speaks to us about faith, He isn’t talking about rationalization. Rationalized belief is worthless.

We don’t make ourselves believe in God. That would be make-believe. We don’t believe in spite of the evidence. God has revealed that the faith is the evidence, and the word, “evidence,” in this sense, means absolute certainty and absolute proof.

Now faith is the substance (as opposed to concept) of things hoped for, the evidence (absolutely certain proof) of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Consider the nature of sound reasoning. Sound logic requires proof. The proof must prove what is claimed. The conclusion is what is claimed. The premise is the proof. The premise must be true.

How do you prove a premise true?

Do you declare it to be an axiom? That’s the axiomatic fallacy. Do you try to prove it with another premise that you can’t prove? That’s the infinite regression fallacy. Do you use circular reasoning? That’s a fallacy, and it proves nothing. There’s only one way to have a true premise.

When God reveals something, then it’s known. It’s true. God reveals things through Scripture, through Creation, and through the moving of the Holy Spirit. God reveals, but we need to acknowledge Him. He does reveal things even to those who refuse to acknowledge Him. Otherwise, all Secularists and Naturalistic Christians would die quite quickly. He supplies what they need to live so that they will have a chance to turn to Him and find Him.

Every person who is actually following Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. There are no exceptions to this. They see His Hand working in the Creation. They see His Hand working in others who are following Christ. They hear His Voice in Scripture, in Creation, in their innermost awareness of His Presence, and in any other person who’s speaking by the Holy Spirit. They are learning to hear Him more clearly and to discern between His Voice and every other Voice. As they walk in His Presence and see His glory, they are being changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. They are dying to the flesh and being formed into the new Man. Christ is living in them and becoming stronger and more fully formed. The flesh is losing its hold on them, and the deceptive carnal mind is losing its grip. God has provided an arsenal of weapons for Christ’s followers to make it possible for everyone who is willing to eventually come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What a day that will be!

Secularists and Naturalists, on the other hand, have no way to know the difference between what they make up and what God reveals. Within their worldview, they refuse to acknowledge God as He reveals Himself and His truth to them. They take some of the practical knowledge that God gives them, but they claim that it’s conceptual, just like all the things they make up. They reject much of the truth that God gives. Eventually, God turns them over to their own reprobate minds. Their own reprobate minds destroy them. They can’t tell the difference between reality and make-believe. The axiomatic thinking of the Secularist or Naturalist can’t be proven. Axiomatic thinking is the means by which the Secularist or Naturalist interprets his or her observations or experiences (experiments). No Secularist or Naturalist can have certainty that his or her assumptions, unsupported assertions, or axioms are true. However, any Secularist or Naturalist can confirm God. Any one of them can seek God in sincerity and respect and come to know Him through Jesus Christ. All such people need do is confess that they haven’t properly respected God, obeyed Him, or acknowledged Him, and ask Jesus Christ to forgive them and reveal His will and His Person, while willingly submitting themselves to the leadership and rule of Christ. You can see the contrast, can’t you? One can be confirmed. All who seek Him find Him. The other can never be confirmed.

Unfortunately, if we, as Christians lean on our own minds to understand rather than acknowledging the presence and leading of God, we can’t tell the difference between reality and make-believe either. We would no longer be walking by faith but we would be walking by human opinion and interpretation of observation, experience, and philosophy. This happens.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Some theologians have assumed that “the word of God” is the same as “the Bible.” However, that isn’t what’s written. If we go into the original language, we find no “the.” We find the Greek word, “rhema,” which means “Utterance.” So, this verse literally says that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by Utterance of God. God speaks through the Bible. Through the Bible, God says that He also speaks many other ways, and all those ways will be consistent with what He is saying through the Bible.

Interpreting Scripture using assumptions is no better than interpreting Creation using assumptions. When scientists lean on human understanding rather than God, they interpret their observations and experiences (experiments) through the filter of their various worldviews. Often, a groupthink worldview is applied among an entire group of scientists. When this happens, the Holy Spirit won’t force Himself on them. They make up all kinds of stories that later must be changed. The same thing happens among theologians. A great leader and popular theologian can cause problems for generations that follow their speculations.

However, in Christ, we have a sure Leader. We have One Whom we can trust. If we all keep seeking Him and His righteousness, we will be found faithful. He will restore the order of the Body of Christ. He will restore the authority and the power. He will restore the Scriptural offices, ministries, and gifts. Despise not the day of small beginnings. God is now working throughout the Earth.

God speaks. He leads. He teaches. We acknowledge and faith comes. We don’t make-believe that God exists. We hear His Voice. We respond with respect and submission. Faith give us access to grace. Grace does God’s Works through us. We can actually become His Hand extended, reaching out to the oppressed.

Ever Higher In Christ Jesus

Posted on September 6, 2015September 6, 2015 by Petros

EverHigher3

There’s a difference between presupposition and what is empirical. The word, “empirical,” means “by experience.” You see, every person who follows Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. That’s my experience, too. We all experience His Divine revelation as it’s imparted. However, without Christ and His revelation, no one can ever truly know the difference between reality and make-believe. It’s not that God doesn’t reveal truth to them. He does or they would quickly die. But the Münchausen trilemma makes them process all thoughts by lumping revelation with presupposition, simply because they refuse to acknowledge God or to be thankful to Him. For this reason, the contrast in thinking is between made-up stuff and Divine revelation. People can, of course, deny Divine revelation. That is a universal negative fallacy based on nothing but an unsupported assertion. You can see the problem with Secularist thinking, can’t you?

Now, God speaks through Scripture and every method mentioned in Scripture. Satan and the human mind work together with counterfeits of everything real that God uses to bring us to His good purpose. How can we avoid being deceived. Here’s the way. Know Him. Whoever seeks Him finds Him. The Father knows how to give good gifts to His children. If you’re looking for a spiritual experience, that’s what you’ll get. However, if you are looking for Christ and His righteousness, then you’ll be satisfied. You’ll receive the Spirit of Christ from the Father.

Most, if not all, of us end up on both sides of this equation. We are impure. We don’t fully desire God’s will. We all have a fleshly nature. The flesh desires comfort, money, power, ecclesiastical success, recognition, respect, honor, prestige, glory, pleasure, independence, and many other things rather than desiring God’s will. The Christ nature, Christ in us, the hope of glory, desires God’s will. Each of us must turn our will toward Christ rather than toward our fleshly nature and our carnal mind. Then, we will be able to seek first the Kingdom of God. That will assure that our hearts will be prepared to hear God’s Voice and to respond in submission.

To be sure, this isn’t an instant fix. God describes it as an experience that goes from glory to glory. As we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. There is a veil that is naturally in front of our faces. That veil is the fleshly nature. We must deny it and look into the glass, that mirror, and see the glory of the Lord. Then, we are changed into the same image. He shows us who we are in Him. We see how we fit into the Body of Christ. We see what He is leading us in right at the moment. We’re learning to see better as the flesh dies away. The flesh dies away in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The flesh dies away as we yield the members of our Body to His free gift of righteousness. The very thing that kills the flesh is also building up the Christ and making us alive to Christ. In this way, we make progress moment by moment as we are led by the Holy Spirit and as we yield ourselves to Him in willing submission.

As we become familiar with Christ, we begin to notice differences between self-confidence and the certainty that we call “faith.” We immediately notice the difference between God’s Voice and the demonic voices, but we also begin to discern between human voices and the Divine. We hear the Holy Spirit bringing Scripture to our remembrance to refute the lies of our own minds or the minds of others. We also begin to recognize the difference between the Peace that Jesus gives and the peace that the world, the human mind, the human flesh, or the deceiver gives. ?This is how discernment is imparted and how we are changed.

Real Reality

Category Archives: Divine Revelation