Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou
hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that
thou shalt be no
priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of they
God, I will
also forget thy children.
In the latter years of the 8th Century B.C., the prophet
Hosea was sounding warnings to a growingly decadent
Israel. Materially
wealthy but spiritually bankrupt, its government had
grown corrupt, its
legal system favored the rich, and its worship had
become infested with
idolatry.
Fast forward to the United States of America of the 21st
Century
A.D. Our country is, though still incredibly wealthy
compared to most of
the rest of the world, now showing ominous signs that
the greatness we
once had is fading with incredible swiftness. We are
seeing our legal
system all too often ignoring the truth for
technicalities or favoring
the party that can afford to employ the slickest
lawyers. We are
watching our government increasingly arrogate to itself
power in blithe
disregard to the Constitution at the expense of those it
is supposed to
represent.
But it doesn't end there. In our nominally Christian
nation,
we're seeing most of the major denominations of the
church producing
members so Scripturally illiterate that they can't even
recognize the
serious and fundamental errors being promoted by both
their lay and
clerical leadership. Now to be sure, there are still
churches and
ministries left that are instilling in their members not
only the truth
but the spiritual fire necessary for them to get out
there to make a
stand, but I fear these are becoming the exceptions
rather than the
rule.
Of course, heresy isn't a new thing to the church, but
rather
one of Satan's standard old tricks. It was happening
back in the Apostle
Paul's time almost 2000 years ago:
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 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. For if he that
cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye
receive another
spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel,
which ye have not
accepted, ye might well bear with him
In other words, people will more readily accept a false
doctrine
produced by another human being that the truth from the
Holy Spirit as
revealed in the Bible. Paul furthermore revealed to his
young protege'
Timothy that this is a situation that would get worse
with time:
2 Timothy 4:2-4 Preach the word; be instant in season,
out of
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. For
the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching
ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be
turned unto fables.
I'd be willing to bet that most church-goers haven't
heard
this, nor the first passage read aloud or preached upon
very often
during their weekly Sunday services. There's an old
cliche" "Ignorance
is bliss."
Well, if we believe Hosea, ignorance in regard to
biblical truth can
be lethal to one's immortal soul. Consider, too, that
when a Christian
fails to take it upon him or herself to become
biblically literate, they
can not carry out the "teaching" part of Jesus' Great
Commission: [Note
- All bracketed sections which follow are added.]
Matthew 28:19-20 [Jesus said] Go ye therefore, and teach
all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have
commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway[s], even unto
the end of the
world. Amen
You'll notice t his mandate is twofold: First we're
supposed
to go "into all the world, and teach all nations." Next,
we're supposed
to "baptize them." Now it is true that Christians have
different views
of baptism. Some say it refers to water baptism and
others to the
baptism or indwelling of the Holy Spirit . . . or both.
Even the process
of being indwelt or baptized by the Spirit are
considered two different
things by some. There are also disagreements over the
exact manner in
which the baptism is to be performed, by whom,and the
age at which it
should be done. Nevertheless, I believe it to be
important that every
Christian baptized since this is part of the Great
Commission, yet we
should remember that our salvation is by grace, not
works (other than
believing in the one whom God has sent - John 3:16-18;
John 6:28-29, as
we will presently see).
Despite these differences, I think we can all agree that
without the "teaching" there certainly will be no
"baptizing." Nor can
there be imparted the knowledge that we are a fallen
race in need of
salvation and that there is only one way to attain it.
How, then, can we
get this vitally important message of our faith out?
Let's remember up front that when Jesus walked amongst
us,
he never forced people to believe in him. As the Son of
God, this
certainly was within his power. In fact, I'm sure God
could just have
easily "hardwired" Adam and Eve right from the beginning
to prevent them
from rebelling. But unless they could genuinely make
their own choices
to freely follow God's Rules, it would have meant
nothing. Any parent
who would brainwash his or her own child into blind
obedience would be a
pretty loathsome character. So, the thing to keep in
mind is that all we
can do is to present our case whenever the opportunity
arises and let
the person make up his or her own mind. Below are some
suggestions as to
how one might proceed.
DEMONSTRATE THE EVIDENCE THAT GOD IS REAL.
I've always been perplexed by the way bright or even
brilliant people
can accept that a series of random acts occurring over a
long enough
period of time could create the order we see in the
cosmos. Most amazing
to me is the premise that "chance" could not only create
life from
lifelessness, but also complex life which is self-aware
(that's us!). To
me, that requires a leap of faith that far exceeds the
belief that all
of this is by the hand of an intelligent and creative
mind (that would
be God.). Let's just take a very brief look at what's
involved to do it.
We'll need energy and matter in our universe to build at
least one
star and planet (though we already know that there are
uncountable
numbers of stars and planets circling many of them) on
which something
as improbable as life and thinking beings can come to
be. Our own solar
system contains eight planets (remember, Pluto has been
demoted to
"dwarf planet" status), along with lots of moons,
asteroids, and comets.
All are pretty unpleasant places as far as human beings
are concerned.
Yes, there is the possibility that some form of life
might be swimming
around in an ocean under the ice of Jupiter's moon
Europa or Saturn's
moon Enceladus. Something might even be living in an
aquifer under the
desert sands of Mars, but so far these are theories
only.
Yet even if we do discover that life does or had once
existed
off-Earth, this brings forth the next quandary. Wouldn't
the same
"random events" that some assert produced intelligent
life on Earth have
done so somewhere else as well? Yet despite the fact
that we have looked
ever deeper into space with our instruments for decades,
we have yet to
pick up one hint, one provable sign of intelligent life
out there. For
all the UFO sightings across the world past and present,
I have yet to
see anyone trot out some unknown alloy not capable of
being manufactured
here on Earth or a piece of advanced electronics from
some alien
spaceship. And if it does happen someday, there's a good
chance it might
be a deception nevertheless - more likely from the realm
of the
supernatural rather than extraterrestrial by the prince
of deception,
Satan himself.
It seems to me that if Richard Nixon couldn't keep a lid
on
Watergate in the 1970's , what do you think the chances
are of keeping a
stupendous story of a genuine alien starship from the
press today? No,
the truth is that as far as we know in this incredibly
huge universe of
billions of galaxies each containing hundreds of
billions of stars, it
looks like we are the only ones who have been given the
gift of
sentience.
As I've already said, it requires a much bigger leap of
faith for me to believe that we came to be by some
"accident" rather
than to believe that "Someone" was actively involved in
the process
Bringing this argument "down to Earth," if you will, ask
yourself when you ever saw a brand-new automobile that
didn't ultimately
come from some car factory. Or life come about just by
throwing all its
constituent elements into a pot and stirring "until
done." It requires
an intelligent mind to figure out how to do both, the
later inifinitely
more complex than the former.
If then, we can bring a person to the point of belief
with
arguments such as these which show that the likelihood
is much greater
for God to exist rather than not, then the next step is
to show them the
best place to learn about this God.
DETERMINING A RELIABLE SOURCE
So, out of all the "holy writings" which exist in the
world today,
how can we determine which, if any, is the best?
Well, first consider the premise that none of them are
reliable.
That's certainly a possibility. If this is so, then all
of them lack
divine inspiration and are merely products of human
imagination.
For our second possibility, let's suppose that God was
involved in revealing the truth in some religious text.
Now we must
consider, which is correct. Can they all be? Well, since
they often make
"truth claims" which contradict each other, this is not
possible.
For example, only the Bible's New Testament uniquely
says Jesus was
the Son of God, indeed, was God in the flesh, though
there are prophetic
sections of the Old Testament which point to this, as we
will soon see.Defending the Faith Other texts either do not directly deal with this claim
or else they
deny it outright. Something certainly can't be "true"
and "not true" at
the same time.
We are left with a last possibility - that only ONE of
them
is a true revelation of God.
For me, there is one solid test that suggests that the
Bible is in
fact that one is in its ability to accurately and
unfailingly foretell
things to come. Let me give you a few examples First,
I'll list the
event, its related Old Testament prophecy, and the New
Testament
confirmation.
Concerning Jesus Christ:
The unsual nature of Jesus' birth - Isaiah 7:14; Luke
1:30-35 The name
of the town in which he was born - Micah 5:2; Luke
2:1-7. His
lineage from King David - Isaiah 11:1-2, 10; Revelation
22:16.
Details of his death - Psalm 22:16-18; John 19:17-24.
His resurrection - Psalm 16:10; Matthew 28:1-10.
Concerning Israel:
Displaced from its land (something that happened more
than once) - 2
Chronicles 7-19-20'; Luke 21:20-24 [Luke's account most
likely described
what occurred in 70 A.D. with the destruction of
Jerusalem by Titus'
Roman legion. Matthew 24:15-22 and Mark 13: 14-20
include the
"abomination of desolation" being set up in the "holy
place" - most
likely in a rebuilt temple - in their accounts. This did
not happen in
70 A.D. but is future even to our time.]
Concerning Israel's final restoration:
Ezekiel 38:8 and Amos 9:11-15 [in May 1948 against all
odds, Israel
became a nation again in its ancestral lands. The
complete fulfillment
of this prophecy (Romans 11:25-32 and Hebrews 8:10) is
yet to come.]
I think it is safe to say that for this kind of accuracy
to
be accomplished by "guesswork" simply defies reason.
Furthermore, since
the Bible is actually composed of many books written
over centuries, how
can one explain its remarkable consistency if it is only
the product of
human efforts? I believe with these facts, we can
demonstrate to someone
who is outright dismissive or just merely unsure about
the Bible's
reliability that the evidence far better favors the
premise that God,
who is beyond human limits of time and space, was
directly involved in
inspiring the Bible's contents and bringing it to us
accurately across
the ages.
REVEALING GOD'S PLAN FOR US
Our next step, having established the strong likelhood
that the
Bible is a reliable source, should be to acquaint
someone with what it
says about God's desire for humanity and that is that he
wants us to be
saved and to be in fellowship with him:
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men
count slackness; but longsuffering toward us-ward, not
willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
How, then, is this salvation accomplished?
John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only-begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the
world; but that the world through him might be saved. He
that believeth
on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is
condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of
God.
Note from above that this is the ONLY WAY to be saved,
as the
following two passages confirm:
John 14:5-6 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not
whiter thou goest;
and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way, the
truth and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by
me.
Acts 4:12 [Peter said to the rulers and elders of
Israel] Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other
name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved.
What about works? Can a person "earn" his or her way
into haven?
Actually, there's only one "work" God recognizes:
John 6:28 Then said they [the people] unto him, What
shall we do, that
we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said
unto them, this
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent.
Paul confirms that salvation is a matter of God's grace
alone:
Ephesians 2-8-9 For by grace ye are saved through faith,
and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest
any man boast.
THE CHOICE IS UP TO EACH OF US!
Look at Revelation 20:11 - 21:3. Here we have a vivid
and
compelling description of the two paths that one can
choose. Clearly, it
is entirely up to each of us to decide for ourselves
upon which one we
will walk and the destination at which we will
ultimately arrive -
either at the New Jerusalem or in the Lake of Fire.
It's just that simple!
A FINAL WORD . . . .
No single commentary can possibly cover the entirety of
the manner
in which one can defend the faith. There is only one
collection of
writings which does so, and that's the library of the
sixty-six books
which comprise the Bible. In my opinion, there is no
other more
important thing for a person who has accepted Jesus as
Lord and Savior
to be doing than studying God's Word daily and getting
that message out
to the world. I can promise you it will not be easy, but
as you go
forth, remember that the Holy Spirit will be with you
(Luke 12:11-12;
John 14:26). The witness you bear may very well make all
the difference
as to where another soul will spend all of eternity.