To Provoke: stimulate or incite (someone) to do or feel something, especially by arousing anger in them (Oxford)

To summarize in nutshell my previous post: truth exists. What follows from that my provoke some people, but provocation must happen. We can only be in deep joy to the degree that we are in truth, so truth is worth anything, even driving some people to confront untruth. Is that surprising? If truth exists, so does what's false. People can be wrong about things. To purposely remain in untruth is a living hell that only ends in a literal and eternal hell.

Why am I doing this? It's a combination of things that are culminating at the moment in my life:

1. I went through at least a decade season of experiencing the breadth and endless creativity that is possible within the confines of genuine Christianity. This experience allowed me to let my guard down and be very open-minded to many perspectives, some good and some bad. I still maintain the endless breadth and creativity of God in his character. There are many types of Christians and God will surprise us until the end of time with how he marks people we'd never expect and uses them for awesome purposes. However, some things have changed since that season of my life too.

2. People that I never imagined could ever consider leaving that same God have since abandoned either the faith completely, or foundational truths of the faith.

3. I have listened to like-minded people in the past year who are alarmed by such apostasy the same way that I am, such as the Alisa Childers podcast, or the Remnant Radio podcast, or the Cooper Stuff podcast (all of which I highly recommend) and have provoked me to speak up the same way that they are that we cannot silent about foundational and forgotten truths that these people are abandoning.

With all that said, let me assert some truths:

1. I'm realizing the paradox that the endless creativity of God abounds in people who actually adhere to him. When truth is forgotten and then rejected, we leave the true God for a false god - whether it is the false god of self, the Universal Christ (Richard Rohr), one of many Hindu gods, or Allah. There is only one true God and he is Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

2. Just because someone believes in God, or Jesus, does not make them Christian. Just because someone claims to be a Christian does not make them one. "Christian" has a definition.

3. Truth is exclusive because it excludes all that is false. If he adhere to truth, then we will live with God in heaven forever. If we do not, then we have chosen hell for eternity. I believe that anyone who genuinely wants truth will find Him (Jesus). And ALL truth reasonably and comprehensively coheres with who Jesus is...scientific, historic, anthropologic, mathematic, etc. No friend of honest truth needs to fear. Jesus is the origin of all truth.

4. There is so much more to talk about and we cannot go into all of it today. If you count yourself as a Christian, whether complacently or passionately, you need to study history. You need to study the orthodox Christianity (not the Eastern Orthodox denomination, but the clear and shared dogma of all sects of Christianity throughout its 2000 years of history, see Thomas Oden Classic Christianity). You need to study why we believe what we believe. I recommend the above podcasts, as well as the following books: Total Truth Nancy Pearcey, Evidence that Demands a Verdict Josh McDowell, any of Lee Strobel's The Case for... books, and I don't have enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler. Lovers of truth, be discerning. Don't easily succumb to compromises on the convictions of Christian faith. Remember where you came from and where you're going. Jesus is not lying to you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Foundation of Investing

Investment of my finances is something I've been interested in for about 4 years and am only now in a position to start looking into. As a result, I've been thinking and praying for a foundational philosophy to govern my investing, which in essence means I want the guidance of God in all my investing. Here is what I've arrived at so far: God is one day going to shake every man-made system on earth and nothing man-made will last through it. Only the eternal will last. And we can only produce anything eternal through our heart-level faith in the eternal (namely, God Himself). In the long run, a billion American dollars may not mean a hill of beans. In the long-run, right before God finally establishes His kingdom on earth, all transaction in life, including financial transaction will be based on allegiance, either to the antichrist world ruler coming on the scene or to Jesus, the Anointed One of God. The antichrist system will utilize a universal currency that will rest
Read more

Contending Prayer

Jacob and Contending Prayer *Genesis 32:24-32 a. Significance of new name, "Israel", meaning "God strives" or "he who strives with God." 1) Theological implications: Jacob had striven with God and men and prevailed a) I don't believe that Jacob strove against God, but rather WITH God. b) In the name is a picture of prayer which the NT will make clearer. c) Jacob was striving along along with God for what God was "striving" for. d) Why does God have to strive? -picture of God's desired cooperative relationship with man -God desired to give Jacob blessing or else wouldn't have -God doesn't force anything upon man-man must choose to receive all that God offers -God striving against Jacob's sinful nature so that He could give blessing -Jacob striving with God against himself-his own fears and
Read more

Word on the Journey 2.1

Beloved in Jesus, I am beginning a new series of updates because of an ever-developing chapter that has begun. Welcome to Word on the Journey Volume 2, Number 1. I am no longer living on the streets, but living in a transition phase which has been happening over the past month or so. While I enjoyed the fruit of the experience on the streets and certainly see the purpose of it, I'm so relieved that the Lord has led me on. Living homeless is not fun. It was necessary for the time being for me to live by faith and release myself to God in life. You could almost call it a rite of passage from childhood and a life of reliance upon my parents, to adulthood and a life led by faith and not sight, by the words of God and not my own rationale. I have set the course for the rest of my life and thinking by taking this first step. No matter what the circumstances look like and no matter what any person thinks, I live according to what faith tells me and not according to anything else.
Read more