I am persuaded that seeking
spiritual advice from the world or embracing the world’s interpretation of the
Bible is going into theological absurdity as a believer. Doesn’t it make sense
that anyone who claims to be of Christ would question and reject the ideologies
and philosophies of the world system under Satanic control (1 Jn 5:19)? I mean;
the very title of Satan means adversary! Lucifer and his foolish band of fallen
angels that followed him in opposing everything related to God (including the
unfallen angels), His Word, and His people (cf. Jn 15:18, 19, 20; 1Jn 3:13; 2
Tim 3:12)?
This world system’s values are
advanced by the spirit of antichrist articulating, the “Did God actually say?” point
of view (Gn 3:1, ESV). If the world has been good to you financially, or you
benefited from it in some way, you may be inclined to dismiss me as just another
opinion. I want to go beyond the impression of an opinion to a solid,
non-debatable biblical fact on why it is theological nonsense, not to mention
sinful, for any believer to receive spiritual counsel from the world of the
lost or embrace its interpretation of the Word of God that conflicts with the
truth of Scripture.
The world is not going to tell
you that your lifestyle choices are colliding with the truth of Scripture;
quite the opposite, those of the world will promote it through empathy and
encouragement. I cannot emphasize enough that the unadulterated truth of God
only comes from the Holy Spirit of God, never from the world; The world is
absolutely incapable of imparting to us the pure truth of Scripture. This
glaring incapacity is the very reason it is absurd to listen to the world
concerning the Bible! Believers are listening to those who are incapable of
sharing the wisdom of God that is only available to those who have experienced
the Lord’s salvation and their eyes were opened to His truth.
The theological differences
between the believer and the world are significant. We saw in part 2 a sampling
of anything but Christlikeness among the world of the lost; this was what we
were a part of before salvation. We were once enemies of God
(Col 1:21). It is as dramatic a demarcation as with eternal vs temporal, light
vs darkness, vision vs blindness, righteousness vs wickedness, innocent vs
guilty, life vs death, a son of God vs an enemy of God, and so forth. In short,
when Christ came into our life at regeneration or the new birth, we became a
new creation (2 Cor 5:17)! Everything changed, particularly how we see the
world!
Now, there will be clever people
who will argue and nitpick that the world can know the truths of God just like
Christians, really? Keep in mind one thing; the blind see nothing, and if the
blind leads the blind, well, they both wind up in a ditch, right (Mt 15:14)?
But this has reference to lost spiritual leaders leading lost people. The ditch
is not a happy place. How about, if the blind (the lost) leads the ignorant
(believers in this case); the lost are still ditch-prone, and the ignorant fall
into spiritual error and out of fellowship with God.
It is absolutely amazing that
both the unbelievers and believers will have an existential experience where
personal truth emerges. When you hear their story, it conflicts with the truth
of Scripture. For both of them, it becomes personal truth, and they cling to it
as something sacred, “I know what I experienced,” even if such “truth”
contradicted the Scriptures for the saved. The lost would be clueless in that
regard.
Oh, if only believers would grab
hold of the principle that we evaluate the spiritual validity of any experience
through the Word, not the other way around. It is not prudent for us to seek to
understand and interpret Scripture by our experiences; it will invariably lead
to spiritual error. God will not be pleased, and Satan will only encourage
those who do this to continue shaping the truth to fit their experiences.
For example, a couple is living
together out of wedlock, fornicating, attending church, and praising God for
His blessings! “Prosperity” is not a sure sign of blessing. Recall the widow
who had only two pennies to her name, and she gave out of her poverty all that
she had (those two pennies) to the Lord (Lk 21:1-4)? Moving on,
(1Cor 2:9) But as it is
written: “EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF
MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED [emphasis mine] FOR
THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
We made mention of this verse in
part 2 that the revelation of God (thoughts of God, 1 Cor 2:9) is unknowable to
man (cf. Isa 55:9; Rom 11:33), for it would require for us to know the mind of
God (cf. 1 Cor 2:11). These thoughts of the eternal, infinite, and omniscient
God are absolutely out of reach of man’s imagination, undetectable, unknowable,
and unsearchable.
The expression found in 1 Cor
2:9, “the things which God has prepared [emphasis mine] for
those who love Him” is not talking about the wonders of heaven. The verb
“prepared” here in this verse is the same verb used in Jn 14:3 (Gk, hetoimazo),
“and if I go and prepare [emphasis mine] a place for you.”
Jesus was referring to a literal place in heaven. Paul was referring to “the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for your
glory” (1 Cor 2:7). God makes His wisdom known through revelation (1 Cor
2:9-11), inspiration (1 Cor 2:12-13), and illumination (1 Cor 2:14-16).
Briefly, this revelation, or
thoughts of God, take two forms: general (visual, through creation, Rom
1:18-32) and specific (written, Scripture through inspiration, 2 Tim 3:16).
God’s creation or general revelation is still declaring the glory of God (Psa
19:1-6) and communicating to all of the inhabitants of earth His eternal power
and divine nature (Rom 1:20)!
Keep in mind the Bible never
argues for God’s existence. It is the great obvious based upon His creation!
What is revealed in the creation about God according to the Apostle Paul under
inspiration is God’s “eternal power” (Rom 1:20) based on causality (a Cause
behind the effect, the eternal existence of God), but also, that there is a
Person behind that power, not merely an impersonal power (not an explosion but
Elohim) as revealed by His “divine nature” in creation (Rom 1:20, NAS). The
very thrust of our basic cosmological argument is that the universe demands the
admission of an adequate external cause which is God. Design demands a Designer;
creation demands a Creator, right?
God’s revelation of Himself in
creation is an undeniable witness of His Deity, existence, power, and
character. Obviously, there are some attributes general revelation does not
declare, e.g., God’s love, but we can detect that God’s character is faithful
unlike man (Gn 8:21-22) and that He is kind and gracious (Acts 14:17). There
are people from all over the world that are receiving the constant communication without words from the starry heavens declaring the splendor of God’s handiwork (Psa 19:1-3). Some are
hearing and inquiring further into intelligent design behind the expanse of the
heavens, but many are rejecting this idea of general revelation for something
more to man’s liking.
The general revelation and
written revelation of God create a global accountability of all peoples
of the earth to the Creator whether or not they have been
exposed to the Gospel through special or written revelation; light rejected is
light denied. Paul concluded, “so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20), and
Paul proceeds to tell us why under inspiration (Rom 1:21-32).
On a personal note, I do believe
that if anyone earnestly seeks to know the truth (Jer 29:13), God will send
someone to share the Gospel with that person (cf. Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8:26-29;
Cornelius, Acts 10, and Acts 17:27). This is how important the Great Commission
is to the cause of Christ to reach the inquiries of the truth of God from
general (creation) and specific (the Bible) revelation (Mt 28:19-20; 2 Pet
3:9).
Let’s head back to 1 Cor
2 in part 4 and get closer to understanding the real reason for the absurdity of
listening to the world on the wisdom of God. It is not only crystal clear; it
reveals folly for those believers who are guilty of nonsense!
<><
THOT: There is no value in listening
to what the world has to say about the wisdom of God.
Tender Moment: Are you seeing
the world as God does or through the eyes of the world? God wants us to see
Him through the frames of His Word, with eyes that are enlightened by His
Spirit. <><
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| To Part 4 |
