WE SEE WITH DIFFERENT EYES

Two people can have entirely different reactions to the exact same evidence. On February 14, 1990 the Voyager spacecraft finished its historic mission to the four largest planets in our solar system.  NASA decided to turn its cameras around for a final photograph of Earth. It appeared as a small white dot. Astronomer Carl Sagan described it like this:

·       "Consider that dot.  That’s here.  That’s home.  That’s us.  Our imagined self-importance – the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe – is challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark."

Because the dot of our planet Earth is so small compared to the rest of the universe, Sagan concluded that we are deluded to think “that we have some privileged position in the universe.”

However, in view of this spacial insignificance of earth, others have concluded, “How special we must be that God created this entire universe for us.” One scientist had observed that “If the universe contained a few ounces more or less matter, it would not be able to support life.”

One set of views argues against design, the other for design.

TWISTING SCRIPTURE TO CONFORM TO OUR OWN PHILOSOPHY

Understanding Scripture can be challenging. This challenge gives opportunity to various churches and cults to twist Scripture to conform to their own philosophy of life, each claiming that they alone have the ultimate interpretive key. According to H. Wayne House, A Course in Miracles makes this claim:

·       Many people regard the doctrines presented in [the two volumes of] A Course in Miracles as Christian. The Course often speaks of Jesus Christ, God, the atonement, sin, and other concepts reminiscent of Christianity. When closely examined, however, it becomes apparent that the meanings given to the Christian terminology reflect beliefs consistent with the New Age movement. (“Charts of Cults, Sects, & Religious Movements,” 91)

Consequently, to properly understand Scripture, it must be seen through the lens of the New Age movement. The Way International also has their own lens by which to understand Scripture. The founder, Victor Paul Wierwille, taught that only certain Books were authoritative for the Church. Not even the Gospels were able to make his cut:

·       So are the Gospels addressed to us? Not if the Word of God is right, for Romans says that all Scripture before Pentecost is for our learning, and the Gospels obviously come before the founding day of the Church…The New Testament actually begins with the book of Romans…Hebrews is not addressed to the Church…James is addressed to the same Old Testament minded believers. (“Power for Abundant Living,” 207-13)

Therefore, in order to properly interpret the Scriptures, they must be understood through the lens of particular Epistles selected by Wierwille.

Similarly, in The Divine Principle, Sun Myung Moon had written that he too had been given the key to understand the Scriptures:

·       “The Bible is not the truth itself but a textbook teaching us the truth.” [What is needed] “is a new truth that can elucidate the fundamental contents of the Bible so clearly that everyone can recognize and agree with it.” “This new truth has already appeared. With the fullness of time, God sent His messenger to resolve the fundamental questions of life and the universe. His name is Sun Myung Moon. For many decades, he wandered in a vast spiritual world in search of the ultimate truth…He came in contact with many saints in Paradise and with Jesus, and thus brought into light all the heavenly secrets through his communication with God.” (James Sire, “Scripture Twisting,” 117)

Moon alone has the secrets to unlock the truths of Scripture. In contrast, Paul refused to twist the Scriptures:

·       Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:1-2)

The Biologos Foundation, a Christian group funded to evangelize the churches in favor of Darwin, has twisted the plain sense of the Word. In order to remove any contradiction between the Bible and the theory of evolution, Biologos has taken the position that Genesis 1-11 should not be taken as history but, instead, as mere theology. To support their claim, they denigrate the teachings of the Bible about the physical world as errantly influenced by the “science” of their day, the Ancient Near-Eastern cosmology.

In this manner, Biologos and other groups have violated the numerous Scriptural injunctions to not tamper with the Scriptures by imposing upon it a foreign set of interpretive rules:

·       You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Rev. 22:18-19)

This same stance is taken by many rabbis, according to Orthodox Jewish writer David Klinghoffer:

·       Scripture is cryptic…The Pentateuch contained innumerable textual difficulties…The Rabbis taught that what looked like editing glitches in almost every verse were really allusions to esoteric teachings.  (David Klinghoffer, “Why the Jews Rejected Jesus,” 24)

How then do the rabbis interpret Scripture? They have their own key – Gematria, taking the numerical value of each letter and deriving meaning from the patterning of these numbers.

All of these attempts to apply their own key to the interpretation of Scripture assume that the correct interpretation is inaccessible to the ordinary reader, but is it? Not according to Moses:

·          "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” (Deut. 30:11-14)

Consequently, Israel had no excuse for their disobedience. They couldn’t complain that they were unable to understand God’s Word; nor did they ever use this excuse.

Also, Paul insisted that Scripture, even his own writings, were accessible:

·       For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand—just as you did partially understand us… (2 Corinthians 1:13-14)

Even if the Church didn’t fully understand Paul, he seemed to assure them that understanding was available, even if it might take some time.

Peter also acknowledged that some of the Scripture Paul had written might be difficult to understand (at first):

·       And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:15-16)

It was not the uneducated believer who had twisted Paul’s writings “to their own destruction,” but the “ignorant and unstable.” On the whole, Paul’s writings were accessible at the moment. However, some of his other teachings would require more time and maturity.

By this, Peter also suggested that his own writings were easier to interpret. He never hinted that his own writings could be easily twisted, perhaps because they were plainer.

Is there a secret key that we need to unlock the meaning of Scripture? Some might recall that Jesus even used the word “key”:

·       “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)

According to Jesus, the knowledge of Scripture itself is the key, not a secret esoteric knowledge. It was a knowledge that those who knew the Scriptures already had. However, they had  self-righteously perverted  it.

In a parallel verse, Jesus charged that it was the pride of the Pharisees that had caused them to obscure the true meaning or key to the Scriptures:

·       “Whoever exalts himself [like the Pharisees had done] will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” (Matthew 23:12-13)

The problem wasn’t with the Scriptures. Instead, their arrogance had blinded them to what Scripture actually taught. They had convinced themselves that they deserved the blessings of God (Romans 3:19-20; 9:30-32). Consequently, they blinded everyone else into believing that they could merit their own righteousness through their obedience to the Law.

What then is the key to understanding Scripture? Simply this – the Spirit working through an open and prayerful heart and mind!

PIOUS HERESIES CAN KILL

Some destructive heresies look incredibly benign, even pious! Paul identified two as doctrines “taught by demons,” causing some to “abandon the faith”:

·       The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

These teachings merely “forbid people to marry” and “to abstain from certain foods.” What can be so wrong with them? Isn’t self-denial a godly thing? Paul even advised against marriage:

·       Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. (1 Corinthians 7:1)

Is this a contradiction? On the one hand, Paul says it’s good to not marry, but then he identifies this same teaching as a doctrine “taught by demons!”

However, this paradox can be resolved. While Paul taught that it is prudent to not marry in favor of devotion to the Lord, it is evident that abstaining from marriage was to serve as a means of self-righteousness, not God-righteousness.

A similar paradox will help to clear this up. Paul forbade circumcision:

·       If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

However, Paul had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3). Wouldn’t this have caused Timothy to “fall away from grace?” No! The physical act of circumcision wasn’t the problem, but instead, the hope of “trying to be justified by law” by first getting circumcised to become a Jew and a law-keeper, thereby rejecting the sufficiency of the Cross.

Likewise, marriage or abstention-from-marriage is not the problem but the abstention-from-marriage in hope of earning righteousness. In both cases, the physical act was not the problem but the belief/faith that this act would make us righteous and deserving of God’s approval.

This is why the doctrines of demons are so destructive. These offer an alternative to Christ, an alternate route to salvation. Instead, our Savior wants us to understand that His gift of salvation is entirely free. It is a gift He has given us in love by the great price of His suffering. This gift must not be compromised by any notion that we have earned or sacrificed for it.

If we are given a great work of art and then boast that we had painted it, we wrongly take credit. If we boast that we are righteous because we have abstained from certain foods and from marriage, we have become self-righteous and wrongly take credit for the gift that can only come from our Lord.

In both cases, we know better! We know that we didn’t design the artwork, and we know that we lack righteousness. If we merely cease to suppress our conscience, we will hear it say, “You are a sinner who needs a Savior. Your efforts to earn your own righteousness are like covering a corpse with doilies.” 

WILL ALL BELIEVERS BEAR VISIBLE FRUIT?

One sister asked: “Is it possible to have true faith in God without a lifestyle that shows it?” This question doesn’t ask if we are saved by our lifestyle or good deeds? It is merely asking whether true faith or a new life in Christ will be accompanied by the fruit of obedience and an obedience lifestyle? Jesus addressed this very question:

·       “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-20 ESV)

According to Jesus, a true prophet or teacher will produce the appropriate fruits, as an apple tree which produces apples. (Notice also that the fruit don’t produce the apple tree, but the apple tree produces the fruit. Likewise, fruit doesn’t produce salvation but salvation produces the fruit. I merely mention this to point out that we are not asking about the cause of salvation but whether every saved person will produce fruit.) There are many other verses that conclude along with Jesus that a true faith and salvation will produce fruit – the evidence of a true faith:

• If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)

• We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. (1 John 2:3-4)

However, this question about fruit is more nuanced. How? There are other verses that teach a good tree doesn’t always produce good fruit. Paul provided an example of ministers who had saving faith but were not always faithful to the Gospel:

• For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ… If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.  If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Cor. 3:11-15) 

Evidently, their faith was genuine. It was a saving faith, but their faithfulness was lacking. Others had saving faith, but they often failed to reflect this faith:

• For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.  That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.  But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.  Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. (1 Cor. 11:29-32)

It is disturbing to see that God had taken the life of some believers so that they wouldn’t suffer condemnation. We are also reminded of Ananias and Saphira, whom God had struck down (Acts 5)

How do we put these two sets of truths together? Scripture promises that there will be fruit of salvation but that it will be a mixed bag. For one thing, we all continue to sin:

• We all stumble in many ways. (James 3:2)

·       If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)

Clearly, Scripture does not teach that we will achieve perfection in this life but only when Jesus returns for us (1 John 3:2). Consequently, we can resolve what seems to be a contradiction by understanding that an apple tree will not always produce apples. On occasion, it will be barren or produce poor quality apples. Besides, fruit is only produced in season. Therefore, when someone claims to be a prophet or a teacher, he is also claiming to be in season. Therefore, he needs to be able to show adequate fruit, although an apple need not be dangling from every branch.

Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was termed “righteous”:

·       …He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard) (2 Peter 2:7-8)

However, Lot had been leading a compromised life. Not only had he chosen the sinful Sodom as his home, after it’s destruction, his two daughters had gotten Lot drunk to have sex with him – not exactly the best of fruit.

The Corinthian church had been quite carnal (1 Cor. 3:1). Paul reprimanded them because they were living, on occasion, as the world was living. However, they had saving faith

·        Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Although they were behaving as those who would “not inherit the kingdom of God,” they were different. They had saving faith. I would also assume that they had fruit, but their fruit was immature. In Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthian church, he was a bit more upbeat about their fruits, describing the brethren as “a letter from Christ delivered by us” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Their fruits were becoming more apparent.

God’s measure of fruit and of faith is gracious. Even though the Israelites were in full rebellion against both God and Moses when they heard the Egyptian chariots approaching (Exodus 14), God perceived fruit where we wouldn’t have:

·       By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

In God’s eyes, Israel had great faith. It led them through the Red Sea to safety. This act of obedience was also fruit.

I thank God that He sees fruit where we do not. Let this be a lesson for us to be slow to judge.