Thursday, November 20, 2008
Now the "Whole" Truth
Welcome to Part 2 of “Truth.” As you can probably tell, I feel very strong about this “paradigm of truth.” In my lifetime of experiences as I’m sure unfortunately for a lot of us, I have had too many experiences such as:
1. Brothers and sisters in Christ, treating other believers with anything but the love of Jesus.
2. The wonderful practice of the “un-invitation,” blackmailing or black-balling from church members, churches, or Para-church organizations.
3. The attempted restricting of cooperating with other denominations.
4. The attempted restricting of cooperating with other Para-church organizations that are not comprised of 100% members of our fellowship.
I believe these practices to be false, wrong, and unbiblical. I believe that all of the above are a result of a false “paradigm of truth.” It follows the old adage with a little twist; if you’re not of us then you’re against us which means “you” could not possibly have any iota of truth since you’re not part of us. I think Paul destroys that paradigm in a couple of places:
1. In Acts 17:22 – 28, Paul is in Athens trying connect with some Greeks who are all about Philosophy. In verse 28, Paul says, “28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' (emphasis mine) As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
They think they are not talking about Jehovah God, but Paul says yes you were. In fact, Paul takes their statement about hundreds of Gods and makes it about His God. Paul doesn’t just affirm truth here, he claims it for himself and he doesn’t care who said it or who they were saying it about. What they said was true and he is claiming it as truth for himself.
In Titus 1:12 – 13, Paul quotes (12Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." 13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith…) a poet from Crete, affirms the truth he speaks, and claims it for himself. For Paul like we should today, God’s truth can be found in anybody and anywhere.
So, where do we go from here?
1. When we or our kids hear something that is true from someone other than “us,” its O.K. We can claim it as truth for us.
2. This view will free us up to do works for the community that can be inner-denominational and even inner-faith.
• We can work with those not of our movement for the common good of our community.
• We can learn truth from them.
• They can learn truth from us.
O.K., those are my thought. Feel free to claim what you feel is truth and reject as Paul said in 1Thessalonians 5:21, what is not. Have a good weekend.
1. Brothers and sisters in Christ, treating other believers with anything but the love of Jesus.
2. The wonderful practice of the “un-invitation,” blackmailing or black-balling from church members, churches, or Para-church organizations.
3. The attempted restricting of cooperating with other denominations.
4. The attempted restricting of cooperating with other Para-church organizations that are not comprised of 100% members of our fellowship.
I believe these practices to be false, wrong, and unbiblical. I believe that all of the above are a result of a false “paradigm of truth.” It follows the old adage with a little twist; if you’re not of us then you’re against us which means “you” could not possibly have any iota of truth since you’re not part of us. I think Paul destroys that paradigm in a couple of places:
1. In Acts 17:22 – 28, Paul is in Athens trying connect with some Greeks who are all about Philosophy. In verse 28, Paul says, “28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' (emphasis mine) As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
They think they are not talking about Jehovah God, but Paul says yes you were. In fact, Paul takes their statement about hundreds of Gods and makes it about His God. Paul doesn’t just affirm truth here, he claims it for himself and he doesn’t care who said it or who they were saying it about. What they said was true and he is claiming it as truth for himself.
In Titus 1:12 – 13, Paul quotes (12Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." 13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith…) a poet from Crete, affirms the truth he speaks, and claims it for himself. For Paul like we should today, God’s truth can be found in anybody and anywhere.
So, where do we go from here?
1. When we or our kids hear something that is true from someone other than “us,” its O.K. We can claim it as truth for us.
2. This view will free us up to do works for the community that can be inner-denominational and even inner-faith.
• We can work with those not of our movement for the common good of our community.
• We can learn truth from them.
• They can learn truth from us.
O.K., those are my thought. Feel free to claim what you feel is truth and reject as Paul said in 1Thessalonians 5:21, what is not. Have a good weekend.
Comments:
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For the record, the "truth" that I learned from so many men and women outside the restoration movement churches literally set me free from the stranglehold of legalism and spiritual arrogance. People such as Swindoll, Yancey, Ketcherside (he was restoration movement but not very welcome by us), Ortberg, and numerous commentators have been a huge blessing to my spiritual life.
I think we need to check what is being promoted as the "truth" by the real truth, God's Word.....there are too many feel good religions out there that do seem to capture our youth. I have never been one to believe that a certain church is the only church, I have always been one to be a follower of Christ. I feel God uses churches and people in those churches to help with our growth. I believe we should make sure that they are Biblically sound on the foundation principals of God's Word.
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