Faith Based On Deception

 "So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, 'We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?' And he recognized it and said, 'It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.'" (Gen. 37:31-33 NKJV)

As much as we might wish it to be otherwise, faith is not always based on truth. As human beings, we can come to believe a thing that is not true. While this is distressing it is also a fact of life. Jacob developed a strong faith that his son Joseph had perished based on the deception of his other sons who willfully deceived him. His faith was not based on truth. His faith was based on logic, on faith in those who were deceiving him, on apparent evidence.

Faith can be based on incorrect or misleading information, on misunderstanding, even on lies one mistakenly accepts, and that faith becomes so strong that one is firmly convinced the error he believes is the absolute truth beyond any doubt. Faith can also be based on the evil of one's own heart – bias or prejudice, for example, against a person or group. Man can come to believe a lot of things, for one reason or another, that are not true. There is such a thing as faith based on truth, but also such a thing as faith based on misconception.

Because of the evidence presented to him (misinformation), Jacob was certain his son Joseph was dead, killed as he said by "a wild beast." (Gen 37:33 NAS) He was fed disinformation and, with good reason, based on the information he was presented with, believed that which was false.

Why would he disbelieve? Did he not get his information from people he had complete trust in? Every Christian ought to immediately perk his ears up when he thinks back on this account and take heed and learn from it. We can be misled by the very people we have the utmost trust in. In Jacob's case, it was deliberate, but certainly one can also be misled by those who themselves sincerely believe error and propagate it. They are not deliberately lying to you, but they themselves have been misled into believing a lie.

Another tragic example of faith based on a lie is that of the man of God who was lied to by a prophet of God and lost his life because he believed the lie (see 1 Kings 13). If you cannot trust a prophet of God, who can you trust? So, again, the admonition is: Christians beware. The only thing you can trust is the word of God, not man.

In the case of the first sin ever committed, the Bible teaches that Eve was indeed deceived, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (Paul in 2 Cor. 11:3 NKJV) So, a person can be honestly deceived. One must understand that to believe error, as did Eve, is an exceedingly dangerous thing. Eve learned the hard way. There was no going back and doing it over again, no second chance, nor was there a second chance with the man of God in 1 Kings 13.

This deception that leads to belief in error can be delivered by way of those who seem to be "ministers of righteousness." (2 Cor. 11:15 NKJV) Paul says, "For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works." (2 Cor. 11:14-15 NKJV)

Satan quoted scripture to Jesus while tempting him after his baptism. False teachers can quote scripture. We today are gullible. We believe that almost anything that is called Christian, whether in doctrine or works, is God approved. We just accept it and go on and assume it is fine with God and in accord with New Testament teaching. We need to keep alert.

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1 NKJV) Well, how do you know whether or not a spirit is of God? Can you find a book, chapter, and verse for what is being taught? That is the key. That is the solid rock of faith you can stand on. What you cannot stand on is what seems right to you. I emphasize that. Why? "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Prov. 14:12 NKJV) Remember also and always, the man standing in the pulpit you look up to is just that—a man. Search the scriptures to build your faith on a solid foundation.

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Paul's Writings Versus Jesus' Words

Many years ago as a young man, I heard it said by a young lady of my own age that the apostle Paul just had a thing against women, with the idea being that what he wrote on the subject of women had no authority but was merely the expression of personal prejudice on his part. That young lady many years later became a preacher within her denominational body, contrary to Paul's teaching on the subject in 1 Tim. 2:12.

Over the course of the many years that have transpired since that time, I have heard the same or similar comments regarding things Paul wrote. It seems many believe he lacked the authority of Christ in the words he spoke or wrote. That is the subject I wish to pursue in this article. I add that the reality is that if what Paul wrote is not authoritative, then we cannot stop there but have to go right down the line and ask about what Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Peter, and Jude wrote.

The truth of the matter is every single word of the New Testament, excepting only those words added by translators for clarification (usually marked by being printed in italics in the KJ, NKJV, and NAS translations), came directly from God the Father, including the words of Jesus himself. In John 1:1 Jesus is called "the Word" (NKJV), and he is recorded as saying, "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak." (John 12:48–50 NKJV) He says again, "The word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." (John 14:24 NKJV) One could add to these references, but the point has been made.

Before Jesus ascended back to heaven, he promised to send the Holy Spirit to his apostles. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." (John 14:26 NKJV) "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper (the Holy Spirit--DS) … even the Spirit of truth." (John 14:16–17 NKJV) "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, … He will testify of Me." (John 15:26 NKJV) Now here is where one needs to pay special attention. Did the Holy Spirit speak freelance style? Listen carefully.

"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." (John 16:13–15 NKJV) The apostles were commanded by Jesus to stay in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4–5 NKJV). That day came on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1–4.

The important thing to see thus far is the chain of command. Even though God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one, all being equally God, they have an order in which they, of their own accord, have chosen to work. Jesus, "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant." (Philippians 2:6–7 NKJV) Jesus thus submitted himself to God the Father and spoke only the Father's words. When the Holy Spirit came, after Jesus returned to heaven, he did not originate truth, for he did not speak on his own authority but spoke what he heard. He glorified Jesus by taking what was from Jesus and declaring it to them.

Thus, when an apostle spoke by means of the Holy Spirit, he spoke not out of himself but rather spoke the very words of God. Peter speaks of "those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven." (1 Peter 1:12 NKJV) On the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, Peter himself spoke just such a gospel sermon after the Holy Spirit fell on him and the other apostles. Paul says, "No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Cor. 2:11–13 NKJV)

If Paul was not an inspired writer (as well as a gospel preacher), then Peter was in error, for he said of Paul's writings that some twisted them "to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures." (2 Peter 3:15 NKJV) Not only does Peter compare Paul's writings with the rest of the Scriptures, but he also says his writings can be twisted to one's destruction. That would be a little hard to do if they were uninspired writings, would it not? If you recall, Ananias was sent to Paul at his conversion, with one reason being that Paul might be "filled with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 9:17 NKJV)

Sometimes people latch on to a few statements made by Paul in 1 Cor. 7 and read into them more than they should, in that they feel Paul is there giving uninspired advice, or giving only his own judgment or opinion apart from any direction of the Spirit. For example, Paul says in verse 12, "I, not the Lord, say," (NKJV) and then in verse 25 he says, "I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy has made trustworthy." (1 Cor. 7:25 NKJV) Well, is Paul trustworthy or not? He closes this very chapter with these words: "According to my judgment—and I think I also have the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. 7:40 NKJV) Do you think Paul had the Spirit of God? Do you think he was questioning himself by making that statement? You know better.

Here is the bind that those get themselves into when they begin questioning Scripture and taking some of it as inspired and other parts of it as not inspired—how do you decide which is which? Are you that all-wise and all-knowing, so that you can declare beyond doubt that this scripture is inspired while that one is not? How do the rest of us know you are that smart, even God-like, in your declarations? How did you come to possess these mighty powers of discernment? Maybe showing us a miracle would help the rest of us build confidence in you. In New Testament times, miracles were performed to confirm the word as being from God (Heb. 2:1–4). We need confirmation of like nature if you are going to start cutting scripture out of the Bible; proof is needed that your word is from God when you do such cutting. After all, you will be giving us a new Bible when your cutting is done.

Needless to say, all such approaches to Scripture end up being faith-destroying. How do you have faith if you do not know what to have faith in and what not to have faith in? Yes, I know these types proclaim their faith, but genuine faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17), and not by one's own "think so." It does not come by one declaring himself to be God and thus able to give man the true Scriptures versus the false ones.

The bottom line ends up being that one either has to hold to the Scriptures as being authoritative and verbally inspired by God, or else he holds to the words of some man who declares otherwise but can work no miracle in proof of his declaration.

In closing, yes, the words of Jesus in red are authoritative, but no more so than the words in black in your New Testament, for the truth is the source of all inspired writings is God the Father. When Paul or Peter or whomever the New Testament writer was spoke with pen and ink or otherwise on matters of the faith, his words came from the same source that Jesus' did while Jesus was on the earth. The idea that Paul was writing for Paul's sake, promoting his own doctrine, contrary to what Jesus would have said, is as unscriptural as it gets.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16–17 NKJV)

Postscript: This article is not meant to imply that Bible translations, man-made, are infallible. However, to the extent a translation accurately represents the original manuscripts of the New Testament, it is reliable.

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Disrespect for The Word of God

There is little respect for the word of God in America today. It is now common to hear the term post-Christian used to describe our society and the West in general. Of course, if we are post-Christian, it necessarily follows we have also become post-scriptural, people who no longer value the things of scripture, believe them, or abide in them.

The liberal secularists and progressives in America who have come to dominate much of the media, politics, academia, and the sports and entertainment industries see this as a positive thing. We are growing up, outgrowing silly myths and superstitions, becoming at last mature adults able to deal with reality. Their reality is that God is a myth. Man is king and is his own God.

With such a mindset, obedience or disobedience to the word of God as found in the Christian scriptures means nothing. The scriptures are not to be taken seriously. At best they teach good life lessons on how to order your own personal life, but if you follow them too meticulously they will lead you into intolerance and judgment. You will become a despicable, bigoted person, for after all, not everything the Bible calls sin is sin. Modern man is a better judge of actual sin than the scriptures.

Accordingly, modern man has, so he thinks, refuted outdated ideas like there being any sin in adultery (as scripture defines it), fornication, abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, attempting to change one's sex, etc. Since discarding scripture is now in vogue, one must ask what we have in place of it to guide us through life? The answer is nothing other than whatever the latest fashion is. Our values and ethics change, it seems, like the passing seasons of the year. Anyone now living who can remember just fifty years ago can tell you we are no longer the same people we were then, not in the way we think and go about our lives.

In modern thought, what one needs to do is embrace everyone in whatever lifestyle they engage in, meaning you remain uncritical of it and accepting, and it will be okay with you. Be a good person as judged by society's standards, and it will go well with you in whatever life is to come—if there is a life to come—which, by the way, we don't believe. But even if there is a God, he thinks the same way we do, so don't worry, it will go well with you. So we think, so we live our lives.

Did Jesus teach any of this? No, he did not, none of it. First of all, he never believed nor taught it was going to go well with the majority of society based on being a good person in society. "Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matt. 7:14 NKJV) The few is not the many. Do not be misled by those who seem to be teaching or implying that all is going to go well with the mass of humanity, those judged good by society's standards; unless Jesus is a liar, that will not be the case. A good Roman citizen in the first or second century was still lost unless he/she was also a Christian. The same can be said of citizens in all societies since then. "All have sinned." (Rom. 3:23 NKJV)

Secondly, Jesus never had the attitude that one could be indifferent about scripture; one cannot be indifferent about doing God's will. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Matt. 7:21 NKJV) If doing the will of the Father is necessary, as Jesus says, the will of the Father must be discerned. That necessarily implies that God's word is of utmost importance as it is the vehicle by which God's will is made known to man. Scripture matters.

Did Jesus respect scripture? If he did, how can we say we respect him while disrespecting what he honors? In John 5:45-47, Jesus rebukes the Jews he is speaking to for not believing the writings of Moses, "if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" (John 5:47 NKJV) Earlier in John 5:39, he says the scriptures are "they which testify of me." In John 10:35, he says, "The scripture cannot be broken." (NKJV)

In just these three passages alone from the book of John, we see Jesus' respect for Moses' writings and the trustworthiness of scripture as it relates to the testimony of and about himself as well as the fact that scripture is rock solid; it cannot be broken. This is Jesus' view of scripture.

One is reminded of Jesus' comments about creation in the book of Matthew when he said, "Have you not read (read what?—scripture—DS) that he who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?" (Matt. 19:4-5 NKJV) Jesus quotes Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24, Moses' writings, and in doing so is telling us he respects what was written and with the direct implication that we should too. Jesus destroys any thoughts about the evolution of man from lower life forms in this passage and establishes marriage as being between a man and a woman by accepting what Moses wrote.

Moses' writings are reliable, but our culture does not want to accept them or what Jesus said about them, for if Moses' writings are true, it means that marriage is between a man and a woman, and our culture is no longer willing to accept that kind of a restriction on God's institution. God institutes marriage, but he has no right, as we see it, to be exclusive about it. It is his institution, but we are determined to grasp it from him and rule it ourselves. God has no right in the matter.

We will not respect the scripture. Jesus did, but we won't, and many of us want nothing to do with a Jesus who will not endorse and celebrate gay marriages. God has no right to regulate sin. Thank you, but we can very well do that on our own (we think). If we don't want an act to be sin, we will not allow it to be. We have that much power? Wow! Impressive!

Jesus also spoke of Noah, the flood, and the ark as historical fact (Luke 17:27), of Moses and the burning bush (Mark 12:26, Luke 20:37), of Jonah being in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40), of Sodom and Gomorrah (Mark 6:11, Luke 17:29), of Daniel's "abomination of desolation" (Mark 13:14), and of David saying "have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry?" (Luke 6:3 NKJV)

Jesus endorsed the scriptures as authentic, historical, and reliable. To cast aspersion upon the scriptures is to reflect upon the knowledge and wisdom of Jesus, to make him out a fool for accepting things we will not accept. Our society is no longer willing to believe and laughs at divine creation, a worldwide flood, Jonah (a fish story), Sodom and Gomorrah, homosexuality as a sin, etc.

Let me drive a point home here. We sometimes make a distinction between what we believe and what we know. We say we do not believe a thing—we know it. So the question arises, did Jesus believe the things he spoke of, that is, just have a strong opinion, or did he know them?

If he just believed them like you and I sometimes believe things, when we speak that way, then he was just a man and could not be God and man's savior. If, on the other hand, he knew as fact the things of which he spoke, then we admit his divinity. He spoke as one who knew. So where do we stand? What do we believe about Jesus? Did he speak as a man or as God? Will we believe Jesus? If so, it forces us to believe the scriptures. When we doubt the scriptures, we doubt Jesus, and doubt is not faith.

Jesus spoke of events in the Old Testament scripture, as the New Testament scriptures had not yet been written. But how important is not just Old Testament scripture but also New Testament scripture? What about it?

Jesus said, "He who rejects me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority; but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." (John 12:48-50 NKJV)

Jesus spoke the word of God (John 12:48-50, 14:10, 24, 17:8, 14), but lest we think that means we need only a red-letter edition of the New Testament where we can pick Jesus' words out by the red print and can ignore the rest of the New Testament, we need to read further. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles. "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper…even the Spirit of truth…he dwells with you and will be in you…I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:16-18 NKJV) As Jesus and the Father are one, so are Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, it was the same as if Jesus had come back to them in person. This is clarified in Jesus' own words in John 16:12-14, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you." (John 16:12-14 NKJV) Jesus still has many things to say. When is he going to say them and how? He will say them through the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit is sent to the apostles (and granted as a spiritual gift to others in the scriptures after Pentecost).

The apostle Peter spoke of Paul's writings as being twisted by some to their destruction, comparing Paul's writings to "the rest of the scriptures." (2 Peter 3:14-16 NKJV)

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Tim. 3:16 NKJV) Jesus is God (John 1:1, 1 Tim. 3:16, Heb. 1:8, Acts 20:28). Jesus is the one of whom John proclaimed, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1 NKJV) To disrespect scripture, to belittle passages, make light of scriptural teaching, etc., is showing disrespect for the author of those scriptures, the one who said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" (Matt. 4:4 NKJV)

This Jesus is the one Peter was referring to in Acts 3 when he quoted Moses saying, "For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever he says to you. And it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'" (Acts 3:22-23 NKJV) Jesus is a prophet, priest, and king, but above all he is a part of the Godhead. We can hear him, or we can be "utterly destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:23 NKJV)

Jesus says many times, "if you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15 NKJV) or words to that end (see John 14:21, 23, 24, John 15:10, 14). He is "the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him." (Heb. 5:9 NKJV) How does one obey Jesus while disrespecting the scriptures that teach us his commandments that we are to obey? "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." (1 John 5:3 NKJV) Disrespecting the word of God is not an ingredient in the love of God, and it certainly does not show respect for Jesus, Jesus who is the Word.

America is truly becoming an anti-Christian nation, or should one say an anti-Christ nation? The America we once knew, where God-haters and Bible-haters were rare, is disappearing, and I think most Americans know that and would no longer disagree about it. We are becoming Europe, but we saved Europe twice from themselves last century. Who will save us from ourselves when we have to reap what we are now sowing?

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Willful Sin--Can Anyone Be Saved

The text for this article is Heb. 10:26-27, "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." (NKJV)

These verses, when read in the King James and the New King James versions of the Bible, have probably caused Christians about as much anguish as any you will find in the pages of the New Testament. Make no mistake about it, the verses are directed at Christians as is the whole book of Hebrews. Each of us knows we are guilty of having committed willful sin, and this passage troubles us. When we read the verses in the larger context of verses 24 through 31 it is very easy to become fearful and feel it is hopeless, we are lost without remedy. We are sorry about our sins, but we feel it is too late.

However, there are things we ought to consider before reaching that conclusion. When we take a look at verse 26 in the New American Standard version we readily see that the verse is not talking about a single act of willful sin. It reads as follows, "For if we go on sinning willfully"; thus the sin of verse 26 is a way of life rather than an individual act of sin. (See also the NIV, which reads, "If we deliberately keep on sinning.")

All sin other than sins of ignorance is willful sin. One may struggle mightily before committing the sin that has enticed him/her, but nevertheless, it was their decision to take the leap and commit it. It was a willful sin in that sense, a sin of personal choice.

If a willful sin of that kind necessarily led to condemnation without hope, then who could be saved? Would it be Peter?

Peter, according to Paul, stood condemned (Gal. 2:11). Why? Because "he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision" (Gal. 2:12 NAS), refusing to eat with the Gentile Christians. Barnabas did the same thing. Do you think this was a sin of ignorance? Paul gives the cause, which was not ignorance but fear of the circumcision party. It was a willful sin in the sense that Peter knew what he was doing. It was a sin committed out of fear, weakness of the flesh, we might say weak knees.

How about the man in 1 Cor. 5:1, "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife." (NAS) Did this man who was doing this not know it was a sin? You know he did. Yet, in 2 Cor. 2:7 Paul urges the Corinthians to forgive the man as he had repented. I remind the reader that Paul wrote and spoke by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

2 Cor. 12:21 clinches the meaning of Heb. 10:26 for me. It reads as follows, "I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced." (NAS) What do we have here? Christians practicing sin. That implies certainly that we are not talking of one-time acts. Are they lost?

Yes, if they do not repent, but please note that is the very thing Paul is saying they can do. Why is Paul fearful that he may end up mourning? Because they have not repented, but that implies they could if they would, and thus could be forgiven. We also understand they knew what they were doing. The word translated "immorality" in this verse in the NAS is translated in the NKJV and others as "fornication." It is the Greek word "porneia." Do you really believe these people did not know fornication was sinful? They were committing willful sin, and yet we see they could be forgiven if they would but repent.

What then is the meaning of Heb. 10:26-27? Any sin you knowingly commit and continue is a willful sin as long as you continue in it and fail (refuse) to repent. While involved in that, there is no sacrifice for that sin that can save you as a willful practicing sinner. When you repent, that is another matter.

I believe verse 27 bears the truth of this interpretation. It says of such a person (a Christian involved in a sin on a continual basis willfully) that there is "a certain fearful expectation of judgment." (NKJV) Why would you fear judgment if you were a complete apostate who no longer believed? What you are is a man who believes but willingly persists in sin. Such a man fears judgment.

Do not despair because you knowingly did that which was wrong, even if you engaged in such a sin over a period of time. Do not despair, but rather repent and turn back to God. God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) "'For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,' says the Lord GOD. 'Therefore turn and live!'" (Ezek. 18:32 NKJV) God will always have the one who is truly penitent back if that one will only come back.

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