First, it's nice that everyone in the world has opinions and beliefs. Everyone in the world from Atheists to Moslems, to Roman Catholics, Baptists ... all know that their beliefs are "fact" that they love truth and believe the truth. Just ask them. One of the signs of being lost is that we teach as doctrines the precepts of men, and that we nullify the commandments of God to hold fast to our traditions. We all know that those who hold fast to beliefs that don't align with ours are holding fast to lies as truth and truth to be lies. Isn't it amazing. How does this happen? Easy. God designed it that way. Paul taught that this standard was going to be fully applicable in the end times, and that those he was writing to passed the same test that those that love their beliefs fail.
2Th 2:10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
Specific illustrations of this would be the lost who no longer choose to believe in God or retain Him in their knowledge (Rom. 1:18-32), The religious non-Christian lost who go to scripture to justify their beliefs and the correctness of their own doctrines and living (Rom. 10:1-3) and the lost who believe that Jesus is their Lord, God and Savior with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and "do" what they believe with all their heart, but have missed the truth in Mat. 7, with the primary characteristic that proves they fall short being their failure to interpret the first part of Mat. 7 correctly.
But here's the thing. What does every person who loves their beliefs have?
1.) Massive amounts of data to prove their beliefs true.
2.) Huge stacks of information they know proves every other position false.
3.) How do they interpret everything? Well their beliefs are fact. All correct interpretations of all valid data must align with their beliefs, right?
4.) But what about the things that seem to contradict? Well they are explained away, rationalized, obviously interpreted wrong, are invalid, or we simply ignore them.
5.) Don't forget the signs, wonders, spiritual gifts, burning in the bosom ... Remember the lost people who believe Jesus is their Lord who Christ says He never knew at the end of Mat. 7? They have all the exact same things as the true Christians of their day. Everyone gets what they want to believe what they want if they do not receive a love of the truth so as to be saved.
AND ALL THE LOST, DO ALL THESE EXACT SAME THINGS TO HOLD FAST TO "WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE" "AS" TRUTH.
I call this “Methodology One”, the Methodology of belief groups as they all do it.
So, what do you want? Do you want to hold fast to your opinions, church traditions and beliefs “as” truth, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men, nullifying what God really did say and mean, or do you want truth?
If you use the Methodology above, the answer is, You are proving your beliefs true and all opposing beliefs false and closing your eyes and ears lest you see and hear the truth. You don't want truth.
That which you love least is always forced to conform to what you love most. Everyone either loves their beliefs or loves the truth, and your Methodology proves what you love.
So what do you do if you want the truth on this issue, or any issue?
1.) Rule #1: Avoid “Methodology One”: Proving your beliefs true and holding fast to them, is not the same as, “Proving all things over and over again as a habit and way of life, and holding fast to what is good/true.”
2.) Open-mindedness: All belief groups believe in being open minded … “until” you accept their beliefs. Then they believe in being as closed as possible. If you love truth, you will continually remain open-minded to altering any or all of your beliefs in the light of the fullness of the truth, when everything that “might” pertain to the topic at hand is rightly divided.
3.) Habitual ongoing Labor/ Getting Every Piece of Data that Might Pertain: If you Love Truth, you, personally, must become a manual laborer and keep on gathering every fact anyone thinks might pertain to every topic at hand. Then gather all the data that “might pertain” no belief group gathers because they can’t use that information to prove their beliefs true or opposing beliefs false. Yes, that’s every piece of data that proves all your current beliefs false that the opponents to your beliefs have gathered, and every fact that might prove beliefs you believe to be wrong to be truth on that topic as well.
Example in case. Are you aware that God the Father ibn the bible twice says that He took more than one woman as a wife? Don’t believe me, if you want the truth search them out. Did God the Father not know that His own Son was going to contradict that practice in the New Testament? Of course that assumes Jesus really did contradict the practice.
4.) Consistency with Background Context: Pick a meaning that fully aligns with the historical, legal, architectural, agricultural … context.
5.) Consistency of Meaning of words/root words/figures of speech: Hold to a meaning for all words, root words, and figures of speech consistent with their usage throughout the Old and New Testament. We have a Greek Old and New Testament and a Hebrew Old Testament, pick a meaning fully fitting everywhere the same word, root word, and figure of speech is used.
Take the discussion on polygamy being adultery, for example. Look at all the places where someone was accused of committing adultery in the Old Testament, and all the places where the definition is given. What were the circumstances. David committed adultery, right? When? How many wives did he have at the time? How many more wives did he take afterwards? Did he commit adultery then as well?
6.) Consistency with the Surrounding Discussion: Hold to a meaning consistent with the entire discussion surrounding the verse or passage being considered, hold to the flow of thought, flow of arguments, meaning of points made …
For example, take the discussion this is a part of:
Mat 19:4 And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,5 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'?
Is the context a discussion on what a lawful marriage is or is the context a discussion on whether or not we can divorce the women we are married to at any time for any reason? The context is when can we divorce, a lawful marriage, using the passages listed prior in the O.T. is any woman you have had sex with. Thus, David was married at least 18 times, possibly as high as 28, with one case of adultery. Solomon had sex with a thousand wives and concubines with no cases of adultery. God the Father had multiple wives and they committed adultery against Him. He did not commit adultery…
7.) Consistency with conscience: Example: If your interpretation would be a sin if a man did likewise and your interpretation results in believing God does what would be sin for us, your interpretation is wrong. i.e., there are no illustrations in the Bible where God says He commits adultery. If your chosen meaning for the word adultery would make God an adulterer, and by His own admission, you picked the wrong meaning for the word. In other words, if you hold to polygamy as adultery you accuse God Himself of adultery.
8.) God, God’s People and God’s Word are 100% consistent: Pick an interpretation for all the data that makes God, God’s people and God’s word 100% consistent in “all” they say and do and “all” they don’t say and don’t do. Any inconsistencies, are proof of incorrect beliefs/definitions.
God says that David’s only sins were those related to Uriah the Hittite (He took his wife and got him killed.) even the numbering of the people was not a sin as that commandment was for the people to pay the tax for being numbered. THEY did not pay it. THEY did not know they were supposed to because THEY didn’t know the law or chose not to pay. Yes, David “felt” guilty, but he did not violate God’s commandments in that case. Remember, any inconsistencies in what is said and done, or not said, and not done are a result of our incorrect beliefs. How many times does the bible say Solomon committed adultery? Answer: Never. Solomon was reproved for his wives, but not the number of them. He was reproved by God for taking foreign wives. Now, figure out why Solomon did not violate God’s commands for “kings” not to heap to himself wives, horses or gold. Solomon had “Heaps” of all of them. Hint: Solomon did a great sacrifice and received a vision from God.
9.) Always apply logic, reason, and rational thinking: Pick an interpretation fully fitting with all logic, reason, and rational thinking. (i.e., if the writer spent a whole chapter saying all gifts are equal and necessary, that none are greater than any others, … do not choose an interpretation for the very next verse that would command us to desire what God spent the previous 30 verses saying doesn’t exist, and that you can’t get, period, regardless of your desire. “Earnestly desire the greater gifts”, contradicts everything prior. Look for the “other” possible meaning. Note: There is one.
The passage where Jesus is said to have stated that the only lawful marriage model is the marriage of one man and one woman, for example. Understand that, in the audience, there may have been dozens of people with polygamous relationships in their past. Jesus being descended from both David and Solomon, for example. Here’s the problem.
1.) Someone in the audience says to himself, “My dad had two wives, my mom was his first wife, but his second wife was the one to give birth to a son, my half-brother, first, and he gets the inheritance, and all the benefits and I did not. If only the first marriage is legal, don’t I get to kick my brother and my brother’s mother out and take the inheritance?
2.) Is Jesus capable of being King? Was Solomon a lawful king? Sorry, if only the first marriage was ever approved by God, neither one was/is a lawful king. Sorry, not from the first wife?
3.) This is a discussion on lawful divorce. As such, if Jesus meant that only the first wife is approved by God, is Jesus stating that all other wives can be kicked to the curb even without divorce proceedings? What about the kids? Do they have to kick them to the curb as well?
4.) From the perspective of a second or third wife in the audience, what is your response to Jesus if this is what Jesus said and meant?
5.) Where are all the discussions that “Should” have been voiced out loud in this society where polygamy was practiced by most of the patriarchs including Jacob, Moses, Gideon, David, Solomon … where is the confusion, the questioning … it didn’t happen. What was the response of the audience? Shoot, if this is what God meant, it is better not to get married at all, right? The context is lawful divorce. The only way this makes sense in a polygamous society is if Jesus is saying, once you have sex, regardless of the number of wives you have, they are your wife and divorce is not an option. EVER! That’s the only way everything makes sense.
10.) Start with the Easiest/Clearest … data on the topic: Interpret the clearest, easiest understood, most straightforward data/passages first—then the more complex or difficult passages. The complex, convoluted, and difficult passages are easy to distort to fit beliefs.
11.) It ALL fits together: Pick a meaning for the parts that fully fit with the whole of the data that might pertain without adding meaning, subtracting meaning, or distorting anything to force it to comply with your beliefs. If everything gathered (#3 above) does not fully fit with everything in #4-10 above, you have the wrong meaning, and you are forcing the scriptures to fit what you want to believe “as” truth.
12.) Keep on continuously proving all things over and over again as a habit and way of life and never stop … and hold fast to what is good/true. Getting to truth is an ongoing process that never ends. One single verse, one fact you missed, one slight change in interpretation … can force a complete reevaluation and even a complete a change of beliefs. That is, if you love truth, and obey what God commands all His people to be continuously doing for and by themselves. If not …
13.) It’s all on You! Trusting others to get to truth “for” you, is like trusting others to have a relationship with your wife / husband / kids “for” you. It cannot be done. Your failure to keep on habitually doing as God commands all His people to keep on habitually doing, proves you have gathered enough using Methodology One to hold fast to what you want to believe and fall short of 2Th. 2:10-12
I always tell everyone: Understand, “Agreement with me might only make us both wrong.” Why? Because it's true. It only takes one verse I missed, in context, cut straight, to change my beliefs.
Starting from beliefs, and then going to those who have the same ones to get all the passages they use to prove their beliefs to be fact, opposing beliefs false, and to understand how they interpret everything to hold fast to those beliefs always results in the affirmation of those beliefs. If your goal is to do something like that, pick the beliefs you want to have first. If you want to be Mormon gather their data and use their interpretations. If you want to be a Calvinist use theirs, Roman Catholic ... you get the idea.
Understand, everyone in every belief group knows they love truth and have the truth. Here's why:
2Th 2:10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
Everyone gets what they really want. That which we love least is always forced to conform to that which we love most. Everyone either loves the truth or their beliefs. But the "Many on the Broad path of destruction in Mat. 7 is the same many that believe Jesus is their Lord God and Savior at the end of the chapter to whom Jesus said, "Depart from Me ye who work iniquity for I never knew you."
Everyone using Methodology One, while they will get an unshakeable, unquestionable belief that they have the truth, but it is really God hardening them into what they want to believe because they just love what they want to believe. Everyone picks one, and the Methodology you use proves what camp you are in.
Yes, you have the right to believe anything you want ... and pay the price if you do not receive a love of the truth that exceeds the love you have for your beliefs, but do not say that you were not warned when you stand before the judgment seat of God.