It does not presume anything, based on the concept of the old and new testament, the entire basis for entrance into Heaven is receiving The Holy Spirit. Therefore, all commands are evaluated to be obeying Jesus as a basis for Entrance into Heaven. What reason did you state this?
I stated it because every belief group believes that they figured out and obey the bible and "few there are who are saved." "Many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not ... in Your Name and in Your Name ... and ... and I will say to them, depart from Me ye who work iniquity for I never knew you." The whole point is that Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholic, Baptist, ... fill in the blank ... they all believe with all their heart mind, soul and strength that they have the Holy Spirit and are obeying God.
And if I ask anyone from any group why they "KNOW" they are right with God, or are as right as it is possible for anyone to be, what will I get? Everything in the list below:
They …
1.) Gather whatever they can “use” to prove what they “want to believe” to be truth.
2.) Accumulate all evidence they believe proves all opposing views incorrect.
3.) Assume their beliefs are unquestionable truth, and interpret everything in such a way as to make it all support, or at least not negate, their beliefs. Think about it. If your beliefs are unquestionable truths, all “valid” data, must support … or at least not negate, your infallible beliefs, right?
4.) Reinterpret, ignore, discredit, invalidate … anything that doesn’t seem to fit with their views, Why? Our beliefs are “Fact” Valid data interpreted correctly can’t contradict the facts.
5.) Gather all the other experiences, feelings, data … to solidify their beliefs such as signs, wonders, spiritual gifts or facts about your belief group. Things like: we have a burning in the bosom, we speak in tongues, we perform signs or wonders, a statue of Mary came to life and told us our belief groups views are correct, we have prayed to God for the truth and received “feelings” or even signs from heaven. Or, on a more concrete level: Our belief group is the oldest, largest, fastest growing, wealthiest, has the most experts with doctorates… Include anything that adds assurance that your views and belief group have the most truth.
But believing you are right with God, believing you are doing His will, believing you have the Holy Spirit ... doesn't save. Believing and living in accordance with the truth saves, and the things in the list above only harden those who love "what they want to believe" "as" truth into those beliefs.
Look at the things in that list. If you do more of any one of them, how long before you discover your beliefs are false? Answer: You can't. Why? You aren't gathering that information. If you are gathering more proof that opposing beliefs are false, how long before you find out one of them really is the truth? Answer: You already KNOW beyond any shadow of a doubt that your beliefs are "fact" and you are only gathering proof that all opposing beliefs are false, so you can never find out. The methodology above only hardens people into believing lies as truth and truth to be lies. No one can ever get "to" truth from there, and every "belief group" focusing on beliefs uses it and gets exactly what they want. Proof their beliefs are true and all opposing beliefs are false? Why? They love their beliefs, not truth.
"That which we love least is always forced to conform to what we love most. Every person either loves their beliefs or they love truth."
Everyone gets exactly what they want "from" God. Why? He designed it that way. You need signs, wonders, spiritual gifts, statues of Mary coming to life, a burning in the boosom, speaking in tongues, prophesying, doing marvelous works of power in His name, casting out demons in His name ... all the proof you need God will give you to harden you into the beliefs you love, and they all do exactly what is in that list.
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.
You want truth? You have to do something different. If we want truth ...
1.) We Avoid “Methodology One”(Mentioned prior): 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.” Look at that 2Th. 2:10-13 passage. Paul said that the lost in the end times failed, and Paul used the same standard and judged that those he was writing to were held to the same standard but passed the test and received a love of the truth and were true Christians making this a timeless truth.
2.) We maintain a state of Open-mindedness: We remain open-minded to altering any, or all of our beliefs in the light of the fullness of the word of God rightly divided. 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. How many passages are there about closing your eyes and ears lest you see or hear. Look at Methodology One again. What is it designed to do?
3.) We stay in a state of Habitual ongoing Labor/ Getting Every Piece of Data that Might Pertain: That "Be a workman who need not be ashamed" part. It's in the present tense, indicating ongoing continuous, never ceasing labors to cut-straight ALL that God says on every topic. 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. We are commanded to be habitual, ongoing, never stopping laborers who are approved by God and won’t stand ashamed before Him. How do we determine what that outcome will be? We habitually “Cut-straight” every single piece of the word of God that “might” apply to the topic at hand. This is way different than looking for passages of scripture to prove true what we want to teach on a topic.
Fact: CONSISTENCY IN INTERPRETATION: If God, God’s word, and God’s people are not consistent in what they say and do and DON’T SAY AND DON’T DO, then looking for truth in the bible is a waste of time. Holding to consistency includes:
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. If in p the Septuagint and the N.T. Greek the word phobos is translated as fear, terror, ... and you choose that meaning in 542 of the 544 places it is used, but change the meaning to respect or honor in 2 places because you neither like, nor understand the meaning in the two remaining, then you have altered the word of God to fit what you want to believe.
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 … If Paul just spent an entire chapter telling us that spiritual gifts are assigned by God, distributed just as He wishes, that not everyone gets every gifts, and that all gifts are equal and equally necessary and then "seems to say", "Earnestly desire the greater gifts." We have a contradiction. Paul said there are no greater or lesser gifts. Paul said desire has nothing at all to do with the gift(s) we are assigned. "But" there is another possible interpretation that fits perfectly in the context. "But you are desiring the more showy gifts.". That is a possible interpretation that does not contradict anything, and indeed fits perfectly with what was happening. People were forsaking the gifts assigned for what they though was more impressive, "acting" like they had gifts they didn't while forsaking what they were given.
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. Find every place where God uses the word adultery in the Old Testament. In more than one place God says His wives committed adultery against Him. Now if your modern definition of adultery includes the fact that taking a second wife is automatically adultery, what are you accusing God of. (Yeah, getting all of the data that might pertain up front, and not just gathering what we can "use" to hold fast to "what we want to believe or want to reject is an important first step.)
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. Let's go with the same topic although there are many possible ones where we totally interpret everything to fit what we want to believe... How many times does the bible say David committed adultery? Once. With Bathsheba ... wife number eight. David also took at least 10 wives after her, and many people believe it could be as high as 20 more. Yet, only one case of adultery. How many times was Solomon said to have committed adultery? God did reprove Solomon for his wives, but it wasn't for the number of them.
9.) Always apply logic, reason, and rational thinking: Pick an interpretation fully fitting with all logic, reason, and rational thinking. (Back to the spiritual gifts illustration. 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.
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
The wonder isn't that there are over 500 "brands" of Baptists on the North American continent all with slight variations in beliefs, the wonder is that "if we change our methodology" to one designed to get us closer and closer to truth, altering our beliefs as we go, we will all end up unifying in our faith more and more, rather than just holding fast to our beliefs "as" truth. You see ...
That which we love least is always forced to conform to that which we love most. Everyone either loves the truth or loves their beliefs. Pick one. Which do you choose to love. Your "Methodology" proves which you love. Just remember:
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 want.
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