I get it.
I spent 4 years in college as an evangelical Atheist. I shared the truth of Atheism with all the "Born Again" misguided "Christians" I could. I gathered almost 10,000 bible errors, and floor to knee scientific and archaeological data to prove the bible was completely unreliable and untrustworthy, and used the bible itself as a tool to tear their relationship with their God down and burn the remains to cinders.
Paul was a sinner, hostile to God, but he just killed Christians. Me ... I destroyed their relationship with their Father. Paul was a good guy. Still ... He who is forgiven much loves much ... If you love me you will keep My commandments ... Yeah, God got ahold of me too. If you love truth and someone gets you evidence that you are wrong and you get to change your beliefs to truth ... you win. If you love truth and the evidence is not there and your beliefs remain ... you win. If you love your beliefs, well, then you end up responding like those in Mat. 7:6 a lot, and you forgot to practice Mat. 7:1-5.
Understand where you are headed:
Mat 28:19 "Having Gone: make disciples of all the nations, baptizing "Disciples" in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 and teach disciples to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Ministry in a nutshell. Understand that all belief groups that believe themselves to be Christians do the first two. The problem is with the third one. Every belief group, including Atheists Agnostics, Moslems, Jews ... knows that they love truth and have truth. Ergo, when they teach, they teach how to hold fast to their "beliefs" "as" truth. Getting to truth is a different story. Yet ... everyone gets whatever they need to hold fast to the beliefs they love as truth, regardless of what those beliefs may be? How? They all do the same things and they all go to the scriptures for the same purpose. To justify the beliefs they love, and to justify their living in accordance with them.
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.
(Note: Everybody gets what they want. Either complete assurance that their beliefs are "fact" or ... they receive a love of the truth and do something different. The question is, are you on the broad path that every belief group uses to hold fast to what they want to believe, or the narrow one.)
See if you can tell the difference between the first methodology of going to scripture and the second. The first guarantees that the more practiced you are with doing it with whatever beliefs you love, the more hardened into those beliefs you will become, and the more closed your eyes and ears will be to anything else. Think about what people share ... their pearls ... what is "Holy to them":
1.) We share the proof that verifies our views are the correct ones. What else do we share?
2.) We share the evidence that proves the other person’s views are off. How do we interpret everything?
3.) We Interpret everything in the light of what we “know” is truth. What is truth? For each of us, the truth is our beliefs. Ergo, all correct interpretations … of all “valid” data, must support … or at least not negate, our infallible beliefs.
When our beliefs are questioned, what do each of us jump back to? … The things in these three categories.
No matter what our belief group, or beliefs, we all share what we know “verifies our beliefs”, proves all “opposing beliefs” false and our interpretations of everything always line up with what each of us knows is truth. And, no matter what our beliefs, no matter what group we are in, our core beliefs “are” “truth”. And, of course, …
4.) Anything that doesn’t seem to fit with our views, we reinterpret, ignore, discredit, invalidate …
What “else” cements us into our current views?
5.) We may have experiences, signs, or other facts that are important to us. 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 we have facts about our belief group. Things like: Our belief group is the oldest, largest, fastest growing, wealthiest, has the most experts with doctorates… We include anything that adds assurance that our way is the best way.”
I call #1-5 above Methodology One: The Methodology of Belief Groups
But that is the process we use if we love our beliefs about God ... Those who love truth have a different process. One designed to force the beliefs to conform to the truth. The above process forces the truth to conform to whatever it is we want to believe. Just look around at all the different beliefs and belief groups doing the previous process.
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. Of course, this will put you at odds with your “belief” group. To them it is their core beliefs that are essential.
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.
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Understand, “Agreement with me might only make us both wrong.”
God seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The first methodology results in a lot of zealots for every belief you now see on the planet. It results in hardening all of those people more and more into what they want to believe. It cannot EVER get anyone practicing that methodology from incorrect beliefs "TO" truth.
Receive a love of the truth so as to be saved is not the same as loving what you "believe" to be truth. Love truth and you will sacrifice any or all of your current beliefs to get it. Love your beliefs and God will get you whatever it is you need to have complete assurance that your beliefs are "fact", but only those who receive a love of the truth will be saved.
As to the guilt... There is nothing I can do to undo the dozens of Christians having their faith in their God destroyed. I never took names and numbers. But... I believe God... I labor more than a lot of my contemporaries because I am a debtor to both Jew and Greek ... I owe everyone the truth, not what I believe to be truth, but how to know the difference, so they can get to the truth of all God's word says and means on every topic and thus complete the third part of the great commission .... Teach Disciples to OBEY ALL that I have commanded you.
I owe a debt no sane person could ever imagine paying off. Christ owns me, top to bottom, side to side, and all I have is on loan from Him, including my life. Do I regret my sins? Always. My destruction of the faith of others foremost. That said, If you love Me you will ... I love and I do... I have been forgiven so much. We will see by your consistent labors how much you have been forgiven for. Be a workman who need not be ashamed ... learn the difference between the Methodologies above and only do studies with those willing to forgo the first and focus on the second. God bless you brother. I can't wait to see what God does with you.
