Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Opinion vs. Absolute Truth; where there is no gray

Ten Commandments at the Texas State Capital in Austin , Texas
I'm often astounded by people, brothers and sisters in the church who hold to anti-biblical views. Often they are swayed by the media, this is loving, and if this is loving you must embrace it. I see "Christians" flock to ideas like evolution, global warming, overpopulation, abortion rights and sexual perversions simply because they are shown in such a positive light on television. They don't see how this world view is actually a contradiction of a biblical or Christian worldview. But why should they?
Many of our churches are not centers of theology (Growing in a better understanding of God and His nature), but are simply a place to exchange "Warm and Fuzzy" feelings. We leave the "God who hates sin and is full of wrath for those who defy His Holiness" at the door. There is only a place for a God who loves and accepts everyone, sorta a god of our own making. Even the quote attributed to St. Augustine "Hate the sin love the sinner" could even be construed as being unkind and hateful. How can you separate a sin like homosexuality from a man? It's now his identity, and it's endorsed as "normal" by our media and now our government.
Today my pondering isn't about homosexuality. I'm sure I'll write more on that at a later time, but today I must write this to those who call themselves "Christians". Who take upon themselves the identity of Jesus Christ, who we believe is God in flesh. Theology must be our life, our desire, our everything. We must be daily seeking knowledge in God's word, to know how to live as a distinct and holy people. We need to learn how to live in a world, but not become part of a world. To see the world as God see's the world.
To many Christians choose to have an opinion that is anti-biblical, thus picking and choosing what parts of the Bible they feel is 'relevant', to today. What weight does an opinion have if its not grounded in truth? Our truth isn't pop psychology, new trends in philosophy, or even the current events, our truth is the total and whole word of God. Every last part of it shows a God who doesn't change, and who loves holiness and purity.
But what is holiness and purity, since most churches have all but taken the ten commandments down, and stored them in the closet fearing that they be seen as legalism. We don't even know the standards. How can we be sinful if we don't know what sin is? In the book of Judges, a common phrase "the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord" over and over again. This is very similar to our current era, maybe we could say "the Christians did evil in the eyes of the Lord". This standard was a comparison to God's law, they decided they knew what to do, and the standard slid. I know we aren't saved by keeping the law, no one can keep it perfectly. The law is like a ruler to tell us what is right and wrong. If we don't know that we are wrong, how can we every ask God to make us right? How can we be saved if we have no idea what we are saved from (like the wrath of God). We are commanded to keep the law of God with us, why? Because the law of God, whether we like it or not, is God's standard of perfection. Of course we can't keep the law, and we've each broken every one of the commandments, but Jesus did keep it, and he was perfect, how can we appreciate and love Him more if we don't know what He did for us?
In judges 21:25 it says - "Back in those days, Israel didn't yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.", is that were we are today?
God's law is not an opinion, it's an absolute truth. The Facts are simple: God is Holy, we are not holy. When we try to find gray, we are actually "doing whatever seems right in our own opinion."