This article is a response from last issues feature : Beware, Oprah's Teaching New Age
If truth is a matter of perspective then it would be relative or not absolute, depending on your perspective, correct? Let me say this in another way. The old adage is “there is your truth, my truth, and the real truth.” So, which one is true for you? Vicious cycle isn’t it?
When I read the article “Protect Your Woman” in the last issue of Prodigal Son I was compelled to respond because I believe there is another perspective on truth here that deserves a voice, especially to our younger generations.
Every human being with the capacity to think has choices. It is the one characteristic, given by God that differentiates us from all other species on this planet. One of the choices we must make is to determine what we will use as a belief system to guide our conduct through this thing we call life. In short, how we will live our lives now and eternally.
I think we can all agree that there are many factors that bring us to our present stations in life i.e., the influences or conditioning and choices that produced what we are. Because there are so many potential variables in the development of the human being one would almost have to wonder why we aren’t in more chaos than we are. But amid the growing chaos there is order, a design, a plan; thus a designer, a planner, God.
Try as we might and have over the years to subvert God the Fathers’ intent on revealing Himself to us and calling us into a right relationship with His real and Holy Truth, many of us are on a journey to seek that relationship with Him and if obedient to His Word and character, with each other. Therein lay the question and decision. How do we do that?
Since I do not know Oprah or Mr. Tolle personally I would not pretend to know their hearts or their minds. But, I can use one of the filters God gave me to help me decide how to conduct myself in relationship with them and that would be His Word. In Hebrews 4:11-13 it says:
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
I recognize that this is a different context for this scripture but, I believe it has application here. I believe God wants us to defend our faith by how we live our own lives and leave the judgment of others to Him. It is, after all, His creation, His law and His Son by whom we all exist.
There are so many cases of horrific inhumanities caused in part or in whole in the name of religious intolerance, all too many in the name of Christianity. We who have grown up in the faith may want to deny it but the truth is supported by historical document and perpetuated by ritualistic practices today.
An example would be how the church of today continues, in many instances and by doctrine to persecute the Jews (even those that identify Jesus as their Messiah) through replacement theology. Hey folks, in case anyone wants to get to the truth, Jesus was a Jew; His disciples in the New Testament were Jewish and His call is still on His chosen people…that’s right, they’re Jewish. It was and is a lifelong covenant. Yet, the predominant church of today continues to deny its anti-Semitic origin and integration of the pagan practices introduced and perpetuated for whatever reasons. Don’t believe me? Good, investigate the origins of Christmas and Easter and find out for yourselves. A great read on the subject is “Our Hands Are Stained With Blood” by Michael L. Brown.
Why did we discontinue celebrating Passover, the feasts, and move the Sabbath that Jesus himself observed? Why don’t we even call Jesus by His Hebrew name, Yeshua? To remove what influence? It’s another one of those choices you have to make; who is telling you the truth and what the real truth is.
My wife and I continue on our journey to deepen the relationship with the God who created us and the world and universe in which we live. We choose not to identify with false religions or teachers. Instead, we pray to have the Almighty God revealed to us and we see His Son as His earthly manifestation and our Savior. But, we use every tool His Holy spirit offers to us.
We all can continue to choose to segregate and separate ourselves by allowing our egos to overtake our true self or we can enhance the experience of Emanuel – G-d with us by being secured in who we are despite the labels put on us by those who desire to separate us for destruction.
Again, I do not choose to defend Oprah or Mr. Tolle, but I choose to see the light of Yeshua in the fruit of their work. Neither of them professes, to my knowledge, that this is a religious work. Instead, I see it as a way of viewing ourselves in the context of what has already been created by God. If I learn how to see myself in relationship to those around me and in conjunction with the foundation of God’s Word as my filter, I can successfully focus on my own contribution to His calling on my life.
I need not be concerned with trying to control what others believe. That would be foolishness and insanity. I can however live my life in the way Yeshua prescribed and continue to test what I believe. In this way I will achieve the purpose for which He created this human being.
My last words reflect how my wife and I view our obedience to Yeshua who pointed not to Himself but to the Father for how we should live. Read and live by what Yeshua said in Luke 10:25-28.
May the Shalom of Yeshua be with you!
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Comments
Bruce,
Thank you for your rebuttal to the piece that I wrote. I can see that which you are saying, but I hope that you can see the true intent of my piece, which was not trying to be judgmental of the people but of the stance. The truth that was spoken in their class falls out of line with the Word of God, whether they intended for the piece to be spiritual in nature or not. You said it can be your truth, my truth, or real truth...I agree totally. But which truth do we align ourselves with? I cannot see that sitting and absorbing things (once again, not the book, but the statements that were made within the class)that are spoken that are in direct contradiction to the Bible as being a means of spiritually growing. Remember, God doesn't have a gray area for truth...it is black and white.
I do not believe in segregation of Christians but I do believe that we have to take stances on things. It is why the church is less effective today than ever before. In fact, due to the church now looking like the world, people have to wonder what it is that sets us apart. Christians rarely, if ever, take a stance on anything because we all have to be politically correct now. Why is that? Am I judgmental because I say that a statement is wrong and we should be careful in absorbing that input into our lives? I seek not to control what anyone believes, but as part of the "younger generation" that you say you are concerned for, I want nothing else than to be told truth and for false teachings to be shown to me as well.
A preacher in our area was preaching about the same things when I wrote the piece and I had no idea that he was preaching on those topics when I wrote that piece. Amazingly, I am a youth pastor as well, so God was showing something to both of us. We have nothing against Oprah or Mr. Tolle, but we do have trouble with the bending of Scripture or outright contradiction to it. As I said in my piece, we all need to be in prayer for her and him, as well as we need to pray for ourselves and everyone else around us. I respect your opinion and believe that you make vald points, but hope that you will understand that I come not from being judgmental and forcing what I believe on others, but as a person who heard something and felt the need to tell others that which I heard and what I felt God leading me to write. There are universal truths that are laid out in God's word and here is something that bothered me. To say what my piece said, I did not have to take Scripture out of context. To back your point, you had to bend one. Which one holds more water? Taking the Bible at what it said, or bending it because we think that it could apply?
As I said before, I understand your viewpoint and believe that there are many others who will have your same opinion. I also have my viewpoint, which others also have responded to, not from me pressuring them, but because they felt it resonated with what they believed as well.
I appreciate this greatly as it has opened the door for discussion that I believe we need in the world today. I respect your piece and feel that it was well-written and I have enjoyed our discussion. I love you as a brother in Christ and hope we both can see that we have common ground in Jesus, even if we have a differing opinion on this issue. Be blessed brother and continue to submit work to PSM.
In Christ,
Andy Clapp
Posted by: Andy Clapp | April 19, 2008 10:31 AM
Dear Andy,
Thank you for your response. I too, greatly appreciate the open dialogue, especially with candor and I feel we have a common bond in our spirit because of Yeshua our Messiah and in our gifts of expression. It is here I want to thank Jason again for this forum.
While there is more to discuss than we have time or space for here, I do want to address a couple of points.
1. I accept your position as a true conviction of yours. You articulate what you believe well.
2. I think my main point is that I want our younger generations to learn how to think, how to recognize choices and decisions, and how to test what they are being told as truth, not only by Oprah, but by our church and community leadership as well.
Quite often, and I have experienced this first hand, church leadership can explain the doctrine as they have been taught but they cannot answer the questions if they are outside of doctrinal teachings of their denomination. This, I believe, is why Christians today are less effective. Not only are we failing to learn the Word of God, but we are failing to test it and apply it and the Word as it is being taught today in many churches is void of its heritage. Most of it was removed by the church fathers in the time of Constantine and we are blindly accepting it as truth because someone in authority said it.
As far as the black and whiteness of His Word, the pharisees wanted to trick Yeshua in the same way when they confronted Him with healing on the Sabbath. He was more concerned with the attitude of our hearts than with religious interpretation of the law.
It is a testimony of your heart that you are willing to defend that which you believe and I think we have more in common than we know, but Praise God, we also have more to discuss.
I will leave you with one last request and I am not proselytizing here, but seek out a messianic synagogue nearby or attend a Jewish History class or read the book I suggested in the article. I hope this will enhance your perspective.
Thank you, Andy! I know our Father in Heaven is smiling because you are searching for Him. Keep it up and you will find the real truth!
Yours truly in Him,
Bruce
Posted by: Bruce Noll | April 20, 2008 08:28 AM
Bruce,
In my reading of yours and Andy's articles, you come across as extremely politically correct. Not something that christians throughout history have been. You seem to be afraid to judge people. Even people that call themselves christians. Jesus told the Jews in Matthew 7 (Matthew was written to the Jews) that in whatever manner they judge others, they too will be judged. As a follower of Christ, if I judge someone for their religious teachings, I welcome them to judge me for my religious teachings.
Paul was pretty clear when writing to Timothy "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies." Tim 1:3-4
I believe one of the greatest dangers to the christian church is not from those who oppose christianity, but from those that want to modify christian beliefs to suit cultural values, political doctrines, and popular beliefs.
I believe that we as christians are supposed to openly and publicly challenge those we see teaching false doctrine. Are we supposed to do it hatefully with wailing and gnashing of teeth? I don't think so. We can do it with love and kindness. But we are supposed to do it.
You said, " I do not choose to defend Oprah or Mr. Tolle, but I choose to see the light of Yeshua in the fruit of their work."
1 Timothy 4 "These promote controversies rather than God's work---which is by faith."
The teachings of Oprah and Mr. Tolle do promote controversies. Would we be posting on PSM otherwise? Preachers and Theologians across the nation are up in arms over their teachings. Where is the light of Yeshua in all of this controversy?
Peace.
jon
Posted by: jon rodgers | May 24, 2008 10:37 AM