Know With Certainty The Truth About Life
Know With Certainty The Truth About Life
Death, Taxes and Your Eternal Nature
People observe that death and taxes are certainties in life and this provides some wit in relation to taxes. It is suggested that with certainty you can also know that you are eternal, that is you will exist forever. Every person who ever lived still exists. Some people believe the truth about life is known only from the Bible. Thus, we should look at the bible to see if that is true? Could it possibly be true that the often rejected bible really contains the answers? If that were the case, what does the Bible provide as the meaning of life and then is there a certain way I should live my life? If a person could have that knowledge it would be quite a blessing. There are some good reasons to believe that the bible does not provide the answers to life’s deeper questions, for instance:
1) The bible is confusing and even those who follow the bible teach differently regarding how to live life and about the afterlife.
2) The bible can be so harsh and often condemns things that seem to be accepted behavior.
3) The bible is full of contradictions and things problematic for science.
4) The persons who follow the bible are often very bigoted and self-righteous.
I would suggest that many people think understanding life’s meaning would be a problem for them. Thus they never look! I am pretty certain that many if not most people believe no one can know with certainty the meaning of life and that keeps many from looking. The evidence of this is seen in an unwillingness to discuss such issues.
Certainty – Getting There
How can a person be certain the bible contains the truth or conversely that the bible is just another (albeit the most well-known) religious invention of some man and/or woman? Before you complete reading this post you may have a different perspective about this subject. Most people have received certain instruction, had certain influences and when combined with what they WANT they form their belief system. Frequently, we are not fully aware of the things, of the influences that have brought us to our current belief system. We might say, “This is what I believe.” It makes sense to you even if you cannot fit all the pieces together. That belief system might align with some religion or it might be atheistic or it might simply be, “I do not care,” or it could be, “I am still working at understanding life but I will likely never know” or “I am just too busy and it is so confusing, no one really knows.” Contrast that to, “I want the truth and nothing short of the truth will satisfy me.” One of these attitudes has a much better chance of finding the truth. WHAT IF, the key to a successful life, a great ending and a new beginning was directly related to an attitude of seeking the truth. Now, if we assume the bible is from God and is God’s revelation to man, what does it teach in relation to life’s meaning? It turns out, the bible does teach the critical importance of seeking the truth and along those lines the God of the bible decides your fate. It should not be a surprise that God cares that you care and also cares that you are not so self-centered to believe what YOU think is best or right. People live their whole human existence and never even know if there is truth and yet those with the strength and courage to find truth with all its feared possible difficulties can easily achieve what God had in mind. Jesus referred to Himself as the way, the truth and the life.
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
The bible is beloved in its teaching, its wisdom, its majesty and yet much of the bible bothers people because God is not liberal, not “all accepting” but very narrow such as above indicating NO ONE Comes to the Father except through Me! The truth is indeed narrow and people who cannot submit themselves to the will of God will be rejected by God. Strangely, when people create God as they want Him to be, they somehow believe that their liberal version of God is what God wants.
In affect they reject the God of the bible and condemn themselves to a failed life. It is a very old story and Cain rejected God’s command and brought what he thought was best and God rejected Cain. The practice of substituting what we think for what God says is exactly the same. God will not accept substitutes, He never has and He never will. God will accept the truth and nothing else and Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the only truth, the only way and the only path to eternal life with God – according to the bible. As soon as you think, “obviously this cannot be God” you have fallen into the trap. The very thing God designed to differentiate those who love Him from those who do not is seeking God’s way and not our own way and the smallest little thing and you abandon seeking to understand God. The very minute you say the God of the bible is unfair you underestimate God and His ability to “handle” all your concerns and handle them perfectly. The very minute you think God should have more directly shared His purposes with mankind you show that you do not understand God’s plan. God, of course, did share His plan but only those who love the truth will come to that knowledge. It is not an academic understanding, but understanding God involves the heart, really your mind in the sense of your deepest convictions and “mixed in” are all the characteristics that are the sum total of you. It may be that you want the truth, but there is no humility and thus you will not accept anything different than your preconceived / indoctrinated ideas about God. God knows all the things that will allow you to be successful in life and all the things that will lead to your downfall and indeed it will be your decision.
Because They Did Not Receive A Love Of The Truth
The seriousness of having a love of the truth in relation to salvation is emphasized powerfully in:
2Thessalonians 2.9-12
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The God of the bible emphasizes, “The love of the truth” even to the point of providing strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Why? It seems God is working against you when in fact your attitude, and perhaps your attitude regarding truth is such that you will gladly accept something that best fits your needs. In effect, it is your stubbornness, your pride that allows you to look elsewhere and God allows your folly – it is part of His plan for those who reject God’s answer to sin, that is reject His Son. It is not a contradiction that He is long-suffering to mankind wishing none to perish but even in your state of believing a lie you are alive and if you have the courage, and dedicated desire for truth – there is still hope. Certainly, what typically happens is that a person just digs deeper and deeper to support their present beliefs not realizing way back there in time they accepted the lie. Life is serious business and it is a lie to believe otherwise, it is serious because you are eternal and life is all about the soul and ABSOLUTELY ABOUT NOTHING ELSE.
Hearing, Not Hearing …. Seeing, Not Seeing
The word of God rings powerful to some ears while falling on deaf ears of many others. God, explains this in Matthew 13.13-15
Matthew 13.13-15
13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
When you understand God, you will see Him warning people regarding how easily they can fall prey to error. Like above, the truth is before people but they do not see it because they choose not to hear, not too see. As we weave our way through life we have many choices and although all ultimately want what God offers we get very myopic to the immediate goal, to the immediate pleasure, to really selfishness and fail to see the long term truly valuable goal. Life is certainly a test, a perfect test devised by the God of heaven. God will have exactly the kind of person with whom He wants to spend eternity. The interesting part is that you will decide your fate.
One of the strangest of things is that as you look around the world you notice few care about spiritual things. Generally, the ones who say they care about the spiritual do not understand the necessary relationship to the truth. So, spiritual persons believe a hundred different things and there is little or no real commitment to the truth. The commitment is to their individual idea of spirituality and if one thing is essential to meaningful spirituality it is THE TRUTH.
Cosmic Intelligence
There are books filled with evidences indicating the Bible is from God and of course there are books claiming that the Bible is not from God. We will look at this issue differently, much more simply than many have done.
If you are indeed honest with yourself, and Albert Einstein was very outwardly honest in matters regarding God, then like Einstein be inquisitive about your existence. Einstein knew that there was something scientifically unknowable at work in our existence and that man would never be able to explain his existence. Sometimes he would refer to life as resulting from the “cosmic intelligence,” but most frequently he would just refer to the unknowable as God. Yet, Einstein was typical in His hope that God was not as described in the Bible, that is, a God interested in the morality of mankind. So, for him he was aware of intelligence in the creation but would even deny God if God were to judge the deeds of men and women as described in the bible. Many in the past, contemporary with Einstein and to this very day “deep down” believe similarly. Thus it was not God, an ultimate intelligence/designer that bothered Einstein and others but the that the God of the bible judged men’s actions.
Really Basic Stuff
Actually, we should not even exist, nothing should exist – no matter, no atoms/quarks/bosons, nothing. There should never have been a thought, a tree, a planet, an animal, a universe and there should be no time, time should not exist. What we see has only one answer and the bible states it in verse one – “In the beginning, God.”
However, since “all these things” do exist and much, much more it is because of God. Many propose that the Bible is just the ramblings of a bunch of men and suggest it would have been impossible for the Bible to be accurately delivered to mankind. Then they make some reasonable arguments to support their premise. There were about 40 authors of the bible over the centuries and they must have possessed various prejudices, made clerical errors and so-on. It seems highly unlikely that the message we have today could be correct. The potential prejudices, errors in copying, translating documents assure we would not have the correct message today. It would be a good argument except our very existence also seems impossible. If we understand the purpose for life, then we quickly realize that God would not make any mistakes in getting His message to man. No mistakes in creation, no mistakes in the message. But wait, there are all these potential problems that are worrisome to men in relation to having the right message. Man could not see how we could have the word of God correctly but for God it was easy and the word of God exists exactly in the WAY and MANNER God intended. The WAY and MANNER meaning the Word of God exists such that man can doubt it in a reasonable way. Yet, also in a way that truth seekers can be assured that it is from God. The word of God is perfect for His purpose! If you want to reject God as the God of the Bible you can reasonably do that but if you want the truth and nothing but the truth you can find it. It is along these lines that God will make His choices for heaven – it is the great test, the only truly important thing in your life!
This Life, All This
Just To Determine Your Character
And Then Your Eternal Fate
The book “What Is Life All About” describes the sort of person God seeks and it involves the character of the person. One of those critically important characteristics is humility while a great deal of the world is characterized by arrogance, self indulgence, selfishness, greed and usually there is a great deal of pride. There is little room for God when these things are present. These latter attitudes keep a person from finding the truth and thus the best ending to their life. In the following verses, God is revealing a great deal about how He will differentiate the successful from the unsuccessful life and it is consistent with the teachings of all scripture. The wise people are those in the context (below) that are wise according to the flesh or wise in the ways of the world. Jesus describes the WORLD in opposition to Him. God’s children are in the world, but not of the world.
1 Corinthians 1:25-31
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.
30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
So, once again what is your attitude? Is it humble in finding the truth, open minded to the truth? God’s people know they are the special creation of God, in His image. “Wise men” of the world teach you are the product of evolution and an accident resulting in intelligence and that scenario is in opposition to God. You have a spiritual nature that animals do not have, you have an eternal soul and there is no one quite like you! You do not owe your existence to some long chain of evolutionary happenings but mankind is here for God’s purpose. The rest of creation is just the stage wherein your part will be played. The universe, the other living creatures are all just props. There is one thing that God wants you to understand and that is He loves His creation and that His love for you is all wrapped up in His Son. If you reject Jesus, you reject God’s love and will be eternally without His love. This loss is beyond description, nonetheless, God describes that loss in ways you might understand as a physical being.
People Miss The Obvious
An attitude of seeking the truth can very quickly bring one to the conclusion that many miss the obvious. Many who say they seek the truth really are just looking for confirmation of what they already believe. This is hardly truth seeking. Most never seek or care to know the truth because they similarly see the truth as just what each individual personally believes. It is YOUR truth and often along with that you can hear statements like we are all gods.
Life, your life, my life, all human beings experience confusion, bewilderment about their existence, as to why we exist and to our eventual end. It can be perplexing and the strong delusion is frequently what we have been taught, often from some religious organization. Frequently, that instruction comes from so-called “Christian” religious groups.
If the truth is so straight forward, why is there so much confusion? The reasons are as follows:
1) Many people teach what they want to believe while claiming to follow the bible. Like all things there is truth and there is error. So it is not an opinion or my belief that needs to be taught but the truth. A typical conclusion is that everyone has their own interpretation of the bible as though God’s message can mean anything. That is just not the truth. God makes it clear in 2 Peter 1.20,21 that private interpretation is not acceptable.
2 Peter 1:20,21
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The lie is that people cannot understand the Bible the same and the proof is that they don’t. In reality many people teach differently and claim they are teaching from the bible and for some strange reason people conclude the bible cannot be understood in a uniform, consistent way. The failure is not the Bible message but those who claim to teach from the Bible. It turns out that every truth seeker (those who put aside prejudices) can know the truth, the singular truth and there is nothing difficult about the truth – it is easy. All you have to do is as taught in 1 Peter 4.11.
1 Peter 4:11
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Few understand the strength of this admonition and thus we have all the problems of believing hundreds of different things. Speaking as the oracles of God means as God breathes, or the utterances of God as God provided via the Holy Spirit. Many think it would be boring just speaking as God spoke in the scriptures and so they embellish, change the scriptures and in the process lose the value intended by God. We do not need highly educated men and women to teach the message but instead just read and obey. So when God says, that scripture is not of any private interpretation, that is what He means. When Jesus tells the Jews “you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” that is exactly what He means. You see, you can argue with any statement except with God you cannot argue AND at the same time be wise and learn what God wants you to know! This is the great lesson and repeated throughout scripture in many different ways.
2 Timothy 4:1-3
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
I just do not know of anything more strongly taught in scripture than, “preach the word.” There is nothing to be argued, although it is perfectly alright to argue a point but in the end it needs to be just as God has delivered the truth – the utterances of God. Filter what man say about the constitution, about science, but God’s word is not to be filtered. There is much more needed in terms of opening your mind to the truth, to having the desire for truth, to removing prejudices than there is a need to argue God’s meaning. God meant exactly what He said and nothing else can replace His meaning. If you want to understand that better then begin to understand God and many of the difficulties will disappear.
2) The second reason (for the confusion) is because the truth is hard to receive due to the way it affects our desires, in the way it affects what we want to believe about God. God knew these issues would exist and they are a difficulty for everyone who does not love the truth, does not love God. Many people define God as they envision He must be and when they read the Bible, they say God (as they define Him) cannot be that way. Sometimes, people become quite foolish in this regard and say, “If God is this or that way” they don’t want anything to do with that God. This is like idolatry, they are defining the nature of God, indeed foolish! In all these cases, people fail due to pride, self-interest, and they are never are willing to submit themselves to God.
One of the worst things a person can do is to accept the confusion brought by religion as a reason to stop their search for truth. Modern religions for the most part are in opposition to God in that they teach serious error. The distinction is: GOD IS TRUTH but RELIGION IS TYPICALLY NOT THE TRUTH; Therefore, do not equate religion with God. Search for truth and you will find it.
Cleaning Up
Near the beginning of this article, I suggested 4 reasons (of the many reasons) people reject the bible. The answers to these objections and many others can be easily provided and I have done so below for each objection. I apologize if anyone thought that I might be supportive of those reasons, but actually they were things that at one time I did support as “reasonable.”
Reason 1)
The bible is confusing and even those who follow the bible teach differently regarding how to live life and about the afterlife.
RESPONSE:
Who is to blame for this man or God, God abhors that men have taught differently from His truth and will hold them responsible just as you are responsible to find the truth.
Reason 2)
The bible can be so harsh and often condemns things that seem to be accepted behavior.
RESPONSE:
Again, once you understand God you understand He has the right to make the rules and this is a significant part of His test for man.
Reason 3)
The bible is full of contradictions and things problematic for science.
RESPONSE:
The bible contains things that can be construed as plausible contradictions because God allows people to see what they want to see – an honest and thorough evaluation done with an understanding of God and His purpose easily clears up the issues. Frequently, science in areas where there is no validating evidence proposes theories which inevitably change from generation to generation. Unfortunately, these theories often become accepted as fact or the best we can do and are taught to young minds. The bible is not a science book but where it speaks in relation to things that might be considered science it is accurate.
Reason 4)
The persons who follow the bible are often very bigoted and self-righteous.
RESPONSE:
This is frequently true, but if a person claims to be following the Bible is there any assurance he/she is representing the truth correctly and living in accordance with Christian principles? Of course not, therefore Christianity should not receive a bad name as the result of the many who claim Christianity but dishonor the teaching. Those who indeed are Christians live as Jesus described in the Sermon on the mount and ALWAYS have a concern for others. Nonetheless, people living congruently with the truth and teaching the truth as they must may receive bigoted, self-righteous labels simply because they do not align with the common belief on various issues. Christians speak the truth in love. Jesus tells His disciples they will hate you because they hated Him. They hated Jesus enough to kill Him and no disciple of Jesus wants to suffer physically/mentally or be murdered, but in the course of bringing the message this may be the result.
I would suggest that many people think understanding life’s meaning would be a problem for them. Thus they never look! I am pretty certain that many if not most people believe no one can know with certainty the meaning of life and that keeps many from looking. The evidence of this is seen in an unwillingness to discuss such issues.
In affect they reject the God of the bible and condemn themselves to a failed life. It is a very old story and Cain rejected God’s command and brought what he thought was best and God rejected Cain. The practice of substituting what we think for what God says is exactly the same. God will not accept substitutes, He never has and He never will. God will accept the truth and nothing else and Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the only truth, the only way and the only path to eternal life with God – according to the bible. As soon as you think, “obviously this cannot be God” you have fallen into the trap. The very thing God designed to differentiate those who love Him from those who do not is seeking God’s way and not our own way and the smallest little thing and you abandon seeking to understand God. The very minute you say the God of the bible is unfair you underestimate God and His ability to “handle” all your concerns and handle them perfectly. The very minute you think God should have more directly shared His purposes with mankind you show that you do not understand God’s plan. God, of course, did share His plan but only those who love the truth will come to that knowledge. It is not an academic understanding, but understanding God involves the heart, really your mind in the sense of your deepest convictions and “mixed in” are all the characteristics that are the sum total of you. It may be that you want the truth, but there is no humility and thus you will not accept anything different than your preconceived / indoctrinated ideas about God. God knows all the things that will allow you to be successful in life and all the things that will lead to your downfall and indeed it will be your decision.
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The God of the bible emphasizes, “The love of the truth” even to the point of providing strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Why? It seems God is working against you when in fact your attitude, and perhaps your attitude regarding truth is such that you will gladly accept something that best fits your needs. In effect, it is your stubbornness, your pride that allows you to look elsewhere and God allows your folly – it is part of His plan for those who reject God’s answer to sin, that is reject His Son. It is not a contradiction that He is long-suffering to mankind wishing none to perish but even in your state of believing a lie you are alive and if you have the courage, and dedicated desire for truth – there is still hope. Certainly, what typically happens is that a person just digs deeper and deeper to support their present beliefs not realizing way back there in time they accepted the lie. Life is serious business and it is a lie to believe otherwise, it is serious because you are eternal and life is all about the soul and ABSOLUTELY ABOUT NOTHING ELSE.
14 “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
One of the strangest of things is that as you look around the world you notice few care about spiritual things. Generally, the ones who say they care about the spiritual do not understand the necessary relationship to the truth. So, spiritual persons believe a hundred different things and there is little or no real commitment to the truth. The commitment is to their individual idea of spirituality and if one thing is essential to meaningful spirituality it is THE TRUTH.
If you are indeed honest with yourself, and Albert Einstein was very outwardly honest in matters regarding God, then like Einstein be inquisitive about your existence. Einstein knew that there was something scientifically unknowable at work in our existence and that man would never be able to explain his existence. Sometimes he would refer to life as resulting from the “cosmic intelligence,” but most frequently he would just refer to the unknowable as God. Yet, Einstein was typical in His hope that God was not as described in the Bible, that is, a God interested in the morality of mankind. So, for him he was aware of intelligence in the creation but would even deny God if God were to judge the deeds of men and women as described in the bible. Many in the past, contemporary with Einstein and to this very day “deep down” believe similarly. Thus it was not God, an ultimate intelligence/designer that bothered Einstein and others but the that the God of the bible judged men’s actions.
Really Basic Stuff
Actually, we should not even exist, nothing should exist – no matter, no atoms/quarks/bosons, nothing. There should never have been a thought, a tree, a planet, an animal, a universe and there should be no time, time should not exist. What we see has only one answer and the bible states it in verse one – “In the beginning, God.”
However, since “all these things” do exist and much, much more it is because of God. Many propose that the Bible is just the ramblings of a bunch of men and suggest it would have been impossible for the Bible to be accurately delivered to mankind. Then they make some reasonable arguments to support their premise. There were about 40 authors of the bible over the centuries and they must have possessed various prejudices, made clerical errors and so-on. It seems highly unlikely that the message we have today could be correct. The potential prejudices, errors in copying, translating documents assure we would not have the correct message today. It would be a good argument except our very existence also seems impossible. If we understand the purpose for life, then we quickly realize that God would not make any mistakes in getting His message to man. No mistakes in creation, no mistakes in the message. But wait, there are all these potential problems that are worrisome to men in relation to having the right message. Man could not see how we could have the word of God correctly but for God it was easy and the word of God exists exactly in the WAY and MANNER God intended. The WAY and MANNER meaning the Word of God exists such that man can doubt it in a reasonable way. Yet, also in a way that truth seekers can be assured that it is from God. The word of God is perfect for His purpose! If you want to reject God as the God of the Bible you can reasonably do that but if you want the truth and nothing but the truth you can find it. It is along these lines that God will make His choices for heaven – it is the great test, the only truly important thing in your life!
This Life, All This
Just To Determine Your Character
And Then Your Eternal Fate
1 Corinthians 1:25-31
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.
30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
So, once again what is your attitude? Is it humble in finding the truth, open minded to the truth? God’s people know they are the special creation of God, in His image. “Wise men” of the world teach you are the product of evolution and an accident resulting in intelligence and that scenario is in opposition to God. You have a spiritual nature that animals do not have, you have an eternal soul and there is no one quite like you! You do not owe your existence to some long chain of evolutionary happenings but mankind is here for God’s purpose. The rest of creation is just the stage wherein your part will be played. The universe, the other living creatures are all just props. There is one thing that God wants you to understand and that is He loves His creation and that His love for you is all wrapped up in His Son. If you reject Jesus, you reject God’s love and will be eternally without His love. This loss is beyond description, nonetheless, God describes that loss in ways you might understand as a physical being.
Life, your life, my life, all human beings experience confusion, bewilderment about their existence, as to why we exist and to our eventual end. It can be perplexing and the strong delusion is frequently what we have been taught, often from some religious organization. Frequently, that instruction comes from so-called “Christian” religious groups.
If the truth is so straight forward, why is there so much confusion? The reasons are as follows:
1) Many people teach what they want to believe while claiming to follow the bible. Like all things there is truth and there is error. So it is not an opinion or my belief that needs to be taught but the truth. A typical conclusion is that everyone has their own interpretation of the bible as though God’s message can mean anything. That is just not the truth. God makes it clear in 2 Peter 1.20,21 that private interpretation is not acceptable.
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The lie is that people cannot understand the Bible the same and the proof is that they don’t. In reality many people teach differently and claim they are teaching from the bible and for some strange reason people conclude the bible cannot be understood in a uniform, consistent way. The failure is not the Bible message but those who claim to teach from the Bible. It turns out that every truth seeker (those who put aside prejudices) can know the truth, the singular truth and there is nothing difficult about the truth – it is easy. All you have to do is as taught in 1 Peter 4.11.
2 Timothy 4:1-3
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
I just do not know of anything more strongly taught in scripture than, “preach the word.” There is nothing to be argued, although it is perfectly alright to argue a point but in the end it needs to be just as God has delivered the truth – the utterances of God. Filter what man say about the constitution, about science, but God’s word is not to be filtered. There is much more needed in terms of opening your mind to the truth, to having the desire for truth, to removing prejudices than there is a need to argue God’s meaning. God meant exactly what He said and nothing else can replace His meaning. If you want to understand that better then begin to understand God and many of the difficulties will disappear.
2) The second reason (for the confusion) is because the truth is hard to receive due to the way it affects our desires, in the way it affects what we want to believe about God. God knew these issues would exist and they are a difficulty for everyone who does not love the truth, does not love God. Many people define God as they envision He must be and when they read the Bible, they say God (as they define Him) cannot be that way. Sometimes, people become quite foolish in this regard and say, “If God is this or that way” they don’t want anything to do with that God. This is like idolatry, they are defining the nature of God, indeed foolish! In all these cases, people fail due to pride, self-interest, and they are never are willing to submit themselves to God.
One of the worst things a person can do is to accept the confusion brought by religion as a reason to stop their search for truth. Modern religions for the most part are in opposition to God in that they teach serious error. The distinction is: GOD IS TRUTH but RELIGION IS TYPICALLY NOT THE TRUTH; Therefore, do not equate religion with God. Search for truth and you will find it.
Reason 1)
The bible is confusing and even those who follow the bible teach differently regarding how to live life and about the afterlife.
RESPONSE:
Who is to blame for this man or God, God abhors that men have taught differently from His truth and will hold them responsible just as you are responsible to find the truth.
Reason 2)
The bible can be so harsh and often condemns things that seem to be accepted behavior.
RESPONSE:
Again, once you understand God you understand He has the right to make the rules and this is a significant part of His test for man.
Reason 3)
The bible is full of contradictions and things problematic for science.
RESPONSE:
The bible contains things that can be construed as plausible contradictions because God allows people to see what they want to see – an honest and thorough evaluation done with an understanding of God and His purpose easily clears up the issues. Frequently, science in areas where there is no validating evidence proposes theories which inevitably change from generation to generation. Unfortunately, these theories often become accepted as fact or the best we can do and are taught to young minds. The bible is not a science book but where it speaks in relation to things that might be considered science it is accurate.
Reason 4)
The persons who follow the bible are often very bigoted and self-righteous.
RESPONSE:
This is frequently true, but if a person claims to be following the Bible is there any assurance he/she is representing the truth correctly and living in accordance with Christian principles? Of course not, therefore Christianity should not receive a bad name as the result of the many who claim Christianity but dishonor the teaching. Those who indeed are Christians live as Jesus described in the Sermon on the mount and ALWAYS have a concern for others. Nonetheless, people living congruently with the truth and teaching the truth as they must may receive bigoted, self-righteous labels simply because they do not align with the common belief on various issues. Christians speak the truth in love. Jesus tells His disciples they will hate you because they hated Him. They hated Jesus enough to kill Him and no disciple of Jesus wants to suffer physically/mentally or be murdered, but in the course of bringing the message this may be the result.