(March 10, 2006)
The object of this article is to dissuade people from seeking refuge in a world of fantasy, adulterated idealism or ideology. Here are a few passages from the Holy Scriptures to shed some light on the subject and to help guide you onto a path that leads to eternal life and not eternal death.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 NKJV
There is danger in wanting to hear only smooth things.
Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the LORD;
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11 Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”
12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”
Isaiah 30:8-14 NKJV
Notice that the sooth things of verse 10 are rendered oppression and perversity in verse 12. Do not be deceived by smooth talkers, they speak perversion and oppression.
They gather to themselves people of like mind.
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: 2Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3For 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; 4and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1 NKJV
On reading theses passages I find it difficult to think of ways to clarify them or simplify them without sounding like a parrot. It is clear that Christianity is not adopting blinders to the world and following the idealisms conjured up in a smooth talker’s mind but in following the ways of God as taught through the scriptures.
1 You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything. 2 Timothy 2:1-7 RSV
It is not the way of the idealists, whether they are economists, civil servants or soothsayers, that make things right but the way of God. Here is an example for us to check our progress as a society, is the farmer getting the first share of the crop? Or are the soothsayers manipulating and deceiving us?
Think over what you have read here. Reread and learn the lessons. Take it to heart and pick up your cross as Christ did. It is not always easy and sometimes failure is reality, but remember to pray for forgiveness as we forgive those who trespass against us. Which reminds me, there are two kinds of surveyors, frost bitten surveyors and flee bitten surveyors, FBS’s. Thank God for the recovery seasons. If not for the grace of God, we are doomed.
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