UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES
The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc

1 Chronicles 12:32

JULY 2001

Why There Must Be Good Teaching in the Church

"Per your request, this is a brief description of the situation with my friend.

He is actually my boyfriend. When we met last summer, he spoke of religious views that for the most part were very similar to my own. It was a month or so later when I found out that he was a Mormon, but at the time did not fully understand the differences between us until I disclosed to a few of my Christian friends I was dating a Mormon.

I continued the relationship thinking as we all do that we can ‘change their views’ with our own over time. However, that of course is not what happened. I still remain very strong in my beliefs and am very much against his. The problem is that I allowed him to convince me to allow the relationship to go a direction I knew better than to go and I am now pregnant with our child.”

It is troubling enough to hear that a Christian in a solid church has no idea that Mormonism is a cult, and it is worse to hear that a person who has trusted in Christ for her eternal life is dating someone whose church teaches a different God, a different Jesus and a different gospel. But the most heart-wrenching aspect of the situation is that there is now a child involved whose life will be greatly affected because a Christian woman entangled herself with a member of a cult which uses Christian terms but rejects the Christ of the Bible.

This woman is to be commended for the fact that, in spite of her sin, she wants to do what is right. She would be willing to marry this man if he will turn from his cult and turn to Christ, but she realizes that she cannot be unequally yoked in marriage to a non-Christian.

This situation raises some questions in my mind concerning the church today:

How can a long-time member of a Bible-believing church not be aware of the aberrant nature of the largest cult on the face of the earth, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly known as the Mormons)?

Do conservative churches in our day lack the knowledge or the presence of mind to warn their members about the differences and dangers of the cults?

Or have evangelicals bought into the foolish worldly notion that we should not speak out against the teachings of groups with whom we disagree, even though these groups are deceiving millions of people and leading them into a Christless eternity?

Deborah and I are going to do all we can to help this woman. Please pray for us and for her boyfriend as we try to reach him with the true gospel of Jesus.

OTHER PRAYER REQUESTS

Our ministry is in need of two items that will greatly help us in doing first-rate presentations as we teach in churches and on college campuses.

First, we need a good LCD projector to use with our laptop computer so that our presentations can be both visually stimulating and intellectually challenging as we equip Christians to contend for the faith. Second, we need a scanner so that we can scan pictures and documents into the presentations. These items are expensive, so please pray that the Lord will provide.

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

UNDERSTANDING HOW TO THINK: Part One

Have you ever heard someone argue for something and you knew what he or she was saying was wrong, but you could not put your finger on why it was wrong?

Often today people will use illogical and specious arguments to promote their immoral or unchristian views. Two major reasons for this are:

The redefinition of truth in our day, and

The lack of understanding of the basic laws of logic.

Christians need to grasp both of these points so they can argue effectively concerning the veracity of Christianity and the validity of biblical principles of morality.

The reigning philosophy of our day, called “postmodernism,” rejects the traditional view of truth as objective, absolute and universal. As one writer puts it, “The newer view regards any truth as socially constructed, contingent, inseparable from the peculiar needs and preferences of certain people in a certain time and place. This notion has many implications – it leaves no value, custom, belief, or eternal verity totally untouched.”

And it is not only those outside the church who embrace this kind of thinking. One professor at a Christian college has written, “There is no such thing as objective truth, and it’s a good thing, too.” Another proclaimed in an article in a Christian magazine that “Christians who argue for the ‘objective’ truth of Jesus are making a tactical error,” because “Jesus did not arrive among us enunciating a set of propositions that we are to affirm.”

The Bible has a much different view of truth than the postmodernists do. Ephesians 6:14 says that we should fasten truth around our waist like a belt. Yahweh is referred to as the “Lord God of truth” in Psalm 31:5. Zechariah 8:3 tells us that one day Jerusalem shall be called “the City of Truth.” God declares in Isaiah 45:19 “I, the LORD, speak the truth,” and the psalmist says that the Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth (Ps. 145:18). Those who deal truthfully are the delight of the Lord (Prov. 12:22).

Jesus tells us that the Word of God is the truth (John 17:17), and twice He calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17, 15:26). Jesus boldly declares that He Himself is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and He informed Pilate that His mission in coming to Earth was “that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37).

Paul states that even though the truth of God in creation is clearly understood by all people, many nevertheless “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). Christians are to speak and live out the truth in love before a lost world (Eph 4:15), and the church is to be known as “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).

THE NATURE OF TRUTH

There are several things that should be understood about the true nature of truth.

First, truth exists. To deny that truth exists is to make a truth claim about reality, which itself is either true or false. Any denial of truth is a contradiction.

Second, truth is knowable. If truth exists (and we know it does) then truth is knowable. Just because no human being knows everything that is true, this does not mean that no truth can be known by man.

Third, truth is objective, not subjective. This means truth is outside of our personal opinions, desires, beliefs, or knowledge. If someone asks me “How many people attended your church on Sunday?” the fact that I don’t know the answer does not indicate there is no true answer. And if I give my opinion and say “660 people,” the correct answer of 611 will not change.

Fourth, truth is absolute, not relative. Truth does not change depending on who is perceiving that truth. It is true that 611 was the official attendance, even if 50 people said they thought the number was different. If one person says “God exists” and another says “There is no God” they cannot both be right. The absolute truth is God exists whether we believe it or not.

Fifth, truth is universal. It is true in all places and at all times that the attendance at my church was 611, and that eternal life is obtained by grace alone.

Sixth, truth is exclusive. There is only one right answer to the question “How much is 2+2?”. There are an infinite number of wrong answers, but the only correct answer is four.

We must understand what truth is in order to use it to reach out to a lost world with the good news of the Gospel.

Jude 3,
Dave

Posted under the Newsletter category on: Sunday, July 1st, 2001 at 9:50 pm
(7 years, 6 months ago)
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