God's Inconvenient Truth, (Part #3)

Syncretism, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is “the reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief.” It is most evident in the areas of philosophy and religion and usually results in a new teaching or belief system that is un-reconciled to biblical Christianity.

I began this dissertation with a verse that stated, "The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name." (Exodus 15:3)  I began this blog several years ago when I published my first Bible Study book, "My search for the real God."  At that juncture of my life I was filled with confusion, even though Bible Study and Sunday School was an intricate part of my life.    The more I sit in these classes the more I become aware of the confusion of Christianity.  There is a shaped truth, a feel good truth that is expounded upon and there is an inconvenient truth, a truth that we do not wish to acknowledge, this truth is buried.

In today's Christian arena, there ideologies, concepts and doctrines that are confusing, some are old and some are new.  Do we attribute this to the false teachers that Jesus and Paul spoke so passionately about, or do we attribute this to a better understanding of God Word.  Now the questions emerges, do we understand the Word of God better than the early Christians or are we shaping the scripture to fit our preconceived notion of what we want God to be. 

The Old Testament definitely portrays the Lord as a man of war.  During the Old Testament events, God would kill the infidels.   As stated before the Old Testament, is fill with accounts of God selecting Kings and sending them out to destroy the wicked.  The New Testament Christian church adopted the rules of inquisitions to stamp out hearsay among the people.  The idea of persecuting a religious war soon lost favor with the people as we learned how to explain much of the scripture away.   

Syncretism allows us to remove certain segment of a verse or scripture, casting aside context and perspective and presenting it as a complete thought.      This form of interpretation allows the speaker to claim Bible support for alien doctrines and ideologies. 

A good speaker can pack the house with a message of, "How to get what you want from God" and a message of; "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" will go unheeded.      

Throughout the scripture, many seemly hidden truths allow for the manipulation of the Word of God.   Some of these hidden truths are not the intent of the author, but occur through the process of translation, while some is the result of interpretation.  When God spoke in the Garden of Eden, the Devil's interpretation caused man to sin.  What the Devil spoke seemed to be a logical truth, what God had said was an illogical truth.  In essence, why would God bring us to this place just to destroy us.

There are numerous types of truth. For this discussion, we will look at those that affect our biblical knowledge.  There is the truth, nothing but the truth, there is translated truth, and there is interpretive truth.   Compound words, which are native to the English language, allow truth to take on many distinctive forms, convenient truth and inconvenient truth.   Convenient truth is a type of shaped truth, such as twisting the scripture out of it context to make it say what we want it to say.  Paul's statement, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me", (Philippians 4:13) has nothing to do with getting a job and being successful.

Inconvenient truth is that truth that we are not prepared to deal with.   The book of Revelation is an example of many inconvenient truths.  A discussion of the Book of Revelation is often tempered with big words such "post-millennial", "pre-millennial" and "Amillennialism".  These words quickly render any discussion irrelevant, thereby hiding the truth and causing the believability of the Word of God to suffer.

If we were to accept that the events portrayed in Revelation are unfolding chronological order, this would expose certain truths that we are not prepared to accept.   

The Bible purposely filled with illogical truths profoundly states that it is the truth. How illogical is it for a man to say, you must be born again?  Why was it necessary for Jesus to shed his blood for us?  If a man dies, shall he live again?  Can we drink his blood and eat his flesh?   The Blood of Christ open the door to many of the inconvenient truth of God.  Maybe we need to shift our perspective

   

The blood of Jesus was more powerful than anything the Devil had ever faced.  Judas, the instrument of his hand committed suicide, but there was no power in his blood.  Some equate this as driving the Devil mad.  Paul later issues this warning and referred to the Devil as such, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, and seeking whom he may devour:" (1^st Peter 5:8)

When Jesus and the disciples taught the Gospel of the Kingdom a threat was implied, the wages of sin was death (Romans 6:23).   The populaces were encouraged to seek first the Kingdom of God.  Those that believed sought after the values of the Kingdom.  If we carefully study the scripture a strange paradox emerges, what God bring forth the Devil will attempt to use to his advantage.  For reasons not quite clear, Christians are reluctant to acknowledge the Holy wars depicted in the Old Testament.    Holy and unholy wars existed in the ancient Bible days, even today, there are wars fought in the name of God.  For centuries, wars between the Pagans, Protestants and Catholics have raged throughout the world.  Under the rule of the Catholic Church, heresy once was punishable by death.  Inquisition a court established by the Roman Catholic Church in the thirteenth century to try cases of heresy and other offenses against the church. Those convicted were handed over to the civil authorities for punishment, including execution.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, named the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.  Some describe him as the last Pope.  Pope Francis stepped outside of the church dogma in a flagrant attempt to bring peace to the warring factions of religion.   Pacification was his method of choice, the exchange of values, many of which will prove to be detrimental to Christian values.  Whether true or false it was reported that if the Catholic Church does not change its stance on same sex marriage, it would be barred from many countries.

As with all things natural, the rule of opposites applies.  There are the values of God and there are the values of the Devil.   There are Holy values and there are unholy values.   The battle waged today is not with guns and knives alone, it is the substitution of values.  That which once was unholy is now holy achieved through the pacification of Christian values.  

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:27-28)  This is an inconvenient truth.