The Neccessity of Conviction

In our inclusivistic culture it has become offensive to hold to convictions. This attitude has confused well meaning believers into thinking that dogma is bad and that people will only listen if you present yourself as having an open mind. The thing that is sticky though is that the only way to present yourself as having an open mind is to deny the certainty of your belief. Why would anybody want to believe something that you are not certain of yourself? Scripture teaches that we can be certain. Consider for a moment 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul begins by rhetorically asking in verses 1-4 if they need a letter of endorsement in order to trust his authority. Paul is asking what is the evidence they need to be convinced that what he is saying is the truth. Paul answers his question by pointing out that physical ink is not sufficient to convince anybody. Rather the evidence is written on the heart of the believer as a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Notice verse 4, “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God”. we see here that conviction comes by the means of Christ. Next Paul compares the truth that was given through Moses which was the Law with the truth that is given through the Holy Spirit which is grace. The law was written down on tablets of stone and the people had to trust that what was written was exactly what God had intended. Now, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai his face glowed from being in the presence of Gods unveiled glory testifying that Moses had been in the presence of God. So the Israelites were convinced because they were seeing third hand the evidence that what was written was from God. Paul then points out that it is much more powerful for those who receive the truth directly from the Holy Spirit since they are receiving it first hand. Paul also states that the truth from the internal testimony from the Holy Spirit is more powerful then the truth that comes from the written law because the law was coming to an end and the Spirit is permanent. Verse 12 says ” Since we have such a hope, we are very bold“. So since we have conviction because the sureity of the first hand internal testimony of the Holy Spirit and confidence because it is permanent we can now have an attitude of boldness. Paul continues in verses 13-18 with this idea of contrasting the Law with the Internal testimoney of the Holy Spirit and shame with boldness. Paul states that Moses veiled the glory that was radiating off of him as a result of recieving the law from God. The reason Paul teaches for the veil was so that Israel would not see the result of something that was coming to the end, which was the law. Paul now makes a spirititual analogy of the veil and the heart of unbelievers. He states that the law is a veil to the heart of the unbeliever and only turning to the Lord will remove the veil. Paul now applys this to believers and teaches that since you are believers you are now with unveiled faces percieving the glory of God. Since we have unveiled faces we can be people of conviction because we clearly recognize the truth. So lets recapp we have first hand source of truth because of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that is permanent and will not pass away. We have unveiled access to that truth. We have no excuse to not be people of passionate conviction. The only way to reach the lost is for them to see us being changed by that conviction.

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,(1 )are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Change in Plans this Summer

Well I still have every intention of completing my personal project, which is to criticaly compare what I am convinced is the truth with others are convinced is true. At the very least I will still review Carl Sagans book “Demon Haunted World” when I have the opportunity out of faithfulness to a freind. However, my plans this summer have changed. I am something like a 7th year senior and decided to take the summer off and use my extra time for personal reflection and growth. Which was what I was doing until a month ago. Now I am leading a youth group and teaching regularly on top of getting more opportunities to fill pulpit in area churches. So the content of my studies has shifted. Since I really don’t want to abandon what I have started here I am just going to blog about my discoveries from my studies for my other commitments.

It is very amazing to see how God works. For the last few years all I wanted to do was have these kinds of ministry opportunities and none came. I finally came to terms that God had importent lessons for me to learn first so I decided to sit back this summer and free myself of the usual distractions to learn them and now before I had a chance to really do anything I have more opporunities then I could have ever dreamed of. What is amazing though is that it had nothing to do with me needing to learn anything special (I’m just as dumb as I always have been and will be) it needed to be Gods timing so it was obvious that He was the one doing the ministry and just was giving me grace by using me at the moment.

Atheism: Introdction to “Demon-Haunted World”

I have decided to begin my project by examining the claims of atheism. Atheism is different then all the other systems because it does not espouse a set of doctrines. There are no atheist heretics that pervert and twist the tradition of atheism but keep the title of atheist. In order to be accepted into the ranks of atheism all one must do is believe that God in any name shape or form does not exist. However, at its core atheists and theists still share a common enemy. They are both firmly and militantly entrenched in a unintentional alliance against the growing invasion of postmodernism. This is because atheism does reserve for itself the description of truth. This is slightly different then that of religious systems. Atheism does not claim to posses truth itself but it claims to posses the only means to truth. It depends exclusively upon the observation of the tangible to form its objective conclusions of what is true and what is not.

Therefore, it is not possible to examine its conclusions in order to compare our respective truth claims. We must compare the means to truth. Their is no authoritative source of what atheism is or what it believes. Upon recommendation of an atheist friend I have decided to begin by reviewing “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” By Carl Sagan. This book is not intended as a call for atheism. It is a passionate call for dependence upon the scientific method for truth searching. This the heartbeat of atheism and is the positive truth claim that sets atheism into conflict with postmodernity. I will review each chapter and attempt to reduce them down to the core ideas that the philosophy of atheism depends upon. I encourage you to leave a comment or e-mail me at romans1verse20@gmail.com and participate in this project.

A Response to Melvin

I just received a comment that posed what is a very good question. The question was: “Why differentiate between Catholicism and Protestantism? In other words, what aspects of Roman Catholic Truth contradict what aspects of Protestant Truth?” When I was first writing my introductory post I did write simply “Christianity.” However, before I published it I went back and changed it for one simple reason – the difference in the standard of truth of Catholicism and Protestantism.

According to the catechism of the Catholic church which states; “As a result the [Roman Catholic] Church…does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”( CCC Para 82) This is the result of a belief in a doctrine known as “Apostolic Succession.” If there is validity to this doctrine of the Catholic church then the Catholic Church the one true church and Protestantism is teaching a lie.

Since, my objective is to weigh what I believe to be true against other truth claims, as a Protestant, I must compare my standard of truth with that of Catholicism and because that is the case I made a distinction between them. When I begin my quest into the Catholicism my objective will not  include how they interpret Scripture differently then I do, it will include what are the truth claims that church tradition makes and are those truth claims internally  consistent.  Thank you for your comment.

My Sermons

From time to time I get the opportunity to teach in my church. Here are the links to my messages.

Introduction to 1 Peter Study

1 Peter 1:1-10

Super-Abounding Grace From a Absolutley Just God

Super-Abounding Grace From an Absolutley Just God Part 2

Introduction

I am a student of truth. I am a believer of the Bible as Gods perfect inerrant revelation of Himself.  The purpose of this blog is not to apologize for Christianity but rather for me to compare what I believe to be truth against what others believe to be truth.  Since, truth is my objective I am, frankly, only interested in truth claims that rightly recognize the necessity of absolute truth. If something is true every concept that contradicts that truth is necessarily false. Thus the systems I wish to compare claim truth to be their own and consider all opposing systems to be false, which I consider to be a noble attitude. From my perspective their is to my knowledge only a handful of historic systems that meet the above criteria: Atheistic  Humanism, Deistic Humanism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. If any who read this blog have knowledge of a system that reserves the classification of truth for itself please leave a comment and I will consider that system as well.