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The Grace Curriculum


"Debunking religious conspiracies, part 1"



There is one thing that is prevalent in this world, and that is conspiracies. It seems that everywhere you look, you’ll see some kind of opinion about “this” news story and “that” news story. Personally, I’m not too concerned with worldly conspiracies, because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I’m very concerned about religious conspiracies, floating among our Christian circles. Because these man-made opinions of spiritual things are creating so many beliefs in our Christian ranks, which keep our eyes from looking at Jesus; much less us loving each other (Which Jesus said is our greatest witness to this world, see John 13:35). Religious conspiracies are the exact opposite of the truth of the gospel. We are to be promoters of the truth, not messengers of religious propaganda. 


Paul was a huge advocate for Christians knowing the truth, because he knew the powerful effect that it has in those who believe it. Look at what he said in Col 1:3-6 — “3 We give thanks to God… 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus… 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. Notice how he mentioned knowing the truth twice in this passage. In practically every one of his 13 letters of the New Testament, he advocated for people knowing the truth of the gospel. John was also a huge advocate for people knowing the truth. He mentioned the word “truth” 20 times in his 3 short letters in the New Testament. As we know very well, there are literally thousands of different beliefs, creeds, and doctrines in our churches that people adhere to and follow; making up thousands upon thousands of denominations worldwide. 


Religious conspiracy turns Christianity into insanity.


There seems to be two main conundrums in many messages that are preached today:


  • Mixing the 2 Covenants together (which I’ll further explain in this lesson).

  • Not viewing everything in the Bible, front to back, from Genesis to Revelation, through the lens of the finished work of Christ.


When someone’s message is according to these 2 things, his (or her) message is not according to the truth. Of course, there are many expressions of the truth, many different angles, but there can be no different versions of the truth — for all truth is in Jesus Christ, see John 14:6 and Eph 4:21. And it’s only the truth that is conducive for our spiritual growth and maturity in Him, see Col 2:2-3. Let me, then, raise this question:


“Because someone’s message, teaching or doctrine can be backed up by Scriptures in the Bible, does that mean it is correct?” 


Simple answer — just because someone’s teaching contains Scripture references doesn’t mean that it is correct. It’s a fact that people can make the Bible say anything they want it to say, and present it in such a way, that people can be misled by what’s counterfeit.


This leads me to another important question:


“If that is true, how are we to know which Biblical messages are true and which ones are false? What makes a message correct according to the truth?” 


Answer — When we talk about the truth, it needs to be seen as our “true north”. Our true north is our orienting, or reference point, which helps us stay on track, and not be derailed by what I call “religious conspiracies” (which are counterfeits of the truth). Let me pull an important verse from Hebrews that describes what our true north should be (Understand that the letter of Hebrews was written for the sole purpose for people knowing what the truth is). Look at what we read in 8:13 — “In that He (God) says, ‘A new covenant’, He has made the first (Covenant) obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” 


The dividing line for truth, our true north is found in two words — New Covenant. 


A Covenant is God’s legal and binding agreement He made with us through Jesus Christ (Actually, He made it with Jesus, and because we are in Him, He also made it with us). The Bible, all 66 Books of it, is a Book of basically 2 different covenants — the Old Covenant and the New Covenant (Seen as the Old and New Testaments). The writer of Hebrews is telling us that God has made the First agreement OBSOLETE. He has replaced it with a New agreement. 


Just an important side note about the verbal tense of the words, “BECOMING obsolete and GROWING old”. They mean that the Old Covenant is becoming more obsolete and getting older each and every day. Because when Jesus said the words IT IS FINISHED from the cross, the Old Covenant was officially over, and it became obsolete. So, as we renew our minds with the New Covenant, the Old is “VANISHES” from our minds!


The New agreement is our true north, and it keeps us on track with God’s truth. So, if anyone’s message is based from Old Testament Scriptures, without it being seen through the lens of the finished work of Christ, his teaching is “OBSOLUTELY” incorrect (Of course, a play on the word “obsolete” with the word “absolutely”). Messages like these are like me trying to successfully run my new computer using the obsolete operating system ENIAC instead of Windows (The ENIAC computing system was the first computer system that was developed in 1946, and became obsolete in 1955). My computer, although being brand new, will not run. In Heb 8:13, we are told by God Himself that the Old Covenant — His old, antiquated agreement with the Jewish people of Israel — is obsolete; it’s old, and it’s growing older each day. Let me say it again, Old Testament Scriptures can certainly be inspired in the light of Jesus and His finished work, but we are to know that they have been fulfilled and set aside (Jesus fulfilled them, and He set them aside, see what He said about it in Matt 5:17-18). One may hear great sermons based from the Old Testament, get the “warm and fuzzy” feelings from it, but please understand, if it’s not founded in the finished work of Christ, it’s useless for one’s spiritual growth and maturity in Christ. As far as those feelings go, that is our emotions and feelings; which are great to experience, but are lousy guides for knowing the truth. The only thing that lasts is the truth of Jesus Christ, which has its true north in God’s new agreement with us.


There is another important area that I want to touch on when it comes to people coming up with religious conspiracies — counterfeits of the truth. It comes from the popular belief that says that the Bible is the absolute Word of God, and that everything written in it is inspired by Him and is conducive for our spiritual profit. Please understand that, by no means, am I devaluing the Bible, because I have devoted my life to the study of Scripture. One of the main verses people use for this belief in God’s absolute, inspired word is found in 2 Tim 3:16-17 — “16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” When we look at this verse and not consider Paul’s context as he was encouraging Timothy, it does appear that Paul is promoting that every word of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is inspired by God. If we look at most translations of v.16, we see that the 3rd letter “IS” is italicized; meaning that it’s not in the original language Paul wrote, but was added by the translator for our understanding. So, let’s take it out of the text and, “All Scripture given by inspiration of God…” Now the verse takes on new meaning to us, doesn’t it? If God doesn’t inspire what we read from the Bible, it will not profit us, see also what Paul said in 2 Cor 3:6. Tradition has taught us that every word of the Bible is God’s inspired word and is conducive for our spiritual profit, But as I hope you can see, man has twisted what Paul said to Timothy as encouragement.

 
 
 
 

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