Warning about False Logic

 1 Timothy 6:20-21

1 Timothy 6:20-21 WEL O Timothy, carefully keep safe what was committed to your trust, avoiding ungodly and fruitless babblings and oppositions from, what is falsely called, knowledge, 21 Which some claiming expertise have turned away from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

B6 Warnings

C1 To preserve

D1 What has been given

D2 Personal as gifts from the Holy Spirit, a calling to be a minister, and prophecies.

D3 Teaching as to doctrine, Christian lifestyle and worldview, church planting and organization.

D4 Preserve means to continue in what Jesus wants. What He wants is best because Jesus is omniscience, omnisapient, omnipotent, etc. Everything and every decision is done in wisdom, love, and holiness.

D5 We need to do the same. We need to read the Bible, study it, apply it, and teach it. We need faithful church leaders and members who to the same. We need the fellowship of each other to accomplish this goal.

C2 To avoid

D1 Unspiritual vanities

E1 Unspiritual vanities is what is profane.

E2 Profane (Greek word βέβηλος bébēlos) and means to defile what is sacred. God’s wisdom and plans are holy. When we teach and live something else, we defile it. God will punish. Choices have consequences.

E3 We sometimes begin to follow our heart, our mind, our intellect, false teachers, etc. because of our heart: Jeremiah 17:9 MEV The heart is more deceitful than all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?

E4 God’s words, decisions, rules, etc. are perfect. Any change is a defilement. Christianity does not to be reimaged. Psalm 19:7-9 MEV The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

E5 Faithfulness:

F1 1 Corinthians 4:1-4 GNB92 You should think of us as Christ's servants, who have been put in charge of God's secret truths. 2 The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful to their master. 3 Now, I am not at all concerned about being judged by you or by any human standard; I don't even pass judgment on myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not prove that I am really innocent. The Lord is the one who passes judgment on me.

F2 Matthew 7:24-25 GNB92 So then, anyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, and the wind blew hard against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock.

D2 False logic

E1 Knowledge is the Greek word γνῶσις gnōsis. It means knowledge.

E2 Essentially, we know nothing until taught by experience or others.

E3 We do not the truth of God or ourselves until the Holy Spirit teaches us.

E4 What God teaches is perfect, good, wholesome, blessing, and best. This is THE standard of true and false. Colossians 3:9 MEV Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

E5 Any other knowledge is false.

E6 People in general are liars. That doesn’t mean everyone lies in everything they do, but that we do lie.

E7 God doesn’t change

F1 Hebrews 13:8 GNB92 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

F2 James 1:17 GNB92 Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.

E8 It begins with truth. Truth about ourselves, our family, our friends, our society, our philosophies, our world, etc. John 14:6 GNB92 Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.

E9 John Gill writes on this passage:

the truth he is not only true, but truth itself: this may regard his person and character; he is the true God, and eternal life; truly and really man; as a prophet he taught the way of God in truth; as a priest, he is a faithful, as well as a merciful one, true and faithful to him that appointed him; and as a King, just and true are all his ways and administrations: he is the sum and substance of all the truths of the Gospel; they are all full of him, and centre in him; and he is the truth of all the types and shadows, promises and prophecies of the Old Testament; they have all their accomplishment in him; and he is the true way, in opposition to all false ones of man's devising.

C3 A warning to avoid ungodly and fruitless discussions

C4 A warning to avoid leaning and depending on philosophy for life. Philosophy is useful, and God bless those brothers and sisters who study and use it for apologetics. The idea here is that faith might be lost if one depends on and puts their trust in human knowledge ALONE.

B7 Applications

C1 The importance of truth.

C2 The importance of faithfulness.

C3 The importance of thinking this, teaching this, and living this

 

Christianophobia

Not a common word in your vocabulary? Mine either, but this article from the Christian Post shows a scientific study of people who hate Christians and Christianity. Though truly their hate is for the Lord Jesus. (John 15:18)

Sociologists: 'Christianophobia,' Anti-Christian Hostility Infects Powerful Elite Subculture (Interview)

A small, but elite group of Americans demonstrate signs of anti-Christian hostility, sociologists David Williamson and George Yancey claim in their new book, So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?

Later—

CP: Why did you, and co-author David Williamson, want to research and write about anti-Christian hostility?

Yancey: There is a lot of literature on hostility toward many different groups but just about none on hostility toward Christians. Yet when we collected qualitative data from cultural progressive activists we quickly saw some of the unnecessary vitriol and fears within many of our respondents. We also saw the social status of those who exhibited this hatred and many of them would be in positions that allowed them to at least subtly act on their anger and fears. That motivated us to take a more systematic look at Christianophobia and speculate on how this phenomenon influences certain social aspects in…

This is important as we see a continual hatred for God is our society.

The Bible speaks of this:

1. Foretold (Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:9, and John 15:18)
   
2. These hate Jesus, because He tells them the truth and exposes their evil deeds. (John 7:7, John 3:20)
   
3. Christians are hated by these, because we have our faith in Jesus (John 15:19) and try to live godly lives (2 Timothy 3:12).
   
4. We are not to be surprised. (1 John 3:13)
   
5. We need to be firm and not deny Christ (Matthew 10:39). He will give us the strength we need (Jude 1:24-25).
   
6. Jesus was treated with hate by the elite and others, so also we can expect it. At least we know Jesus understands when we suffer. (Matthew 10:25).
   
7. We are NOT to hate but pray for them and show them love. (Luke 6:27). Nevertheless we are to hate evil and know that God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and at some time He will deliver us, even though that deliverance might be to heaven itself (Psalm 97:10).
   
8. We are NOT to wish or pray for them to die but to pray that they repent. (Compare Proverbs 6:16-19. God will punish).
   

Matthew Henry in a comment on John 15:18 writes:

The world's enmity against the followers of Christ: it hateth them. Note, Whom Christ blesseth the world curseth. The favourites and heirs of heaven have never been the darlings of this world, since the old enmity was put between the seed of the woman and of the serpent. Why did Cain hate Abel, but because his works were righteous? Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing; Joseph's brethren hated him because his father loved him; Saul hated David because the Lord was with him; Ahab hated Micaiah because of his prophecies; such are the causeless causes of the world's hatred.

 

And we need to live godly lives. Matthew Henry again:

 

Because they do not belong to it (John 5:19): "If you were of the world, of its spirit, and in its interests, if you were carnal and worldly, the world would love you as its own; but, because you are called out of the world, it hates you, and ever will." Note, 1. We are not to wonder if those that are devoted to the world are caressed by it as its friends; most men bless the covetous, Psalm 10:3; Psalm 49:18.

 

Concerning Hebrew 13:506, Matthew Henry writes:

 

God hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, (Hebrews 13:5-6). This was said to Joshua (Joshua 1:5), but belongs to all the faithful servants of God. Old-Testament promises may be applied to New-Testament saints. This promise contains the sum and substance of all the promises. I will never, no, never leave thee, nor ever forsake thee. Here are no fewer than five negatives heaped together, to confirm the promise; the true believer shall have the gracious presence of God with him in life, at death, and forever.

 

This has always been the lot of true believers. Let us pray for one another and help one another. We need fellowship from our fellow believers (Malachi 3:16 and Psalm 94:19),