| Author | Message | ||
| Praise999 |
One day the devil and some of his workers were observing a group of human beings. They noticed the humans pick up something shiny. Excitedly, the group members called others to see what had been discovered. ìWhat did they find?î asked a curious worker. ìA piece of truth,î the devil replied. ìDoesnít that bother you?î the astonished worker queried? ìOh no. It is only a piece of truth and Iíll help them construct a religion out of it. Adapted from J. LeBron McBride, as told in his book Spiritual Crisis: Surviving Trauma to the Soul | ||
| Colleentinker |
What a wonderful illustration! According to M. Scott Peck in his book A Different Drum, truth is always a paradox, and teaching only half of the paradox (or part of the truth) is heresy. | ||
| Jude the Obscure |
Praise, Funny, but I've been musing on "the truth" lately myself. So far I've come up with this: Truth is like surgery. It hurts at first and heals later. Rare is the person or society that doesn't front with falsehood and hide the truth. Cast out of the synagogue is the one who sifts truth from lies. Only if you accept the spiritual reality that the truth is ultimately a relationship with Jesus Christ will you know the truth, have the truth, and be at peace with the truth. And this, of course, though I can't remember the source: "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne .... Yet that scaffold sways the future and beyond the dim unknown standeth God within the shadows keeping watch above his own!" Now that's powerful! Thanks for a great new discussion, Praise! Jude | ||
| Praise999 |
The fantastic quote is from James Russell Lowell. It was put to music some years after he wrote the poem, and it's commonly known as "Once to Every Man and Nation." I believe that he wrote the poem sometime during the great anti-slavery debates of the 1840's and 50's. Those lines have moved me to tears, centered me, and given me courage to go on! | ||
| jtree |
Here are some questions I am faced with by the SDA bretheren. May I ask how you would anser these question? I have my answers to these questions, but want to know your "opinion" of it. "Were you ever brought out of bondage ? Who are we ? Are we not the ones grafted in ? (Romans 11) Are we like unto the Israelites, a chosen people ? (Exodus 19:3, Deut. 7:6, 1 Peter 2:9) What does Jesus mean in Matthew 7:21-23 ? What is Paul refering too in 2 Thess 2:7 ? and a good comparison study... Revelation 13:16 VS. Exodus 13:16, Exodus 31:16-17, Deut. 6:8, Deut. 11:18, and Exodus 13:9. I sincerely interested in hearing your thoughts on this one." | ||
| Colleentinker |
I've been reading Classic Christianity by Bob George this week. In the first chapter he makes a statement that seems almost ridiculously obvious, except upon closer inspection it's quite profound. "Truth sets you free; error binds you." Error binds us whether we have chosen to reject truth or whether we have been taught that error is truth. We can actually believe certain important truths and still be bound unconcsiously by error. George further states, "There was another error that was binding me. As I thought about it, I finally realized that Christ didn't call me to change anything; He called me to proclaim truth!" It's self-deception to think we can change or reform our church of origin by our personal witness. We are to embrace and proclaim truth in whatever venue God decides to place us. We are not called to change anything, only to proclaim Him. I'm increasingly convinced that as we learn to discern truth from error, we have to consciously reject the error and embrace the truth. We cannot intellectually dismiss the error while socially or emotionally clinging to it. We have to be willing to put everything on the line and allow our entire identity to come from Jesus, not from what we do or believe, who we are, or what we want people to think of us. Praise's original illustration is so apt. Religion is a man-made phenomenon, and while religion may contain truth, it is not truth. Further, it contains error. The truth religion offers will not set us free as long as we're holding to the error we've also been taught was truth. Jesus is not part of a package that entitles us to heaven. Jesus is everything. |
