Intellectualism. Leaning On One's Own Understanding. When Does It Become A Cult?

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened. *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, “I guess I’m making the whole thing up.” It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn’t want God to rule over him.

Many people attribute god-like power to the intellect, and such attribution makes this form of intellectualism a cult. The intellect is just one of God's marvelous creations. When intellectualism begins to mean that the human mind is the source of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, intellectualism becomes idolatry and it is a cult. The reality is that, since the fall, the intellect cannot be trusted.

Dear Lord, we pray that you deliver those who worship and depend on the intellect rather than depending on You. Help them to lean on You rather than their own understanding. We pray that our hearts be right, that we love these poor souls—even those who hate us. Anoint us as we pray for them those who reject the wisdom that flows from Your throne. We pray that Your Holy Spirit minister to those who become violently dogmatic regarding their intellectually derived ideas and cause them to turn from misplaced dogmatism and violence. We pray that they turn toward You, Lord, Jesus, that they may be washed totally clean from all their sins. We pray that You minister to the hearts of all who worship the intellect and teach them of Your grace and mercy. Let them be humble enough to accept the fact that they have no righteousness, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom of themselves and that they must depend on You. Make real to them that You have paid the price and that they are able to receive You and be at peace with Your Father. Let them desire Your unfolding revelation rather than trying to figure things out on their own or accepting the intellectual ramblings of those who speak a vision out of their own hearts. Reveal to them the fact that there is no other way to receive revelation other than through You, dear Jesus. Give them a soft heart and don't let them be so arrogant as to reject You. Teach them what the Bible shows about how revelation is given.

For a Christian who is following Christ, Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is an ongoing relationship. It is an unfolding revelation of the living Christ. Jesus is the only source of righteousness. As that Christian yields to Jesus, the Holy Spirit both leads that Christian into righteousness and also does the righteousness of God through the Christian. This leads to holiness and redemption. Salvation is a process that begins with being born again and progresses from glory to ever increasing glory. Salvation is by God's free gift and God's free gift is received through believing and receiving God. God is love, so to receive God is to receive love. Love is righteousness and the fulfillment of the law. When we yield to God, His love does His righteousness through us and fulfills all of God's law. This is always in complete harmony with the Bible, God's word. This is the way in which we are born again into the Kingdom of God. And this is the way in which we proceed from glory to glory to the manifestation of the sons of God, the redemption of our bodies, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The Bible tells us that we are three-part beings, spirit, soul, and body. The soul is the mind, heart, will, and life of the person. Today, the battle is for the mind.

We were created to be joined to God. When we are born again, we are joined to the Holy Spirit in the heavenly realm on the level of spirit. Those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth, because God is spirit. When we are born again, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. This is not a euphemism.

God is very concerned about our minds. We are to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds so that we can be transformed (metamorphoo in Greek). This transformation is the same transformation that Jesus displayed on the mount of transfiguration. He called it His coming in glory, and Peter later wrote about it and called it the coming of Christ. We are commanded to stand in His presence, to see Christ (the ministry) in our brothers and sisters, and to seek Him with everything that is within us.

The human mind was not created to operate outside of the anointing of God’s Spirit. However, we have a will. We can direct our mind toward the earthly, toward our own understanding, toward doctrines of the devils of the price of power of the heavenly realm. We can direct our mind toward Jesus. We can look to Jesus to reveal the meanings of Scripture and then wait for Him to reveal. We can jump in and conjecture and make up theologies—all based on Scripture of

One thing is certain. No matter how intelligent a person is, God is not impressed.

Intelligence is not the same as wisdom. All knowledge, wisdom, and understanding come from God

The beginning of wisdom is to simply honor God for all that He has given. It's like a no-brainer, but some people don't get it.

It's amazing how foolish those who are set up as being intellectuals really are,

and even more amazing how many silly ideas they accept without questioning those ideas.

Intellectualism. Leaning On One's Own Understanding. When Does It Become A Cult?

How can we know anything about anything

Cults

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