When Does Dogmatism Become A Cult?

Obey your flesh and descend into darkness

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 you 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 you 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 another case of just 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.

God wants us to follow Him rather than following our own minds. Doctrine is very important, but doctrine is not to be a god. It is human nature for every person's way to be right in his or her own mind. That is natural. On the other hand, God is calling out a people to be spiritual rather than natural.

Dear Lord, we pray that you deliver those who have fallen into Dogmatism who have made doctrine their god along side or instead of You. We pray that our hearts be right, that we love the dogmatists-even those who hate us. Anoint us as we pray for them who despitefully use us. We pray that Your Holy Spirit minister to dogmatists who become violent. Cause them to turn from anger, Lord, and toward You. Teach them to let you unfold the Scripture to them and reveal your truth. Show them that if any person thinks they know any thing, they do not know it as they ought to know it. Let them come to You that they may receive your revelation. We pray that You minister to the hearts of all dogmatists and teach them of Your grace and mercy. Let them be humble enough to accept the fact that they have no righteousness or knowledge or ability to understand the Bible or any spiritual things in themselves and they must depend on You for this revelation. 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. Reveal to them the fact that there is no other way of salvation other than through Your holy blood, dear Jesus. Give them a soft heart and don't let them be so arrogant as to reject Your free gift of salvation and all that they need to enter Your Kingdom.

There is much in the Scripture about doctrine and about how doctrine is given, but these Scriptures are ignored or twisted. These Scriptures speak of things that are beyond the experience of most believers. If something is in the Scripture and beyond our ability to understand, we often filter it out. The human mind is deceitful and desperately wicked and who can know it. There is a way, laid out in Scripture, that doctrine is to be received. There is so much rebellion in the Church that the Scriptural order is ignored.

The apostle, Paul, said that he had not yet attained. He pressed toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. The writer of Hebrews mentioned many dead in Christ who had not attained during their life times, but they were found faithful. It remains that some must enter into that rest.

Many organizations have some way of stating that they have the correct or the complete revelation of God. Some even name their organization after a partial revelation. They have some revelation; that is true. However, God is infinite. We are finite. Our understanding is incomplete. God is always calling us to a deeper understanding and a closer experience with Him. If we say that we have everything, we close the door to God. We become as the Scribes and Pharisees who said that they had no need. At that point, having rejected further revelation from our Savior, the Light that was in us becomes darkness. The Living Word becomes the dead letter. "The letter killeth" 2 Corinthians 3:6

The Holy Spirit will not give up on us. He keeps coming back, maybe through the word of a friend, maybe through a web site, maybe through our conscience, maybe through a Bible verse, but He keeps coming back. He hopes to get us to move forward with the glory cloud. In the end, we will have no excuse if we don't keep pressing toward the mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ.

The natural reaction of the human to new revelation is to reject it and try to find a way to rationalize it away. God has not called us to be natural but spiritual. He has called us to deny ourselves. Many times, we would be far better off to say, I don't understand it, but there it is in Scripture, so I believe it. I'll put it on the back burner until God makes it real to me.

Every time that God has tried to give further revelation of the Scripture, there have been those who refused to move on with God. Those who have refused to go on with God have tended to condemn those who were moving on with God. Those who are moving on with God don't have time for squabbles. They are moving on. However, once those who had been moving on with God stopped moving, they have plenty of time for squabbles and self-righteous finger-pointing. Then they turn around and condemn those who didn't move on with God.

Now we have some of those who don't speak in tongues saying that those who do speak in tongues are going to hell. Some of those who do speak in tongues say that those who don't speak in tongues are going to hell. Christians attacking Christians over doctrine--it's a common occurrence.

Some of those who believe the Scriptures that speak of Christian choosing or Christian purpose condemn those who believe the Scriptures regarding predestination, and vice versa. Both are Scripture. Both are true. What are they fighting about? Some of those who believe the Scriptures regarding the unity of the Godhead condemn those who believe the Scriptures that refer to the three person's of the Godhead, and vice versa. Again, both are true. The problem comes up when someone tries to use rationalized speculation to go beyond the revelation of Scripture.

If we all seek God, we will all believe the same things. We will all begin to realize that the Bible is authoritative but not of our own interpretation. We will begin to understand those Scriptures that tell about how the Scriptures are to be understood, and we will stop leaning on our own understanding. We will stop leaning on human-devised methods of understanding Scripture. Sometimes, we may even have the humility to admit that we don't know everything.

Rom 8:7 because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be.

When Does Dogmatism Become A Cult?

How can we know anything about anything

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