The Real Answer

When raw human reasoning (the reasoning of the human mind without the Intelligence of the Creator flowing through the human mind) is stretched over the framework of math, science, or any 'ology, including theology, its substance is more fragile than tissue, and, if we poke at it, it dissolves into nothingness.  Raw human reasoning (the reasoning of the human mind without the Intelligence of the Creator flowing through the human mind), in the final analysis, is nothing more than assumption. Theologians and Scientists who have put their trust in unsupported assumptions need to come back to something they, no doubt, long ago rejected. They rejected what was solid because it didn't fit in with their assumptions.

There is a solid substance, a supernatural faith, that humans cannot generate. Be careful not to confuse Spiritual faith with what the ungodly call "faith." The ungodly misuse the term, faith, to mean "believing in something that cannot be proven." Unlike Spiritual Faith, make-believe "faith" is just assumption and presumption. Spiritual faith is substance. It is the substance of things hoped for. It must be received from God. Pseudo-science, a science that is based on the assumption that there is no God and the assumption that there is no spiritual existence, is based on made-up and unsupported claims that are opposed to spiritual faith and cannot co-exist with spiritual faith.

Just as a microscope allows a biologist to verify many things, so faith and the accompanying relationship with Jesus Christ allow a Christian to verify things that can be verified in no other way. Those who have received the real spiritual faith from God need no further verification: they have intimacy with God. For those of us who have found it, God's hope gives us eyes to see the vision of what God chooses to reveal to mankind. Faith and hope, like all good and perfect gifts, come down from God. God offers us these gifts of faith and hope to bring us to trust in and have a personal experience with Him through Jesus Christ.

God loves and desires to commune with every person, but He never forces His gifts on anyone. He shines His light on every person, but many reject the light and turn from it. If you accept His light, now, God will forgive all of your past and give you everything you need to begin the journey to the fulfillment that He has always desired for you. Once you have accepted the light, God is willing and able to give you progressively more light, providing that you are willing to ask for it and receive it. He hears every thought you have. Ask Him for this personal experience with Jesus; He will provide everything you need for the rest.

There are only three sources of understanding. We may observe the world around us, but only three sources are available for understanding what we are seeing: raw human reasoning, revelation from God, and doctrines of demons. Raw human reasoning (the reasoning of the human mind without the Intelligence of the Creator flowing through the human mind) is hopeless since the fall, and doesn't really differ at all from the doctrines of demons. The only real hope of understanding anything at all is in that revelation which is imparted from God. Those who hate God have little hope of ever understanding what's going on. Their conclusions are based on that which pops into their reprobate minds, and they will always end up at the wrong result.

Those who have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus do have hope, but, sadly, often depend on the same old natural human mind, ending in a terrible result. This is the cause of most of the denominational divisions in the church. Rationalized speculation, greed, thirst for power, pride, and the flesh all worked together to cause the inquisition. The crusades were the acts of a church body that had long separated itself from a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Man-made religion is destructive. The religion of Scripture, being filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, is what God desires from us.

God is concerned about a relationship. He wants a relationship with you. He wants that relationship to grow. The purpose of the church is that the relationship will grow to the point that we reach full maturity in Christ. The gifts, ministries, and offices in the church are the means that God will use to bring about this full maturity, and what a day that will be!

Jesus is the only Truth that matters. John 14:6
He's the only Truth that can withstand the test.
In His presence all my arguments are shattered.
In His presence is the only place of rest.

chorus:
I will seek Him and know Him. Psalm 119:2
I will walk in all His ways yielding to His grace.
I will seek Him and know Him.
Pressing on to know the Lord, until I see Him face to face.

The intelligence of men just doesn't matter.
As they analyze, their thoughts are sadly vain.
All their reasoning is so much empty chatter,
When the Lord's the only Truth that will remain.

Reasoned dogma cannot test the True Foundation. 1 Cor. 3:11
Jesus is the Truth and Doctrine I embrace. Eph. 2:2
All the ramblings of my interpretation,
I will disregard and I will seek His face.
1995, Bob and Kathy

Ephesians 4
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love.

Only Christ can do any edifying. In understanding Ephesians 4:12-16, you must go back to the main verb, edoken, in verse 11. Christ gave the gifts. He gave the office of apostle. He gave the four ministries. Those gifts are not the persons but the Christ in those persons, as another passage says, "Christ in us, the hope of glory." The text cannot be read any other way than to understand that these gifts are performing all of this work as the gifts proceed from Christ. Grace means, literally, free gift. This is grace, and we know from Scripture that it is grace that does any work that is done. In fact, God could give no greater gift, so He gave us of Himself. He chooses to do it through apostles, ones sent. He chooses to not use those who send themselves or who are sent by men. It is plain from the Greek that it is not gifted people who do any of this work, but rather the Gift Himself does the work through the members. This is true whether it is the apostle who is totally equipping and completing the member or the member who is now also moving in the power and authority of the same gift. When any member comes into submission to the apostle, that person carries the same anointing and authority of the apostle just as long and to the extent that they are in submission. They are not submitting to a man but to Christ Himself. If you can discern the Body of Christ, you will see this. If you see this, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but your Father in Heaven has revealed it.

You can go many places on the internet, on Christian radio, or in the religious world where you will find people twisting this Scripture. They will twist "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" into "teacher/pastors", or "pastor/teacher", or "evangelists, pastors, teachers", or some other misquote. It is evil to twist the traveling elders and deacons, the apostles, into locally abiding pastors. Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about locally abiding pastors. There are locally abiding elders who pastor (care for the church as a shepherd does sheep) the members, and those men receive no money for what they do. They receive a double measure of honor. The Bible says what it says. The Scripture cannot be broken. Satan hates the Bible and he hates God's church and the orders of God's church. If you see someone doing this, run, do not walk, away.

Most Important

Evolution isn't science.

How sad that ungodly people will only accept those things that conform to the arbitrary assumptions of Naturalism, materialism, and uniformitarianism. How irrational to be dogmatic about assumptions. Naturalism claims that God does nothing.  Materialism claims that there is no God or spiritual realm.  Uniformitarianism claims that there was not creation and that there was no violent worldwide flood, as the Bible and numerous other historical accounts record.  Whatever they observe that does not conform to this complex filter is censored.  The way that it is censored can take several forms.  The ungodly may boldly proclaim that, though the data appears to support God's version and refute the version of the ungodly, yet it still must be interpreted to mean just the opposite of what it does mean.  A backup method that ungodly people use is to prophecy that in the future, science will be able to explain what they see as an anomaly.  If that fails, they will hide the data, set it aside, or lie to keep the public from knowing the truth.  The data clearly demolishes the story of the ungodly and clearly supports the reality of the Creator God, His Bible, and His abiding Presence in His people.  When confronted with the obvious, a closed-minded ungodly person says, "I can't understand it."  They are willingly ignorant because they refuse to hold God in their knowledge.  The reality is that these people, for whatever reason, don't what to know the Creator.  They don't want to truly know Jesus, their Creator.

FREE on-line BOOK (a classic): The Real Faith, by Charles S. Price

FREE on-line BOOK (a classic): The Meaning Of Faith, by Charles S. Price