Bible Bites
Embarrassed About What You Believe?
“I wonder if sometimes I have just swallowed hook, line and sinker the set of beliefs with which I’ve been brought up. The more I’m exposed to larger circles and hear how others think, the more I wonder if what I believe could really be right and the exclusive truth. I’m almost embarrassed over how simply I see the world. I guess I don’t know much about critical thinking. I think I need to step back and be much more open minded than I have been and give myself permission to challenge my core beliefs.”
Do you know where doubts originated? Do you know who first promoted open-mindedness and the expansion of your thought-life? Do you know who first shamed a person for their belief in God and politely belittled their relationship with God? Where did all this originate? Be sure of this – there’s a dark sinister hiss behind it all.
Read it again in Genesis 3. The world’s first university anti-god professor snared Eve in Eden’s lecture theatre with his dark philosophical mind-prodding presentation, skillfully designed to shake to the core our first parents’ belief in God.
“Did God really say?” Eve had never entertained even the faintest thought of questioning God’s Word up until that point!
“If God is withholding a tree from you, then He must not be as good as you originally thought He was. You would be well advised to re-think your whole understanding of this God. There may be solid reason to have doubts about Him. Your narrow focus on God has certainly limited you. Eat of this tree and you will see things from an entirely different perspective. You will be enlightened for sure. Would you like to become your own god and be self-sufficient? Call the shots yourself? Tempting? Go for it. Go ahead; reach out and take it!”
Satan is the founding Dean of this world’s godless school of higher thinking. Are you struggling with your thoughts of God? Has this skillful Dean been making inroads into the classroom of your life? Or has one of his professors been assigned to instruct you in the broadening process of your mind?
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, etc. From the ancient past to our world today there have always been intellectuals, skeptics, humanists, philosophers, atheists, agnostics, that the World’s Dean of Secular Learning has been able to employ in his dark plot against the Almighty God.
Look at this verse and see if it applies to your situation today:
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit,
according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the world,
and not according to Christ.
(Colossians 2:8)
Eugene Peterson paraphrased the verses this way: “Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ.”
If you are struggling with what you believe; if you are scared over some of the thoughts that seem to be persistently plaguing your mind, then confide in a believer whom you respect and ask them for help. There are excellent resources available to counter the attacks of secular intellectuals and mocking sinners. More importantly, immerse yourself in the Word of God and frequently ask the Lord to strengthen your faith and confidence in Him and His Word.
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.
Warmly in Christ
Peter Ramsay