Before my hiatus, I did a series on the abysmal state of biblical knowledge in the religious clubs we most often call churches. I hit pretty hard, but recently I did something I've had in mind for sometime. I downloaded the Westminster Larger Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646, the Baptist Confession of 1689, and the Canons of Dordt.
They make great reference material for a number of reasons, one of which is to get the perspective of men not tainted by the spirit of our times. (They were tainted by the spirit of their times, of course.)
One great lesson, though, came to me in spades: WE KNOW NOTHING!!!!!!
Some of these documents were hundreds of pages. The Westminster Larger Catechism had 1303 sets of proof verses with which to be familiar. Yes, that's right. Not 1303 proof verses, but 1303 SETS of proof verses. Each set varied from 1 to maybe 4 or 5 verses. Some had more. Yet, we're told by so many that we know too much Bible and should stop studying so much and all the yada yada about "knowledge puffs up" (the only verse memorized these days, it seems).
That's a lie.
Be Holy,
Phil Perkins.
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Following The Good Shepherd Into Winter
3 months ago
5 comments:
Hi Phil,
Great to see you back my friend!
We know nothing is right!!! With all the technology that allows us to do more work on our sermons and blogs in the time it would've taken Luther or Calvin to locate 2 books and we still know nothing!
I've been studying the WCF for a while now.....we know nothing!
Phil
The geist of Spinoza (an apostate Jew); his follower, Hegel (a pantheist); and Hegel's follower, Marx (an atheist/panentheist) is captivating the minds of most of our countrymen. Throw Kierkegaard (the human father of existentialism) into the mix and we have a recipe for mass insanity. Ideas have rational consequences. In embracing nonsense, men become fools.
Irrationality is the new "rationality" in America. Words are to be evaluated subjectively under the current paradigm. The Holy Bible is irrelevant to most people, therefore, particularly in churches.
My exhortation to folks everywhere (believing or not) is let's crack open a dictionary and get back to the concept that communication is essential and vital. America has become a nation that is dishonest in its speech and thought. The man who embraces the notion of words being subjective and meaningless (nihilism) is a man who has rejected rationality. He proves himself to be a fool, and he opens the door to antichrist, Utopian (no place), ideologies (eg. Marx or Alice A. Bailey) that lead to destruction and slaughter.
Phil, your language program is right on target. The Word made flesh (John 1:14) is our only hope.
Reb,
One word of encouragement. Our kingdom isn't the US or the Western world. In fact, as the culture crumbles we will see persecution and that is good. Persecution is always a purifier.
To put what I'm trying to say into another context and come from a different angle I'll ask you a question:
Did God commission us to save a society by the power of political force or did God commission us to save individuals by the power of the gospel so that they will be hated, persecuted, and possibly murdered by whatever society in which they live?
You know the answer. Think about that and its implications for the decline of the West. Things aren't as bad as all that in light of eternity.
So take heart, Reb.
God bless,
Phil.
Phil,
All I am saying is the Word must be communicated. That means just preaching it, plain and simple.
I realize that breakdown is inevitable. I don't think America needs to be saved, but I do think Americans need to hear the Word, so that they might be saved. Just be advised that we might need us to stress the basics, like what words mean.
Relativism has a stupefying effect. Americans are steeped in it.
Absolutely right, Reb.
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