Reaching the Heart (Part2)

 

Finally returning to the “Reaching The Heart” series, but even as we discuss the matter of doctrines, I want to continue in the trend that I’ve set in the past two talks that I gave: Within The Ark and Catch The Fire.

 

A sense of urgency necessary to complete this work, and we need to be active in promoting our faith in the last moments we have to do it.

 

We are going to look at an application of how this principle is to be used in teaching our doctrines to other people.  One of the things I would like to emphasize is how educational an experience evangelism really is.  Since 1844 those with the Advent message have been awaiting the return of Christ, and therefore in a state of self-examination:

 

Lev 16:29-34

 

While reaching out, also serves to force us to examine ourselves.  Going beyond the error- response method that so many evangelists are taught.

 

Begin every entry into this series with a summary of the principles of evangelism that we covered in our introduction.

 

These principles are:

  1. Demonstrate genuine affection (sincerity and genuine concern)
  2. Never show contempt (contempt is reserved for sin, not individuals)
  3. Display patience (particularly relevant when we are opposed)
  4. Express familiarity with the doctrines of others (sometimes useful, but not as important as knowing our own beliefs)
  5. Give a testimony (the most important principle, and presupposes genuine conversion)

 

We build on this foundation and examine various beliefs, keeping in mind the idea that we are here on earth to represent a Covenant.

 

The CSDA Church has had people come, study with us for a while, and then leave.  As we have studied previously, there are a number of reasons for this, including the idea that “knowledge” of some principles will allow them to be sanctified, or that the right practices will earn them heaven.  This is like standing outside the ark.  You can be in he right place, surrounded by the right people, but unless you yourself are inside the vessel of safety, the Spirit simply cannot guide you safely through the storms of tribulation.

 

An early heretical sect of Christianity: Gnosticism, from gnosis, or “knowledge.”  Only one kind of knowledge saves, the knowledge of the Father and Son, John 17:3.  The problem is that people do not even know what it is to know Them!  That’s the real problem; they think that by reading about Christ, and by “feeling good” when they pray or think about Him, and by finding a group of people that make them feel comfortable in their perceived relationship with Him, this means they know Him.

 

This is a terrible incompleteness, however, particularly when the true and Biblical meaning of the word “knowledge” is taken into account.

 

One cannot know a man’s head and not know his body.  One cannot truly “know” Christ and be a stranger and an alien from His Body on earth.  This is why a Covenant is such a central theme in the Scriptures, and I am constantly amazed that modern-day Christianity has utterly rejected the concept, though it’s stressed so often, and so powerfully, in the Scriptures from Genesis all the way to Revelation.

 

The last time we spoke about correcting the doctrines of the false systems of Christianity, we ended with a list of topics we’d cover as this series continues. The next on the list was:

 

Eternal Hell/Immortality of the Soul

 

Now you might think, “How does countering the pagan/neo-Christian concept of Hell lead to a discussion of Covenants?”  Or “How does talking about that topic help us to be sanctified?”

 

Well, the basic and most immediate answer is that one cannot truly “know” God if he or she believes Him to be a deity that will punish an immortal soul in never-ending torment for even the worst of sins done in the brevity of mortal life.

 

The Scriptures say that man’s lifespan is “as an handbreadth,” (Psa 39:5) or a very short time.  The Word of Yahweh declares:

 

Deu 32:4

Zeph 3:5

Pro 11:1

 

Is Yahweh’s “justice” beyond our understanding?

 

Mic 6:1-3

Psa 34:8

1Cor 6:3

John 15:15

 

One would think the doctrine of an immortal soul, and therefore an everlasting hell for unbelievers, would be an easy error to correct, because it portrays the Father in such a terrible light, yet this turns out to be one of the most ingrained teachings of modern, Babylonian Christianity.  It elevates man, giving him an immortal existence regardless of his character or unity with the very source of life, and it degrades God into a merciless tyrant whose concept of divine justice is so alien, so different from humanity’s, that it separates Him from us by an infinite distance, when Yahweh has done all that He could to draw near to fallen man.

 

One of the problems when dealing with the subject of an everlasting hell is that people think they have Bible verses that show the teaching to be true, however “unpleasant” it falls upon the ears.  Some examples:

Mark 9:43, 44

Rev 14:11

 

Of course, SDAs have answers to those verses:

Jude 1:7

Psa 37:20

Mal 4:1

Isa 47:14

 

It is necessary not only to “counter” verses, to show 1 vs. 1 and play a “points” system; but we also have to be able to understand and explain the verses that seem to say otherwise.  I don’t like the term “explain away, because this seems to be saying we’re looking for an excuse to avoid something the Bible says, but to explain it – to understand its proper meaning, and to adapt our beliefs accordingly, that is the goal.

 

Remember, the purpose of evangelism is to invite people to a Covenant with Yahweh and Yahshua, and the Word tells us:

 

Rom 2:2-4

 

There is “goodness” in all that Yahweh does, and I recall hearing and overhearing several conversations by people who have rejected Christianity because they don’t want to be in a relationship with the kind of God they think He is… and that’s the truly sad thing.  Augustine and the other theologians of the pre and early Roman Catholic Church, who first accepted and promoted this awful idea, will only find out in the Judgment how many souls they have turned away from salvation because of the gross errors they have made in their teachings.

 

On the supposed immortal soul, which is at the core of most of the “eternal hell” idea: 1Tim 6:16, 1Cor 15:53

 

But does showing these verses cause Christians everywhere to throw out their faulty dogmas?  No, just as in the verses pointing to victory over sin, which we talked about in the last talk of this series, we are met with rationalization, willful ignorance, often anger for challenging such sacred beliefs.  “I know God,” is the idea behind the replies we get, “who are you to say I don’t know Him?  I may not understand (this means, I may not like) everything about Him, but it doesn’t mean you know Him any better than I do.”

 

We have to be somewhat diplomatic when offering a “better version” of God to those who have been worshipping Him for years, and even decades.  And remember, how we deal with opposition is the part of evangelism that helps us in the path of sanctification.  We must remember how Yahshua dealt with conflict.  If those with whom He was speaking would not be swayed by sanctified reasoning, He simply departed from them.

 

This happens a lot when the truth is actually held by groups considered non-mainstream, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and, of course, our own Adventist tradition.  Teachings about Hell, Michael the Archangel, the non-Trinitarian view of the Godhead… these are difficult matters to teach.  They are not hard to teach because the truth is hard to show from the Bible; that’s not the problem.  Fear, prejudices, and a host of other complicated factors come into play, and these are what complicate things.  As I said in a previous study, we can’t treat people as if they were broken machines: do this, and that, and that, and they will be fixed.  It isn’t so formulaic… so how do we do it?

 

We do have to deal with the supposed doctrinal basis for the belief, and the verses above are a good start to that.  But we can’t leave it there; we have to identify the need; why does the person believe these things that they do about God?  We need to get to the root of the problem and deal with that, or they won’t be equipped, spiritually or emotionally, for a covenant with Christ and His people.

 

Most commonly: tradition.  It’s part of the package-deal that came with their current set of beliefs, and they were taught this from youth.

 

Second, but far more rare: it’s overcompensation for a sense of guilt.  This is tied in to the idea of Victory that we spoke about last time.  What do I mean by this?

 

On some level, the “sinfulness of sin” is known to every man, but instead of being covicted in the life and cleansed away forever, in those who do not accept Christ is it retained in the life and punished (but never cleansed) forever.  This is the thinking, and I want you to see the problem as it is made manifest in the beliefs: this is a key point, and the root behind every doctrinal error that men accept from demons, or their own faulty reasoning:

 

The individual who does not have Victory over sin is not cleansed from sin forever.  He doesn’t believe he CAN be cleansed from sin, even by the blood of Christ.  Now, as a Christian he may SAY he believes this, but if he continues to sin, he knows on some level that his life is testifying against it.  But the great spiritual guilt that this paradox produces is projected back unto God, and Christ, who is the Judge… and this is why the person has a view of the sinner who is not redeemed burning with no end… because there is no end to the sufferings of the sinner in this life.

 

Remember that verse from Revelation that is so often used to “prove” an eternal Hell?

 

Rev 14:9-11

 

People imagine that this is a picture of the second resurrection, but it’s really something – just like eternal life – that begins in this life.  The one who has victory is already “translated into the kingdom of [Yah’s] dear Son,” as it says in Colossians, and by contrast the one who does not know Christ is in torments from the very day they reject Him. And remember, there are those who are Christians in name, but because they reject the Covenant, they are not part of what the Bible calls… let’s read that verse:

 

2Cor 13:14

Heb 12:22-24

 

You see, we are called to community, a community bounded by a Covenant, as it is written there, and this also begins now, and not in Heaven.  If one is in a Church, or fellowship, or group that does not have a concept of Covenant, you’re not in anything connected to the God of the Bible.

 

The same may be said of those who believe in the concept of an eternally burning Hell on the basis of poorly understood parables and overly-literalised symbols.  Revelation is a book of symbols from beginning to end, and we get into real trouble if we begin to pick-and-choose what to take spiritually and what to take literally without some strong support from the teachings and principles revealed in the previous 65 books.

 

If the eternal suffering for sinners is not enough on its own to demonstrate the failure of this concept to capture the image of a loving God, consider the consequences to the universe.  Sin itself is to be expunged from the universe as a whole, but the false (the pagan) concept of hell effectively makes sin and sinners immortal, and the universe is never “clean,” it’s just isolated from the problem.  This is not what the Scriptures reveal:

Isa 66:24; Mal 4:3 (and Isa 47:14); Rev 21:4, 5 (universal scope)

 

And rather than just showing these verses, we have to be able to intelligently discuss why these things are as they are, and who we will be with in eternity, beginning from the moment one accepts fellowship with Him.

 

The question of “why” related to doctrines is more difficult with traditions that are strongly ingrained.  And often we aren’t limited to just dealing with one doctrine at a time, but the overall sense of traditions interfering with Bible truth.  The most important thing there is to get the individual to admit, or at least to understand, that a large part of his/her beliefs come from teachings that are external in origin to the Word.  If this can be shown, and the significance of it acknowledge, then we can work with people who have the courage to make changes here changes are required.  And most importantly, we need to teach these people to get to know the God they thought they had been serving in truth and purity of belief until that point.  We need to invite them to the “community” that the verses we just read describe.

 

We have to be able to demonstrate it in this light: it takes strength of character to break out of well-worn molds and comfort zones.  But there is something better for those who are willing to honestly examine their beliefs, as the following Scriptures tell us:

 

Heb 11:6

2Cor 13:5, 6

2Tim 3:16, 17

 

The last passage ties in to Victory once again, for if it is seen as important to “perfect” the character, those who are interested in doing so will be willing to do what it takes (including submitting their beliefs to the testing of the Bible’s doctrines) to facilitate this process.

 

Just before we end, I’d like also to speak once more about the need to be proactive in matters such as this: the correction of doctrinal errors and sins.  If someone is in our fellowship with bad ideas, whether we’re talking doctrinal flaws, problems in the way they implement such principles as Gospel Order, difficulty in communicating clearly... if we see these things, we need to remember that we’re responsible for lovingly aiding such a person in the correction of such things.

 

The teaching on “officiousness” that we have been through several times as a Church does show that there can be fine lines when it comes to helping someone with a problem vs. letting them learn to do it for themselves… but the key here is to watch closely.  The Scriptures tell us:

 

Gal 6:1-2

 

If we see someone struggling with a heavy load (spiritually speaking) and they stumble time and again, it is not officiousness to go and say, “Brother, sister, I notice you have a problem with this.”  Evangelism can often start in the home, or in the Church, and we need to realize how much responsibility we have for those around us. It’s a very important matter to consider.

 

If we’re speaking with someone who claims to be committed to righteousness, or to Yahweh, and begins to present an inaccurate picture of His character, whether by expressing a belief in eternal hell, or by being a bad witness – speaking about the sin-repent-cycle, or neglecting a need for lifestyle reform of some kind – then we have a duty to reach out to that person in love, and invite them to truly partake of the Covenant that Yahshua is offering.

 

We will end there this week, but some of the doctrines we’ll look at in upcoming studies:

 

Salvation by Works

Liberalism (e.g., in interpretation of the creation story)

Sunday Worship/New Covenant Errors

Trinitarianism

Unitarianism

OSAS

Absolute Predestination

A Vengeful God (God requires tinkerers)

A Passive God (God does not kill)

Speaking in Tongues (Celebration stuff

Timing of The Judgment (two extremes, either immediately, or all at once when Christ returns i.e., no judgment “process”)

Rigidity of Prophecy (return of Israel, etc.)

 

In all these, we are going to be keeping the principles we have been discussing in mind:

 

That idea, promoting that great and saving fellowship, must be at the heart of all that we do.