What's the Reason?

Let's do a little thinking.

Suppose I decide to do a little reasoning.

And suppose it goes like this:

Grizzly bears are animals

Grizzlies are brown.

Grizzlies have four legs.

Grizzlies have hair all over their bodies.

The other day, I saw a four legged, hairy, brown animal.

I must have seen a grizzly bear.

You immediately know that there is something wrong with that sequence. (You did recognize that there was something wrong, didn't you?)

The animal I saw could just as well have been a horse.

Horses have four legs, are brown (sometimes) and are covered with hair.

Without going into the various forms of false reasoning enumerated in logic classes, let's see if we can cut to the chase, so to speak.

Firstly, I neither gave nor received enough factual material to conclude anything at all about what I saw.

Secondly, I took the few facts I had and drew a premature conclusion from them.

Thirdly, the conclusion I drew could have been either right or wrong, because you don't have enough facts to know whether I drew the right conclusion.

Now why do I bother with this?

I bother with it because it disturbs me that so many Christians are willing to draw conclusions about God, the Bible, Spiritual matters and each other without enough facts.

Trouble is, they don't seem to let the lack of facts slow down their conclusion making process.

I have undertaken writing a series called "Voodoo Christianity."

It has taken me a lot longer to write than I ever imagined it would, because I like to make things concise and clear. The posts I have written so far are more complex than I would like.

But here is the gist of what I am writing: In many cases, Christians give credence to ideas about spiritual matters that are absolutely no more than foolish superstition.

Those ideas have no real, contextual basis in Scripture, but are the result of applying false reasoning to the incomplete set of facts they gather.

Sometimes this is the result of wishful thinking: I wish God were like so-and-so, therefore He must be like that.

That is seeking to conform God to our image, rather than seeking to conform to His.

Sometimes is is the result of failing to read enough of God's word to draw a reasonable conclusion about what it is teaching about God.

That is taking His Word out of context.

Sometimes it is the result of coming to God's Word with preconceived notions about what it is going to say.

I'll give you an example of what I mean.

In Matthew 18:19 we read, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

In the first place, that is the Authorized King James Version of that Scripture (which is the translation in which nearly all of my scripture memorization takes place), and is archaic (that means "old-fashioned," not "untrue") in structure as it relates to today's English.

Secondly, if we take it at it's face it means that two of us get together and decide to agree on something and God has to do it.

If God is sovereign, omnipotent, omnicient and omnipresent, and if His Word is totally true, that flies in the face of who God is and what He has said.

Besides, what if two others get together and "agree" on the exact opposite of what the other two agreed upon? What is "poor" God going to do?

Is He obligated to give both couples what they have agreed upon?

Absolutely not!

NO!!

God is not obligated to do anything He does not want to, and He is especially not obligated to do anything any two or more of us think He should do.

Let's see if we can get to the meaning of that Scripture.

What if we thought of it as meaning: "If two of you agree on anything that happens on Earth it shall be done."

Hold it.

We still have the same problem.

Let's try this: "If any two of you on earth come to the conclusion, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that God has willed a certain thing, and submit to His will on the matter, it shall be done."

Put another way: "If any two of you shall agree with God about anything on earth, you can ask Him for it and it will be done."

Suddenly we have a statement that conforms to all of the rest of what we know about God from His Word and is consistant with the verse, itself.

Because He is sovereign, He cannot be...must not be manipulated by His creation.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard heretical "TV evangelists" tell us that all we have to do to get what we want from God is to find someone who will "agree with us in prayer."

Poppycock!

If that were the case, I guarantee you that there would be no poor Christians, no sick Christians, no tired Christians and no discouraged Christians.

We would all be driving around in BMWs, have millions to lavish on the poor and would be able to empty the hospitals of Christians (and lost people, too).

An aside (no extra cost for this): Make me a list of all the known Christians in the New Testament who were healed by Jesus.

I have heard these self-same "TV evangelists" tell us that the reason we don't get what we ask for is because of a lack of faith.

Poppycock!! I say. Poppycock!!

Aside (no extra charge for this one, either): Make me a list of all the Christians you know who have said to an actual mountain "go into the sea," and have gotten a mountain to go there.

I have also heard these so-called evangelists say thing like, "Don't pray 'Whatever you will, Lord. Pray with confidence and expecting God to give you what you ask for.'"

Uh, forgive me for pointing this out, but Jesus gave us several examples that contradict that thinking.

There is the Model Prayer (The Lord's Prayer) in which Jesus taught His deciples to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

There is also Jesus' prayer in the garden when He said, "If there be any other way...Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done."

Point is, what we may WANT Scripture to say and what it actually says may very well be two different things.

I don't know about yours, but my God is REAL and has created a REAL world.

Since it is a fallen world, by its own choice, bad things happen: sickness; poverty; accidents; drugs; etc.

That's the bad news.

Here's the Good News (gospel): In spite of the fact that we, as a "race" and individually, have chosen to rebel against God, He is ready to redeem us by the shed blood of Jesus, His paying our penalty for us, and His resurrection in triumph over death and Hell.

That Good News is available to any who will turn to Him trusting in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary.

By the way, any form of "Christianity," mainstream or not, that does not understand this as the basis of faith, is guilty of practicing

VOODOO CHRISTIANITY.