Category: foolishness

Myriads of Itching Ears #1

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4 KJV).

Beware of the megachurches, for they teach mega error!

Lately, I read a news article about megachurches, churches that have a weekly attendance of at least 2,000 people. According to the reporter, “Americans have less faith in religion than any time in the last three decades, but megachurches are on the rise.” Megachurches in the United States have multiplied from only 350 in 1990 to over 1,200 today!

According to the sociology researcher who contributed to the article, megachurch members feel a sense of “belonging.” These dear souls, most probably sincere, literally get so excited when they see thousands “worshiping” “God” that they have to join them. These members then often form smaller groups based on nonreligious activities and hobbies (knitting, fishing, cooking, et cetera). In addition to their “social club” atmosphere, megachurches are appealing because of their charismatic (charming) preachers and their feel-good messages. Megachurches capitalize less on sound Bible study and more on entertainment, which our sinful flesh gravitates toward.

Yes, megachurches read Bible verses and they shout, “Praise Jesus!,” but these activities are not necessarily godly. Satan quoted the Bible to Jesus (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10,11), so preaching Bible verses is not necessarily of God. Crying “Jesus is Lord” and someone speaking about God with their lips is not necessarily godly, either. Before Jesus Christ will cast lost people into hell, they will call Him “Lord, Lord” and He will declare they work “iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). He also mentioned people who “draw nigh unto [him] with their mouth, and honoureth [him] with their lips, but their heart is far from [him]” (Matthew 15:8).

When the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to write today’s Scripture, He undoubtedly foresaw and foretold of our day, when megachurches and their damnable doctrines would arise, and the clarity of the Bible would be further complicated. Heed the warning!!!

Sifting Through the Silliness

Monday, August 20, 2012

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21 KJV).

Seeing as to I am returning to college today, we admonish ourselves: “Have an open mind, but use it not to vacuum!”

It is almost six years to the day that I began college to study environmental geology (the study of the earth and its natural processes). I can testify firsthand that, in a realm where God’s wisdom (the Holy Bible) is deemed “foolishness,” man’s idiocy is (unsurprisingly) termed “scholarly.” Frankly, some of the most absurd, vulgar, and blasphemous statements I have heard and read in my life were encountered in the college setting!

Today’s Scripture instructs us to “prove all things,” to test (verify) everything we hear, see, or read. “We search [study!] the scriptures daily, whether those things [are] so” (Acts 17:11). Once we use the rightly divided King James Bible to identify teaching that is “good,” we “hold fast” (seize, possess) it, and NEVER relinquish it. Any teaching to the contrary is sifted out, and mentally relegated to a permanent, inferior status.

We Christians should have an open mind, but we are not to use our intellect as a vacuum cleaner. We do not “suck up” everything, believing anything and everything. God’s Word has established parameters and principles, and it would be utter stupidity to ignore them as though we knew better, as though we were God.

To college students just beginning the first semester, and to high school students considering college, you would do well to memorize today’s Scripture and repeat it to yourself through your collegiate experience. Your young mind is pliable, meaning that it is easily persuaded. Thus, God’s Word admonishes us to be careful what we believe. In college, you will learn a lot of interesting information, teachings that do not contradict the Holy Scriptures. Yet, you will also hear, see, and read a lot of nonsense. You need to be able to use God’s Word rightly divided to discern (judge) that which is good, and filter out that which is garbage.

I wish you all the best for the upcoming school year! 🙂

Full of Foolishness

Thursday, August 9, 2012

“Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him” (Proverbs 27:22 KJV).

What does today’s Scripture mean?

Firstly, “bray” means “to crush or grind.” Secondly, the pestle and mortar, in case you are unfamiliar with them, are used to grind up grain, spices, and medicines. Ingredients are placed within the cup-shaped mortar, and the pestle, a heavy wand-like tool that is round at one end, is used to pulverize them into powder.

For further explanation, we can consider Numbers 11:7,8, when the children of Israel are gathering manna: “And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof was as the colour of bdellium. And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.” The Jews would take the seeds of manna, and pound them in the mortar to produce flour, which they would then use to make cakes.

So, the analogy in today’s Scripture is simple. You can place wheat berries (grains) into the mortar, and repeatedly pound them with the pestle in order to extract the whole-wheat flour found inside. But, if you put a fool into the mortar, and pound him or her with the pestle, you cannot extract the foolishness found inside!

Proverbs 26:11 illustrates: “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” The fool never permanently abandons his idiocy. In fact, the Apostle Peter, referring to false teachers and prophets living during the future Tribulation period, writes: “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again: and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). They understood God’s Word, and then they foolishly turn away from it / apostasy (verses 15-21).

Let us continue by faith in sound, Pauline grace Bible doctrine, lest we too be found full of foolishness….