Thread: More On the Great Dumbing Down and Its Effects On Christians
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More On the Great Dumbing Down and Its Effects On Christians
Posted : 2 Dec, 2013 06:24 AM
More On the Great Dumbing Down and Its Effects On Christians
"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in
him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him
Amen, unto the glory of God by us." II Corinthians 1:19-20
In Jesus Christ there are no shades of grey, no double mindedness,
only absolutes. The dialectic
mind, on the other hand, operates on shades of grey and doublemindedness.
"But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven,
neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be
yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation." James 5: 12
But the dialectic mind does not believe in the absolute truth of the Word of God. It wants to argue
against that absolute truth, and tries to compromise it in some way - by a dialogue with those who are presenting the truth.
The dialectic mind starts from a position that there are no
absolute truths or absolute morals. It is a double minded mind, and
accepts yea and nay about doctrines taught in the scripture. Those who
use dialectic
arguments against the facts of scripture are always looking for
loopholes, shades
of grey, contradictions and verses where the meanings and implications
are not spelled out in great detail to hit at with their rejection of
the absolute.
Those who operate with the dialectic - which is now almost everyone in our culture - try to justify themselves before men (Luke 16: 1).
The great dumbing down has effects upon people. Short attention spans is one effect of dumbing down, or what is called Attention Deficit Disorder. The ability to focus attention for a period of time on one topic underlies several cognitive abilities, such as the ability to tell the difference between what is important and what is not important, the ability to create clear gist meanings, the ability to remember at the right time what has been stored in long term memory, the ability to think in cause and effect terms, clarity of perception of space and time, the ability to isolate and pay close attention to something which is a small part of a more complex whole, the ability to hold more than one item of information in consciousness at a time, and the ability to combine information into new possible connections, or, in other words creativity. All these cognitive abilities underlie understanding, which includes understanding of texts, and the scriptures. People who are dumbed down have difficulty in rerading and understanding a text, and this includes the Bible.
The dumbling down contributes to one's coming to have a dialectic mindset, which I was just describing.
And the dialectic mindset, which opposes absolute truth and absolute morality, diminishes faith. Christ asked "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18: 8
Many in the dumbed down society think they have faith, but their dialectic mindset undermines it.
Dumbed down people who claim to be Christians have a problem in understanding fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. In what can be called the II Timothy 3: 4-8 church there is a lot of confusion about the difference between physical Israel and the Israel of the New Covenant, about what the church is, in relation to Israel of the Old Covenant, and the Israel of the New Covenant. Paul writes about these differences, but as Peter says in II Peter 3: 15-16, some of Paul's writings are hard to understand and that "they that are unlearned and unstable wrest (wrestle)...unto their own destruction."
The dumbed down Christians have problems in understanding Paul in key texts like Romans 2: 23-29, Romans 9: 6-8, Romans 11: 25-26, Galatians 3: 3-29 and Galatians 4: 24-26, all of which deal with the differences between Old Covenant physical Israel and New Covenant Israel, what Paul calls the Israel of God in Galatians 6: 16. And the teachings of dispensationalism that God now has two peoples, all physical Old Covenant Israel and the church, and that scripture must be interpreted literally is more likely to be uncritically accepted by those who are dumbed down cognitively.
Interestingly, the word Sion is used seven times in the New Testament, and twice in the Old Testament. The spelling Zion, on the other hand, is used a whole lot of times in the Old Testament, and never in the New Testament. Zion, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance number 6726, is from 6725, Tsijon, as a permanent capital, a mountain of Jerus. In other words, Zion, or Tsijon, is metaphoric. Isaiah talks a great deal about mount Zion, metaphoric for God's Old Covenant people. Isaiah 28: 15-18, for example, says "Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."
Here, verse 16 is found in the middle of a text on the falling away of Old Covenant Israel from truth so that they have made a covenant with death and are in agreement with hell, a prophecy on the appearing of Jesus Christ who is to be the foundation in Zion.
But Old Covenant Zion becomes New Covenant Sion. Sion is Strong's number 4622, the Greek word 4622, a hill of Jerus. So, Sion in the New Testament is also metaphoric. To understand the meaning of the metaphor we would have to find out how it is used in the New Testament.
Romans 9: 31-33 says "But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."
Christ is the stumbling stone laid in Sion, or in New Covenant Zion. As a stumbling stone Jesus Christ, who is fully God, was rejected by the majority of Old Covenant Israel. They had to become born again in Christ (John 3: 1-10) to enter the kingdom of God of the New Covenant, which is now spelled Sion, to show it is Israel, but an Israel reborn in Christ."
"O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel." Jeremiah 18: 6
God said in Jeremiah 18: 1-6 that he was going to change Old Covenant Israel, to transform in into another Israel, since in 18: 4 the vessel, the pot, that God the potter made was seen "to be marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."
II Kings 21: 13 anticipates Jeremiah 18: 1-6 in saying "I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down." Then Isaiah 29: 16 ties this turning of Jerusalem upside down with the parable of the potter's clay of Jeremiah 18 in saying "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?"
Some of the recent Bible versions mess this connection up in Isaiah 29: 16. The NIV says "You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "he did not make me."
The transformation of Old Covenant Israel into New Covenant Israel contradicts the dispensationmalist teaching that God now has two different peoples, the Jews and the church, and that all scripture is meant to be literally interpreted. If Old Covenant Israel was changed into New Covenant Israel, how can there now be two people of God? Christ says there is one fold and one shepherd over them in John 10: 16.
Then in Romans 11: 26-28 Paul says "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes."
Paul is suddenly defining the elect, all saved people, as "all Israel." Then he brings up Jesus Christ as the Deliverer who comes out of Sion bringing his New Covenant which, by his blood, takes away sins. "They" in verse 28 are Zion or Israel of the Old Covenant, who in Romans 11: 19-21 are cut off because of unbelief in Christ. "They" are enemies of the Gospel because they reject Christ. But concerning the election to salvation, "they" are beloved for the father's sake. This does not say that all Old Covenant Israel who rejected Christ and are cut off, are beloved because of the Father, that is God the Father. It is talking about the remnant in Romans 11: 5 of Old Covenant Zion who accepted Christ. They are beloved for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other fathers of the twelve tribes.
Finally, in the New Testament Revelation 14: 1 tells us "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads." Those who are sealed in Revelation 7: 3, who are not defiled with women (14: 4), follow the Lamb wherever he goes and have no guile (14: 5), are seen standing with Christ on mount Sion, or on the Zion of the New Covenant. This is all metaphoric. Mount Sion is not a literal mountain. It means to be raised up high, exalted, to be in and with Christ in his spiritual kingdom which is within us. Not being defiled with women is heavily metaphoric; it does not mean those who stand with Christ on mount Sion are all men who never had sex with women. There will be women among them. It must mean that they are not defiled by being, at that time, a part of the church system. Guile in Revelation 14; 5 is an old English word meaning deception. Those standing with Christ on mount Zion are not deceptive, like so many others in the world at this time. They are not infected by the deception of the false prophets (Matthew 24: 11).
More On the Great Dumbing Down and Its Effects On Christians
Posted : 3 Dec, 2013 06:24 AM
"And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
15. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16: 14-15
Trying to justify yourself before men is part of the procedure of dialogue of the dialectic mind. It is a defensive posture, when the attacker, using the dialectic, tries to put his opponent on
the defensive. Christ shows that in his interaction with the Pharisees, who clearly had the dialectic mind or mindset and argued against Christ who was the absolute Truth before them, that he was never lured into the dialectic himself. He taught and even told them in John 8: 44 they were the children of the devil. Christ never got into a prolonged quarrel with an individual
Dispensationalism as postponement theology claims that Old Covenant Israel will be saved sometime in the future, maybe in the dispensationalist tribulation. As separation theology dispensationalism says that even those now in Talmudic Judaism remain Jews when they are born again in Christ and supposedly accept the truths of Christ in the New Testament.
Those who follow dispensationalism cannot read and understand several of Paul's texts and from that understanding realize that entry into the kingdom of God is no longer by race, by the DNA from Abraham. As Galatians 3: 3-29 says, it is now by being in Christ, who is the one seed of Abraham and to become the seed of Abraham in Christ does not depend at all upon your race.
"Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
18. And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
19. And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
20. An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
21. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
22. Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
23. Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
24. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
25. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." Galatians Romans 3: 17-25
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Romans 3: 28-29
"Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Romans 9: 6-8
"Romans 11: 5, 19-23: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace........................Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
20. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again."
Because the tradition of man called dispensationalism, postponement theology, Christian Zionism, separation theology, Darbyism or the Rapture Cult teaches that God now has two peoples, the Jews - who are in Talmudic Judaism and reject Christ - and the church and that all scripture must be literal, people who are dumbed down have some difficulty reading, understanding and applying these scriptures quoted above.
To accept Romans 11: 19-23, that those of Old Covenant Israel who did not accept Christ were broken off, and then to claim that they remain the chosen people is very obvious double-mindedness.
In Acts 21: 20 James said to Paul "Thou seest, brother,how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law." James was talking about the unified Torah, the law, which includes what Hebrews 10: 1 and Colossians 2: 17 call the shadows, or the ceremonial law. James was being double-minded because although thousands of Jews believed in Christ as the Messiah at that time in Jerusalem, they did not believe in the truth of Christ, and Christ is the way the truth and the life. John 14: 6. At the time James wrote his Book, he, however, warned a double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1: 8) and in James 4: 8 he says "purify tour hearts, ye double minded."
So, James, once accepting the Judaizers, later came to the truth and realized that to be double-minded is to be in false doctrines. He would be no friend of the dispensationalists who would claim that though those in physical Israel who were broken off because of unbelief are still the chosen people.
Romans 11: 26 is a key scripture interpreted by the dispensationalists to say that all Old Covenant Israel will be saved in the future. Their literal system of interpretation demands that Israel in Romans 11: 26 must be Old Covenant Israel, and can never be anything else.
"And so all Israel shall be saved..."
Romans 11: 26 "And so all Israel sothesetai (future passsive). It would be incorrect to put the verb in the present tense because all Israel had not been saved at the time Paul wrote. But the dispensationalists have seen in Israel the wrong Israel, because they start from the assumption that Israel in scripture must always be Israel of the Old Covenant.
Dispensationalists interpret many key texts for their tradition of men according to their tradition of men and not according to other New Testament scriptures, which they cannot accept as being relevant, for example, to Romans 11: 26.
Citing a prophecy from the Old Testament, without confirmation of it or interpretation of it in the New Testament is not to be done either. There is that cryptic text in Acts 15: 13-17. After saying "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written:" James then cites Amos 9: 11, on building again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down... James says the prophets agree that God took out a people for himself from the Gentiles, not just Amos, but also the prophecies of Hosea 3: 5, Micah 5: 2 and several prophecies in Zechariah - Zechariah 8: 8, Zechariah 8: 13, Zechariah 8: 23, Zechariah 12: 10, Zechariah 13: 1 and Zechariah 14: 16.
One reason I cited several of the New Testament verses that use "Sion," and quoted Strong's definitions of Zion in Hebrew and Sion in Greek was to show that both are metaphoric, and refer to Israel, the people of God, called Zion in the Old Testament for Old Covenant Israel, and Sion in the New Testament for New Covenant Israel. But Israel, called Zion, of the Old Covenant was transformed into Israel reborn in Christ as he demands of Old Covenant Israel in John 3: 1-11. This was called turning Jerusalem upside down in II Kings 21: 13, and in Jeremiah 18: 1-6 God shows that he was to change Israel, but it was still his people Israel, only changed. This is a fundamental part of the Gospel of Christ. To reject this transformation and to claim that God has two saved groups, or one saved group and a virtually saved group is another Gospel.
But this argument becomes endless when one party to the argument uses the tradition of men - Darby, Scofield, Chafer, etc - as the authority and the other party uses New Testament scripture.
More On the Great Dumbing Down and Its Effects On Christians
Posted : 4 Dec, 2013 09:15 PM
My question was a simple yes or no...I see in many of your postings how you call many specific individuals as errant in their writings. I'm just looking to see if these are your thoughts based on your study or if you are citing other people's writings or a combination.
My assumption is they are your thoughts since I am not seeing references to others except for those you disagree with.
