Having spent 20 years in a University setting it doesn't surprise me to see the pseudo-intellectuals who proudly proclaim a secular philosophy, and a post-modern interpretation of primary issues concerning life and truth.
It is not limited to the intellectual hallways, it reaches even into religious institutions and the ranks of those who call themselves "teachers" of the word, pastors and elders.
In 1969 I came face to face with the knowledge of God, who in Christ, can save anyone who comes to him by faith. His grace is sufficient to meet the needs of everyone who calls upon His name, and simply acknowledges the need of Christ's saving work upon the cross.
At the time...before this moment of revelation, my mind with filled with all sorts of strange ideas about life, death, eternity. I had formed a private mind of false beliefs, and held them firmly! I was the master of my own mind, soul and heart. It was God who arrested that and made it clear that His truth -the Gospel's message - was that I was lost in my own sin, and that Jesus' death upon the cross for my sin was all that I needed for life and eternity.
God created the world, and Satan introduced to God's creation a corrupt version, which when they believed, distorted all they knew about God - making God the enemy and their own version of knowledge, the truth for them. We call it the Fall, and the affects of it continue to this day.
Calvin spoke clearly about this distortion of God and the distortion of the Gospel message, and the error that it creates in the human mind. From Book 1, Chapter 5, some further thoughts on mankind's tendency to ignore the truth of God apart from faith in Christ.
" ...Hence that immense flood of error with which the whole world is overflowed. Every
individual mind being a kind of labyrinth, it is not wonderful, not only that each nation has adopted
a variety of fictions, but that almost every man has had his own god. To the darkness of ignorance
have been added presumption and wantonness, and hence there is scarcely an individual to be found
without some idol or phantom as a substitute for Deity. Like water gushing forth from a large and
copious spring, immense crowds of gods have issued from the human mind, every man giving
himself full license, and devising some peculiar form of divinity, to meet his own views. It is
unnecessary here to attempt a catalogue of the superstitions with which the world was overspread.
The thing were endless; and the corruptions themselves, though not a word should be said, furnish
abundant evidence of the blindness of the human mind. I say nothing of the rude and illiterate
vulgar; but among the philosophers who attempted, by reason and learning, to pierce the heavens,
what shameful disagreement! The higher any one was endued with genius, and the more he was
polished by science and art, the more specious was the colouring which he gave to his opinions.
All these, however, if examined more closely, will be found to be vain show. The Stoics plumed
themselves on their acuteness, when they said that the various names of God might be extracted
from all the parts of nature, and yet that his unity was not thereby divided: as if we were not already
too prone to vanity, and had no need of being presented with an endless multiplicity of gods, to
lead us further and more grossly into error...
Hence we must hold, that whosoever adulterates pure religion (and this must be the case
with all who cling to their own views), make a departure from the one God. No doubt, they will
allege that they have a different intention; but it is of little consequence what they intend or persuade
themselves to believe, since the Holy Spirit pronounces all to be apostates, who, in the blindness
of their minds, substitute demons in the place of God. For this reason Paul declares that the Ephesians
were “without God,” (Eph. 2:12), until they had learned from the Gospel what it is to worship the
true God."
According to the wisdom of the world, there are many ways to God...according to Scripture, there is many ways into error, and there is only One Gospel.
Peace
It is not limited to the intellectual hallways, it reaches even into religious institutions and the ranks of those who call themselves "teachers" of the word, pastors and elders.
In 1969 I came face to face with the knowledge of God, who in Christ, can save anyone who comes to him by faith. His grace is sufficient to meet the needs of everyone who calls upon His name, and simply acknowledges the need of Christ's saving work upon the cross.
At the time...before this moment of revelation, my mind with filled with all sorts of strange ideas about life, death, eternity. I had formed a private mind of false beliefs, and held them firmly! I was the master of my own mind, soul and heart. It was God who arrested that and made it clear that His truth -the Gospel's message - was that I was lost in my own sin, and that Jesus' death upon the cross for my sin was all that I needed for life and eternity.
God created the world, and Satan introduced to God's creation a corrupt version, which when they believed, distorted all they knew about God - making God the enemy and their own version of knowledge, the truth for them. We call it the Fall, and the affects of it continue to this day.
Calvin spoke clearly about this distortion of God and the distortion of the Gospel message, and the error that it creates in the human mind. From Book 1, Chapter 5, some further thoughts on mankind's tendency to ignore the truth of God apart from faith in Christ.
" ...Hence that immense flood of error with which the whole world is overflowed. Every
individual mind being a kind of labyrinth, it is not wonderful, not only that each nation has adopted
a variety of fictions, but that almost every man has had his own god. To the darkness of ignorance
have been added presumption and wantonness, and hence there is scarcely an individual to be found
without some idol or phantom as a substitute for Deity. Like water gushing forth from a large and
copious spring, immense crowds of gods have issued from the human mind, every man giving
himself full license, and devising some peculiar form of divinity, to meet his own views. It is
unnecessary here to attempt a catalogue of the superstitions with which the world was overspread.
The thing were endless; and the corruptions themselves, though not a word should be said, furnish
abundant evidence of the blindness of the human mind. I say nothing of the rude and illiterate
vulgar; but among the philosophers who attempted, by reason and learning, to pierce the heavens,
what shameful disagreement! The higher any one was endued with genius, and the more he was
polished by science and art, the more specious was the colouring which he gave to his opinions.
All these, however, if examined more closely, will be found to be vain show. The Stoics plumed
themselves on their acuteness, when they said that the various names of God might be extracted
from all the parts of nature, and yet that his unity was not thereby divided: as if we were not already
too prone to vanity, and had no need of being presented with an endless multiplicity of gods, to
lead us further and more grossly into error...
Hence we must hold, that whosoever adulterates pure religion (and this must be the case
with all who cling to their own views), make a departure from the one God. No doubt, they will
allege that they have a different intention; but it is of little consequence what they intend or persuade
themselves to believe, since the Holy Spirit pronounces all to be apostates, who, in the blindness
of their minds, substitute demons in the place of God. For this reason Paul declares that the Ephesians
were “without God,” (Eph. 2:12), until they had learned from the Gospel what it is to worship the
true God."
According to the wisdom of the world, there are many ways to God...according to Scripture, there is many ways into error, and there is only One Gospel.
Peace
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