Isn’t it good to know that we’re not left defenseless in the arena of spiritual warfare? God has given us a full suit of armor!
Dr. David Jeremiah teaches about the first piece of that armor, which is designed to help us press forward into battle with the enemy.
In order to be armed with the truth, we must know the truth—the whole comprehensive counsel of God.
God has put everything He wants us to know between the covers of the Bible—everything He wants us to know about Himself, about His Son, about eternity, and about life. And when we study God’s Word, carefully analyze and apply its truth, we end up with power in our lives.
Now, you might never memorize the whole Bible, but make it a priority to know your Bible well enough to know that there are certain places in Scripture where you are going to find answers. The more truth we know, the better equipped we are to go into battle and be victorious. And when you take God’s truth to yourself, then you can embody that truth in your life, and God will begin to show you how you can be victorious on the battlefield.
One of the highlights of the message is when Dr. Jeremiah shares an analogy regarding truth. It’s the story of the three baseball umpires.
One umpire states, “There are balls and there are strikes, and I call them as they are.”
The second umpire states, “That’s arrogant! There are balls and there are strikes, and I call them the way I see them.”
The third umpire states, “That’s no better, why beat around the bush? Why not be realistic about what we do. There are balls and there are strikes and it ain’t nothin’ until I call ’em.”
The first umpire represents the traditional view of truth. Objective, independent of the mind of the knower; it’s there to be discovered.
The second umpire speaks for modern relativism. Truth as he or she sees it; according to each person’s perspective or interpretation.
The third umpire bluntly expresses the post-modern position that truth is there to be discovered? No. It is for each of us to create our own truth and to speak our own truth into the situation. They ain’t nothin’ unless I call ’em balls or strikes.
Dr. Jeremiah explains:
But as Christians, we cannot borrow from the philosophy of this world. As Christians, we must be set on the objective truth of God’s Word. Truth isn’t about our objectives or our perceptions. It’s always about reality.
A majority of us could agree that we would like gravity to be suspended tomorrow, but our vote would have no impact upon reality. Americans embrace Democratic rule which gives us a voice to declare what is truth. But the universe isn’t a democracy, and truth isn’t a ballot measure.
You and I can discover truth, but we cannot create it. What’s true is true, and what’s not is not – for all of us, all the time. Our culture sees truth as something inside of us, subjected to revision according to our growth and enlightenment. But Scripture views truth as something outside of us; which we can believe or not believe. But it is still the truth no matter what we do to it.
People say, “well, I don’t believe this.” And I get the impression that because they don’t believe it that it seems no longer to be true. Well let me tell you something – truth is truth whether you believe it or not! Truth is not touched by your emotions, your opinion, or by your perception. And that is what’s being lost in our culture today. Today, there is no absolute truth anymore. Today, your truth may be different from my truth, but it doesn’t really matter. Isn’t all truth …just a “kind” of truth? No it’s not!
In a world so confused about truth, many people say, “if you are Christians and you think that you know the truth, then isn’t that arrogant on your part? But it’s not arrogant to believe what the Bible teaches! In fact, it’s the opposite. Arrogance is when we try to tailor truth to our preferences.
Dr. Jeremiah tells the story about when a lady approached him one time and said that “her” God would never send anyone to hell. Dr. Jeremiah replied, “you are absolutely right – because your god doesn’t exist!” That god doesn’t exist because you don’t get to create the kind of god that you want and what you want Him to do.
If you found the God of the Bible and how He created, why do you want to spend all of your waking hours trying to discover truth that you already know? If you don’t believe that truth is in the Bible, then search on, my friend!
But if you are a Christian and you believe that God has spoken, and it is true, then why spend all this time trying to find “truth” that isn’t going to be true when you find it?
The Word of God is true. And satan is busy trying to deceive. He continually tries to throw things at us that aren’t true.
When you know Jesus and God’s Word, you can discern truth from error!
Amen!!!
Tags: Belt of truth, Bible
Talk Wisdom 
October 5, 2018 at 11:20 am |
I personally hold with the first one: “the truth is out there”. We might not find it right away, but it is out there.
The second is extremely common. It keeps the law in business. For example, Mr. X molests Miss Y and later claims it’s not true that he did it, while Miss Y claims Mr. X did molest her. Both are telling the truth, but from their own perspectives. If a police officer shoots a citizen in their household believed to be an intruder—and it is found that the citizen was in his own rooms minding his own business…well, one of those perspectives is obviously wrong. However, the citizen is now dead, and unable to argue his perspective.
The third is just obfuscation (and poorly written as well). “…that truth is there to be discovered?” Well, yes it is! That’s point #1 repeated. If the question is “IS there truth to be discovered?” then I say the answer is still yes…but it may not be discovered in one’s lifetime. That third umpire would then say “I don’t know.” (In a better argument, the umpire would add “Let’s find out.”)
Fortunately the rules of baseball are easily accessible to everyone, and unlike religions, anyone can demonstrate that there actually is such a thing as a ball. Gods are not so easy to demonstrate.
The rules of baseball are updated every decade or so, acknowledging new technologies, new materials and even new social developments. Religions, or the doctrines they preach, are said to be eternal and unchanging, so a social norm of 3000 years ago must be somehow applicable to all of modern society, or the doctrine will be shown to be flawed.
Horse puckey! Here’s an absolute truth: when you die, you die. You don’t come back. You may advance into some supernatural realm to be with the Lord of the Universe or his Evil Stooge, but no one actually knows that. Certain religions teach that their chosen avatar will return, but the date is never specified, and recedes further into the future with each passing year. How do we know that it will ever happen? “’Cause he said so” is the usual answer. But there’s no tangible evidence, no way to examine it, and absolutely no way to test it. Truth does not fear testing.
If your god was real, he wouldn’t need someone like Dr. DJ to reveal it. He could do it Himself. He used to do it a lot in the old days, if the stories are true. And he often slaughtered (or had slaughtered) those who didn’t believe it then.
Word has it he’s planning a massive barbecue sometime in the future. I’d be terrified, if I believed it.
Sorry I didn’t make it on time for our ‘ad-versary’ yesterday, Christine. I hope this’ll make up for it.
As we begin our 15th year, I look forward to at least as many more as your “favorite nemesis”. Buckle up!
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October 6, 2018 at 3:27 pm |
GM pilot,
I don’t believe you have yet prayed for understanding of the Bible from the Holy Spirit, and then read it from cover to cover have you?
As for miracles of God yes they exit every day. I have experienced some myself. The Holy Spirit was left as our helper. We are able to heal and work miracles with our prayers if it is his will.
Truth is not a he said she said. Truth is in the heart, and sometimes people, because we are all sinners lie about the truth. That doesn’t change what the truth is.
The Bible is truth, and it is God’s word. It doesn’t change, and yes it still applies. There are 66 books over 40 authors over a period 1,500 years written in 3 different languages, from 3 different continents. These books have a common story line, and theme. To top it off there are no historical errors.
With all of that being said you find me one other book that has 40 different authors, in three different languages that can even come close. If that does not mean the Bible is from the divine than prove it.
Show me where I am wrong. Show me absolute proof.
L
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October 7, 2018 at 10:02 pm |
You seem to have missed the point. I have not prayed for understanding of the Bible, from the Holy Spirit nor anyone else. If I were to read any other book, I would not pray to ask the author to help me understand it. Would you?
I have already read it twice before, but because you challenged me to do so, I have begun it again. It’s been a busy season, but I will finish it, because I said I would.
I’m not praying to the Holy Spirit because I simply don’t believe there is one. Is that so hard to understand?
“…if it is his will.” And what if it’s not? What happens then?
I have never seen nor witnessed any miracles. That doesn’t mean they don’t happen, only that I’ve never known one. Maybe you could explain what you mean by that word, because we might have different definitions.
Truth isn’t just in the heart, and anyway, according to Biblical doctrine, “the heart is deceitful in all things”. That shows even the heart cannot be a reliable source of truth.
There are 66 books in the Protestant version; the Catholic version has more. There are at least 100 versions of the Bible in existence, written (and rewritten) over those same 1500 years. The Septuagint was the ‘authorized version’ for much of that time, and it’s a poor translation. All of them have notable inaccuracies. Look around you now: the KJV, the NKJV, the RSV, the NIV, the Vulgate, the NLT…and those are just the ones in English, a language that Jesus never heard nor spoke. If there were a god he’d make it clear to us which book was the right book, thereby saving us much blood and anguish.
IMO, only a lie needs so many versions!
There are historical errors as well, but it’s hard to trace them, because the Bible gives not a single date for any significant event in it. We don’t know, for example, the date of Jesus’ birth, nor his death; the date of the battle when David slew Goliath; the 13 years when Tyre was besieged. There is not a single example where we can point to the calendar and say “It happened on that day.”
If the god’s word still applies, then will you ask Congress to repeal the 13th Amendment? ‘Cause the god never said it was a bad idea. He endorsed it.
I don’t have to prove a negative. You say the Bible is divinely inspired. I only have to say that I don’t believe it.
I can’t show you absolute proof. But you can’t show me any either, and you’re not the first one who’s tried.
Regards, GM
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October 11, 2018 at 6:32 pm |
There is a Bible verse that says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
Hebrews 11:6
GM wrote:
“You seem to have missed the point. I have not prayed for understanding of the Bible, from the Holy Spirit nor anyone else.”
That answer is exactly why you have missed the point.
GM wrote:
” If I were to read any other book, I would not pray to ask the author to help me understand it. Would you?”
Most secular authors are not led along by the Holy Spirit of God, nor are they God Himself. Therefore, no Christian would “pray to ask the author to help me [you] to understand a secular author’s book.”
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October 11, 2018 at 8:00 pm
That answer is exactly why you have missed the point.
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October 11, 2018 at 8:25 pm
Why? Because it is an answer that you don’t like and refuse to face as the truth of the matter?
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October 11, 2018 at 8:33 pm |
I’ve heard many answers in my life that I don’t like, but I’ve faced them.
Exactly what is the ‘answer’ I’m supposed to be refusing?
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October 11, 2018 at 8:46 pm |
The answer that Jesus said to Nicodemus. See John 3
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October 12, 2018 at 7:32 am |
You didn’t specify any particular verse, so I read the whole chapter. I’ll comment here and there:
“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” [3:12]
You have told me a great many earthly things which were wrong on closer examination, which gives me no confidence in the heavenly things you’ve told me. If I can’t trust your words on things we both can hear and see, why should I trust your word on things that only you can see?
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” [3:18]
So, mere belief is not enough; I have to believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, or I’m slated for the eternal Auschwitz. Noted. Nice religion you have here.
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” [3:36]
What’s the answer you say I’ve been refusing? That God doesn’t like me? I already knew that, and I reconciled* myself to that long ago. There’s other people who don’t like me either, but AFAIK none of them are anticipating my demise with glee.
What’s the answer you say I’ve been refusing? That my lack of faith makes it impossible to please God? The only thing that seems to please him is bloodshed: the Great Flood, the massacre of the Egyptian firstborn, the annihilation of cities and tribes in Canaan, the roasting of livestock , and the murder of his only begotten son.
Not to mention the angels and monsters he plans to unleash upon the world in the Last Days. All in the name of love.
You tell me that God is ‘not willing that any should perish’. A walk through Revelation alone shows that to be false. That’s an answer I’d refuse—to not worship a God who destroys not only those who resist him, but those who obey him.
*A favorite word of yours, which doesn’t always mean what you claim it to mean.
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October 12, 2018 at 10:05 am |
I’m sorry GM, but I’m not feeling well today so I will respond at another time.
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October 13, 2018 at 8:25 am |
The reason why I posted that link to the entire chapter was because it is more helpful to read all of it instead of some verses.
That’s fine if you feel you can’t trust me. The important point is to trust God. You hate Him. You have your perceived reasons for hating Him. There is likely nothing that I could write or link to (including God’s Word) to change your mind about anything spiritual. That chapter explains exactly why you remain spiritually discerned and in your mind, do not need salvation through Jesus Christ. As I have written many times before, my purpose here is to share the Gospel of Christ and hopefully lead others to learn about the Bible and God’s plan of salvation.
I found an interesting blog the other day and this essay was really good:
The Blazing Center: Can Our Sins Derail God’s Plan for Us?
I suggest reading it all. Here is a relevant excerpt:
Shortly after reading that post, I read this one:
Possessing the Treasure: Personal Holiness and Inward Cleanliness.
Excerpt:
GM wrote:
If that’s the case, then don’t trust me. Go to these other blogs where your trust in the authors has not been compromised.
GM wrote:
It matters what one believes in this life as well as for all eternity. God has provided THE way back to Him, through His Son’s sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection to life. I shared a link to a website that contained over 350 Bible verses of prophecy about the coming Savior (in the Old Testament) and how Jesus has fulfilled most of them (in the New Testament). The rest are to be fulfilled at His Second Coming.
We are all condemned towards separation from God in eternity unless we accept God’s provision for eternal life. It’s that simple.
GM wrote:
October 13, 2018 at 9:12 am
Okay. You’re back, you’re better, and you came out swinging. Good.
I’ll take care of some personal business and get back here later today.
Just for a start, though: I don’t hate God. I don’t hate him for the same reason that I don’t hate Dracula. I’ve told you that before, but you don’t seem to have figured out why yet. Keep trying.
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October 13, 2018 at 1:36 pm
Your hatred of God’s Word is very evident.
I have no need to “have figured out why yet” regarding anything that you write here.
Dracula is a fictional character. God is real (at least to me and millions, probably billions of Christian believers throughout the centuries); yet there will always be skeptics and deniers. So be it. As Solomon has informed us – there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecc 1:9
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
I appreciate David Guzik’s commentary on Ecclesiastes 1.
Especially this portion:
ii. There may be nothing new under the sun; but thankfully the followers of Jesus – those born again by God’s Spirit – don’t live under the sun in that sense. Their life is filled with new things.
· A new name (Isaiah 62:2, Revelation 2:17)
· A new community (Ephesians 2:14)
· A new help from angels (Psalm 91:11)
· A new commandment (John 13:34)
· A new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33, Matthew 26:28)
· A new and living way to heaven (Hebrews 10:20)
· A new purity (1 Corinthians 5:7)
A new nature (Ephesians 4:24)
· A new creation in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
· All things become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5)
*******
And this portion:
c. All that is done under heaven: God’s heaven and eternity are not in view here, only the day and night skies. This is another way of saying, “under the sun.” All man’s work, accomplishment, and searching for wisdom seems to amount to nothing.
i. “All that is done under heaven shows that the total resources of a limited world-view are the object of study; the vertical aspect is not yet in view.” (Eaton)
d. This burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised: The seeming futility of life comes from God; He has given it to man. God has deliberately built a system where life seems meaningless and empty without the understanding of a living, active God to whom we must give account.
i. It may seem cruel of God to devise such a system, but it is actually evidence of His great love and mercy. He built within us the desire and need for that which brings meaning and fulfillment to life. As Augustine wrote, the Creator made a God-shaped space in each of us, which can only be filled with Him.
ii. This desire is found not only in us as people, but also in creation itself. God also subjected creation to this futility until He one day brings the promised fulfillment. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope (Romans 8:20).
iii. At the same time, this is a burdensome task. It isn’t always easy to find these answers, because our pride, self-reliance, and self-love work against finding them.
e. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered: The Preacher’s initial search for the answers in wisdom (under the sun) brought him only despair.
i. “With his usual devastating candour Qoheleth is quick to tell us the worst. The search has come to nothing.” (Kidner)
ii. “The third conclusion explains why the ‘under the sun’ thinker is so frustrated. It is because there are twists (what is crooked) and gaps (what is lacking) in all thinking. No matter how the thinker ponders, he cannot straighten out life’s anomalies, nor reduce all he sees to a neat system.” (Eaton)
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October 12, 2018 at 12:14 pm |
I’m sorry you’re indisposed. I’ll be here when you come back.
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October 13, 2018 at 3:19 pm |
Are you going to let me respond to your previous posts, or do you want me to forget them and focus on this last one?
“Dracula is a fictional character. God is real (at least to me and millions, probably billions of Christian believers throughout the centuries); yet there will always be skeptics and deniers. So be it.”
Numbers count for nothing here. There have been millions, probably billions, of non-Christian believers throughout the centuries, too–and still are–and your God is not real to them.
Okay, I confess. I hated Dracula. I didn’t like the way he ‘lived’; I didn’t like the things he did. But when the movie was over, I walked out of the theater and forgot about him.
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October 13, 2018 at 5:23 pm |
You are free to do whatever you want. In my previous comment, I was answering what you said here:
It is not necessary for me to “keep trying” to “figure out why yet…” In my view, I already know why. I stated reasons from God’s Word. Apparently, you didn’t like that.
It seems like you’re comparing your view of God to a movie about Dracula – in your own Twilight Zone way.
You ended with “I didn’t like the way he ‘lived.’ And, “I didn’t like the things he did.”
Well, your “movie” (analogy) here can be over, too. It’s always been your choice not to “walk out of this theater and forget about Him.”
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October 13, 2018 at 7:59 pm
You didn’t answer all of my comment. Why should I give credence to you and those millions who believe in your God, but not to those millions who believe in some other God? Which is more believable, if any, and why? None of them has, AFAIK, made a mark in human history…and before you get lathered up, I’ll clarify. Only the believers in the various gods have made an impression in history. The gods themselves have been silent.
Yours is no doubt very special to you, and no doubt is the One True God of the Universe…but that’s what followers of every religion say.
You left the God of your childhood for the same God with a different face, and now you tell me that you’ve got the right one. I wonder why you hold on to the idea of gods at all.
If Catholics have stopped believing in Christ, I haven’t heard of it; I still see the icons everywhere, and I still hear his name murmured fervently by the congregations. But they, the Eastern Orthodox folks, not to mention every Baptist to Ecumenical to Methodist to Presbyterian to Anglican to Seventh-Day Adventist to Jehovah’s Witness to Calvinist to Quaker will all say that you Evangelicals haven’t got it quite right.
People fight the hardest over things they cannot demonstrate. Chemists don’t wage war over the properties of sodium.
Yeah: a being who operates in “the pit of Man’s fears” rather than at “the summit of his knowledge”. Yes, that’s quite a good metaphor. Thank you!
You’ve attempted to throw me out once or twice, but you’ve always preferred that I would leave. Since you invited me here, I can’t do that; that would be rude.
So I’ve stayed in the theater. I don’t want to miss the cartoon.
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October 20, 2018 at 6:04 am |
Ummm…no, I don’t. Even if I did, the worst thing I could do is ignore him, and how would that hurt him?
If you could explain—in your own words, please, not someone else’s—just what you mean by ‘spiritual’, that would be a start. But you almost never express your own thoughts on that to me. Instead you just quote
the professional interpreters of God’s Word™; interpreters who don’t know any more than you do whether there’s an invisible Deity who exists outside of time and space but gets upset over gay people (whom he supposedly made).
Because you and many other people believe in spiritual things, you believe everyone else does too. But the spiritual things that matter to a Navajo or a Hindu are not necessarily the same ones that matter to you. Why should I accept yours over theirs? Why should I accept any at all, if it can’t even be shown they exist, let alone what they say or what they want?
I am a discerning person in many ways. I prefer lemon to strawberry, democracy to monarchy, cotton to polyester. In so-called spiritual matters, I choose “none” over many—or one. I find it’s simpler.
You say I need salvation, but you won’t tell me what from, or why. You won’t tell me what I need it for, or why. You simply pass on vague assertions you were told, without any evidence that they’re true. Just like any other believer in any other faith.
Don’t be so modest, Christine. You’ve shared much more than that here, and everyone knows it. A good deal of it has had nothing whatever to do with the Gospel of Christ.
But…please continue.
That was an interesting essay, but I’m not going off on that tangent now. I’ll come back to it.
That is also an interesting essay. Both are good enough to be threads of their own. But I’m not taking detours today.
Whassamatta, Dr. Jeremiah and his umpires were no longer a good enough example?
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October 21, 2018 at 2:15 pm |
God’s Word is the best source to go to when discussing spiritual meaning. Any Bible verse containing the word would do. Perhaps you should consider going to an online Bible source, type in the search box the word spiritual and read the results! My own words, as you put it, are not anywhere near as important or explanatory than the Bible.
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October 22, 2018 at 6:54 pm
Oh, this time you choose to ‘lean not on your own understanding”. Isn’t that convenient.
Well, a search at Blue Letter Bible produced 23 verses with the word “spiritual” in them (some more than once). Let’s see what they say.
Spiritual is described as:
a gift or gifts (Rom 1:11, 1 Cor 12:1, 14:1, 14:12)
the law (Rom 7:14)
some non-specific thing or things (Rom 15:27, 1 Cor 2:13, 1 Cor 9:11)
food and drink (1 Cor 10:3~4)
a presumably human body (1 Cor 15:44)
that which was not first (1 Cor 15:46)
a house in which to offer up like sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5)
blessings (Eph 1:3)
songs (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16)
that which is not natural (1 Cor 15:44)
giving a person powers of judgment (1 Cor 2:15),
although such a person is described elsewhere is mad (Hos 9:7).
“Spiritual” appears to be one of those words which answers the question without adding any information. These men had a hotline to the Big Guy himself, and they can’t seem to explain what is meant by the word, either. So, perhaps I was being unduly harsh. If God’s own stenographers can’t agree on a definition, then I understand why you won’t try, either.
I followed your suggestion exactly, so at least you can’t accuse me of cherry-picking.
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