Day one and already four or five pages…..the floodgates are open, but hopefully not to the hotheads.
We are all entitled to believe as we wish, but supplying backup for the things we hold to be true is important.
I like to take the overview, that is, taking all Scripture into consideration when evaluating what is truth and what is an addition to what was written.
If we understand that the confusion over many “Christian” doctrines comes from a situation that Christ himself foretold, we will hopefully become more discerning about what was written….by whom…and when.
Jesus said……in his parable of the “wheat and the weeds”….
”The Kingdom of the heavens may be likened to a man who sowed fine seed in his field. 25 While men were sleeping, his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat and left. 26 When the stalk sprouted and produced fruit, then the weeds also appeared. 27 So the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow fine seed in your field? How, then, does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy, a man, did this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go out and collect them?’ 29 He said, ‘No, for fear that while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest season, I will tell the reapers: First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up; then gather the wheat into my storehouse.’”
This is one of only a few parables where the disciples asked Jesus to clarify his illustration.
”Then after dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples came to him and said: “Explain to us the illustration of the weeds in the field.” 37 In response he said: “The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man; 38 the field is the world.+ As for the fine seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom, but the weeds are the sons of the wicked one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels. 40 Therefore, just as the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so it will be in the conclusion of the system of things. 41 The Son of man will send his angels, and they will collect out from his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling and people who practice lawlessness, 42 and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where their weeping and the gnashing of their teeth will be. 43 At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun+ in the Kingdom of their Father. Let the one who has ears listen.”
So what were the “weeds” in this illustration? Does it help us to understand the parable better?
It was thought to be a common plant in the Middle East, (called bearded darnel) which in the early growing stage was indistinguishable from wheat. It was even called “wheat’s evil twin” because it was poisonous and because of its similarity at first, was not pulled out in time to preserve the wheat crop.
It was often used to destroy an enemy’s harvest so that it would not be as bountiful. By the time the weeds were obvious, their root systems were so entwined with the wheat it was impossible to uproot them without taking the wheat with them. The farmer had little option but to allow all the plants to grow together until the harvest when the difference would be obvious, and uprooting the weeds did not take the wheat with them. The reapers were instructed to pull out the weeds first and destroy them….then to gather the wheat and bring it into the farmer’s storehouse. It was a time consuming harvest, but at least the wheat was preserved even though the crop may have been reduced. Jesus tells us who the sower is, where he sowed his seeds, and who the reapers are. We are approaching the harvest time right now.
So in this climate of the devil sowing what is essentially a false “Christianity” “while men were sleeping”, indicates that either the early church had fallen into spiritual slumber, or it was the death of the apostles that led the church to foster a bumper crop of weeds ( counterfeit Christians) from that time on.
The devil is a clever deceiver and he had time up his sleeve…..ever so gradually he twisted the truth into falsehood and presented the fake as the real McCoy. Anyone disputing the new and accepted truth was immediately identified as a heretic and dealt with as such.
Christian history is an interesting read when we understand the origins of its many differing beliefs. It’s not hard to do a Google search to find out where most of those beliefs came from.
As far as Christianity goes, the devil has managed to get human beings (created with a spiritual nature) to accept all kinds of doctrinal ideas, but
three are actually found in all false worship….yet missing in Jewish monotheism and first century Christianity.
1) Belief in multiple gods, never just one Supreme and Almighty God, like the Jews had. (Deut 6:4)
The Almighty God Yahweh, has no equals, nor does he have three heads. No Jew would have accepted Christ if he claimed to be God…..he never once did. (John 10:31-36 when read in Greek tells the story)
If Jesus had made such a claim, there would not be this ongoing argument. He is what he said he was….”the son of God”.
2) Belief in an immortal soul, when those words are not found side by side in a single passage of Scripture. This is nothing more than the perpetuation of the devil’s first lie…”you surely will not die”. God told Adam that he would return to the dust…nothing more. (Gen 3:19; Ecco 9:5, 10) The dead are not in a conscious condition.
3) Belief in an eternal fiery hell of torture for the wicked…but a heavenly bliss for the good people. This makes God into a sadistic fiend….a loving God would never need to do that to anyone, let alone his own children. There is no justice in it.
In his fake Christianity, the devil planted seeds of all three, which are held to this day. These do not exist in Scripture except by inference and incorrect translation.
So this is the perspective that I come from….
