choir loft Posted October 24, 2019 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 6 Topic Count: 69 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,207 Content Per Day: 0.38 Reputation: 328 Days Won: 0 Joined: 08/23/2015 Status: Offline Birthday: 10/10/1947 Share Posted October 24, 2019 (edited) Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!” - Jesus as quoted by Matthew 7:24-27 What is at issue here is philosophy vs. law and liberty vs. manipulation. Philosophy vs. Law When Jesus uttered the words quoted by Matthew, He wasn't attempting to establish Roman Catholic apostolic succession. He was referring to rabbinical tradition as opposed to Biblical principle. To this day, both Judaism and Christianity are crippled by philosophy. Neither establish or appeal to Biblical principle. Jewish philosophy is expressed in tradition - in doing. No real belief is required. Christian philosophy is Greek philosophy based on abstract belief. No doing is required. Consequently there is no parallel or similarity between the two expressions of religion. Jews act, but don't believe. Christians believe, but don't act. Both disagree and both refuse Biblical principle, which advocates both acting and believing. Philosophy, be it rabbinic tradition or Greek philosophy, changes regularly. This is best illustrated by comparing efforts to transmit the gospel to a society that changes its moral perspective like the wind. Society changes its philosophy every ten to fifteen years. Church apologists, who feel a need to counter secular philosophy with religious philosophy, generally take five years or so to formulate a matching argument in opposition to social philosophy. This process is called, "making the gospel relevant". In point of fact, it is nothing more than a philosophical chess game. Some, like Ravi Zacharias, are quite good at it. Your typical pastor isn't. The opposite to philosophy is Biblical principle or what is commonly referred to as the LAW or God's honest truth. This is rarely if ever appealed to. Religious philosophy becomes obsolete in five to ten years and the whole process of "making it relevant" begins anew. When Jesus spoke of a house's foundation, He was talking about a personal dedication to truth as God has revealed it in the Bible. The shifting sands of philosophy, be it secular or religious, do not make for a solid bulwark against the trials and troubles of life. Only the solid rock of Biblical principle does so. Yet there are few who seek it, being satisfied as it were with cheap religious slogans and buzz words. Liberty vs. Manipulation Enter the modern art of propaganda. Propaganda is generally employed to goad the masses of people in a direction favorable to corporate profits, government policy, or religious manipulation. It is a form of enslavement, which many people gladly embrace. How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think. I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few. - Adolph Hitler Propaganda is the use of emotion to suspend disbelief. "The whole film genre is one of deceit. It is the suspension of disbelief. That's what all theater and all film is based on." - Rhys Ifans In church, the suspension of disbelief is used to manipulate the congregation. It's primary purpose is to obtain funding to maintain the show. It's minor purpose is to provide the hapless listeners with mindless and unBiblical buzz words and slogans. Music thus becomes humanistic - devoid of a true sense of worship. Church presentations become Vegas style production numbers - featuring repetitive lyrics, excessively loud music and a heavy reliance upon drums. Lyrics are repeated over and over until the listener or singers are lulled into a semi-hypnotic state of euphoria. APPEALS TO EMOTION serve to suspend disbelief and logical analysis as well as to encourage participation in an event that may or may not have anything to do with Biblical principle. LOGIC becomes subservient to EMOTION and the unwary congregation is thus led into any and every sort of action the leaders desire - including but not restricted to admiration of religious celebrities as though they were Christ on earth. Apologetics, if accomplished properly, both establishes a popular philosophy as well as emotional gratification. Neither are efficacious for salvation or an accurate understanding of Biblical principle. It hurts to think,(*) so people believe what they hear and see. When people are reduced to believing anything, they ultimately become incapable of believing in something. that's me, hollering from the choir loft... (*) A friend of mine is a middle school teacher. She has told me the reason kids give her for not studying is that, "it hurts to think". I suspect the same is true for many adults, some of which have never read a book from cover to cover. Edited October 25, 2019 by choir loft 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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