The modern world’s reverence of science has gone too far

I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a long time, but somehow just never got around to it. I think a lot of people have never really taken the time to think about this. In today’s world, science’s place as the ultimate truth-finder in the modern world is taken as a given. I think this can have some dangerous and foolish consequences.

What does the Bible have to say about worldly wisdom? Here’s just one passage (1 Corinthians 1:18-25):

“¹⁹ For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

I was going to highlight or bold certain parts, but I think pretty much all of it sends a strong point across to the reader. Please take the time to digest it on your own, and maybe apply it to what we’re talking about here.

Before people start accusing me of “bashing” on science, let me make something clear. Science has made amazing contributions to this world, and I think that was an intentional part of God’s design when He decided to share dominion of Earth with us. I am all for taking medicines to help cure illnesses, and knowledge of the human body has helped doctors make proper treatments all across the board.

I am also relatively supportive of technology. I could not write this blog without it, nor enjoy many of the creature comforts I take for granted every day. AIR CONDITIONING! (Sorry, just had to get that in there.)

But what I’m talking about is a more specific realm of science; the part that purports to tell us about the universe and its past. I am talking about scientific “facts” such as naturalistic evolution, archeology that seemingly contradicts the Bible, and other such fields. Much of this science is based on theory and speculation rather than repeatable, testable results. I am not talking about science that we see and use on an everyday basis (and therefore can easily find faults with over time). A big bulk of science cannot be contained in a laboratory and “proved,” but this doesn’t stop people from swallowing these “truths” wholesale and allowing them to dictate their beliefs.

Here are three primary reasons I do not place science on the same pedestal as other people.

1. The scientific community is not as truth-driven or open-minded as some people assume.

In a perfect world, the scientific community’s sole purpose would be to find truth regardless of logistics, politics, and greed. But the fact of the matter is, real truth is often not the sole (or even primary) aim. There are often strong competing factors at play that cannot be ignored or brushed off as something on the fringes.

For instance, a lot of science is driven by the need and desire for funding. Where there is money, there the scientists will flock. Can we blame them? They need to pay their bills and make a living just like we do. This often means that they will do the kind of work that interests rich philanthropists or the public eye at the time. This also means results could be tweaked or pushed in a particular direction to keep the money flowing.

As C. W. Adams puts it: “In the real world, research is not the rational pursuit of knowledge many might imagine it to be. Rather, it is a system riddled with competitive forces; greed; profits; the pursuit of personal recognition; and quite simply, survival issues for the individual researcher.”

Furthermore, there is a strong pressure toward conformity in the scientific community to avoid being ostracized by one’s peers. Breaking from the mold requires a strong sense of purpose and conviction, for this is often considered to result in career suicide. C. W. Adams calls this “peer-control.”

“…it must be understood that the range of study, and the ability of these professors to travel outside the box, is also severely limited by the educational institutions that employ them. Maintaining job security in these institutions usually requires some sort of peer control process that research scientists undertake when determining hypotheses. Although speculation is obviously encouraged, the topics and range of speculation are thoroughly restricted.”

Remember that Satan is referred to as the “god of this world,” so wouldn’t you think that he’d do anything to keep the true God out of the picture as much as possible? Do you think he’d push the tides of academia toward biblical truth or away from it? You be the judge. Remember also that true scientific facts never contradict the Bible nor render God obsolete. They are simply observations of His creation at work, and His fingerprints remain on everything. For instance, learning how lightning forms does nothing to disprove the God who put those forces in place to begin with.

2. Science is continually changing and amending prior “certainties.”

Nietzsche once said that “madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups.” This aptly describes why so many of the world’s brightest minds can often be in complete agreement on certain “truths” that later end up being completely (and sometimes hilariously) wrong. A scientific consensus is far from a sure thing, as history would teach us.

Carl Sagan once wrote: “Even a succession of professional scientists–including famous astronomers who had made other discoveries that are confirmed and now justly celebrated–can make serious, even profound errors in pattern recognition.”

The bottom line is that just because you throw more people into the mix doesn’t mean that you can prevent blindness. What often happens is a phenomenon that Yale psychologist Irving L. Janis terms as “the groupthink syndrome.” There are three main symptoms of this:

1. Overestimate of the group’s power and morality, including “an unquestioned belief in the group’s inherent morality, inclining the members to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their actions.” [emphasis added]

2. Closed-mindedness, including a refusal to consider alternative explanations and stereotyped negative views of those who aren’t part of the group’s consensus. The group takes on a “win-lose fighting stance” toward alternative views.

3. Pressure toward uniformity, including “a shared illusion of unanimity concerning judgments conforming to the majority view”; “direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group’s stereotypes”; and “the emergence of self-appointed mind-guards … who protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions.”

Think about some of the failed assumptions and certainties of the past: the world is flat (bogus); the atom is the smallest building block of matter (false); the universe is necessarily infinite (now we know of the Big Bang)…the list goes on and on.

Did you know that there have been a large number of prominent scientists and experts who have published material “proving” that the Bible wasn’t factual? That certain people-groups mentioned in scripture never existed? And usually what happens is that years or decades later, some archeologist will unearth new evidence to validate the claims of the Bible, not those ever-sure experts.

If science ever seems to run counter to what God’s unchanging and eternal Word says, I’m hitching my wagon to the source of truth that has never been proved wrong.

3. Scientists are made up of faulty and biased people just like you and me.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the word “scientist,” I am not immediately struck with reverence and awe. Respect, sure…many of them work very hard and are gifted with relatively bright minds. But at the basic core, they are people just like us who deal with insecurities, fight against stubbornness and pride, and are shaped by the influences around them.

I suspect that people who look up to scientists as the end-all-be-all have never really known a scientist (or at least one from a “respectable” school). Guess what? They range from academic hermits to clumsy goof balls. Many of them, due to their narrow focus on studying, lack common sense in important areas that some of us take for granted. They are sometimes unsuccessful in love due to a basic misunderstanding of human interaction. Sometimes they are great at it. I would no sooner take advice from someone who works in the sciences than a trusted friend.

(Be honest: don’t we all laugh at Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory because we can relate to the brilliant-at-something guy who is seriously lacking in other common areas? I alluded to his difficulty in grasping sarcasm in an earlier post.)

The point is, they are no more reliable as finders of the truth than the average reasonable adult. It is easy to see how these people could be swept away in a cool and exciting new idea, rather than putting on the brakes of common sense…especially if being at the forefront of this thinking puts them in a superior intellectual position.

* * *

The point of this post was not to bash on science or scientists, but rather to give a reminder/reality check that man is just man. We are fallible creatures and our systems are bound to be flawed as well. To be sure, we have been given great power and authority over this world, but there is always One who is supremely higher. Let’s not make the mistake of getting so full of ourselves that we miss the fact that we are His creation. The creation cannot be greater than the Creator, can it?

And that very thought was what drove Satan to rebel in the first place…isn’t it funny how it all naturally fits into this world, his current domain?

A logical path to Christianity

Like I often do, I’d like to start with a disclaimer…

This is my own way of thinking and it works for me, but it is by no means authoritative or complete. No one can actually come to believe in Christ without the Holy Spirit, but it helps to be able to fall back on logic in times of doubt and weakness.

I encourage people to think through these steps (or steps like these) and really dig at the heart of the issue. It perplexes me still just how little people delve into these things when literally everything is riding on them. Keep in mind that this is a logical path, so things like feelings, personal preferences, and predispositions need to be kept in check as much as possible. We are making probabilistic judgments along the way and ignoring what we like or dislike. As humans, these things seep into our decision-making and conclusions all the time, but it has little relevance here.

This is a very surface-level post, so don’t expect it to be comprehensive, but I think it’s a good basic overview. This is my simple three-step path to deciding that Christianity is the one true religion.

OK so the very first step is to decide for yourself:

1. Is there a personal creator of the universe? Yes or no? There are only two options.

*Based on some feedback I’ve gotten, I felt the need to clarify the term “personal creator.” In apologetics terms, this does not necessarily refer to a relational person or what not, but it simply refers to a being who decided to create by his own volition (as opposed to being some natural force without a mind). I suppose the “personal” part of it, as most people understand it, would be more directly addressed with the second question in this post.

Most people claim to believe “yes” to this question because some things seem inherently obvious (of course, many simply state “I believe there is a higher power somewhere” and leave it at that). The universe is not eternal—as skeptics used to propose—and therefore was created or came into being at a finite point in our past. Nothing comes from nothing, so there had to be some external first-cause, right? Natural causes couldn’t sufficiently handle this creation duty, and what natural causes are there to speak of anyway when “nature,” matter, and even time didn’t exist? (Yes, even time came into existence at the Big Bang, most scientists agree.) A personal being had to choose to create the universe rather than there being nothing.

Things like the Cosmological Argument and the impossibility of an actual infinite come into play here…and in my opinion, common sense. When we look around and witness the beauty and intelligence around us, it seems almost preposterous to think it all happened by chance from inanimate and impersonal matter.

So for me, the answer to this question is YES. That leads me to the next question…

2. Did this personal creator choose to reveal itself to us? Yes or no.

One could imagine a scenario where a disinterested creator or god brought this universe into being, and then stepped away to leave us to our own devices. It’s possible. But when we have to decide probabilistically whether this is the case, it’s hard to defend.

In my view, why would a powerful and personal creator make this world (and the resulting intelligent life) and have no interest in it? Why would this creator bother making humans who yearn for answers and even for worship in some form? Why would this creator be satisfied in making such splendor and complexity and being completely detached from it? Doesn’t it make more sense that this creator would ultimately try to make contact with us and for us to recognize him/her?

In my view, it makes more sense that if this grand creator bothered to make us, then a relationship of some sort would naturally follow. If you don’t agree, it’s hard to convince you otherwise (but I’d love to hear your train of thought on this).

Now, if this creator has revealed information and truths to us in some way, I think that would constitute what we refer to as a “religion” or set of beliefs. The question now becomes something else entirely…

3. Out of all the world’s religions, which is most likely to be true? Which one is the right one?

Before we delve into this, let me stop some of you peace-loving hippies (or postmodernists even) out there. 😉 No, not all religions can be right, and they do NOT all point to the same thing. They all state contradictory “facts” about this greater power and are mutually exclusive from each other. The issue is not “what’s true for you” because truth is true whether or not you feel it. Someone can believe with all their heart that 2+2 = 3, but they’d be wrong. Like it or not, there is objective truth…some things are correct, some things are incorrect. You can’t really get around that by trying to be open-minded when it comes to truth.

If this great creator (from steps 1 and 2) has such incomprehensible power, you can safely assume that he/she would make sure that the right set of beliefs is correct all the way. You can’t pick bits and pieces from different sources. Wouldn’t that be a rather incompetent higher power?

Anyway, a likely obstacle you’d come across at this point is this: “you can’t prove whether a religion is true. It’s all taken on faith, not evidence.”

Yes, there is a measure of faith in the unseen and incomprehensible; I understand that. But what we’re trying to decide is which religion is most likely to be true, given what we know and have available to us.

From my study of the major world religions, it was easy to notice some predictable patterns. Some dude has a dream or vision, and then tells other people about it. Sometimes, they are just the person’s own ideas. The hearers of these so-called truths or revelations sense conviction in that person’s voice and demeanor, and they decide he is not lying. Being superstitious and gullible, they start believing and following this original source. Eventually, their numbers increase and you have an established religion.

(Don’t get me wrong…it is my belief that many of these religious leaders believed their own story. There was not much understanding of dreams back then, and visions can come from various places and for different reasons…possibly were even demonic.)

Sometimes, the religion spreads by word of mouth in light of little or no opposition. Other times, it spreads by military might or government mandate.

In almost all cases, the source can be primarily traced to one man who in his enlightenment, writes some scriptures for people to follow. It takes maybe a few months or years. Nothing within these scriptures can be proved or disproved because they largely deal with the metaphysical. This person likely enjoys a heightened status as a leader of a new movement. Who doesn’t like having followers looking up to you, right?

But one religion stands out in stark contrast: Christianity.

The Bible was not written by one person trying to get followers, but rather 40 different authors spaced out over thousands of years. If you know your Bible well enough and pay close attention, you’ll notice a striking continuity and an unmistakeable unified purpose throughout. No single author or leader received all the glory, and if anything, they were severely persecuted or even martyred for their teachings.

We have the Synoptic Gospels, which all tell the same story (with varying levels of detail), so there is multiple attestation making it more credible according to methods that help determine historicity. Keep in mind that these people weren’t collectively working on something known as “the Bible” today. They were not collaborators, but rather were people who in some cases didn’t even know each other directly.

We also have biblical stories squarely entrenched in the midst of actual known human history. We see Caesars, Xerxes, and other known figures throughout. These are not fables in mythical settings with made-up events, but are real locations with historical details being confirmed by archeology and ancient historians continually (even including lost civilizations that modern scholars initially claimed the Bible made up…until they are proved wrong by the next excavation). The Bible even contains startlingly accurate prophecies regarding the man of Jesus and even the rise and fall of empires. The Dead Sea Scrolls and other finds confirm that these prophecies were recorded well before the actual events took place.

For me, the fact that the Bible tells us things we don’t want to hear even helps confirm its truthfulness. What other religion tells us that we are held accountable even for our thoughts? Or that we are unable to come to good standing with our own works and effort, but rather are completely dependent on the mercy of Jesus? That the love of money or wealth itself can be bad for you and is dangerous?

If I made a religion, I’d tell people to get as rich as possible. This would help support the cause, right? Other religions try to tell you things that make them appealing, like having multiple wives or the promise of 72 virgins in the afterlife…true biblical Christianity is hard and humbling.

The list goes on and on, but you get the idea. Nothing else even comes close.

Does this make Christianity a certainty? Of course not, but you might be compelled to agree that it’s the best candidate for the one true religion.

If this is true and the Bible is the true word of God, then at this point, does it really matter what you feel? Does it matter that you like Buddhism’s teachings better or that you find things in the Bible to be objectionable? You should know as well as anyone that you are fallible and prone to mistakes. What you believe one day can change the next.

The crux of the issue is what is true.

And that is the basic gist of why I believe Christianity to be the one true religion. It’s hard to capture it in a readable blog post, but I hope you get the idea.

Renewed effort on this blog

Hello all,

As I’ve made clear in previous posts, I’ve been struggling with a diminishing motivation when it comes to this blog. My original intent was to reach thinking people into making an informed decision for Christ, but I think people who are set in their disbelief cannot be convinced no matter what I say.

But as the domain registration expiration was approaching, I pondered whether to keep this blog active. Then I felt a pressing on my heart to ramp up my efforts once again. Even if it helps one or two people, it is worth the time and energy it takes. I can’t control the effects, but the worst thing is to give up and do nothing.

So without further ado, I will proceed to writing my first post in a while. Forgive me if I’m rusty at all, but I hope the Spirit will help me along the way. 🙂

Joe

Ah, the heights of human arrogance

Human arrogance and pride is everywhere, and it’s not just the “hatetheists” who are guilty of this (again, described in this link: http://blogs.christianpost.com/confident-christian/profile-of-a-hatetheist-10298/). It resides in all of us, even those who call themselves Christians. Smart, educated people are especially prone to this pitfall precisely because they believe themselves to be smart.

While we may try to remove the more obvious signs of pride from our lives daily (particularly the socially unacceptable forms), I think a more hidden and dangerous kind threatens to destroy the possibility of salvation in many around us…even churchgoers who fully believe themselves to be saved.

This latent pride not only keeps someone from fully engaging with Almighty God in a genuine way, but it also gives people the false sense of security that they have nothing to worry about…that they are already right with God and the rest is just icing on the cake.

OK so what am I talking about? In a nutshell, it is this attitude: “I know better than God.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking…no one who calls themselves Christians would actually think or say this! Maybe not explicitly, but like love, feelings and words are not the best way to gauge whether we have the proper attitude. The best evidence is shown through actions and in the way we think.

Chronological Snobbery

This mindset presupposes that newer or more modern is always better. What we believe today is better than what “old-fashioned” people or societies in the past believed. “Traditional” has become a dirty word.

Why do people think this way? Because we have some evidence supporting this predisposition. Newer technology is generally faster and better. We can look into the historical past with 20/20 hindsight and see all the egregious mistakes that we have made. Since we appear to have progressed in some of these areas (e.g., slavery, racism, sexism), we conclude that we are always moving forward.

But this is a gross oversimplification, particularly when it comes to morality. Just as modern electric guitars do not beat a ’59 Gibson Les Paul, modern morality is not necessarily superior to the past overall. You cannot make blanket statements or judgments, but rather need to consider things piece by piece. As always, people love to think in ways that are convenient and neatly packaged, rather than nuanced.

For instance, yes, we can be jubilant in the abolition of slavery and that we have come to our senses that racism is wrong. We can be happy about getting closer to gender equality and laws protecting women from domestic abuse.

But as Bible-believing Christians, we should mourn the erosion of biblical and traditional marriage. We should feel immense sadness at the killing of unborn babies every day, while coming to grips with the ridiculous hypocrisy of judging China for throwing away unwanted daughters into dumpsters. “Choice” has become the ultimate good rather than right and wrong or the sanctity of life. Tolerance for all ideas has taken the place of pursuing and discerning actual truth.

We need to analyze things point by point. Not all modern things are better. If you believe Satan exists and is out to deceive the world, do you really think he’d make his acts of moral sabotage so obvious? Remember, he knows what he is doing and is smarter than the limits of our human intelligence. The only chance we have to withstand his barrage of deceptions is to be saturated in God’s Word.

Using Our Own Moral Compasses

There is supposed to be only one overriding moral compass in this world, and that is the Bible. The Holy Spirit also leads true believers, yes, but He never goes against God’s Word. There is never any contradiction, or else you are being misled by some other false spirit.

But nowadays, people regard their own feelings about moral issues as the ultimate guide for right and wrong. Nevermind what God said…this is what I feel. This is what I believe in my bones.

Again, there is just enough false evidence to lead us to conclude this is the way to go. That candy bar you stole when you were little? You sure felt that it was wrong, but you did it anyway. If only you had gone along with your trusty ol’ moral compass, surely you would have avoided breaking the law. Any time you lied to someone you care about, you felt a pang of guilty feelings. Sometimes, you have been led to do the right thing based on your conscience. All of this cumulative evidence leads you to believe that if only you are disciplined enough to follow your gut, you would do the right thing all the time.

So when your gut goes against what the Bible teaches you, without even knowing it, you trust your gut instead. Perhaps the problem is, subconsciously, you still need God and the Bible to prove themselves to you. Perhaps it’s not really your gut at all, but rather years of cultural brainwashing that have reformed your beliefs. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re immune to more advanced forms of peer pressure just because you’re out of high school now.

God may tell you that homosexuality is wrong, but then you look around and see happy gay couples…you see them on TV and they are fun and pleasant. Maybe your favorite uncle or a friend is gay and you feel ashamed that your Bible condemns their behavior when you want to be supportive.

Your gut starts to tell you that maybe the Bible is wrong on this issue or it didn’t consider things as comprehensively as you have.

At this point, maybe you should consider giving God a few pointers and bringing Him up to speed on the things you know. After all, His omniscience and timeless knowledge no longer carry as much weight as your own feelings on matters.

Again, we see Satan’s cleverness at work here. While he is able to convince some extreme people that blatantly wrong things like stealing or murder are OK, for the most part, he knows these things are an impossible battle. So what does he do? Probably what we would do in the same shoes. Go after the so-called “gray areas” where you can put up a more convincing argument to go against God (note: many of these perceived gray areas are actually quite black and white if we are properly informed). Prey on the extreme powers of human rationalization and rack up some victories there.

Don’t be fooled guys. We can’t trust our gut completely, nor can we trust societal norms. Heck, people seem more likely to trust GQ, Cosmo, or the liberal media these days rather than God.

If God actually exists, though, there is an ultimate authority on right and wrong and we are not it. Considering that people are wholly convinced about certain things—and these things differ based on time and culture—the ONLY reliable source of moral authority is the Bible.

If you go to different parts of the world, there will be countless people who are 100% convinced of opposite positions from you. Now we get into an issue of whose culture is better. You will inevitably think, “Ah, but they are a backwards culture. You can’t trust what they think.”

Do you really want to take on this kind of snobbery as well? What makes you so sure your culture is superior in every way? My opinion is that each culture has a few things right, a few things wrong. No one has it all figured out (and no one ever will).

If you don’t believe the Bible is the actual Word of God, then fine, that’s a different argument. But my point is that if you call yourself a Bible-believing Christian, you need to act like it. Don’t be a poser.

Imagine This Scenario

Imagine this. A guy sees a picture of a pretty girl on someone else’s Facebook. He decides from seeing this picture that he is meant to marry this girl. From the picture, he has constructed what he believes to be her personality. “I bet she likes taking nature walks and is reserved, but not overly shy.”

“I love her!”

He imagines what their dates would be like and the kind of parents they would be to their children. He would be the firm one to counter her nurturing hand and voice. He predicts the kinds of conversations they would have and the responses she would give to his questions.

Kind of creepy, right?

Well, now let’s say that he one day runs into her at a mutual friend’s party. He walks up and introduces himself to her, and he fully believes he accurately knows the kind of person she is.

Could he realistically expect her to fall for him immediately and agree to marry him?

Of course not! He’s more likely to get the following response than a yes to marriage: “I don’t know you, get away!”

Why is that? Because they never actually knew each other. He never met with her or developed a real relationship. Everything was according to his own imagination and was not grounded in reality.

The same goes for most “Christians” who have constructed their own image of God in their minds. They don’t read the Bible and get to know who He really is. When they do read, they change the obvious meaning to better suit their beliefs. They don’t wrestle with difficult truths and submit to His authority over their own. They don’t come to see who He really is.

Rather, they form an agreeable, politically correct, culturally relevant version of “God” in their minds. Maybe He’s a teddy bear. Forget the wrath stuff or divine judgment. “Forget what the Bible says, I’m sure God understands how things are now in America…”

But sure enough, these people are in real danger. They don’t know the true God, nor do they rely on Him as their authority. What do they think “LORD and savior” really means? It’s not “buddy and savior.”

Sadly, when these people reach the gates of heaven, they will likely be shocked to hear: “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23)

But it really shouldn’t be shocking at all.

Why I’ve given up on reaching out to angry atheists

This article sums it up better than I could ever write it:

http://blogs.christianpost.com/confident-christian/profile-of-a-hatetheist-10298/

If I ever come across a respectful atheist who seems genuinely concerned about finding the truth, I will gladly engage in dialogue with that person even if I have to go out of my way and inconvenience myself greatly.

But from what I’ve observed, too many people seeking discussions with Christians are only out to “win” and tear down what you hold so dear…which would be fair if they could lean on sound logic at least. It really does feel like an exercise in futility, though, and I’m encouraged to read that even Jesus recognized a useless battle when He saw one:

Matthew 15:14: “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

People who aren’t interested in the truth would not accept truth even if you spoon-fed it to them. This is one of the reasons why this blog has slowed considerably…I like that it can help current believers, but my original purpose and passion of shedding light to those who wanted to see it has almost burned out. I pray that God will instill love in my heart so that I can at least pray for these kinds of people, but it’s difficult to even care sometimes when people are so disrespectful of such a majestic God.

Humility = Blessing

As you all probably know, the Miami Heat are now the NBA champions. LeBron James—one of the most talented players to ever play the game—finally has his first ring after a nine-year career full of “potential,” but never the prize.

A lot of people rooted against the Heat, and for good reason. Two years ago, LeBron James left everyone in the dark about where he was going to play next. He announced a TV special on ESPN called “The Decision,” which was basically nothing more than self-hype and cheesy suspense. Every basketball fan was dying to know where LeBron would be going, and he knew it. He milked his popularity and renown for all it was worth. And then he struck the dagger into Cleveland’s heart on national television by finally announcing that he would be “taking [his] talents to South Beach.” They burned his jersey and their love affair turned into an intense hatred.

As a somewhat impartial viewer, I totally understood his decision from a basketball standpoint. Here he was, a one-man team, leading the Cavaliers to the NBA’s best record. He took them to the finals in 2007, but it was clear that he was not getting the help he needed. LeBron was dominating on the floor, and the rest of his team was basically watching. Even Michael Jordan—the greatest of all time—didn’t win a championship until Scottie Pippen arrived. Kobe couldn’t win without Shaq until Pau Gasol came to L.A.

LeBron’s fall from grace was swift. There’s hardly anything like it to compare to in sports. He went from one of the most respected, touted athletes in the league to the #1 villain. He was booed and mocked regularly. Honestly, it was with good reason. In addition to disrespecting Cleveland, his self-aggrandizing was getting out of hand. This “Welcome Home” party for the Miami Heat was just ridiculous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9BqUBYaHlM. The “Big Three” was basically saying how practice was going to be tough against each other, but winning games was the “easy part.” They boldly proclaimed that they would win “not one, not two, not three…[championships].” Do you know how many great, all-time players have never won ONCE? For them to make it sound easy was a slap in the face of all the past legends.

Their first year together, Miami reached the Finals against a somewhat aging Dallas Mavericks team. Here, I must take a detour!

Miami won the championship in 2006 with Shaq and Dwayne Wade (a rising superstar at the time) at the helm. They had fallen behind 0 games to 2—beaten convincingly in those games—and Dallas did something that was brash, even by Mark Cuban’s (the owner) standards. They already began planning the victory parade, and people knew about it. They had gotten full of themselves and wrote Miami off. You know the rest: Miami won the next four games to take the championship. Dallas was devastated and humiliated.

Now in the 2011 finals, the script had been flipped. Miami was the cocky team, and Dallas was the underdog. Dallas, drawing on the pain and experience of the past 5 years, pulled off the upset and defeated the star-laden Heat team. Sports writers everywhere criticized the Heat and picked apart their flaws. As Dwayne Wade later put it, “so much pain, so much hurt, so much embarrassment.” They were put in their place.

This year, they were different. They didn’t make assumptions about their fate as champions, they simply went out and played every game hard. LeBron let go of both his hate for the media (who blasted him for “The Decision”) and his supreme arrogance…he no longer seemed to hold his nickname, “King James,” as dear. This time, drawing upon the deep well reserves of hurt and failure, the Heat triumphed over the Oklahoma City Thunder in a quick 5 games. Afterward, there was no “told you so,” chest-beating, or defiant superiority. There was relief and sincere gratitude for what they had accomplished.

LeBron admitted that he had to hit “rock bottom” before he could become the player he had to be. This makes perfect sense in light of certain passages of scripture:

James 4:6: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Proverbs 3:34: “He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.”

Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Proverbs 29:23: “A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.”

Matthew 23:12: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

And so on, and so on…

Whether Christian or not, we as moral creatures all intuitively know that pride is wrong. It is offensive for reasons that cannot be easily explained by natural law. But it’s fascinating to see the Bible’s words play out repeatedly in our world today.

Demons, Dreams, and Deceptions

I figured I should write on this subject while the content is still somewhat fresh in my mind. We all really need to learn how to discern the truth from a wide array of information sources. I hope this will at least give people a general idea and awareness to supplement their knowledge of the Bible.

Everyone has dreams, and many people even claim to have visions or to have heard from God in some way. How are we to know if these dreams are reliable sources of information? Well, it first helps to concretely realize this fact: Dreams come from only three different sources: 1) our own subconscious, 2) God, and 3) demons. That’s it.

Most dreams probably come from within ourselves—sometimes deep within our subconscious. They are a jumble of past experiences, thoughts, and things we have sensed, felt, or feared. The next time you have a dream, try tracing its steps. When I do dream, I can often determine later why a certain person appeared in a certain setting or whatever. And don’t underestimate your own capacity for creativeness, especially when you are unrestricted in imagination. When you’re asleep, you’re not worried about things making sense or if a train of thought is strange or corny. You know how musicians claim to make better music when they’re on drugs? Well, it’s because they become unrestricted creatively. They are “freeing their minds” (although in a very dangerous and often destructive fashion). Likewise, with our conscious minds switched off, our thoughts can roam freely with fewer hindrances.

Those are dreams from a natural source. But sometimes, more rarely, dreams or visions can also come from supernatural sources. And determining where a dream came from is not as simple as people seem to think.

There seems to be a line of thought where if a person identifies him/herself as a Christian, then all those dreams must be from God. Those that receive demonic dreams must be unbelievers, they reason.

This is far from the truth, actually. As Christians, we are protected from certain kinds of demonic attack, but not all. For instance, we cannot be fully possessed and controlled by demons because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who is far greater in power. But we can still be tempted and deceived if we are not vigilant and on guard—equipped with truth to combat the lies. Deception is by far the #1 tool of the enemy. Satan is not called the “Father of Lies” for nothing.

While demons cannot read our minds—because they are not omniscient like God—they can implant thoughts and ideas into our heads. And knowing what they themselves have implanted, they can know what you are thinking at certain moments. They are also keen observers who have been watching mankind since our inception, so they quite literally know us better than we know ourselves. We must never take them lightly (nor should we have an inordinate amount of fear paralyzing us from possessing a bold faith). Satan is smarter than all of us, so the only way we can hope to discern the truth is to study the Word of God and stay in prayer.

Remember: A genuine dream or communication from God will never, ever contradict scripture—nor will it add to it. God does not tell or empower anyone to “fix” or “update” His word.

Aside from blatantly contradicting scripture (which is a HUGE portion of Satan’s lies), there are certain signs that a dream or a “truth” is coming from a demon rather than God. This isn’t an exact science, of course, but this list has scriptural and theological support. Feel free to replace the word “dream” with a lot of other things, like “feeling,” “conviction,” etc…

– The dream tells you what you want to hear, even though you know it’s probably wrong. Satan likes to whisper sweet nothings in people’s ears, pushing them to do wrong by easing their conscience. He also tries to inject some Christian-sounding justifications for our wrong behavior to trick our gullible minds. (Satan knows the Bible, too, but his interpretation is always twisted.) You’ll notice that many of Satan’s lies are simply variations from the original granddaddy of them all: “[Go ahead and eat that fruit]…you will surely not die!”

Example #1: “Go ahead and marry that alcoholic, non-Christian, and volatile bad boy. You can do God’s work by converting him, and love can change people!”

See 2 Corinthians 6:14, which flat-out contradicts this. True, God can change anybody’s heart, but it’s a huge risk and an exception He makes purely out of grace. Even when we disobey, God can still show us kindness—but it’s still sin. Dangerously, more often than not, the unbeliever drags the believer down.

Example #2: “Sure Christians can regularly go clubbing and live a lifestyle close to sin. After all, how else will those lost souls be reached? Don’t be so prude and legalistic!”

God tells us to run far from sin, not dabble in it or toe the line. If God wants to bring a lost soul to Him, it can be accomplished in other ways. While efforts like prison ministry are valid because of the general lack of influence prisoners have on ministers there, a “clubbing ministry” or “partying ministry” would be highly suspect.

– The dream gives the recipient a sense of power and uniqueness that puffs up pride and self-worth. Again, there’s nothing new about this; pride is the original sin. Satan knows this, so he instructs his demons to find ways to make people feel special by giving them a false sense of purpose and power.

Example #1: “You are to lead up a new religion! God has specifically chosen you out of everyone else to show the error of Christianity to the world. Those Christians will try to tell you how you are plainly wrong according to scripture, but don’t you listen. ‘God’ is on your side, chosen one!'”

(You can pretty much substitute “new religion” with “atheism” and “God” with “logic”…the lie and the appeal to pride are the same.)

Many false religions probably began like this. While it is true that the church has often been corrupt and in need of reform, God would never revise His already-completed Word. While interpretation of the Bible has been botched for man’s selfish purposes, the words themselves have remained steady and true. Check your beliefs against the Word daily.

Example#2: “I, ‘God,” am now giving you the power to tell others what to do with their lives. They will line up at conferences and retreats to hear your wisdom. You are a modern prophet!”

Any time in the Bible that miracles or prophets are used by God, it is to facilitate a great movement of some kind—whether fulfilling a grand promise of God, stirring a nation to repentance, or validating the revelation of Jesus Christ as savior and Messiah. A person is never bestowed with divine power or knowledge to simply feel useful or even just to help people. Do you ever notice how such “prophets” seem to always tell everyone else that they are chosen to do “big things” for God? Plus, there’s a lot people can tell by looking at the eyes, so it’s not all supernatural.

If I went to those people with a mean look on my face, I might get the “God is telling me that you need to pray more” response rather than the “you are going to do big things for His kingdom.” Just maybe…or am I being way too cynical here?

– The dream communicates with someone from heaven or hell. The purpose of Satan tricking people into hearing from “the beyond” is usually to spread some kind of deception or to lure them away from relying on God as their source of truth. I am hard-pressed to find a single example from the Bible where anyone on earth successfully hears from someone in heaven or hell. Why would anyone in heaven or hell be interested in earth’s affairs?

Even when Jesus told of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:14-31), that was a parable, not a real-life occurrence. There seems to be a practically impenetrable divide between our world and theirs, so be aware of this. The only one we can maybe hear from beyond is God, but that’s because He is God. Plus, He is omnipresent, so He’s present in this world anyway. (Please note: I am aware of the potentially sensitive content that is about to follow, but I think that people have shied away from this too much when people need to know the truth.)

Example #1: “Granny Smith came to me in a dream last night, and she told me that she is happy in heaven right now! That is such a relief because I was pretty sure she wasn’t even a Christian while she was living.”

I am convinced that Satan perpetrates this particular kind of lie very often to get people to alter their views on salvation and God’s standard. It tricks people into thinking that getting into heaven is easy, and all you need to do is basically be a “good person,” again contradicting the Bible and shifting the priority away from God’s sovereignty to human works.

Example #2: “An oracle told me that Uncle Bob is in heaven, and the guy was pretty nasty! I guess God’s grace really does cover all. I know the oracle was telling me the truth because she also mentioned Uncle Bob was sitting in his favorite polka-dotted couch, and how could anyone know about this??”

Again, same sort of lie, but this time it is bolstered with “evidence.” Of course, any demon who observed Uncle Bob for any amount of time on this earth could tell the oracle that. The oracle is speaking to a trickster demon, probably without even realizing it.

Example #3: “A pastor claims to be able to speak with people in the afterlife, and apparently, John Calvin is in hell pleading with us not to believe his theology!”

(A real-life pastor actually claimed to hear John Calvin warning us from hell. The person that told this to me did not necessarily believe it, but just mentioned it as an observation.)

Again, there is no reason to believe in speaking with those in the afterlife, so we can reasonably conclude that this is another demon trying to trick us. Since we know that deception is their main tool, we can pretty much believe the opposite. Calvin is almost certainly in heaven (we can only speculate, after all), and he was probably onto something that Satan didn’t like. By the way, don’t believe someone just because they hold the title of “pastor.” The world is rife with false teachers—even those who don’t realize they are misleading others; they can be nice people with good intentions. Being a pastor does not mean they have a good grasp of the Bible. Heck, Dan Barker went to seminary and he botches even basic elements of interpretation. I have a B.A. in Economics from a good university, but other than supply and demand and “sunk cost,” there’s not much else I remember.

What’s even more alarming from this example is that God explicitly mentions trying to call upon the dead as an abomination, and it was punishable by death (Deut. 18:11; 1 Chron. 10:13-14). Attempting to convene with the dead is basically inviting demons to mess with you. Believing these types of dreams can lead us dangerously astray as well. I fear for this pastor’s spiritual well-being. I might expect this from someone involved in the occult, but not a Christian.

*Please note that just because we dreamed about someone we love being in heaven, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s false or demonic. It’s possible that we are piecing that together in our own subconscious and drawing upon our own memories and hopes for that person. It’s also possible that God may be comforting us with this knowledge, but it’s pretty unlikely. I don’t think we would be directly speaking to that individual in any case. If there appears to be an unmistakable supernatural element to it, then immediately be on guard.

**It is my guess/observation that the vast majority of people fall into one of two camps: 1) They believe in the afterlife and that communication between both worlds is possible, even common; and 2) there is no afterlife, and therefore, all supposed communication between both worlds is a trick or scam. My personal stance from reading the Bible is that there is an afterlife, but no communication between both worlds. If there is spiritual communication—whether from God or demons—it is done on earth and not through some invisible portal. If there were some kind of portal, only God would have the authority to use it anyway.

I think you’re starting to get the gist, and as you can probably surmise, these kinds of deceptions are not limited to dreams only. They could come as visions or even “moments of clarity” or revelation. Sometimes, I’m tempted to think that the words I write on this blog are coming almost directly from God, but I have to quickly check my pride. While I do think God can use me, nothing I write is infallible and should be checked against scripture.

The Bible trumps all other knowledge, and not every supernatural “feel-good” experience is from God. Let’s equip ourselves by studying the Word every day. If you don’t know the Bible, then you won’t know if something is contradicting it. Always remember Jesus’ exhortation to us all: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” — Matthew 10:16.

As always, mind and heart—not one or the other.

A little bit about me…(very open and informal)

I think of myself as a somewhat odd sort of Christian, and I am definitely still a work in progress. I have always been somewhat rebellious at heart, and for much of my life, that showed in my lack of respect for my parents and for authority in general. Not that I got into huge trouble with the law or anything like that (I cared a little too much about myself for that), but I always questioned everything people told me. I still do, even when it comes to my solid church pastor, but especially when that person is hit-or-miss. This usually led to teachers not liking me at first, though some came around eventually.

I am also a strange Korean-American. Honestly, I feel neither Korean nor American, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a “my citizenship is in heaven” sort of way (though there is certainly that, especially when it comes to morals). My mother tried persistently to get me to be a friendly, respectful Asian boy, but I never quite mastered the art of bowing 90 degrees to elders and stuff like that. Maybe it was pride, but I think most of all, it was my intense hatred for fakeness. Unless there is some specific reason to refrain, I like being as real as possible—while avoiding rudeness if possible. This sometimes leads me to trouble, and I’m sure if I ever become a pastor or something, people are going to hate some of the things I say and flame me.

I also don’t feel fully American in that I don’t really care about the “American dream” of stability, white picket fences, and material things. I don’t care for small talk much at all, and while I am generally pretty adept in social situations, I could literally live in a cave by myself for years and be perfectly fine. I don’t mind being around people, especially my close friends, but I also don’t mind being alone for the most part. Of course, that has changed since I’ve gotten married and it’s difficult to imagine a life apart from my wife for any significant amount of time (short periods of time are OK haha)…but yea, that’s who I am naturally.

While no one is completely impervious to social pressures, I really think I am on the extreme of not caring what people think—unless maybe their opinion actually matters to me (and even then, it will give me pause and make me think, not necessarily drive me). I don’t go along with the crowd, but I also don’t try to go against it deliberately like some people who want to feel unique and different. You know the type: the ones who hate everything mainstream and look down on the rest of society for being sheep and blah blah blah.

One example would be where I was a youth group teacher years ago at a church retreat, and the guest speaker was telling the group to come up to the front if we would like to re-dedicate ourselves to Christ and pledge to study His word fervently from now on. To me, it sounded like a lot, and I honestly wasn’t in a good spiritual place at the time (and yes, not all teachers/leaders are, sadly), so I stayed seated. I prayed that the desire would grow in me, but I noticed that literally 99% of the group went up there—kids and teachers alike. The only stragglers were some of the newcomers and me. One of the kids who knew me was shocked and had a look of concern on his face. He later asked me, “Why didn’t you go up?” I answered, “Because I wasn’t honestly ready for that kind of commitment.” I would have followed up with, “Are you??” but I left it alone because he was young and idealistic.

Perhaps I may have hurt some people’s trust in me at that point, but I really can’t fake it. I’m told I need to smile more, but I’m thinking, “Isn’t smiling for when I’m actually happy about something in particular?” Sometimes, I actually think I’m smiling, but when I check the mirror, I still have the same “con man” face on. I have poor control over my facial muscles, apparently. You should have been there for the first couple of wedding photo sessions. It wasn’t pretty. (I eventually learned that in order to make a normal smiling face, I need to conjure up something completely different in my mind.) I really need to become more approachable to people.

I am also a natural procrastinator—though I’ve matured in this area a great deal (still need to improve more)—and have a hard time caring about what’s coming up in the future. This is why it’s so humorous to me when atheists accuse me of being a Christian for that warm assurance of eternal life when I die. Really, you think I’m already thinking about death? I’m not even thinking more than a week ahead at a time (except maybe financially). Death is the furthest thing on my mind. Even though nothing is certain, I just assume I have a long way to go. I actually know what it means to want to follow God regardless of heaven or hell, as hard as it is to believe.

It’s also funny to me when they say that Christians can’t think for themselves or they are pressured into it. If anything, if I feel pressured into something, I recoil and go the other way. I’ve thought a lot about spiritual matters, and I have no hesitation in tackling difficult issues or picking arguments with others or myself. (I do give up arguing when I see the other person is completely tuned out to reason, though.) Cognitive dissonance is something I do not avoid, even if I have to grow another gray hair in the process.

You really think I’m a Christian because it’s pleasant and comforting? Atheists are so “brave” to face the “truth”? There have been a few times where I came to a “logical” decision where I thought, “Wow, there really must not be a God!” The feeling I experienced in those times was not despair, but rather this distorted, wide-eyed, sick-happy sense of “I CAN LIVE HOWEVER I WANT??!” It was the “freedom” that atheists often refer to, but I know what it was deep down—even at the time, I knew. It wasn’t freedom, but rather it was the thrill of open rebellion. It was the selfish desire of mine to not be accountable to anyone or anything. Don’t tell me I’m a Christian because I’m fearful. Almost everything in life that is hard is right, and quite frankly, atheists are the ones taking the easy way out.

Well actually, atheism is a sort of “freedom” in the same way that a dog escaping from his loving owner’s house is freedom. He can wander the woods without a leash, eat all the worms and poop he wants, but in the end, it spells doom for him.

The thing is, whenever I would come to the conclusion that there might in fact be no God, my pesky logic would kick in. It would say, “Wait, wait, wait a second cowboy…what about this? And what about that?” Then, I would be forced to face reality again. My flirtation with atheism would be over, and truthfully, it wouldn’t necessarily feel all that great at the time.

This is the part where I could easily get prideful, but I promise I won’t. I’ve already made my peace with God about it. For some reason or another, I was born with a very logical brain (if it is fully engaged, that is…I can easily tune out with things I’m disinterested in). Even when my brain was completely crusty and rusty from inactivity for years, I scored very high on things like the LSAT, and I’ve always had  a knack for things like math. In law school, my problem was lack of interest, not an inability to argue. Logic is not always directly correlated with intelligence, in my opinion. I’ve met some mediocre academics, for instance, who are extremely sensible and just “make sense.” Then there are brilliant students who seem to miss even the obvious, like their minds are too busy in formulas and theorems rather than the real world. Many university professors are like this, actually, as their view naturally becomes very narrowly focused.

I’ve often bemoaned going to law school since I didn’t become a lawyer but still got saddled with the debt. But more and more I’m realizing that God had a purpose for even my detours. Among some other things, I’ve learned two very valuable truths: 1) It is possible to make convincing arguments for any side (though deep down inside, we can detect which is true if we are not too far gone); and 2) right and wrong are often decided on a hair’s breath of difference. Let me explain that latter point.

The way law school goes is that the case books are filled with cases, often paired up with other cases that are almost identical. Case A and Case B are pretty much 95% the same, but A will return a “guilty” verdict while B returns a “not guilty” verdict. It’s your job as a law student to figure out why—what were the subtle differences that changed the outcome?

It’s a lot like that in theology as well; atheism vs. theism. On the whole, people are very bad at seeing subtleties. A lot of times, they also just don’t want to; it’s willful blindness. Instead, they are caught up in catchy arguments, parroting them without seeing where their flaws are. Atheists are often more eloquent, so people hear them and think they “sound better.” Christian theologians may be saying what is more correct, but because they don’t present it with a sharp, biting wit, they sound inferior sometimes. We have to continually train ourselves to see through all that mess without getting caught up in emotion and distractions.

One curious thing I notice about myself as I grow in the faith is that I feel I am appearing dumber and dumber to the world. I can sense I have this seemingly vacant look to people, when really it’s a strong serenity and contentment that God has given me. I am seriously thankful for my life—my wife, family, friends, home, pets, and most of all, having my eyes fully opened. I say things with such excitement and eagerness sometimes—usually only when I’m talking about theology—that I bet even my friends think I’m a little cuckoo and simple-minded. I have to tone it down sometimes or else I’ll lose their interest in the dialogue. Honestly, I can’t blame atheists for thinking we’re dumber. When you develop this child-like faith and joy, it’s only natural to seem less intelligent than the cynical, mocking atheist scholar on YouTube. If you really want people to think you’re smart, be cynical.

I have questioned God and the Bible so many times, and every single time, I have been shown that God is 100% trustworthy. When that happens a few times (or in my case of extreme stubbornness, about 200), you start to develop a lot of trust. When people ask, “But why is that wrong?” or “How do we know it’s true?”, nowadays I honestly just want to blurt out, “Because God said so, and that should be enough!” But of course, that doesn’t work with other people, so I have to put on the mask of doubt and find some reasonable answers to share. Plus, it helps reinforce it in my own mind, just in case my faith wavers at some point in the future. Intellectual certainty is nice to have, even though it does take a backseat to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

I really don’t understand what the point of this post was, or why I felt led to write it, but hopefully it has a purpose. Let’s learn to see through the fog and develop sound thinking, Christians and skeptics alike!

Misinterpreting Scripture (Part 2: Applying “Secret Techniques” to the Iron Chariots Story)

Two posts in two days…what is going on? Well, yesterday put a little wind in my sails, and I wanted to keep some momentum going. Plus, I already had this post written inside of my head, so I wanted to get it out. 

What I am about to share with you all is a biblical interpretation technique that is so powerful, it will aid you for the rest of your life. It is so profound, no aspiring scholar can do without it. If skeptics picked up this one simple tool, many of us would be spared their bad arguments. It is a springboard to figuring out many of the Bible’s puzzling passages.

Am I exaggerating a bit? Sure. I’m being a little facetious. But honestly, this patented (not really) technique of mine will prove useful in pointing you in the right direction.

It is simply this: Assume Basic Competence (ABC) of the Jews. That’s it. (It also works great in tandem with another secret technique, UCS: Use Common Sense.) Why is this important and how do we apply this technique? By assuming that the Jews behind 65 of the 66 books of the Bible were not complete morons, that’s how. Make the basic assumption that the Jewish people, especially in biblical times, took their theology seriously. They grew up studying and discussing theology throughout their lifetimes, and they pretty much had all of the biblical stories memorized to the detail, especially during the times of oral tradition. It was not uncommon, for example, for young Jewish boys to memorize the entire Torah word-for-word. In short, whether you believe the Bible is God-breathed or not, at least give the Jews credit for knowing their own theology.

Let’s apply this technique to the following commonly misinterpreted passage. As I mentioned in my previous post, this is an absolute favorite of anti-religious people everywhere.

Judges 1:19: “The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots.”

Wait, what? An army powered by God Almighty lost the battle because of the superior power of iron chariots, a man-made invention?

Hold yer horses! Let’s assume the Jewish person responsible for recording these events was not a complete neophyte, and if he were, someone would have corrected him before his book went to print, so to speak. Let’s assume that he grew up hearing the widely told stories of Moses crossing the Red Sea, God destroying Pharaoh’s army (which included chariots), or even God being the creator of the entire universe. Is that a fair assumption to make?

Let’s go even further (I know, I’m getting crazy here) and assume that the writer of “Judges” did not have a complete memory meltdown when he later wrote three chapters later that the Jews were able to triumph over an army of iron chariots (see Judges 4:13-15).

So what is a possible explanation here? Well, we don’t really need to get technical just yet. Let us use our reasoning skills and even personal experience to try to come up with a preliminary solution. From the passage, it is clear that God was with the men of Judah. That’s a good thing for sure. But what could have possibly contributed to their defeat? Could it have been a lack of faith and dependence on God? Whenever you see God commanding His people to go head-on into overwhelming odds, they see victory IF they obey with conviction. Apparently, these Jews forgot the mighty God that they served and instead thought to themselves, “This is impossible, how could we possibly defeat these iron chariots?”

With this kind of doubt thrown in the face of God, it’s no wonder they were not given victory. We do the same thing every day. True believers have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but we still try to do things our own way, which is why we still sin. We sometimes feel God calling us to do something or pulling us one way, but we decide to calculate and plan in our own wisdom. What ends up happening is that we crash and burn, and we wonder why God let such calamity fall upon us. It’s due to a lack of obedience and faith. We are now empowered to do right, but we often choose to do wrong because of our disobedience. It is our own failure, not God’s.

The same thing apparently happened here in chapter 1. The Jews had won previous battles and instead of thanking God, they probably attributed their victories to their own might. When it came to iron chariots, however, they were completely stricken with fear because they could no longer rely on their own strength. Their reliance on God had gotten rusty, which contributed directly to their defeat.

That wasn’t so hard was it? By giving even the slightest bit of credit to the biblical authors, it pushed us in the right direction to draw some reasonable conclusions.

Now, let’s go a little deeper.

The Book of Judges is written with a general circular pattern that goes like this:

1) The Jews rely on God and achieve great victories;

2) The Jews start to forget about God and start crumbling to the insistent pressure from their enemies;

3) God chooses a great prophet or “judge” to wake the Jewish people up and turn them back to obedience and faith; and

4) Go back to #1, rinse and repeat (but each time, God starts to lose patience and increasingly delays His deliverance).

With this knowledge in hand, we might notice that the first 18 verses or so constitute step #1 above. The Jews seem to be winning every battle handily. The verse where they failed to defeat the iron chariots, however, is the start of step #2. We now see some victories, some failures—we start to see some chinks in the armor.

There is also a literary device being employed here that could prove very enlightening. Let me start by saying that everyone should acknowledge that the Bible is written with all kinds of different styles—sometimes through very straightforward prose (such as genealogies or historical facts being retold), poetry, allegory, and other literary styles that facilitate storytelling.

In the case of Judges 1:19, the author is employing a perspectival device that views the story from the eyes of the characters involved; namely, the men of Judah. (This literary feature was more common in ancient literature, but it’s almost nonexistent today.) Because they themselves thought it was impossible to defeat iron chariots, the author recorded that as the reason for their defeat. They viewed it as a match-up between Jewish military strength and the unstoppable power of iron chariots. They should have seen it as God > everything.

As mentioned earlier, just a few chapters later, the Jews are able to defeat an army of iron chariots. What was the difference this time? No, the author did not have a brain fart previously—ABC. What happened was that God sent a great prophetess, Deborah, to wake the people up (remember, step #3). They finally obeyed God fully—in their hearts and in their actions—and were victorious (back to step #1). At least for a while.

Misinterpreting Scripture (Part 1: Context and a Little Bit of Hebrew)

(Quick note: I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed these days with work, personal life, and seminary, as you may have noticed. This upcoming summer term, I am actually lightening my academic load so that I can regain my balance and focus more on my spiritual life rather than scrambling to finish papers, etc. Hopefully, that will leave me with more time and energy. *Edited 5/17/12 for a little more precision.)

Without further ado, let’s get started with this series!

1) Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The first passage we will examine demonstrates one of the common reasons for misinterpreting the Bible. In a word: CONTEXT.

People seem to love this verse because it has a very positive, encouraging feel to it. Clearly, God wants us as His children to prosper and do well in this life, right? Well, yes and no. Of course, God loves us and wants the best for each one of us. The problem with this interpretation, however, is at least two-fold.

First, while God does have our best interest at heart, His plan might be different from our definition of “prosper”-ing. While God does sometimes bless his children with worldly wealth and success, He is far more concerned with the big picture—that being eternity. Think about it, if God had a choice between granting you riches on this earth or putting you in the best position spiritually to attain eternal life (and to receive far greater riches in heaven), wouldn’t He choose the latter out of His love and wisdom? Sometimes these things are mutually exclusive. Too often, riches right now spoil people and ruin them spiritually. It generally leads to far less dependence on God, a lack of humility, and materialism. Becoming complacent due to wealth is a curse, not a blessing. God knows better than we do whether or not we can handle this form of prosperity. Hardships can be a blessing in disguise if it refines our character and turns us into better people.

Second, many things in the Bible are not meant to be blanket statements that are true in every situation. In other words, we need to consider context. Where does this verse come from? It comes from Jeremiah during the time of the first great Jewish exile. The Jews had lost their land—the very land God had given them as “The Promised Land”—due to serious disobedience over generations. They were dejected and hopeless with enemies on every side. While these people needed to be taught a lesson and scared back into dependence on God, being the empathetic father that He is, God also wanted to give them hope for their future. It wasn’t too much longer after this that the Jews were allowed to return to their land (unexpectedly thanks to the pagan, Cyrus the Great), setting the stage for the savior himself, Jesus Christ, to be brought to mankind.

Bottom line: This promise was made specifically to the Jewish people.

*Special note: If this promise can be considered prophetic, notice that it has had at least two fulfillments so far in history–one near, one far. While the Jews had gotten their land back for a time, they again lost it in 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed, persecution ensued, and the Great Diaspora happened. The Jews did not return to their land until almost 1,900 years later, but they now enjoy a great deal of success and prosperity—just look at a list of Hollywood actors, producers, or company CEOs. The nation of Israel has grown by leaps and bounds in just a few short decades. While an enormous amount of tribulation is about to fall upon the Jewish people once again, in the end, their capital city (Jerusalem) will become the focal point of God’s future kingdom on earth.

The unfortunate thing about misinterpreting this verse is that it gives people a false and distorted hope. The same thing goes for the “Prosperity Gospel” going around these days. This verse is not ensuring success for your business! People start expecting that becoming a believer and serving in the church will open the gates to God’s riches, worldly success, and strong health. Relationships and overall happiness should flourish! When things don’t go their way, however, they grow bitter and disappointed with God. Even worse, their faulty logic surmises that God must not exist since an omniscient being could never be wrong in making promises.

Think about it: Jeremiah preceded the New Testament, and we have abundant examples of people who followed Jesus only to endure extreme hardship and pain. All but one of the disciples were martyred. Paul was stricken with a “thorn in the flesh” (a persistent physical ailment) and went from prison to prison being severely beaten nearly to death. Does this sound like our typical view of “prosperity”? Paul even begged God three times to take away his “thorn,” which God declined. The apostle’s mission and eternal destiny were too important to risk letting comfort and pride set in. God’s approach worked (of course), and Paul succeeded in spreading the gospel around much of the civilized world. Christianity would not be where it is today without him and the ordeals he overcame. Imagine if he had given up and pouted at God! I bet Paul is smiling right now, knowing that it was all well worth it. Any temporary suffering has probably long been forgotten.

2) Genesis 9:20-27 tells the story of how Noah (post-flood) had gotten drunk and passed out naked in his tent. (By the way, this is descriptive, not prescriptive; i.e., just because Noah did it doesn’t make it good.) One of his sons, Ham, came into the tent and here is what transpired:

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

This passage demonstrates how insufficient knowledge of history or Hebrew could lead to confusion or shallow interpretation.

Let’s start with the most surface-level interpretation. It might be easy to think that Ham accidentally or innocently wandered into the tent—perhaps to ask his father a question—only to be shocked at what he saw. Rattled, he walked out and told his older brothers who would know what to do. And yet, Noah is furious and curses Ham’s son, Canaan, who wasn’t even involved in the situation!

How is it fair to punish Ham (and his son) for a simple mistake like this? Even if Ham had thought it was funny that his father was naked, or simply did not have the consideration to immediately cover him, what’s the big deal? People disrespect their parents all the time, and they don’t receive serious punishment, let alone curses on their offspring. Sure it’s wrong, but isn’t this an overreaction by Noah?

Well, we need to dig deeper. The key word here is a basic one: “saw.” Reading an English translation, whether the NIV or ESV, does not capture the entirety of the text’s meaning. We have to refer to the Hebrew to better understand the story.

In Hebrew, the word we translate as “saw” in this verse actually implies seeing or gazing upon something with pleasure, particularly in a sexual sense. What Ham did was not accidentally stumble into a tent and shield his eyes out of shock, but rather he probably stood there and soaked in the sight. He relished seeing his naked father. Not only was this a disturbing act of disrespect toward his father, but it was also incestuous and homosexual in nature. He probably told his brothers afterward so that they could share in his delight. We might also be able to infer some other details, but at this point, don’t we already have enough?

To further bolster these facts, we also have a key clue in Ham’s son, Canaan. Don’t we recognize that name somehow? Sure, he and his descendants would later constitute some of the Jews’ greatest enemies, the Canaanites. Biblical scholars and secular historians both agree that these were a group of people who practiced all kinds of wicked rituals. They were not only sexually immoral (rampant homosexuality and orgies), but they also committed child sacrifices and worshiped false gods like Baal. Clearly, there was something in the line of Ham that was deeply corrupt. This was no innocent man caught in an unlucky situation.

*Another sidenote: Why isn’t this passage translated better in our English language Bibles? Doesn’t this point to a weakness in God’s Word? Well, ideally, reading this passage should go in one of two ways: 1) Because we trust God (with a child-like faith), we know that He is fair even when we don’t fully understand; or 2) something seems off to us, so we go and research this passage, learning that there is more than meets the eye.

Of course, what often happens is someone with a doubting heart reads this and thinks he/she understands it just fine. “God is unjust and wildly unpredictable.” In a sense, that person is elevating his or her moral standards and code above that of the ultimate judge, God the Creator. If that person could have the right heart (scenario #1) or be less sloppy and do some disciplined research (scenario #2), this kind of misinformed assessment could be avoided.

Furthermore, think about the issues that translators faced when tackling this passage. This is Genesis 9, near the beginning of the Bible. This is a book that even children read. Is it worth it to make kids start thinking about this kind of sin at that young age? Couldn’t it possibly plant some bad ideas or make things awkward with their own fathers? I know if I read something like that before I was ready, I would have been a little scarred and disgusted. Full and open disclosure is not always the wisest idea, and withholding some information is not always a weakness. We are given enough information to learn about God and be edified, but not be sickened with excessive details.

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Well, that’s it for now. I’m trying to avoid making these posts too long and “epic” because it makes it difficult to even get started when I’m pressed for time. I really can’t help myself sometimes.

I hope to update more frequently since I have fewer excuses to be tired. With my job stabilizing and the lighter course load (and our new puppy settling in), I should be good to go most weeks.

Next time, we’ll look at one of the favorite passages that anti-religious skeptics love to mock. Hopefully, you’ll see again just how shallow their interpretation is and how the slightest bit of an open mind might help them to realize their error.