03/30/24 A PANDEMIC OF BLINDNESS

03/30/24 A PANDEMIC OF BLINDNESS

People love men's interpretation more than they love God's revelation. 

Yesterday morning I talked with a person who has dabbled in various beliefs but is presently involved with the Watchtower (so-called Jehovah's Witnesses). I pointed out that the JWs do not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ. He responded with the idea that all Christian groups disagree about various beliefs. I agreed, but told him that all Christians believe in the physical resurrection of Christ... in fact, belief in the resurrection is essential to being a Christian, therefore JWs are not Christian. I told him that Paul said, "if there is no resurrection, then we are of all men most miserable." (I was hoping he would see the danger of studying JW religion). 

After I said that the physical resurrection is essential to being a Christian, I told him I would like to meet with him in a Bible study. He told me he did not like comparing different views of issues, but rather, he liked to focus on one thing at a time. I thought, "that is absurd. He does not believe that at all." In other words, he did not want to hear anymore from me. He indicated he was not really interested in hearing my point of view (at which time I chose to wait for God to reopen the conversation). I lost him, but sometimes you get a second chance , so I chit chatted about mundane things, still waiting for God's leading. 

Sho-nuff, out of the blue, he said, "I have a question for you." Wow, God was giving me more opportunity to share Biblical truth with an unbeliever. It is like fishing. I try different things until I get a response. I don't like to rush ahead or lag behind God's leading.
I indicated that I was interested in his question. He asked me a really strange question. He asked me, "why is eternal life so important." 

I quickly explained that God had created Adam in His own image, but when Adam disobeyed God, he separated Himself and his human family from God. This separation is called, "death." But God provided a deliverance from being separated (dead in our sins and trespasses). God wants us to live with Him forever, rather than be separated from Him. 

All of a sudden, the person took the conversation in a different direction, basically saying that if God gave His breath to Adam, He actually gave His "essence." In other words (according to him), Adam was an extension of God; Adam was God. I told him that the Bible says God created man in His image and likeness. The creation of man was not God extending or hiving off of Himself. 

I did not get into a discussion about Divine essence. Though there is a Theological aspect to the idea of essence, it is also a philosophical issue. Since it is not primarily, directly, specifically and clearly addressed in the Bible, "essence" is not Divinely defined. I don't get involved in speculative concepts when witnessing. Witnessing for Christ is sharing God's word, it is not elucidating human philosophies or opinions about God's word. It is proclaiming God's word, whether the other person believes it or not. 

The man received a phone call as I was starting to look at the fact that Adam was created in His image and likeness of God. The phone call ended our conversation. 

I wanted to focus on the Biblical revelation concerning the creation of man and the nature of man, and the relationship of man to God.
I would like to have pointed out that God's giving breath, giving spirit, giving life to someone is not the same as incarnation.
I would like to have explained that when a drowning victim is given resuscitation, through mouth to mouth, it is not the rescuer incarnating the victim, but rather the rescuer introducing oxygen into the lungs of the victim.
In the creation of man, it was God giving life, giving spiritual life (in the likeness of God). 

As the conversation unfolded, I was aware that his claim that man is actually God means that the resurrection, and the desire for "eternal life" is futile, since he believes that man is God and God cannot die. In other words, he was denying the mortality of man, the Deity of Christ (while asserting the deity of man), the physical resurrection of Christ, the human need for salvation, the eternal separation and judgment of those who reject Christ. 

People love the lie rather than the truth.
People love human invention and interpretation rather than God's revelation.
People love worldly wisdom and demonic wisdom rather than the wisdom of God.