Childeye
“We all were obedient to Satan at some point so I personally count it disingenuous to say I freely chose Christ when in fact I attended church and didn't even know what a Christ is. Only when I discovered that the True Image of God washed away the false image did I understand. And so it is that anyone who has a false image of God is not free in their wills to serve God since they don't even know Him. Because we are made in His Image we become what ever image of Him we believe in. That image becomes our absolute by which we reason upon. That is why the carnal mind cannot be subject to God. Read the scripture Romans chapter one. We made god into an image as unto corruptible man.”
This is such a perfect example of the practice of interpretation that I couldn’t pass it up. I can only wonder if someone is holding the interpretation lens between you and your Bible or you’re holding it yourself.
Romans 1:18-25 (KJV) is very clearly describing a certain class of people. It is a class of people that are seen today, especially in Christianity, the man-made religion.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness”
These people are holding the truth in unrighteousness. Paul goes on to explain exactly what he is talking about. He tended to be very good about that. No doubt because what he wrote was under the direction of the Holy Spirit. People knock the idea of a dictated Bible. But to me, a God-breathed Bible is pretty much a dictated Bible. And to me, Jesus Christ as the living teacher of the Bible makes it even more than dictated. He makes it alive to those who walk by the Holy Spirit in their human spirit. He makes the Bible living in our experience. Not the Bible alone as the Protestants are so fond of saying. But the Bible through the teaching of the living Christ, through the conduit of the living Holy Spirit who resides in our human spirit.
“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.”
God showed them that which may be known of God. God clearly revealed to them what can be known of the nature of God.
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
The invisible things of God are and have been clearly seen since the creation of the world. They are so clearly seen that these people are without excuse.
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
What does it clearly say? “when they knew God”. These are people who knew God. Yet they “glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful”. Doesn’t sound like a bunch of people who didn’t know what was going on to me. They “became vain in their imaginations”. They began to imagine things that in fact didn’t exist. They interpreted the form of the Bible they had in front of them, that which is clearly seen. And in their interpretations, “their foolish heart was darkened”.
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”.
These people in their interpretations thought they were wise. They not only thought they were wise, but they professed the same, they claimed that they were wise to everyone around them. And in doing so “they became fools”, they showed themselves to be fools, they showed their foolishness to everyone around them.
“And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”
And in the foolishness of their own interpretations, of their own imaginations, they changed the image of God into a human image, even into sub-human images. What did God do in response to these interpretations? Did he come down and take some of these interpreters of reality and force them to believe the truth? Did he even come down and reveal more evidence to them of the truth?
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:”
God gave them up, gave them up to “to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts”. He gave them up to what they desired, the fruit of their own interpretations, their own imaginations.
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”
Gave them up, these people who knew the truth and changed the truth of God into a lie. They not only changed the truth of God into a lie, they worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator. And God, rather than force them to believe something against their will, gave them up. They made a choice to do what they did, and God didn’t come down and choose among them who would be Elect, Justified, Saved, whatever. He gave them up. Thanks be to God, that when man-kind fell, he didn’t give them up. Rather, he provided a way of Salvation in Christ, the only, only, begotten Son of God.
Don’t think that can’t happen to Christians because it’s happening all the time. There are literally thousands of interpretations in Christianity today. And God has done nothing to cause repentance, to cause a change of mind, concerning these interpretations. God has given the Christians of Christianity up. He allows them to suffer the consequences of their determination to interpret the Bible. He allows them to continue in their division as He has for centuries. And they do so today more than ever before. He allows them to grow deeper and deeper into their own imaginations, to the point that the Christians are so much like the world that one is hard put to discern who is truly in Christ today.
Romans 1:26: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections”
God gave them up. You think that being in Adam and not knowing what is going on is the worst case scenario? What of knowing what is going on and changing it anyway? Of having the truth right in front of you, in a written document, and the living Christ to show you precisely what the Bible is saying, and changing it anyway through the practice of interpretation? Don’t you think that is even worse? Yet that’s precisely what’s happening in Christianity today. Even to the point that there are Christians who are professing homosexuals.
The rest of verse 26 reads,
“for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature”.
And verse 27,
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
FC
