Sound Doctrine/Healthy Teachings

[reba]

ToT this is from me not the moderator.... I find it so very sad you reject the Lord over and over.... Your knowledge is awesome I so wish for you that 'head' knowledge was 'heart' knowledge.

 

[TRUTH over TRADITION]

I find it so very sad you reject the Lord over and over.

Reba, one of the reasons I'm still here is that I am trying to finds reasons NOT to reject the faith. My current rejection centers around what I was taught and espoused as being incorrect. In all honestly I just want to know the truth and I will go where that takes me. My preference would be that that truth involves a loving God who knows and cares for me and who has the power of eternity in His hands, but I cannot let that preference color or determine what I do with truth and evidence.

 

[VirginShallConceive]

My preference would be that that truth involves a loving God who knows and cares for me and who has the power of eternity in His hands, . . .

I totally share that preference, and I don't think that anyone in their right mind wouldn't.

. . . but I cannot let that preference color or determine what I do with truth and evidence.

Once again, I agree.

If I truly believed that eternal happiness was waiting for me when I leave this realm, it would be very hard to have a bad day. I would have to be experiencing physical pain or something. And the older you get, the faster time seems to fly by. I wouldn't be sad that when I turn around, it's summer. A few moments later, it's winter-- then summer again, and another couple of years of my life have gone quickly by. That would only mean that I am that much closer to eternal happiness.

Another thing, if I truly believed, is that I wouldn't care about unfairness on this earth. No matter what happened, there would be no use in complaining about it(unless it was physical pain), because the all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving Creator of the Universe would have it all taken care of. It is interesting how many Christians complain about laws and other things that are infinitely petty when compared to the supposed eternal happiness that awaits them. The human mind is a funny thing.

 

[WIP]

The human mind is a funny thing.

I think this is an important point here. It is because we are human that we allow those petty things take over our thoughts. Being a Christian doesn't mean we don't have human weakness. It means we understand that despite our human weakness we can still rest on the promise of God.

 

[ejected]

ToT. Sorry bout your luck. You could not be more wrong. You want a reason to not reject the faith.
Let me say this. If your heart is hardened toward the truth, there's not anything anybody can do or say to convince you.
I tried convincing a guy on the job for about 21 years. He remained unconvinced because of his arrogant , stubborn, self will.
You want a reason you say? Go to God with hat in hand and humbly ask Him to reveal himself to you. Stay there until He does. Don't do as my friend on the job did.

 

[TRUTH over TRADITION]

If your heart is hardened toward the truth, there's not anything anybody can do or say to convince you.

You know what? The above statement could not be more true. A person with a hard heart and personal convinctions they value more than anything else so can very unreasonable. Such folks don't directly have a heart that's hardened to truth, they just have a heart that's hardened to anything that doesn't fit into their world view and their biased perception of what things should be like. When anything stands in opposition to such a person's perspective, that/those things will be met with strong resistance that oftentimes will refuse to listen to reason. The sad part is that sometimes what opposes a person's beliefs about truth can in fact be the real truth and how sad and ironic it is to claim to be fighting on the side of truth when in fact what one does is oppose truth's agents like evidence and reason only to hold up what they WANT or have been conditioned to believe truth to be.

I tried convincing a guy on the job for about 21 years. He remained unconvinced because of his arrogant , stubborn, self will.

Have you considered that maybe the case you presented for those 2 decades was just very unconvincing and poorly supported? Perhaps what you were so convinced was true was not so clear to the one you attempted to have come around to seeing things your way. We gotta be careful and humble enough that when we are trying to win someone over to what we think is the light that we don't invoke God's name to support what is actually just our belief.

 

[The Light]

We gotta be careful and humble enough that when we are trying to win someone over to what we think is the light that we don't invoke God's name to support what is actually just our belief.

This resonated with me.

 

[Prycejosh1987]

Titus 1:14-2:1
..be tough when it comes to showing up their wrong ways, so they can become healthy in the faith.14 [And don’t allow them to] pay attention to Jewish myths or the rules of men, and thus turn themselves away from the truth. 15 For, everything is clean to those who are clean; but for those who are dirty and faithless, nothing is clean; because, both their minds and their consciences are dirty. 16 So, although they claim to know God, everything they do disproves it, because they are disgusting, disobedient, and unqualified to do anything worthwhile.
1 You, however, keep on talking about the correct, healthy teachings.

That summaries the acceptance and rejection of faith in Jesus.