Know the Truth
You will
know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32, NIV
John 8:32, NIV
Congratulations to all of you who’ve had a
western-style upbringing and education. Why? You’re all experts in Ancient
Greek Philosophy, even though you’ve never studied it.
Greek philosophy teaches that we’re material
beings, living in a material world. If we want to, we can spend all our life
purely in this material world. However, somewhere ‘out there’ or ‘up there’ is
a spiritual world, inhabited by spiritual beings. Sometimes these spiritual
beings come and interfere with our material world. If we want to, we can
somehow get in touch with the spiritual world and learn how to make it affect
our material world. We call this ‘religion’, but it’s a purely optional occupation.
We can live all our life without it, if we choose. However, ‘religious’ people
are somehow morally superior to simple materialists.
It's ‘good’ to be religious, right?
This Greek philosophy is part of our inheritance as
westerners. How prevalent is it in your church? How much does it affect your
own thinking? Be honest. Do you think that Earth and Heaven (the material and
spiritual realms) are separate? Or that Christians are morally superior to
other people?
It's the total opposite of what we read in the
Bible, where the material and spiritual worlds are together. In the Old
Testament, God deals with His people through close personal involvement. God's
presence is in the Temple. In the New Testament God sends his Son Jesus to be
Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’, and to show what happens when the Kingdom
of God is ‘at hand’. Read about it in Matthew 10:7-8.
So next time you read the Bible, remember that it's not about ‘Heaven versus
Earth’ or ‘how to get from Earth to Heaven’, it's about ‘Heaven and Earth
together’.
They are together. It’s dangerous to ignore this
fact.
Please
Lord, open our eyes and replace false Philosophy with the Truth that sets us
free!
