Doug Van Pelt

God Told Me You're Wrong

Reading those so-called "Christian romance novels," eating that trash, listening to that music... blah blah blah. Seven things the Lord hates, eight if you trust my discernment, other Old Testament Scriptures pulled out to back up my point, blah blah blah.

Maybe God will send the Apostle Paul back here in his glorified body and allow him to slap some people upside the face. If anyone, myself included, ever gets on a soapbox and starts ranting about something and speaking on behalf of God, he or she (or me) better be right. If not, the damage they cause and the dissention they stir up is not a good fruit, not a good thing at all.

It's funny how the argument, "Because God told me so," is used. It's an easy crutch when you run out of logic or out of so-called "proof-texts." And who can argue with God? It's like starting a fight and then saying, "You have to wrestle Andre The Giant before you can reach me."

It's always the grey areas that people are fighting over, it seems. No one is really defending sin, like adultery, murder, lying and stealing (though astute debaters will link the cause they're fighting as one of these). It's always some grey area, like movies, music, food, or drink. God gave us a conscience. It's fairly reliable. And better than that, He gave us His Holy Spirit, Who is our Teacher and leads us. Two believers of the same God, filled with the same Spirit can draw two different conclusions to a matter like this. And that's okay.

One person will get so bent out of shape about something, maybe it's eating meat that has been used in a Satanic ritual or sacrificed to idols. They know that the meat was actually sacrificed to demon spirits. How can that be good? That surely is damaging to God's kingdom and no one in their right mind should be doing that, right? And then Paul states the obvious: 'it's just meat. If your conscience is clear, then go for it.' We're not talking about having sex with prostitutes or killing someone you don't like here -- we're talking about grey areas that God did not directly address in His Word. In the big picture, these areas are tiny little specks, and not really worth our energy and time. When, in the words of the great teacher/speaker Mikee Bridges, we could have used that time making sandwiches for the homeless. We could be doing actual good, "love deeds" out there instead of arguing over music.

Sigh.

In 1 John 2 John states:
"I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit -- just as it has taught you, remain in Him."

That person who sits under the teaching of the Holy Spirit will be a humble student for human teachers, too. They will not refuse to be taught. They will sit under the Grand Teacher and learn what the human teachers are saying that lines up with the Truth. A maturing believer will sit and listen to human teachers. The fact that they are ultimately being taught by God does not mean they reject or refuse human teachers, they just know Who their #1 Teacher is, and they know that God has placed human teachers within the church to build us up and remind us what His Word says.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at March 23, 2006 09:16 AM