From Such Turn Away

Many years ago when I was a new believer there were those who attempted to indoctrinate me into the status quo of nominal and superficial Christianity, with all it's traditions of men, while they claimed they were Bible believing.

These pleasure and popularity seekers wanted me to accept their form of Christianity, it sounded good but something did not set right with me.

The Lord warned me early on about many things that the modern church accepts. As I began to question each thing, using the Bible as the standard, I realized that the "Evangelical church", had as much wrong in it as the Catholic church does. Yes, they have the "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" right. But the way they acted made me think they really didn't believe what they say.

When I discovered that most Evangelicals believe in divorce and remarriage on some level, they misunderstood entirely the nature of the gathering of believers, they had done away completely with the head covering and they had their favored "cliques", mostly made up of those who were adhering to pleasure gatherings and false pet doctrines, I realized I could no longer fit into those gatherings any more than I could the Catholic church.

When it ends up being a fight with a "fellow believer" about the sanctify of marriage, the head covering and the nature of the gathering according to the Word of God, then I know there can be no fellowship with them. It is one thing to engage in a disagreement about these things, it is quite another for those who do not adhere to the Word, to fight and argue in anger when they are shown in the Word their own error.

When we encounter rage over a disagreement, we must assume that the person who rages is convicted but stubborn. Defending that which is popular to believe but in error, is always a clue, they may not have been born again, or they are living in disobedience as believers. Often these days it is difficult to tell who is born again and who is not .

From time to time I have disagreements with brothers and sisters on facebook, but it does not lead to rage, mocking or demeaning. When the discussion degenerates into this sort of "attack" mentality, we know there is a stubborn and rebellious heart involved.

Loving, kind and empathetic people do not rage at others. They seek to understand and to share, but they do not treat with contempt a fellow brother or sister in disagreement.

When we see this raging and contempt emanating from the mouth of someone, we know there is no love, nor is there an attempt to seek truth, only winning is the objective of these types. Winning is far more important to those who rage than truth is, truth only matters if it helps them win.

Proverbs 29:10-12 "…10 Men of bloodshed hate the blameless, But the upright are concerned for his life. 11 A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back. 12 If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, All his ministers become wicked.…"

God warns us about fools so that we will not engage with them. It is an exercise in futility to bother with them. They more we answer rationally with them the worse they get. These people love to fight and argue. Agreeing is not very interesting or desirable to them, they prefer the fight, in an effort to win at all costs they believe it elevates them as superior.

I have had several people in my life just like this over the years. They cannot validate me or anyone who disagrees with them on any level. Every conversation is entered into for the purpose of proving us inept and stupid. Many years ago when I was more insecure, I was hurt continually by these mean spirited people. As I grew in the strength of the Lord, confident of my position with Him, the contemptuous people became comical to me, the rages and the demeaning were so silly they couldn't possibly be taken seriously.

When I encounter these people I feel sorry for them, but also want to exit quickly, because there is no purpose to that sort of bantering, it is foolish and meaningless.

God desires that we love His truth, so much so that we are willing to admit when we have been wrong. Everyone who has any sense understands this principle. Winning important to the truth seeker, being elevated in the eyes of others means little to those who love God's truth.

Truth itself is the objective for those who love Christ. When we find ourselves to be wrong because of further study, it is easy to give up what was wrong to embrace the truth.

However, when God has shown us the truth we are not moved by "good sounding" arguments of the world. Our understanding has been full and we do not capitulate to the arguments of those who have obtained their ideas and wisdom from the world.

The confident and born again believers who loves truth, is hated by most people, because they are convinced of what God has told them, they have no need to force anyone else to believe it, they just know it, proclaim it and leave those others to the Lord.

Narcissists can never allow anyone else to think differently from them. They must mock, demean and intimidate others into submitting to them, always leading to a fight.

2 Timothy 3:5 "from such people get away."