Our Trust Fund in God

What does it mean to truly trust in God? Have you considered this question?

My grandfather, a great man of God, once noted that ‘Every time we worry about something, we are showing God that we don’t trust Him.’

To trust God means to not only believe in His goodness, but to believe that He knows what He is doing, that He is in charge. This is not easy. When we, like Peter on the Sea of Galilee, look at the troubles of the world, our faith in God’s authority over everything begins to waver. It is admittedly difficult to observe a world filled with tragedies and murder, rape, corruption, and pedophilia, and truly trust that God is in control. It is even more difficult to trust when we realize that everything happens either by His active will or His permissive will.

How do you trust a God who allows such evil?

The truth we must grasp is this: God’s ways are not our ways. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts,’ Isaiah 55:8-9.

In today’s society we are bombarded with propaganda against God’s goodness. We are told that a truly good god would not permit evil in his world. We are indoctrinated with the lie that because evil exists God must either not exist, or that He must be a vicious, vengeful being bent on our destruction.

But the simple truth is that we do not understand the problem of evil, and that God never intended that we should. People are not comfortable with the idea of not knowing why terrible things happen; we do not want to accept the truth that God’s understanding is beyond our own. That we are not meant to completely comprehend His ways. But His ways are beyond us. Personally, I would not want to worship a God I fully understood. I want my God to be beyond me. I would not worship a God whose thought processes were no higher than those of corruptible men. I take comfort in knowing (trusting) that even though I do not understand why tragedies happen, God does, that, somehow, in His infinite wisdom, everything is working according to His plan (Ephesians 1:11).

To live a life free of worry (Matthew 6:25 and numerous other passages) is not easy. But, if we can learn to trust to God that He knows what He is doing, that His plan is at work in our lives and in the world, then we might just learn the godly art of contentment (Philippians 4:11).

Perhaps I am naïve. But the disciples trusted Jesus, and they certainly did not understand everything He said—not until He rose from the grave, anyway. Belief, trust, contentment. These things sound better to me than worry and fear and confusion. If this is naive, then I revel in my naivete!

Satan's New Thought

Satan has always been at work in this world.

Recently he has adapted and updated his methods, though they remain based on the same premise. Cult leaders have long known how to convince people to worship them. Today false teachers use a streamlined and cunning version of this same idea; instead of manipulating people into worshiping them, they convince people to worship themselves, a lesson that is much easier to swallow than the old trend. The cult of ‘I am’ has infiltrated the Church, plain and simple.

People possess an innate compulsion or desire to worship, this much has always been clear, in every generation and in every culture the world has ever known. People want to worship something.

Atheists invented and mastered the art of self-worship long before false teachers learned to deceive and indoctrinate Christians with this new-age idolatry.

The pleasing-sounds of hallow—and unbiblical—platitudes that ring out from today’s pulpits are more akin to metaphysical philosophies and the blasphemous New Thought ideology than to Biblical truth. A quick education on New Thought: New Thought promotes the concept of Infinite Intelligence (that God is a source of knowledge and power everywhere that can be tapped into for our own purposes), that spirit is the totality of real things, that human selfhood is divine, that sickness originates in the mind, and that divine thinking has a healing effect and that words themselves hold sway over the universe.

This last Thought is precisely what countless ‘success’ and ‘self-help’ books are based upon, of which a few are listed below: The Power of Positive Thinking, Think and Grow Rich, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Awaken the Giant Within, and of course, the two most famousest bestsellers, The Secret and The Power of I am. Most books of this ilk sprinkle the terms: spiritual, effective, successful life, self-mastery, step-by-step guide to success, and other pretty motivators into their synopses to lure you in much in the same way the Serpent lured Eve with his cunning and his pretty words. ‘No, no, God lied to you. You will not die. Your eyes will be opened and you will possess great wisdom! Go ahead, reach out and take that scrumptious-looking fruit, then you will be as wise and knowledgeable as God.’

Different times, same principles.

Don’t be fooled. Every one of the books listed above is based on the principles of the New Thought movement. The Bible specifically warns against such drivel in:

1 Timothy 6:5 - They suppose that godliness is a means to material gain.

1 Timothy 6:9 – Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction.

2 Peter 2:1 – But there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and will bring on themselves swift destruction.

2 Peter 2:3 - By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words.

2 Peter 2:18 – For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh . . . While they promise liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.

The purpose of New Thought is to glorify and advance the self.

The purpose of God’s Word is to glorify God.

By placing ourselves on a pedestal and by believing in the power of self, we neglect our duty to God, and condemn our eternal souls in the process. But by worshiping God as the King eternal, immortal, invisible, who alone is wise (1 Tim 1:17), we will know how to and can receive His great grace and find ourselves in paradise when this temporary life is over.

‘Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden in the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, you also will be revealed with Him in glory,’ (Colossians 3:2-4).

In order to justify their declarations, the New Though proponents must blithely skip over verses like the one above, or reinterpret them, which is exactly what Satan tried to do during his temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. 

Now, if any of this is opinion, then you can simply disregard it. (Who cares about some random blogger dudes’ opinions anyway?) But if these statements align with God’s word, then you would be wise to listen. I only hope and pray to open the eyes of my fellow believers to Satan's schemes. We sheep, after all, are so easily led astray. But through knowledge of God's truth, we are protected from Satan's lies.

A Cruz to the Seven Mountains of Madness

Few things bother me more than people who claim to be Christian and yet whose beliefs and actions suggest otherwise.

The campaign for Ted Cruz is a thinly veiled gambit designed to place the man in a position to become, basically, the end time’s prophet. His version of Christianity is Seven Mountain Dominionism. Like his father Rafael, Teddy boy is fixated on eschatology (end times). In fact, Rafael Cruz is convinced that his son’s political career is a ‘thing of God,’ and that Ted is ‘the anointed one.’

In summary, the Seven Mountains movement is based on the belief that Christians are destined and duty-bound to take control of the seven forces (mountains) that control out culture, which are: business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family, and religion. Its end is game to place Christians in dominion (with someone, for example, Ted Cruz, heading it all as the final prophet) of all seven mountains, thereby initiating worldwide peace and prosperity. With Christians in control, poverty, violence, and possibly even disease will end, and therefore the world will finally be clean and righteous enough for Christ to return.

Yeah, you can pick your jaw up off the floor now.

This absurd alternative religion flies in the face of REAL SCRIPTURE. The verse they stole and mutilated to support their farce is Isaiah 2:1-5. ‘In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,’ says verse 1. This was a vision of Isaiah, and taken alone, its purpose and meaning are not entirely clear. But, as with all verses, when you take it in context with the entire Bible its meaning becomes obvious. For example, a parallel passage can be found in Zechariah chapter 14. Here we find a similar—but more detailed—passage, and through these verses (1-11) we see that the peace it (and Isaiah 2) speaks of is in reference to events immediately following Christ’s return, not events preceding it. It is clear then that it is Christ who will forge worldwide peace, and not man.

A thorough and complete study of the Bible, along with a study of history, makes obvious the truth that complete and lasting peace never results from the efforts of sinful humanity. That it is not in the nature or capacity of mankind to forge worldwide and lasting peace. For this miracle we need a Savior.

Coincidentally, the Bible does mention that in the last days a man will unite the world (under false pretenses and only after slaughtering many believers) under his banner of a one-world religion, with him, naturally, being its god. The Bible calls this man the Antichrist.

Like the name-it-and-claim-it new age movement, like Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Way International, The Walk, Unification Church, Christian Science, Church of Armageddon, Scientology, and a host of other false movements peddling righteousness under the banner of Christianity, Cruz and his Seven Mountains of madness place far too much emphasis and faith in sinful humanity. We do not have the power within ourselves to save ourselves. If we did, we would not need Christ our Savior. Our religion should be according to James 1:27 ‘Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world,’ and Galatians 5:14 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

So let’s not complicate things with absurd claims, especially when these claims and beliefs are really based, if the people behind them were being honest, on nothing more than personal ambition.

But don’t take my word for it. Search the scripture—the entire thing—and decide for yourself what is true and Who it is that is truly destined to save us.            

Word of Faith vs. Shield of Faith

‘Man can do nothing apart from God,’ John MacArthur warned. It is a doctrine few want to hear these days and yet one we all need to hear.

Indeed, those in authority over today’s church, the WCC, the denominational heads, the pastors the preachers and the teachers, are pushing—subtly, oh so subtly—for this shift from divine accomplishment to human achievement. Listen carefully to megachurch pastors and you'll see. Admittedly it is much more gratifying to think that we are capable of altering reality merely by speaking certain words of power, than to wait on a supreme being who is both complex and willful, and whose will does not always align with our own. (This belief of altering reality by speaking certain words, btw, is called the Law of Words of Power, and it is one of the so-called laws of magick as put forth by a magician and adapted for fantasy role-playing gamers. Its cousin teaching is the Law of Positive Attraction, which basically states that the universe returns to you the sort of energy—negative or positive—that you put out. Yeah.)

‘Divine accomplishment is true biblical Christianity; all other religions are based on some form of human achievement.’ That’s another quote by MacArthur. Since I am not familiar with every single religion in the world today, I cannot be sure of the veracity of his claim, but either way his point remains valid. According to 2 Timothy 1:9 ‘God called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.’

It is clear from a complete and thorough reading of the Bible that God is the author and finisher of our faith, that He is the creator and savior, and that He takes an active role in the events of history, yesterday, today and forever. Not us.

Prominent preachers are spewing crap about ‘positive confession’ and the ‘power of I am’ when they should be preaching repentance and the power of God!

The heretical word of faith movement is man’s deplorable attempt to steal the thunder of God for himself. Preachers of this putrid false doctrine teach that we can take on the divine nature for ourselves, which is itself a twisted variation of Christ endowing us with the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the very name of their movement ‘word of faith’ is a rip-off of Roman’s 10:8, taken out of context and of course used without knowledge of the previous and succeeding verses, which, if they read, would explain Paul’s point there, that believing (in God’s grace) with our hearts and confessing (our sins!) with our mouths leads to salvation. Paul was certainly not proclaiming there to be reality-altering power in the words themselves. Whatever power exists, and whatever results come, they are by God’s power and by His grace.

WE DO NOT HAVE POWER WITHIN OURSELVES. Without God’s grace and Christ’s intervention, we are completely powerless. We are powerless to save ourselves. The author and finisher of our faith provided the instructions, the grace, and the forgiveness for us to find salvation.

Let us not be ‘peddlers of God’s Word’ (2 Corinthians 2:17). We must not speak for the approval of people, or preach what they want to hear. We must speak the truth, and continue in it, whether convenient or not. The word of faith movement does not feed the sheep God’s Word and it does not help them develop a relationship with Him. Rather, it cultivates knowledge of self, which is carnal, and useless to our eternal souls.

Like cult leaders, these false teachers are very clever; they lure you in with their pretty words and specious promises. Do not fall for it! Arm yourself with the shield of faith, with the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, otherwise you will be spiritually defenseless and fall prey to these guru’s, these vultures, these teachers of lies and peddlers of false doctrines.

In His Steps - But in Different Shoes

When a man named Charles Sheldon wrote a little book called In His Steps in 1896, a movement was born, ushering in a selfless method of living and thinking, and inspiring a famous motto: What Would Jesus Do.

If we study the gospels we discover what Jesus did. His actions, parables, and teachings have weathered the ages remarkably well. You could even call them timeless. There is nothing ancient or parochial about taking time to share the good news of salvation with strangers (John 8:11-12), or in loving your neighbor as yourself (Galatians 5:14), or in declaring the truth of God’s saving grace and condemnation of darkness (John 3:15-21).

The point I’m trying to make here is that thinking what Jesus might do in any given situation is an excellent habit to get into, but knowing what He did is equally essential to developing a right mind in Christ. We must not neglect our studies of the gospels. In them we see how Jesus interacted with people (aka sinners). Better to know than to guess.

Especially illuminating are His responses to sinners and to the religious leaders of the day.

Jesus displayed remarkable tenderness toward sinners. Matthew 9:36 shows us a Jesus moved with compassion for a crowd, seeing them as lost sheep without a shepherd. Often when He saw a crowd, Jesus would heal the sick and teach the lost the way to righteousness. In John 8:7 we are treated to a revelatory story of a sinner caught in the act and Jesus displaying incredible mercy. Instead of condemning her and permitting the men of the city to stone the woman, He suggested the sinless ones cast the first stones, knowing full well that no one could claim perfection. Throughout the gospels Jesus displays this degree of love and forgiveness towards sinners with repentant hearts.

But Jesus was not all teddy bears and hugs.

Throughout the gospels we are treated to accounts of our Savior condemning the hypocritical dogmas of the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of the day. In fact, this was a common issue; they were so devoted to their traditions of men that they were resistant to the proper and true teachings of the Son of God. (Sound familiar? It should; this is a common issue in today’s church, with its obsession with following new age doctrines of men while viewing Christ’s teachings as passé.)

In reading the gospels, I find a Jesus I would love to hang out with. I find a Christ worth following. I find a love worth sharing. As Christians, we have a great name to live up to, a name we dishonor when we act superior, condemn fellow sinners, or fail to take moments to love the lost sheep of this world. Read about and remember how Jesus would stop and take the time to share His light with whomever He met on the road.

We be representin’! So let’s know who we be representin’. Thinking ‘What Would Jesus Do’ is important. Knowing ‘What He Did’ is key to doing His will.