The rational Christian’s faith differs
sharply from the widely accepted views of organized religions that teach
people to be dependent upon the organization as their primary source of
salvation. The practice of ‘behaviorial-ism’ taught within most churches
is one of the most sinister lies organized religion has relentlessly duped
people into accepting for ‘spiritual enlightenment and growth’. The
societal pressure of the laity imposed upon the believer to gain
acceptance primarily gauges a person’s acceptance on performance and does
not provide a solution to the nature of the problem. The nature of man is
the problem, not the behavior. It is irrational at best to expect a
person's character to change through behavior modification.
Rational faith requires personal
responsibility. We are not powerless unless we surrender to someone
else’s belief system whose basis for truth is just an imagined
relationship with God. Our personal responsibility and acceptance with
God should focus on our relationship to Him through the revealed truth
found in the Scriptures. Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life!’ It is our personal relationship with Him that will lead us into
all truth. Anything less than knowing Him personally and the power of His
resurrection will leave us in bondage to a religious system of
behaviorialism or performance.
Everyone has their own theology
and philosophy of life. Their behavior is a direct reflection of what
they believe to be true. In the same manner, every person has his or her
own image of God. People choose what they believe on a conscious or often
passive level, while some people agree with another view just to pacify
the proponent.
The freedom to choose is God
given. This right distinguishes us above the animals. Our inherent right
is to choose or reject God’s plan for our life. We should base our
philosophy and theology on rational thought; a thinking theology leads to
freedom. An irrational theology leads to dependence; the basis for
esoteric knowledge is that it is understood only by the chosen few. To
gain freedom we must base our philosophy and theology on the truth. A
rational person will choose freedom every time.
The person who resigns the ‘will’
or ‘freedom of choice’ by not making responsible decisions is captive to
the whims of the captors. The road of passive resistance often takes us
away from personal responsibility and we wrongly think that others know
what is best for us. Not thinking is what gets us in trouble. Engage
life head-on with a ‘free will’ and anything else is anathema once we’ve
tasted freedom! A disciplined believer seeks the truth with all their
heart, soul, mind, and body. Freedom does not come cheaply! It is the
result of rational choices and decisions to find the Truth. Anything
short of embracing the truth is an abomination to God. Idolatry is living
for something less than the life and freedom we have ‘in Christ’.
Religious people or spiritual
sensualists, the believers whose belief system borders on spiritism, will
have difficulty with rational theology. Many tenants of organized
religion may not know the Truth or do not want the entire Truth known.
The ‘breath that gives one life’ is the original meaning of the word
‘Spirit’. The ‘breath of God’ will inspire you to engage life. The
essence of a rational theology is exactly what personal responsibility and
empowerment from God’s Spirit will provide for each person. When God
reconciles a person, He empowers them. He gives them a new heart and
spirit, or a new ‘breath from God that gives one life’. As a believer,
the spirit we receive is a new spirit of love, power, and a sound mind.
When a person is transformed
through God’s love which He expressed in the person of Jesus Christ, there
is a regeneration. By His divine presence in the earth, the Holy Spirit
draws us to Jesus. Upon our salvation, God places us in an eternal
relationship with God through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. God places us ‘in
Christ’ through the Holy Spirit. God endued us with eternal life ‘in
Christ’ at salvation to overcome all the work of the enemies of God.
The believer can learn to partake
of the riches of God’s grace through many means. There is only one way
to come to God, when a person receives ‘eternal life’ ‘in Christ’ Jesus.
A rational basis for the belief system comes from God’s Word. To
discourage people and invite slow maturation, just withhold any
information of God’s salvation, acceptance, security, assurance, and total
commitment from the believer.
Questioning a belief system is a
sign of mental and spiritual health. Commend people for their efforts to
exercise critical judgment when listening to a spiritual teaching, or the
requirements of someone’s faith. A rational faith's fundamental strength
is the object of their belief. God's relationship with us is the object
of a rational theology because it is meaningful and durable. The object
of our faith must meet the criteria that answers the questions to the
meaning of life. By accepting personal responsibility, we can escape the
possibility of being led down a meaningless path of spurious faith.
Personal responsibility sets us
free to approach the Throne of Grace in our time of need and from the
dependence on our devices whereby we attempt to be acceptable before God.
Grace and mercy are the initial means for our reconciliation to God. We
need to be ‘born again’ only once. From the point of our salvation
onward, we have a ‘right standing’ with God because we are in relationship
to Him ‘in Christ’. Each person is responsible for their relationships
and actions. The Holy Spirit's guidance through God’s Word is the best
way for one’s own walk into freedom. We really need to know and obey the
Word of God. Although we encourage others to consider the viewpoint of
another believer, ‘Christianity’ is a matter of an individual’s personal
relationship with God through His Word. God has given us a spirit of
love, power, and a sound mind to give us emotional and behavioral
control. We have a renewed heart and spirit from God to overcome the
deceit of the enemy of our souls.
Repentance is often
misunderstood. Repentance is a return to God. Godly sorrow is necessary
to find true repentance. Some have failed to truly repent since we were
only sorry that we were caught, not because we sinned against God.
Initially the Word says to confess your sins one to another, meaning
confession to the one wronged or sinned against. Confession is for the
purpose of exposure, encouragement, healing and accountability.
We admit what we have knowingly
done wrong, turn to God for forgiveness and continue our journey.
Although it is commendable because of the aforementioned reasons,
confession to someone is not necessarily relevant to continuing our walk
with God. Confession to one another is a necessity simply because many of
us would harden our hearts and not turn from sin if we were not held
accountable. The weakness of our false identity is that it wants to
justify our illicit behaviors. Once we have dealt with our sin openly and
honestly it is not rational to rehash the irrational behavior once we
understand the consequences of it. To continue to discuss our past
shortcomings after receiving forgiveness may perpetuate them. It would be
more advantageous to approach the throne of Grace so we can overcome
temptation. We need to consider the irrational thought patterns that lead
us into deception and deal with them by reinforcing the Truth of God’s
Word and renew our minds.
For the rational Christian, one’s
ethical behavior and moral attitude are separate matters of
sanctification. The Holy Spirit works these things out under the
continuing process of sanctification through conviction. The Christian is
a new creation ‘in Christ’. We have received a renewed heart and spirit.
Therefore, we grow into the fullness and stature of Christ and do our best
because it is part of our new nature.
Turning to God and admission of
our fallen condition is necessary. We must admit what we are! However,
repetitive confession of the same sin in itself has little value, and
actually perpetuates ‘powerlessness’. Through negative self-talk, we may
lose the Christ-centered esteem we receive from our new identity ‘in
Christ’. Repetitive confession of the same sin(s) also perpetuates
dependency, guilt, shame, and the need for external approval. Disclosure
should be for the purpose of learning about oneself from others. As a
Christian, we can overcome the world and do all things ‘in Christ’. Only
we can change our behavior, through the power of His Grace.
In this world, there are two kinds
of faith, one is rational faith based on personal responsibility for
logical and responsible decisions; the other is spurious faith built on
false foundations and spiritism. Rational faith builds upon the strengths
within each of us and inspires us to interdependence with God in all of
our relationships. Spurious faith builds upon an unsubstantiated belief
system. Its basis for Truth is not proven out through certain tests for
logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance.
There are two kinds of faith; one
is spurious faith and one is rational faith. Spurious faith comes from
second hand knowledge and may not have an empirical basis from Scripture
or tested for truthfulness by an individual. Spurious faith is a person’s
surrender of reason and the acceptance of someone else’s agenda for truth
that may or may not be true. Rational faith's basis for truth comes from
the test of its relevance to Christianity. Actually, the responsible
believer will think things through even when the Scriptures attest
something to be true.
The standard of communication for
Christianity is God’s truth found in the Scriptures. God’s Word is Truth
and knowledge from God’s Word. Knowledge and understanding are given
through personal revelation after receiving empirical knowledge. Divine
knowledge unlocks the door to understanding, while wisdom is the
application of the truth found in God’s Word. Knowledge is the truth
conveyed to, tested, and held onto by an individual. An individual is
accountable and responsible for the truth that they acknowledge or refuse
to acknowledge. What is true today will be true forever, when it is an
eternal truth. A lie is an un-true belief held by an individual to be
truth; or, it is an attempt to frustrate, distort, or pervert the truth.
Confidence, competence, and
control of one’s emotions and behavior are hallmarks of maturity and
mental health. God implies personal independence and empowerment through
the fact that He gave us a spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. God
has given us certain gifts and talents. When used appropriately, they are
worthwhile. When are we to use them? The answer is simple: when we need
to resolve human problems. Fortunately, we can also use the spiritual
resources we receive from God.
The believer who succeeds will
choose to seek the truth and accept the fact that growth and change are
inevitable. These people will also make a commitment to choose a theology
and philosophy for life that is coherent, responsible, and reasonable.
They will decide to examine their own beliefs and select the life-style
that complies with God’s truth and character.
There were three friends, Fact,
Faith, and Feelings, who were attempting to cross the River of Trial and
Tribulation. Feeling said, ‘I will lead!’ Faith and Fact blindly
followed Feeling and they all fell into the river. Fortunately, God
rescued them. The moral of the story directly relates to why so many
Christians do not have victory in their walk. If we want victory, we must
have ‘Faith’ based on the ‘Fact’ of God’s Word. If Fact leads Faith would
follow and Feelings would bring up the rear. Faith comes from hearing the
Word of God. Then, our ‘Feeling’ will line up with what we believe as
‘Fact’ and follow ‘Faith’ fully.
Fact based on faith is credulous,
spurious, presuppositional, illogical, irrational, and to be avoided.
Faith must have an object to believe in, our belief is in the awesomeness
of God’s love revealed for us in Christ Jesus and through His promises.
Faith is a gift of God and based on the truth we hear from God’s inspired
Word.
After we came to Christ we became
a new creation with a renewed heart and spirit. We received the Spirit of
God. We live in victory through what God did for us. We do not try to
meet our own needs; we learn how to allow God to meet all of our needs.
God provided for all of our needs ‘in Christ’ and we can know the reality
of this life through the illumination by the Holy Spirit to our mind. The
Holy Spirit reveals the Truth as we search Scriptures with Him and for
Him. What we need to do to reflect His victory is to allow His Spirit to
live through us and empower us to do it.
To live the life of victory we
need to renew our mind and rest on the finished work of the Cross. This
is a principle truth. If we want a life filled with peace we need to set
our mind on the things of the Spirit and not on the false identity
(corrupt nature). We need to focus on the finished work of Christ by
‘walking after the Spirit’.
By faith in our relationship we choose to
live knowing God is working out all things for our good with whatever
condition comes our way. We put our faith (trust) in the fact of God’s
Word and peace and rest in the leading of the Holy Spirit within. We
‘renew our minds’ through meditating on His Word daily so our emotions
will follow faithfully behind the facts. We no longer rely on emotions
since they don’t rely on the Truth. By faith we envision our life
reflecting Christ through us the first thing in the morning before our
feet hit the floor. We don’t need to understand everything about
everything but we must allow Christ in us to thoroughly encompass our
life. Then, we can face possible temptation by submitting to God in the
light of our identification and exalted position ‘in Christ’.
We are spiritually seated on the throne of
grace where Jesus is our High Priest, whom we can call upon in our time of
need. With this mindset and the Holy Spirit’s leading we can deal with
trials, tribulation, and temptation by focusing on the Truth to overcome
the world and resisting the devil. From the position of power and
authority ‘in Christ’ we have His victory already working in us.
If we rely on our feelings we cannot win
the battle. Suppressing our emotions doesn’t work! We have to rest in
the Truth of who we are ‘in Christ’. We win daily by relying on the Word
of God as it transforms us and the Holy Spirit guides us like the rudder
of a ship into the safe harbor of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus.
FREEDOM REQUIRES GROWTH AND CHANGE
Freedom comes from living and
knowing the truth. Only then can we form a plan to change and do it. To
do this we need the proper information to make the decision stick. It is
a matter of getting our act together. Change is not always easy; expect
and accept some pain and suffering along the way. Avoid what does not
make sense; trust God’s Word to help your judgment. Don’t expect miracles
for every problem that confronts us. It is important to know your
choices. There is a rational alternative to waiting for a miracle to
happen.
We need to approach life and
problems through faith in the unchanging character of God found in the
truth of the Scriptures, while thinking things through. We need to use
reason and logic in the light of the Christian message. Trust based on
faith, and faith based on truth, carries us through to rational and
critical thinking. If truth does not reflect fact, a responsible and
rational person would not take it as truth.
The ability to believe in the
possibility of change and growth gives us the basis of hope to believe in
a freed will. Each person needs to learn to recognize the inner voice of
the Holy Spirit’s influence upon his or her own mind and then learn how to
make a decision and stick to it. We can learn to directly influence or
transform our emotions by changing what we think. When we learn that our
value or worth is derived from God, we can feel worthwhile at all times,
stop depending on others for approval and accept personal responsibility
for our own life.
Most importantly, you learn to
trust in God’s on-going providential care. God will enable you to trust
His power as you learn to reason and live a responsible victorious life.
Thoroughly indoctrinated through
spurious faith systems, some people find this work objectionable because
they believe faith comes from inherent revelation or is intrinsic and
does not always coincide with God’s Truth revealed through Scripture. The
basis for rational faith comes from thinking rationally about life and its
problems. However, this rational basis must be founded upon Truth found
in God’s Word
The information presented here is
about how to think rationally, make a decision and stick to it. Knowledge
alone will not empower you to make a decision and stick to it. Action
must accompany any decision to bring transformation. The only sound basis
for godly action is a rational and responsible belief system in which God
can work through us to achieve the desires of His heart (and our hearts as
well).
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