FAITH OR MYTH?
The classic cartoon
character known as Popeye is famous for eating spinach. Whenever he
breaks open a can of spinach and consumes it, he gains enormous strength.
There is a little-known fact about this cartoon character. Since meat was
scarcer during World War II, the tale of Popeye was co-opted by the U.S.
Government to promote the idea of eating spinach. Spinach appeared to be
an ideal substitute for meat. Ironically during the 1890s, the scientists
of our German enemy combatants concluded that spinach contains the same amount
of iron as meat. And iron is an essential vitamins for building muscle
and strength.
However, their
facts were fundamentally wrong. German researchers did prove that spinach
contains iron, but when they recorded their scientific results they put the
decimal point in the wrong place. Therefore, they grossly overestimated
the amount of iron in spinach by a factor of ten! Unfortunately, the
correction for this error did not make it across the ocean until after World
War II.
This series of
events demonstrates how easy it is for false ideas to become quickly accepted
as truth. Even in the arena of our faith, it’s not uncommon for some to
embrace faith concepts that are nonbiblical in origin. To wit, we should never
be hesitant to ask WHY we
subscribe to a certain belief or a particular interpretation of the Bible.
Our investigation may prove that we got it right, or it may show that we
are inaccurate in our understanding of what God is actually communicating to
us. Either way, our understanding and application of God’s word will only
be improved in the process.
Two practical
examples of this kind of distortion of the Word are REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY (also known
as SUPERSESSIONISM), which
holds that the Jews are no longer chosen by God and that He has no particular
future plans for the nation of Israel; and (2) PROSPERITY THEOLOGY, which
reduces The Almighty to the level of some sort of cosmic genie whose primary
purpose is endowing us with material possessions or wealth. Although God truly
desires to bless His people, if the abundant life that Christ espoused is
reduced to the level of financial prosperity, we are actually serving Satan’s
cause instead of building God’s Kingdom.
Will we choose
faith or myth? My friends, let’s get our facts straight. Let’s make
sure that our faith is spiritually grounded, not in tradition, nor in fantasy,
but firmly established in GOD’S WORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment