Category: Wisdom

“THE WISDOM OF THE WISE”

“There is no God” says the man on the street corner. But that is nothing new. As we look at history this statement has been repeated over and over again. The self-proclaimed wise men and the disputers want us to believe there is no God. With their educational credentials they take comfort among the intellectually elite who proudly proclaim with them that there is no God. They dare the God of heaven to strike them down. But they claim there is nothing to worry about because He is not there. They blaspheme His name, and ridicule those who believe in Him. Their view is that of the intelligent. They are the wise of the world. They don’t need God because they believe themselves to be self-sufficient. They are arrogant, they are foolish, and they are wrong.  God said, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:19, 20)

Those who have fallen for the wisdom of the world look askance at “Christians” who oppose immorality, etc. They call the Christians idea of morality old-fashioned. It is a more enlightened age, they say. We need to allow the homosexuals to get married and the lesbians to adopt children. Let’s fill the schools with curriculum supporting gays, so our children can explore their sexuality and learn to be tolerant. This, my friend, is the wisdom of the world and is what God has promised to destroy (1 Corinthians 1:19, 20).

Worldly wisdom

Educators, producers, media, press and liberals everywhere have given in to the modem tendency of rationalizing sin. Wickedness stemming from the philosophies of atheism, and evolution are considered to be okay. More than that, it should be accepted by all as normal behavior. Those who do not accept wickedness as normal behavior allowable by society are the ones who are wrong and should be punished. The wisdom of the world is setting up conditions in our nation for persecution of all who oppose liberalism. It is already happening in schools where children are punished for praying, or for carrying Bibles. God will one day destroy all this foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:19, 20).

The intellectuals tell us that the human child inside the mother’s womb is “fetus” and not a “person.” The feminists tell us that the helpless little baby inside his mother’s womb is a “choice” and not a human life. The liberal politicians give in to the bloodthirsty pro-choice groups in hopes of garnering more votes. The result is the slaughter of millions of innocent children all in the name of choice. The choice comes when the woman decides whether to engage in the physical act with a man. The wicked women of choice want to suggest that brutally and painfully killing that little baby is nothing more than “birth control.” They would have us believe it is nothing more than making choices concerning the health of their own bodies. It is murder and nothing short of it!  God will “DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE (1 Corinthians 1:19).”

Religion succumbs to worldly wisdom

And what of the denominations of men? They have given in to the foolish wisdom of men in doctrine. Furthermore, they are foolish for giving in to the influence of liberal culture. Denominations are accepting divorce for any cause, and homosexuality and lesbianism as normal and moral. Denominations are merging evolutionary thought and philosophy with their perverted view of God. They are giving in to culture. They are giving in to liberalism. They have failed to stand for what is right. God will destroy that kind of wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:19, 20).

Wickedness is wisdom to the world.  The Gospel is foolishness to the world.  And yet, it is actually the Gospel of Jesus Christ that preaches true wisdom.  Paul said, “FOR SINCE, IN THE WISDOM OF GOD, THE WORLD THROUGH WISDOM DID NOT KNOW GOD, IT PLEASED GOD THROUGH THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE MESSAGE PREACHED TO SAVE THOSE WHO BELIEVE (1 Corinthians 1:21).”  The wisdom of the world will come to nothing.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ will live forever.

Judge With Righteous Judgment

Use righteous judgment

In Genesis 1 we are told God made man in His image. Included would be the ability to reach a conclusion from observable evidences. The ability to reason manifests itself every time we make a judgment about a person or thing. Therefore, with this ability comes grave responsibility. It is such a serious a responsibility that there are admonitions in scripture warning us about how to judge.

A Warning

For instance, Jesus warns, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Jesus’ statement implies that mankind will make judgments from time to time.

The acceptability of an action or thing to God (is it righteous) is to be the basis of these judgments. Peter and John challenged the Sanhedrin of their day to judge if it was right to obey God rather than man (Acts 4:19). Paul asked the Corinthian brethren the rhetorical question, “Do you not judge those who are within the church?” (1 Corinthians 5:12). He then instructs Christians not to go to law against one another but to let brethren judge in any legal dispute that may arise (1 Corinthians 6:1-8). In 1 Corinthians 10:15 Paul continues by saying, “I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say.” Then he charges the brethren to judge whether it is proper for a Christian woman to pray to God unveiled (1 Corinthians 11:13). As we look to these many admonitions to “judge,” it is undeniable that men can and do, in fact must, make judgments. Therefore, those who would be righteous must judge with righteous judgment.

Wait until all evidence is in

When Jesus said that we are not to judge according to appearance, He was warning us not to make judgments before we have understood all the evidence. Paul makes this point concerning his own stewardship as an apostle of the Lord. In first Corinthians chapter four, he encourages them to accept him as a steward of the mysteries of God (vs. 1). He then says a steward must be found faithful (vs. 2). Next, he addresses the possibility man’s judgment can be faulty by saying, “But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord” (vvs. 3-4). Paul knew judgment without understanding could be faulty, hence his statement about man’s judgment. His own judgment of his stewardship did not justify (declare him righteous). Only the Lord can justify. The reason man’s judgment may be faulty is because of his propensity for prejudice (Proverbs 24:23).

Paul concludes the thought by saying, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (vs. 5). The way righteous judgments are made is by considering the evidence as Paul illustrates with the judgment of the Lord.

When Sorrow Turns to Self-Pity

By: Gary Henry

Sorrow brings about tears

“And Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me’” (Genesis 4:13-14).

All who live in this world will have to deal with sorrow.

It is inevitable. In an environment where sin is a reality, the temporal consequences of sin are unavoidable — and since sorrow is one of those consequences, we shall have to deal with it sooner or later. The only question is how we shall do so. It’s important to keep our sorrow from turning into what is called “the sorrow of the world” (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is the sorrow that wallows selfishly in its own misery. It does not confront sin in a godly way.

Two things are needed to keep our sorrow from turning into self-pity: reverence and gratitude. When we are passing through any bitterness of spirit, we must maintain a humble respect for the greatness of God as our Creator, and we must not cease to thank Him for all that is right, despite whatever has gone wrong. Even when the sun is shining, we find it challenging to be as reverent and as grateful as we ought to be. However, when the darkness closes in, keeping our thinking clear about God can seem so difficult that we despair. We give in to the “the sorrow of the world.”

Sorrow brings about failure

Failures of reverence and gratitude should be seen as failures of perspective. When pain focuses our attention on some small part of reality, we tend to lose touch with the larger truths. This is no trivial thing, however. If we refuse to acknowledge the whole truth about God, that refusal can cost us our souls (Romans 1:18-21). God is greater than our woes, and whatever the immediate cause for our sorrow, we simply can’t afford to forget the clear tokens of God’s greatness and goodness in the wider world.

Edmund Spenser wrote of the miserable fellow who finds himself “dying each day with inward wounds of Dolour’s dart.” The sorrow of the world is deadly because it indulges in self-justification. It fuels resentment and resistance to God. Like Cain, the self-pitying soul feels no genuine remorse for evil. He merely whines, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!”

The Biblical Worldview

What is your view of the world? Each person has a worldview. This implies these views are both personal and that there are many different worldviews. While they are conceivable and likeable, it does not mean that all worldviews are credible and rational. Because of this, worldviews contradict each other.

How do we define a worldview? It is the way in which we see the world and all things in it. It is the way we try to fit all things together as we interpret and judge reality. In other words, our worldview is how we make sense of the world in which we live.

The Biblical Worldview:

To understand the Bible and life, we must place it within the sphere of the biblical worldview. In 1 Corinthians 1:17-31, we find what might be considered God’s (biblical) worldview. And it gives us the answer to the clash of cultures. The theme of this text is God’s Wisdom vs. Man’s Wisdom. The Bible presents God’s worldview as the only authoritative one.

God’s Creation of Man:

To speak of God creating man “in His image” (Gen. 1:26) involves the totality of man—the moral, mental, emotional, physical, relational aspects of life, etc. (cf. Matt. 22:37-40). When God created man, He gave man various responsibilities which are all relational. First, God gave man the responsibility of dominion over the physical world and all things therein (Gen. 1:26-2:15). Second, God gave man the responsibility of honoring, obeying, and serving Him with promise of reward and punishment depending on our actions (Gen. 2:16-17). Third, God gave man the responsibility, of embracing the relationships, formed within the biblical worldview beginning with man’s relationship in the home and marriage which are foundational to society.

The Role of Man’s Free Will:

Responsibility implies free will; meaning man can choose to obey or choose to disobey God. The biblical worldview reveals the sad story of man exercising his free will resulting in sin. The result of man’s disobedience to God resulted in the first secular worldview. As Genesis 3 closes there exists two worldviews—God’s and man’s. As time progressed and man continued to reject God’s biblical worldview, man developed various competing and contradictory secular worldviews. These secular worldviews continue to compete and conflict with God’s biblical worldview. Some secular world views are:

  • Atheism: the philosophy that denies the existence of God. It is truly a belief of unbelief.
  • Agnosticism: the philosophy that enough evidence does not exist to know if God exists or does not exist; such as, God may exist, or God may not exist. We cannot determine which.
  • Darwinism: the philosophy that all things have their origin from the development of biological life resulting from a one-celled organism. In this development of life, to some Darwinian philosophers, man just happened to be the highest form of evolution which currently continues to work.
  • Determinism: the philosophy that all events, including human choices, are determined by previous causes.
  • Empiricism: the philosophy that all of man’s knowledge comes from his senses; therefore, we can only know things by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.
  • Existentialism: the philosophy that all truth is subjective and individualistic and is not universal, objective, and absolute.
  • Humanism: the philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively. Thus critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) are preferred over acceptance of dogma or superstition.

It is easy to understand why and how these secular worldviews conflict with God’s biblical worldview. Yet, we must always understand, God’s view is right!