Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Wednesday, October 06, 2010 12:02:30 PM
‘Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it’ [Colossians 2].
This article will address the final reason that Americans reject their spiritual heritage introduced in the article on the Origins of the Constitution...they suppress the truth revealed in Christ and exchange it for a lie; a lie that requires them to also suppress their reason...
The apostle warns the churches against any philosophy that is opposed to Christ.
We are complete in Christ for all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are revealed in Him. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in human flesh. It is not idolatry to worship the true God in spirit and truth as He is revealed in the Scriptures.
Why must the churches be warned against adding vain philosophy to the New Covenant gospel? Why are the first 4 commandments given to instruction on the right worship of God? We are natural born idolaters given to corrupting the right worship of God and ultimately establishing our own gods.
As Israel was prone to forsaking the God of their fathers, so the New Covenant Israel of God is plagued today with the same tendency. Being prone to discontent we expect more from God than He provides and therefore we invent new doctrine to cover our disapproval of God’s provision in Christ and His revelation.
Since Finney and Scofield the churches have been plagued with Dispensational Arminianism to the point that most Christians today think this is orthodox. We are quick to complain about the government school system indoctrinating our children into revisionist Western history, but will we not also admit that our churches have failed to educate the people of God in church history? What is called orthodox today was thought of as heresay in past generations.
In the days of Augustine the Pelagian and semi-Pelagian doctrines were declared contrary to sound doctrine. A return to Augustinianism was a primary motive of the Protestant Reformation. Now the Protestant churches have turned away from the Doctrines of Grace in favor of the semi-Pelagian doctrines called Arminianism. They have turned away from the first tablet of the Law adding to their worship things that God has not commanded. As a result they are no longer salt and light, but a reproach to the name of Christ.
So is it any wonder that Christ has removed His lampstand and given them over to the most gross of idolatries? The New Covenant church is called the pillar and ground of truth. So how is it that a so called church would accommodate macro-evolution under any other name? This vain philosophy undermines the concept of truth and law and therefore invalidates constitutionalism as understood by our founders.
The greatest enemy of liberty is not the Leftist but his view of origins that there is no God and that men are nothing but advanced apes in the impersonal cosmic machine. God’s revelation of origins in the book of Genesis is exchanged for the lies of autonomous wisdom to our own destruction. The ancient book of the Law gives us the promise of blessing and cursing dependent on our obedience to the Law. We have seen the days of blessing and the days of cursing are upon us.
“I brought you into a bountiful country,
To eat its fruit and its goodness.
But when you entered, you defiled My land
And made My heritage an abomination.
The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’
And those who handle the law did not know Me;
The rulers also transgressed against Me;
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
And walked after things that do not profit.
Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,” says the LORD…
“Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit.
Be astonished, O heavens, at this,
And be horribly afraid;
Be very desolate,” says the LORD.
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water” [Jeremiah 2].