Originally Posted By: canuckInOR
Originally Posted By: wfaulk
While I agree with much of what he's saying in the article, I find it hysterical that he seems to think that apostates are desperately searching for reasons to continue their apostasy. Maybe we just think that it's ridiculous.

Agreed. He got nailed on that in the comments, too.


This type of language is very typical around evangelical circles and something that irritates me to no end. Which is not to say that necessarily disagree with the underlying point, but it is stated in such a way as to be divisive and sound arrogant.

The idea here is that false belief (obviously, this "false belief" is in relation to what the Christian believes to be true) is ultimately caused by a heart not being correctly aligned with God. If all were perfectly and correctly aligned with God no one would be deceived- we would all agree on the truth. It is our continual seeking after self rather than God which causes false belief. The (I believe) correct notion is that a sinful heart will continue to seek untruth as a means of not dealing with the truth that convicts us of our sin.

Now having said all of that, as much as I agree with the principal, I think it is judgmental to attribute this cycle of untruth to someone specifically or to a group of people over a given issue. The thing is, while everyone (believer and non-believer) struggles with this, from the outside you do not know what is going on in someone's heart- if the motive is "truth avoidance", it is probably buried deep and talking about it will simply make you sound ignorant and judgmental. And worst case, YOU yourself are the one avoiding the truth and the other person is actually correct- you can't see it because you are too busy focusing on yourself and your own self-important ideas.

Basically, I don't like it when people judge motives (and plenty of non-Christians are quick to judge the motives of Christians just as easily and offensively)- in most cases you do NOT know what drives another person to take action. It's one thing to look at someone's action and be able to say if it is harmful, but quite another to judge the reasoning behind it. We are ALL laboring under a cloud of ignorance in some way or another, and grace recognizes that if you are in ignorance at this moment, I might be in the next. Better to discuss issues on a sure footing of what has been said and done rather than on a speculation of motives.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.