Thoughts of Another Traveler…

It has certainly been a while since I last shared a few “Thoughts of Another Traveler.”  Honestly, life has been a whirlwind for my family over the last several months.  Starting a completely new life journey at 52 years old has been exciting, exhausting, and exhilarating all at the same time.  Running in to a bit of fear and uncertainty can sure reignite your prayer life.  We are just so thankful to be walking in a place of spiritual peace.  I suppose this new season of peace is what inspired me to share again.

Over the last few months, I have been blessed to have been engaged in some intimate conversations with various friends and acquaintances in my circle of life.  Some with whom I share deep theological, Biblical, and philosophical world view belief systems, and some who hold to opposite ideologies.  I cherish these times and opportunities so much in my life.  I believe they are food for the soul and a charge of the spiritual battery.  These opportunities challenge our prayers, season our conversation, and provide connection with the Holy Spirit at the highest capacity.  Personally, these opportunities (because apparently, I am oftentimes outspoken, opinionated, and strong-willed) also lead to a ton of reflection and sincere prayer for God to continue to soften me, humble me, and allow Him to speak more than me.  I always need to work to curb my desire to win a debate versus bringing my heart to the table to truly listen to the hurt and questions that so frequent these conversations of late (And yes, I can visualize much head nodding of agreement from those who know me well).

For years, I have wrestled with accusations that the truths I hold dear are “Outdated” or not “Scientifically aligned” or simply “Blind faith” based systems of belief are no longer relevant.  I used to understand these challenges when used as criticisms by those with agnostic or atheistic leanings.  They did not sting, just stirred my resilience and passion to be prepared to always present a “reasonable defense” as admonished by the Apostle Peter in I Peter 3:15.  However, with the infiltration of progressivism into Christianity it began to sting a bit more.  Maybe I was missing something?  Maybe, within the confines of my education, spiritual experiences, and theology I was just actually closed minded and unrefined.  I recently read an edict written by one of the foremost leaders in the “Progressive Christian” faith movement.  He boldly proclaimed that it is now (pretty much) ridiculous not to understand that the Bible is nothing more than an archaic collection of notes, written by uneducated and unscientific scholars from a time completely disconnected from the truth we should be seeking today.  I suppose this is the new religious approach to the cultural war cry of becoming “woke.”  Maybe I am just a dumb hick, or maybe I am just that stubborn—this great theological discovery may be what is selling, but I am still not buying.   

By default, I tend to revert to my passion and years of study in the areas of Apologetics, Hermeneutics or Systematic Theology to attempt to share some bit of truth that would enlighten.  However, in a culture with several generations now so far removed from even a Sunday School level of Biblical understanding, this approach became futile more times than not.  Any failure to ultimately point to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and Life is eternally disheartening.  What may be even further disheartening for me is to watch the Church, the Body of Christ, struggle so painfully.  How did we come this far, this fast?  The Church spent the last thirty years working to sow seeds of relevance (or at best a half-cocked scheme to do so) and have succeeded in harvesting what may be the greatest level of anti-Christian world view and influence since the dark ages.  Frankly, to still believe that Genesis to Revelation not only tells the greatest story ever told, but is our guide to absolute, eternal truth in Jesus Christ is no longer just foolishness to those who do not believe (I Corinthians 1:17-19), it is just plain fiction to a growing majority. 

Ironically, of late, I have found myself more and more emboldened in referring often to a solid and firm Biblical belief system in the face of a culture that has all but abandoned such.  Why?  Because I simply believe it is becoming easier.  Becoming easier to:

• Hold to a belief system that has been all but cancelled as an intellectual option. 
• Share the “foolishness” of Christ with the love and boldness of our ancient brothers and sisters of the faith. 
• Proclaim that some archaic collection of writings called the Bible actually IS a miracle of absolute inspired truth that has weathered every attempt to dismantle it for thousands of years.   
• Hold fast to a belief that God’s moral laws, God’s ideal plan for the family, and God’s call to holiness, sexual purity, justice, accountability, and responsibility are not simply culturally relevant topics of debate—but eternal, unchangeable truths. 
• Claim that I believe in a God who created the universe, engaged with His creation, spoke through the prophets, came to the Earth as a man to redeem His creation, died on a cross, rose again, and will one day return to place a final blow of final defeat to His spiritual enemy and redeem with Grace those who believe.  

“Easier???”  “Are you crazy??” 

Yes, easier.  Maybe God in His ultimate wisdom is allowing one of the greatest “twists of fate” in history to unfold before our very eyes.  Just hear me out and follow foundational thinking of the current culture: 

• There is no absolute truth.  Every person finds their (or his/her depending on your preferred pronouns) own truth in the universe—in self-awareness, in education, in philosophy, in psychotherapy, or most likely just on the Internet.
• We now live in a culture where facts, history, and data are irrelevant to truth, and where an Individual’s perceived Truth does not last very long. Sometimes the narrative will not last even days or weeks, if it is contradicted by someone else’s truth, or brings some level of emotional hurt or “triggered” response from another.
• A truth or belief system does not have to have substantial backing from any source or context to be promoted as such—it only needs the backing of an emotional response that promises hope, provides pleasure, places blame arbitrarily, or removes consequences of action.

Be reminded of these foundational nuggets of truth (that we so often fail to recognize or teach effectively) injected from Genesis to Revelation

• God has a real, living spiritual enemy who has permission to attempt to influence the hearts and minds of those who are free to choose.
• That enemy’s preferred weapon is not Guns, or Drugs, or War, or Poverty…it is deceit.  Always has been, still is.
• Deceit that proclaims that we can be as smart as God and that what God says really is not true (Genesis 3).  Deceit that we can achieve God-like status with human unity and intelligence (Genesis 11).  Deceit that suffering and pain indicate God is not worthy of our trust and belief (Book of Job).  Deceit that we can achieve true power, wealth, and immortality in opposition to God (Matthew 4).
• ALWAYS acting as a “Wolf” in “Sheep” clothing (Matthew 7:15)—ultimate deceit at its finest.  

Here are some examples of what society (with great influence from our spiritual enemy) has promoted as acceptable belief systems or ideologies in our culture today:

It is acceptable to believe that this incredibly complex, intelligent, and defined universe evolved over millions of years from some type of single celled amoeba in a puddle, or some unexplained explosion in space which somehow produced life cells.  These single celled organisms somehow contained the capability to lead us to modern history where man topped the food chain and began to historically document the billions of years of what scientifically occurred when this Earth was void of men and the animals were not intelligent enough to write it all down.  Ultimately, the stars and single cell creatures aligned (by chance) bringing an awesome level of intelligent design and human intelligence which continues to evolve to levels capable of incredible discoveries in medicine, technology, and science.  All based on proposed theories and scientific thesis which were derived from men who somehow evolved from primates who pick up their own poo and throw it at people.  Proof of an evolution connection must exist in many of our beautiful cities in America today as humans have now de-evolved to similar behavior patterns.

It is acceptable to believe that somehow at this juncture in all of history, or at least since intelligent men walked and documented history, that suddenly we have become educated enough to realize that scientific identification of male and female in our species is no longer viable based on genetic facts or physical procreated capabilities.  In fact, this was quite possibly all along a lie introduced by our uneducated, archaic religious belief systems to control sexual freedom, constrict pleasure, and build empires based on white, Judeo-Christian evil.  Further proof exists because even the monkeys are still following the archaic path of good old-fashioned male and female monkey mating to further their species and build community.  We are so ready to evolve and move beyond such primitive behaviors.  Consequently, since we have now evolved enough to discover how fallacy laden our historical belief system has been, we should accept the fact that if we normalize this more evolved view of gender neutrality, we will in fact discover that a majority of the human race is actually mis-gendered and sexually confined.  Which in turn is a major reason that so many are living in hopelessness, gender oppression, and depression.  Ultimately, if we will begin our education and normalization efforts at the early childhood levels and encourage fantastic life-saving solutions such as hormone therapy and genital removal surgeries—we may just eventually evolve into a new society where we won’t need both the NBA and the WNBA, or men’s and women’s Olympics anymore.  Imaging the cost savings and profitability in sports in the future.  Oh, and pay no attention to that rising rate of suicide among transgender millennials, that result is only due to the remaining oppression and guilt of the Judeo-Christian belief system.

It is acceptable to believe that the Human race is not the final hierarchy of our evolutionary chain.  We are just several more multi-billion-dollar exploratory flights to Mars away from discovering that much higher evolved alien species exist in the universe.  We just have not figured out how to communicate with them yet.   In fact, more than likely, this more advanced race of intelligent beings could be the last remaining remnants of another civilization like ours.  And just like ours, these beings destroyed their planet and environment with greed, fossil fuels, and racism.  Thus, leaving those elite alien survivors to spend their existence searching for a new suitable planet with inhabitants not worthy of existence, and a goal of terminating non-worthy existing life to build a new suitable race to inhabit such planet.  More the reason we should seek to contact them, agree to eliminate our non-worthy, racist, greedy capitalist inhabitants and work together to build a new planet of vast intelligence, rainbows, and unicorns.  I do love Science Fiction…When enjoyed as entertainment.

It is acceptable to believe in a relatively new and incredibly intelligent world philosophy called Anti-Natalism.  This is essentially a belief system where all created beings should exist for two reasons—pleasure and happiness—with the absence of all pain and suffering.  Subsequently, the world we live in is destroying the climate, filled with hate and war, over-populated, and hopeless.  Since these things are true, it is considered “Immoral” to pro-create any new life on this existing planet.  The archaic ideas of the family unit, raising children, and generational extension are not just optional—they are morally and ethically corrupt in this world view.    Within this world view, this current generation may be last generation and our job is to cure all diseases, repair and purify the planet, live in peace, and seek ultimate pleasure and happiness.  Ultimately, as this becomes the normal and legally enforced world view, a new civilization can rise from the ashes and pro-create.  Side note—if you think this is far-fetched fantasy, then you should do some in depth study right now on this topic and understand how deeply tied this world view is to cultural views on abortion, gender identity, and extreme climate change theory. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinatalism )

It is now acceptable to believe that something as abhorrible as placing a tool of destruction into a woman’s womb, tearing apart a conceived human life, and consequently normalizing this to the extent of calling it “healthcare” is commonplace.  In the history of the universe, this very act was viewed as an abomination only accepted in pagan and cannibalistic cultures.  Ironically, we have succeeded in eliminating the science from this belief system, and essentially acknowledged that (in 99% of all cases) this is nothing more than a right to genocide and a safety net under the promotion of sexual immorality as a norm.  Additionally, it is a non-justifiable result of the displacement of the historical, scientific, and cultural norm of the family—one man, one woman committed for life enjoying not only the pleasures of the sexual experience, but the responsibilities of the miracle of procreation.  And do not make it Political with me.  I did not throw a celebration party at the recent decision by SCOTUS.  You want to politically push for it, fine.  You want to believe it to defend modern “Women’s rights” go right ahead.  I do not even feel compelled to participate in the political or legal debates on this topic.  But do not attempt to justify or codify this in any way with theological truth.  You want to call it a “right to choose” and demand it.  Guess what, I agree with your right to choose.  Nothing greater than the gift God gave to men and women to choose good or evil.  I also agree that God gave that perverted priest or sick pastor the right to choose to commit unspeakable acts of evil against children already born, or that God gave some horrible distraught, evil, confused, or demon possessed person the right to choose to take a gun and shoot up a school full of innocent children.  Sure as hell does not make it right, and no matter what justification is used, God is certainly not smiling down approving of it.  (Whew, I probably just lost a few readers and created some haters here!).

It is acceptable to believe that what we have learned from historically failed systems of government, collapsed civilizations, and failed attempts of a unified, perfect global existence with total equality and equity of life, values, norms, and belief systems—is of absolutely no importance or consequence to us today.  You must believe that we have evolved into much smarter, higher educated, and more intelligent beings in the last hundred years.  Furthermore, if archaic, restrictive religious belief systems (like Christianity) would just disappear from existence, society would fix itself with a much more evolved form of government and accepted world view.  Combine this with our incredible advances in technology and artificial intelligence and we are only a humanistic paradigm change away from a new world order.  Think this is the lofty view of a few radical crazy people?  Think again.  Just Google the term “Technosocialism” and be exposed to the human arrogance that believes technology and AI are the new path to solving the world’s problems.  Sure, it is perfectly logical to believe that the solution is to put more cell phones in the hands of people and suck our society deeper into the cesspool of fantasy life. Life spent behind a computer screen with fake personalities and increased loss of real relationships.  While we are at it, let us expose more kids to constant entertainment, relentless indoctrination of insanity, and instant pornography and visual evils that just two decades ago were only obtainable in the most limited evil places of secrecy.  Regardless, if I have the opportunity to become a social media influencer, and I can have Artificial intelligence to help me manage my financial portfolio, and I can order my meals and groceries to be delivered to my front door by a drone…I should believe all people will begin to love each other, gravitate toward peace and all will be better in the long run.  Hold right here, I need to make me a TikTok right now.

I could keep going…but I will refrain due to enough background to make my final point.  These belief systems are or are becoming the accepted paradigm and world view of our time.  Seriously, you want to point a finger to my Biblical world view and label it as fantasy?  I believe I am no longer willing to be even slightly intimidated by what I believe is Truth.  It might be old news and naïve to believe the writings of the Old Testament are historical events, but holy smoke, is it any more fantastical than some of the above?  I am always reminded that before his death Charles Darwin recounted nearly every single one of his theories of evolution, promoted a new faith in God, asked for forgiveness.  I am further reminded that none of the disciples or early followers of Christ recounted or denied any of their faith, even when facing execution by horrific methods.  We have a ton of critics out there just ready to destroy any theologian, pastor, or educator that would dare promote a Biblical world view.  We are the dinosaurs.  The last remnants and obstacles restricting progress and the advancement of the human race.  At least that is what several generations have been led to believe.  My retort to this is a challenge for any logical person to just take a day long viewing/reading excursion on social media or YouTube on any of the above topics.   And they call me crazy??  It is quite literally becoming laughable what people will promote and believe while simultaneously arguing that the Bible is nothing more than a book of mythical proportion.  If believing any of the above is advancing the Human race, then brother I need an entire new lifetime of education, faith, common sense, logic, and history…I suppose I need a total transfusion of my limited ability to critically think and believe.  We are not advancing much of anything positive in our current state of “wokeness”!  If you have not noticed, things are not getting better.  Funny how Jesus predicted this.  (Matthew 24)

I promote the following stance and statement moving forward.  It takes a hell of a lot less faith to believe in God, the Bible, and a theologically sound Christian world view than it does to proclaim as truth some of the epic fantasy belief systems designed to replace it. Frankly, I do not even feel the need to implore history, fact, archeology, or apologetics in order to stand on an even intellectual or scientific platform with most who oppose a Christian or Biblical worldview.  Opposing views being promoted as the alternative are so far removed from anything historical, factual, intellectual, or scientific that they literally cannibalize themselves over time. 

Furthermore, we now live in an age where another’s truth is no more acceptable or real than my truth anyway.  This is by default a circular philosophical ideology.  It is also advantageous and ripe for destruction.  How can anyone proclaim that my truth is not truth, or that my truth has no credibility, while providing alternative belief systems with (at best) an even scale of weighted significance.  Wait a minute…the only rule is that my truth cannot offend someone or cause someone to “Trigger”.  I forgot that Christianity is offensive at its very baseline with an actual belief in good and evil, and Jesus own self-promotion that HE actually is THE TRUTH.   Jesus also predicted that His Truth would be divisive by nature (Luke 12:49-53). I promote that the proposed acceptable truths of our culture should be objectively offensive to any person who still has one iota of logic, history, fact, reasoning, and ability to critically think.  Promoting theoretical non-sense in the name of intellectualism is the one thing that actually does “Trigger” me.  So, apples to apples, I will stand firm in theological truth based on the Scriptures and Jesus. 

• I do not want to hear about the crusades, and evils done in the name of Christianity.  I already know and understand the historical fallacies of world dominion in the name of God.  The Bible and history are full of stories of people committing evil in the name of God.  God corrects and judges them consistently.
• I do not want to hear about perverted priests and immoral, greedy evangelical pastors.  Everyone with a grain of intelligence and solid faith abhors evils committed under the guise of God’s anointed.  The Bible is full of stories of leaders who fall and sin against fellow men.  God corrects, judges, and restores within His wisdom and grace. 
• Do not point out pain and suffering, natural disasters, and horrific events of criminal intent as reasons why a Biblical worldview does not work.  The Bible is full of heroes of faith who suffered, were a victim of evil, were victims of injustice, slavery, and even death.  In fact, Christianity at its core was implemented on the backs of suffering victims who never lost faith in the fact that God was just, fair, and eternally to be trusted.  Nothing in my faith or belief system contradicts the fact that we live in a world with evil, suffering, pain, and injustice.  It is not our job to deny it; rather, it is our calling to heal, bring hope and peace through it, and rely on our Faith in eternal justice and perfection.
• Do not attempt to stump me with evidence that the Bible does not perfectly line up with science. (I especially enjoy debating the famous gotcha that the Bible does not account for Dinosaurs or cave men.)  Please, I grow weary of trying to fill gaps of non-detail in the scripture when people will accept chasms of garbage scientific theory as absolute truth.  The fantasy theories promoted by most of today’s science makes believing in an actual flood where Noah built an ark seem like logical common sense.  (wrote a previous blog on this topic several months ago if you are interested:  https://thoughtsofanothertraveler.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/a-few-thoughts-on-science-and-bias )

I am tired of feeling like the condemned archaic and naïve worldview of Christianity needs to be on the defensive.  And I firmly believe that the farther away from the Biblical worldview that our educators, philosophers, politicians, and theologians move…we will see greater levels of fantastical ideals and belief systems promoted.  Which returns me to my original point.  I believe it is actually becoming easier.    Easier to say that I logically believe in a God who created the universe.  A God who literally inspired and spoke to his assigned leaders to document it all and write it down in a book for eternity.  A God who embodies goodness, holiness, and who defines what is good and what is evil.  A God who gave men the ability to choose to do good and evil, and understood they would make bad choices and need correction and forgiveness.  A God who simultaneously rejoices and rewards when men choose His ways.  A God who loved His creation and so longed for an eternal relationship that he redeemed them Himself by coming to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ—dying on the cross, rising from the dead, and ascending into Heaven.   A God who determines in HIS time the fate of the Earth, the end of time, and the perfect judgement of every person.  

Yes, I have studied it, evaluated it, compared it, deconstructed it, and even tried to shun it.  But despite suffering, pain, weakness, sin, and a ton of questions that may not be answered until eternity—I believe it.  And compared to the belief norms of our time that have been and are being presented as alternatives?  I think I am in the safe zone.  These do not offer hope for the hopeless.  These do not provide a reason for existence or a purpose for living.   These do not account for where I come from or where I am going.  These do no provide strength and endurance to survive pain, loss, injustice, and death which are inevitable.  So instead of cowing to intellectual alternatives, or a woke, watered down version of the original…Please forgive me if I would rather proclaim the belief that I might turn into the Terminator one day and be sent back in time to father myself with a strange woman. 

Ultimately, I have experienced God.  I speak with him.  I know Him through His son Jesus and the gift of His Holy Spirit living in me.  God did not push His agenda on me.  Nor did any other manipulating parent, pastor, or Church.  God said, “Knock, and the door will be opened!”  God said, “Seek, and you will find!”  God said, “Seek me with all your heart, and you will find me!”  I did my due diligence.  I knocked.  I searched.  I found. 

I know a lot of doubters and naysayers when it comes to the Bible.  They research all the alternatives to Christianity.  They listen to and read the works of the philosophers and educators who have determined that there is no God (or at least believe we cannot prove it).  They study only the science that attempts to discount faith at every turn.  They give little credence to (or have never even bothered to read or study) highly intellectual and educated Scientists, Philosophers, Archeologists, and Professors who still align with a Biblical and Christian world view.  They are determined to trust in men, governments, and technology as their eternal hope.  They will also consistently admit that they have never spent time searching out God’s truth.  You find what you seek.  You go through the doors of your choosing.  And each of us personally determines where to find truth.

Do you know what? I used to get angry, defensive, and righteously indignant at the levels of human arrogance it takes to still believe we can outsmart God and His eternal Truth.  The conversations I have had in recent months just leave me broken-hearted and hurting.  Parents whose children have made life altering, irreversible decisions based on the lies and deception of current world views.  People who are sensing or becoming victims of unprecedented levels of hopelessness across our country and globe which leads people to pursue addiction, violence, crime, and a total disregard for life, authority, or truth of any sort.  Encounters with so many who have abandoned the church and their faith because they just cannot seem to align it with every new cultural belief system or scientific thesis being promoted in our universities, media, and political ideology machine.  They feel tremendous pressure to be viewed as intelligent, educated, and woke.  Numerous conversations with proclaimed believers who would rather place their faith in a political figure or a political ideology (BOTH sides of the aisle!) rather than dig deeper, knock more, and seek with more of their heart the eternal truth God has eternally put in front of them.  And a few conversations like the Apostle Paul had with Governor Felix in Acts 24.  Although “well acquainted” with the Gospel, Paul’s teaching scared Felix.  His ultimate choice was that it was just not a “convenient” time for him to believe (Acts 24:25). 

I long for these conversations.  I long to listen, empathize, and feel the hurt and confusion. I am trying to peel back the desire to debate and defend.  I am praying for strength to speak in love and lift up Jesus first.  However, I am going to continue to speak with a boldness and confidence that comes from an assurance of the truth.  I am no longer going to feel obliged to back up my belief system or faith story with some long series of facts, apologetics, and historical references in order to establish credibility. 

“Well Brian, how can you prove and know that the Bible is true, and God is real?”

“Well how can you prove to me that the Earth is billions of years old, and how we actually evolved from a monkey (by way of an amoeba) with not one evidential fact of macro evolution ever being discovered—only theorized.  And how is it that the human race only recently discovered after all this time that Males and Females are just a figment of our imagination?  Or why I should believe that Aliens are out there and coming to take over.  And while we are proving out theories, prove that the same climate change patterns we see today did not rotate exactly the same one thousand years ago, we just failed to log them in our computer at that time?”

I will not judge your right to believe in any of the above.  Heck, I will not even deny that any of the above “could” possibly be true…But if my God, the creator of the universe and the Bible needs 100% authoritative proof, then let’s level the playing field.  You tell your story.  I will continue to tell mine.  I will stick with an “Outdated” “Non-Scientific” and “Blind” faith…Believing that the God of the Universe loves me, forgives me, has a plan for my life, and in the end has an eternal home for my soul…Oh, and yes, because the Bible is true, and it tells me so!

The more desperate our world becomes at promoting feel good answers and scientific theories as failing attempts to cure what destroys us, the more fantastical the theories will become.  The further away from God and a Christian world view that people move, the easier it is for our spiritual enemy to deceive.  People we need the revival of an old generation and the confidence of the young generation to stop being intimidated by the pull of cultural relativism and deceit of the enemy.  Stand strong.  Dig in your feet.  Take the criticisms and name calling on the chin.  Noah did when he pointed to the Ark as God’s offering of salvation (Genesis 6; Matthew 24:37-39).  Moses did when he lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness. (Numbers 21; John 3:14-17) Jesus did when he was lifted up on a cross and pointed to Himself as God’s promise of salvation (John 12:32).  The apostles did to the point of prison, persecution, and death.  Believers all over the world do today in spite of persecution and death.  Lift up and proclaim the Way, the Truth, and the Life with boldness.  Frankly, if we remain steadfast and faithful, pretty soon the Christian Biblical worldview may just return to a rightful state as the most logical, factual belief system out there!  Wouldn’t that just be a beautiful twist of fate authored by our very creator!

  ¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:  “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”   ²⁰ Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  I Corinthians 1: 18-25