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The Battle For The Soul of Man: Passivity, The Will of Man And The Will of God

Law of Sin and death

Passivity, The Will of Man And The Will of God

Credulity Interfering With Faith For Sanctification In Everyday Christian Living

Passivity & Credulity As Ready Vehicles For Oppression

Applying Jesus Finished Work In Dividing Soul and Spirit

Credulity Interfering With Faith For Sanctification In Everyday Christian Living

 

It is very much possible to believe that God exist, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three persons in one God, that God created the world, that Jesus was born of a virgin, was crucified, died and was buried, that He rose again the third day and that He would come again to judge the world: But by the fruit of that person’s life, It can show clearly  that he or she is not trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

The signs for this could be:

Not being able to repent of sins and seeking to ‘do good works out of a love for God’.

Having a kind of faith, but not possess saving faith.

Believing in the existence of God while living life according to own reasons, desires, and fears.

At the root of all this is wrong foundation when it comes to perception or understanding of what salvation is. This in most part is as a result of wrong presentation of what the real Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is which sets the tone for a credulous ‘Christian’ race – “Bred To Be Led”

 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3)

This is the after effect of careless and hopeless credulity that characterises our modern day Christianity. It is the sin of believing in something that one should not believe in. As human beings we are created in the image of God, the One who is the truth.

A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. (Proverbs 17:4)

We are to live our lives by what is true. What should be expected are catastrophic results when fundamental principles are destroyed.

The fact that God sanctifies by giving more faith, makes it imperative for us to daily seek for more faith to become more holy.  Holiness grows with faith, and faith, as a gift of God, arises from hearing the Word of God while also ignoring the world, the flesh and the devil, which all bid us to doubt God by focusing on negative circumstances.

When it comes to sanctification, our faith plays out in a two-fold movement: downward, We cease to trust in our ability to improve ourselves; upward, we put our trust in Jesus for the also a measure of the spiritual authority God puts at our disposal, which is also commensurate with the level of our spiritual maturity. Worldly maturity connotes the level of being independent of anyone; but spiritual maturity is the:

LEVEL OF OUR TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE DEPENDENCE ON GOD

I know that You can do all things, and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted. (Job 42:2)

In our world today, where new and more complicated problems seem to emanate from man’s dealings with others and even more disturbing, man’s dealing with himself. An age when man have now decided to create a culture of ‘managing his problems’ instead of seeking a solution. All kinds of ‘programmes’ are proffered to solve these problems but the real intensions of proffering this solution is the lust for money and fame – “For the love of money is the root of all evil”. Man keep going round and round in circles but no solution.

The quest to find solutions to these problems, especially in society where you have high levels of poverty have made people caught up in the web of these programmes to be conditioned to ever remain credulous.

A “new man” begins in us if we have exercised faith in Jesus Christ and repented. God’s solution is to end the curse of Adam and to release within us the power of a new life, the life of Jesus himself. But:

Man is a credulous animal and must believe something. In the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones – Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Credulity as:

“Readiness or willingness to believe especially on slight or uncertain evidence.”

The Bible defines faith as:

 “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1)

The question now is how this promise to release within us the power of a new life, the life of Jesus himself is delivered to the believer without being sold a dummy?

Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? (Luke 12:57)

We are therefore, not to be gullible or foolish in what we accept as true. In fact, we do not have the right to believe in anything until there is sufficient evidence to establish it as true, and then we are only to believe it insofar as the evidence proves it

The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. (Proverbs 14:15)

The Christian is to respond to and accept the voice of truth. We are commanded to “test the spirits,” To neglect to examine things for their truthfulness and to live by make-believe or falsehood will most definitely lead to false hopes here on earth and more devastatingly, false hope of making heaven.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

However, once something is proven to be true, to not believe it is to commit the sin of unbelief. Thus, to not believe in Christ’s resurrection, which is proven to be true by the credible testimony of Scripture and history, is sinful.

One should be very careful because on the opposite end of the spectrum to credulity are:

Heresy: is to believe in false doctrines that strike at the fundamentals of the Christian faith, or else to deny true doctrines that are essential to Christianity.

Misbelief: This to believe in falsehood that, while it does not rise to the level of heresy, it is still sinful to believe it.  If we were careful to only believe in things insofar as they show themselves to be true, we would never commit the sin of misbelief.

Distrust: Like all of the other kinds of faith mentioned in this list, has to do with distrusting God, whom we should always trust. It is not a sin to distrust in someone or something who shows him or itself to be dis-trustworthy

Despair: While it may be right at times to despair of a certain event coming to pass, it is never right to despair in terms of who God is or what He has done or said He will do.

Heavenly Father, that You quicken us with Your presence like never before; that we may continually be empowered to actively seek the purification our motives and conscience. (Hebrews 9:13, 14)

Heavenly Father, that You quicken us to rejoice evermore; Pray without ceasing and in every thing give thanks: for this is Your will in Christ Jesus concerning us. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)