Be Ye Separate From The World

And what agreement has the temple of God

With idols? For you are the temple of the

Living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them

and walk among them.

I will be their God,

And they shall be my people.”

Therefore

“Come out from among them and be

separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean,

And I will receive you.

I will be a Father to you,

And you shall be My sons and daughters,

Says the LORD Almighty.”

2Corinthians 6:16–18

            Nothing could be plainer than those words of the apostle Paul under inspiration from the Holy Spirit: we are the temples of the living God, the ones called out from among this world. We are not to mix what this world has to offer with the truth of God’s word. When this emulsifying of man’s ideologies, their self–formed theologies with the truth then this mixture become brackish, not good for man to live by, although many attempt to make what is sour and no good to be good. God has called us out from this world and we have to do the cleansing, we must be intentional to live as what we are, temples of God: “Therefore, having these promise, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Corinthians 7:1). God will not do the work of cleansing for us, we must do the work. The Holy Spirit will aid us in our efforts to change from the inside out, to be what God sees us to be, temples in which He dwells, we are to be Authentic Biblical Christians. Our priorities are set in order with God as the first priority of our lives, therefore we choose to be separate from this world, a world that is temporary and to live according to the promise of God that we will live eternally. Let us live now, in the present age, in all the circumstances that this life can throw at us, knowing that “this world is not our home we are just passing through our treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue” (To quote an old hymn).  When we allow the ideologies, the philosophies, and theologies, of men who are not converted to Jesus Christ, who are not the temples of God, who teach falseness as if it were truth, and we accept such teachings then once again we have done what has been commanded for us: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness” (2Corithians 6:14). How do we know when this blending of false with truth occurs? It is be learning, by educating ourselves of those teachings of men and compare what they teach with the infallible, the inerrant word of God. This in some part is what I will strive to do using the more infamous men who have and are affecting the world and the Church of God.

            The first of those who have influenced society and are still in this present age influencing the thinking and beliefs of many is Plato (c. 427 – 347 B.C.). A student of Socrates (c. 469 BC – 399 BC) who is distinguished as being the founder of Western philosophy Plato from Socrates teachings that made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology, a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge (Webster’s Dictionary, 1997), and logic, a system of principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge or study (Webster’s Dictionary, 1997), and the influence of Plato, his ideas, and approach to these areas of philosophy and study remain strong inasmuch as they provide a foundation for much of our Western philosophy. When it come to religion, God, we will find that Plato does advocate a belief in the immortality of the soul, and in his speeches you will find that he imagines an afterlife. There is a problem with those views of Plato inasmuch as his views of God. Plato did not talk of “God”, that is God with a capital G. Plato has no existence for such as God, capital G, and in ancient Greek literature this is not to be found either because God is not the name of a person, rather is a  common noun. Plato speaks in a plurality of ‘the gods” (hoi theoi), or “the god (ho theos), and speaks of god(s) as we would speak with the word “man,” using the word as a generic name. Plato does use (to theion), meaning the divine. What is to be found in Plato is not “God,” but a “demiourgos,” literally translated in Greek it means creator, but etymologically demiourgos means a worker, one who works for the demos, that is for the people. From demiourgos used as creator the Gnostics used the word demiurge, a god among gods. Furthermore the demiourgos is determined to be immortal by nature and works from a model and deals with necessity. The demiourgos is not a maker of a place, that is a creator, yet is the maker of time, a moving image of eternity, and of lower gods, that are only immortal by his will. Plato explains that these gods are representative of the immortal living creatures that are needed in the world. They are makers of man as being the ‘host” of a divine soul, (the logos) handed to them by the demiourgos. Plato often refers, though, that the world is “god,” endowed with a soul.

            Much could be written in regards to the life and teachings of Plato, but I have attempted to give a few of his basic philosophy. When Alexander the Great captured Egypt, Syria, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, and parts of India, he did all that he could to change the cultures of those lands into a Greek culture, Greek became the norm and the most influential philosophy that was taught in the schools. Now for the Israelites, school, not as we know school, was done in the homes, and in synagogues for those who were becoming religious leaders. In the homes only Jehovah God was taught as was the custom and for the Israelites it was the dispensing of those facts exactly as they were taught that those being taught knew of the Creator, and only God of the universe. In the schools, though, there were men who succumbed to the Grecian influence and added that influence in their teaching causing the students to learn other philosophies that were a contradiction to the true God who had saved them from their own evils. Form these synagogue schools came division of thought, one such thought was that of the Sadducees, another of the Pharisees, and of the Zealots.

            In the next blog I will discuss how this Grecian thought influenced the Israelites and how the influence of Plato influenced the thinking of the early Church, into the medieval times, and how the Reformation was a return to Scripture and an avoidance from such teaching as that of Plato. I will further explain the influence of Aristotle in upcoming blogs who was a student of Plato and how he had a might influence on Christianity and has had a huge influence on our present day as did Plato. Remember, to know the problem is to find the solution. Did Plato, and Aristotle, have a negative influence on Christianity? How does their philosophies affect you, your Church, or does it? This is slow going, but important as we seek to follow our God, our Savior, and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us so that we are separate from the world because we follow the true creator and God of this world. We may not be popular with the world, some of our friends, and even relatives, but we will know that what we hold as the doctrines of Scripture are the truth and are our guide, not some man’s philosophical opinions.

A man who wanders from the

            Way of understanding

Will rest in the assembly

            Of the dead.

                        Proverbs 21:18

This is a time of Thanksgiving: Give thanks to God

Richard L. Crumb