A wicked and
adulterous generation
Seeks after a sign,
and no sign
Shall be given to it
except
The sign of the
prophet Jonah…
Matthew 16:4 (cf.
Matthew 12:39)
Then Jesus said to
them, “Take heed
And beware of the
leaven of the
Pharisees and the
Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:4
Today we
have “Christians” running to and fro looking for signs and wonders as if they
can find Jesus there; this they do by following all schemes and false
theologies. When they find such as those who teach that this is what they need
and there they can find God, they find that this search has led them to a piety
that may make them feel pious, and even Godly, and only when they read the
Scriptures find they have been misled. That is of course, if they actually are
truly seeking God and believe in all Scripture being inspired of God. If not
then they will continue to follow after these lost shepherds. Jesus warned to
beware of such as those pious and seemingly godly men, the Pharisees, and the
Sadducees, that seemed to have the truth. Jesus will allow this false teaching
for only so long then he will act as He did by causing the Great Flood
destroying all except Noah and his family. False leaders are abundant, as we
can see from the ancient of men who taught about this world and god(s) but did
not have the truth. The truth they purposed was by means of their own thinking
and not of God and Jesus said: But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which
My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are
blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall
into the ditch’” (Matthew 15:13–14). Does this mean we are not to study and
come to understand who are the false teachers and how that which they teach is
affecting Authentic Biblical Faith? No! Yet, if they desire to continue in
their falseness, then let them, we are to teach those who are truly seeking the
truth, those led by God and being drawn to Him. The question for us is: “Are we
being drawn to know the truth and when we come to know the difference between
false and truth, we will stand and change to become Authentic Biblical
Christians?” God has His permissive will but don’t be misled by this, for God
will allow man to be man, and will in His time, as He did at the Great Flood,
take action against man and against sin. This He did at the cross whereby
Jesus’ death and resurrection destroyed sin at its base. Now in time when all
is fulfilled God will act to completely destroy this world and establish a new
world, a place where His new creatures will live and a place where there will
be no sin, no way in which man will be led away from the True God, His Son, and
be led in completeness by the Holy Spirit. Until that time we need to search
ourselves and make sure that we are not being misled and if so, we make the
needed change. This is why we are looking at the past and seeing if any false
teaching has affected us, our brothers and sisters in Christ. If so, we make
the change. If we forget or neglect the past then the present has no foundation
and man is left to his own devises. Any perusal of history will admit that when
man is left to his own devises there is much atrocity. May God find us to be a
good and faithful servant.
I have
written about the philosophers of ancient Greece, men such as Plato and
Socrates, and mentioned Aristotle, who I will elaborate on in future blogs, but
I would be neglect if I didn’t mention the climate, political, and secular that
was occurring simultaneously. War was a major part of the world of the Greeks,
as well as in other parts of the world. At times the Greeks fought against the
Persians, and the Egyptians, and others beginning possibly, according to Homer
in the Illiad, the Trojan War
(1194–1184 B.C.). There are so many that I will only list a few that I believe
will give you a sense of the world in which the philosophers may have been
influenced in their attempt to find answers. The First Messenian war, between
Messenia and Sparta (743 B.C.–724 B.C.) resulting in a Spartan victory whereby
Messenia was depopulated by migration of the Achaeans to other states.
Depopulation was not unknown in the world for Israel was depopulated by the
Assyrians, and Babylonians and Israel was populated by other people. Not all
Jews were removed, only the more affluent and leaders, often leaving behind the
poor. This was true with this Grecian war for some did not emigrate and became
serfs, helots, those who were bound to the land and were owned by the state.
Many years later their descendants, held in hereditary subjection, were needed
by the Spartan state for defense. Then began the Greek–Punic Wars (600 B.C.-207
B.C.), an era that produced Thales (624 B.C.–546 B.C.) who as a pre–Socratic
Greek philosopher form Miletus was considered by Aristotle to be the first
philosopher in the Greek tradition and even Bertand Russell considered him
thusly: “Western philosophy begins with Thales.”[1]
Persian invaded Greece (492 B.C.-490 B.C.), and again (480 B.C.–479 B.C.), with
the Greeks counter–attacking (479 B.C.–478 B.C.). In 460 B.C. extending to 445
B.C. the First Peloponnesian War was fought between Sparta and Athens. Sparta
defeated the Athenian army at Tangagra, but the Athenians were victorious over
the Boeotians and by this consolidated their position, only to be defeated by
the Persians in Egypt (454 B.C.), causing them to become aligned with Sparta.
Many battles were fought between the Greek cities, and with Persia who were the
power at large in the world after defeating the Babylonians (546 B.C.) and
releasing the Jews to be able to return to Israel where the rebuilt Jerusalem
and the temple. Macedonia became ruled by King Philip II (359 B.C.–336 B.C.)
who was the father to Alexander the Great and had become a great military
leader. Philip II married Cleopatra who was the mother of Alexander the Great.
Philip II began an invasion of Persia but was killed in battle. It was
Alexander the Great who defeated the Persians and extended the Greek empire as
far as to India. Under Phillip II the city/states of Greece became united, and
with Alexander the Great Greek influenced the world.
This
history lesson is not to bore you with these facts but to help you see that
these philosophies that are influencing us today began in a world so different
from ours inasmuch that there were city/states, and other nations were
conquering, or attempting to conquer the world. This world produced not only
philosophers but a people seeking answers and the philosophers were attempting
to give them answers. At this time the Jews were being affected by the armies
that would tramp through Israel and their way to fight a battle. No one was
left untouched. The Jews though had God’s word about the coming of Shiloh, the
Messiah and this hope held them together in the face of much tribulation. But
they had various understandings and several paths that were taken to understand
who this Messiah was to be, how he would come, and what he would do for them in
such a troubled world. Are you getting the sense of the world, the people, and
the conditions? With all these battles, and wars, there is one thing that we
can see even from the wars of our “modern” world; at the conclusion of a war
the people’s morals decline. The door is swung open for philosophies, and
theologies, that are not Scriptural. I will attempt to bring all these events
to a conclusion but there is one more people who influenced the ancient world
and have influenced us today.
God is Spirit, and those who
Worship Him
must
Worship in spirit and truth.
John 3:24
Read God’s Word and Pray!
Richard L. Crumb
[1]
Russell, Bertrand (1945). The History of Western
Philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales#cite_note-2;
12/17/2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment