It is our job to be discerning and to be able to divide truth and error.  We know as Christians that we hold truth claims up to the Word of God, but are there other ways that God has given us to discern truth and error since you will not be able to evaluate all truth claims this way?

There are a couple of other ways in which we can evaluate a worldview.  The first method is to see if the worldview is internally consistent or inconsistent.  That is, does it make truth claims that contradict each other which the worldview claims are both true?  This presumes the Laws of Logic that we have already discussed are in place as we are asking if the worldview passes the test of the Law of Non-Contradiction.  If it cannot pass this test, then the one holding the worldview must explain how the apparent contradiction is not a contradiction before we proceed. I give a little grace here instead of saying you must outright reject the worldview immediately because there are many that believe that the Bible has these kinds of contradictions in them, and I would prefer they ask about them and give me the chance to explain how the Bible is coherent and does not contradict itself.  If I want that from others, then I should be willing to give them the same opportunities.  We also want to be careful about any claims that are made which by nature are not falsifiable as truth claims should be able to be held up to scrutiny and tested to be proven true or false for the purposes of the evaluations we are talking about (not everything a person believes will be able to be tested as there are axioms that are at a low level of what people believe that they believe without any proof or evidence because they are necessary for building the foundation of their worldview.  We have talked about the issue of axioms in other articles, and they can be held up to the next test).

We then need to ask if the truth claims of the worldview comport with reality as we know it.  Things that are true should comport with other things that we know to be true.  That is that if we know something is straight and level if we measure it against something else that is known to be straight and level.  This is especially helpful with axioms and other things that we can't falsify with the first test, but which we know do not comport with reality.  For instance, the statement "Man is inherently good" (born good) is not something we can put in a test tube to try to falsify it, but we can nevertheless see that it does not comport with reality as we don't have to teach children to be bad--we have to use discipline to teach them to not be bad and to be good.  There is a difference between their innocence and their goodness when they are born.  

The last test that we can look at is similar to the second but different in that it holds the life of the person making the claims up against the claims they are making.  If a person truly believes something, they should live according to that truth.  If their lifestyle denies that truth, then perhaps we should believe the way they live and not the words that write or speak.  This is the biggest argument against Christians as we say many things on Sunday morning that we don't live in the workplace and marketplace and at home.  Many of us live lives that are walking, talking contradictions to the statements of faith that we ascribe to, but that really doesn't invalidate the statement of faith as much as it invalidates us calling ourselves disciples of Christ.  I'd be careful about changing my life to comport to a worldview that someone who claims to be a "true believer" was not willing to change their lives to comport with.

I encourage you all to test yourselves using these tests.  Hold yourself first up to the Word of God (and use it to ask these questions of yourself).  Do you say you believe things that are in direct contradiction with the Word of God?  Can you truly say that the Bible best explains what you see going on in the world around you?  Can you say that you obey the Bible in a way that shows that believe it to be true and others should take what it says seriously?  This last one is hard because we are called to live a life of suffering and persecution.  How we deal with that will tell everyone much about what we really believe.  Jesus said those that would recant and deny Him before people on Earth do not belong to Him and He will deny them before His Father in heaven when the final judgment comes.  Let us evaluate ourselves and wisely evaluate the truth claims that others make remembering at all times that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  All truth must comport with His nature and character because He is Truth personified.

This is how the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America ends.  But where did that idea come from?  It is biblical, but it can only take place through the blood of Jesus.  There all men are freed from slavery to sin and all men live free to serve God.  We are free to be slaves to Christ.

There is equity and justice for all because all men are equal at the cross.  We all stand condemned, and we are all under the death penalty, but it is by the blood of Jesus that our debt can be paid in full, and justice can be served as the wrath that was due to us was poured out on Jesus.

We go forth then and declare that we believe that all men are created equal, that Christ died for all mankind, and that God wants everyone to come to salvation--to be set free from the curse of sin and death and experience the peace and blessings that come as a result of knowing Christ and His suffering.  For He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of Christ.

Everyone living in the United States have a safe and happy Independence Day, and even if you live somewhere else in the world, I pray that you know the freedom that comes only by knowing Christ and Him crucified and through the power of His resurrection.

I have to admit this was something that I struggled with for a long time, I get questions about it quite a bit, and I will do my best to give a complete answer here to the best of my ability, but I cannot guarantee that my answer will satisfy you.  I can only tell you what I know the Bible has to say on this matter.

First, God acts in accordance with His nature and character, and we know His attributes through His actions.  So, we know He is God the Creator because He is the Creator of all things.  That may sound like circular reasoning to you, but it's not.  We don't know that God has particular attributes until He acts on those attributes and then those attributes are memorialized in a name.  The same goes for names like Redeemer and Savior that we most closely connect with Jesus in the New Testament, but they belonged to the LORD long before Jesus' birth in the Old Testament.  As best as I can tell, God desired to create angels and people that could see His attributes and worship Him for who He is and what He does because that is what pleased Him and glorified Him.  He came up with a plan before the creation of the world to redeem a people to Himself (because it is part of His nature and character to be our Redeemer) which assumes that He knew before He created us that we would fall and be in need of redemption.

So, why create us, why create us with the ability to choose to sin, and why create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and give us the opportunity to sin? All of these questions are based off of our opinion that it would have been better for us and God if Adam and Eve had never sinned and Jesus never had to die on the cross.  But then, how would God display His divine love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us?  How would we know Him as Savior and Redeemer?  Remember that God wants us to understand who He is by His actions and worship Him for who He is and what He does.  Adam and Eve worshiped the LORD with the limited knowledge they had of Him as Creator, but if they had never sinned and the LORD would never have to save them from anything, how would they ever know Him as the one who saves His people?

Hopefully that makes sense.  Also, there's the idea that God always had something better than the first creation in mind and while the first creation was always good, the second creation was always going to be better.  It's going to be all those things that everyone is asking for--there will be no ability to sin and no opportunity to sin and no memory of sin.  We will live in perfect communion with the Father and the Son forever and ever, but it will be better because the Father will be able to give the Kingdom to His Son and there will be more people that God has loved there to enjoy it with Him.  Sharing Himself and everything He created with Adam and Eve was wonderful, but the book of Revelation tells us there will be an uncountable multitude of people from every tribe, tongue and nation that will worship Him for all eternity.  He will remember what He has done to redeem them, but they will only remember the New Creation.  In many ways our question we have asked above is "Why could we have the New Creation" as the "Old Creation" and just skip all the hard and messy stuff in the middle with blood sacrifices and atonement and crucifixion and resurrection?  Because it is by all those things that are offensive to use that God chose to be the means for which people to be born again and sanctified and made ready for the New Creation.  That's how He wants it to work.  I can't tell you why other than it is what pleases Him and brings Him the most glory.  That's what I was referring to when I was saying that I don't pretend to see every facet of this, but what I can see is lovely and beautiful.  One day, maybe we will know and understand more, but for now, I am content with knowing what I can know and seeing what I can see.  This was God's plan from the very beginning, and yet, that didn't make it any easier for God the Father or God the Son to go through any of it.

Another question that's often built into this question is one that's a little more personal.  If God is Sovreign and elects those that He is going to redeem, then why would He not choose everyone and why would He choose people that would continue to sin against Him and continue to hurt Him and His reputation?  That's a question that's just as hard, if not harder than the first, but they are connected thoughts.  After Adam and Eve fell, there were no perfect people to save--everyone that was left was one of the "sick" people that need the Great Physician.  I can't explain how it is that God goes about making the decision to elect us, but I know that His election is not some illusion like that of a mentalist where we think we are making a choice, but that choice has been made for us.  It's also not a trick where we already made the choice, and God in His omniscience looks through history and sees the choice that we were going to make and then writes our names down before we make the choice.  Instead, Jesus says that it is like God the Father is throwing a wedding banquet for His Son.  Many invitations are sent out, but there is the choice for people to respond to that invitation.  Some understand that you don't refuse an invitation to the wedding of the crown prince, but yet that's exactly what some of us do!  All the excuses that people made were lame in the parable--as are the lame excuses some of us make.  That is not to say though that everyone invited refused, just in the parable we see three people who were invited who made three lame excuses, because that is what was going on in front of Jesus at that moment and He wanted the religious people to be able to find themselves in the parable.  There were people however that the Pharisees had imagined would never be invited to such an event--they were "beyond grace" in the eyes of the Pharisees.  however, those are exactly the people that end up taking the place of the people that refused the invitation.  The Father says that the banquet table will be filled, and He orders His servants to go out into the highways and byways (where the disreputable people would be) and that He compelled them to come in.

So, we see there's a mixture of people who responded to an invitation and others who were compelled to come.  In both cases, the choice to invite them to compel them was the choice of the banquet host--the Father--and they are all given the same wedding clothes to wear to show that they were invited.  We see in the parable that someone shows up without the wedding clothes that act as proof of invitation, and he is challenged on how he got in and is thrown out to the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  So it is that there is only One Way to get into heaven and that is by Jesus.

So back to the question at hand, why choose us?  Because God wants His banquet table to be filled with people who didn't deserve to be chosen when His Son comes into His Kingdom.  It is for His good pleasure and to the praise of His glory to do this thing this way.  I can't explain it, but I am glad that it is all about His Son and not about me.  If it were about me, I never would have been chosen.

So then, why not save everyone?  I think that goes back to the idea of the invitations to the wedding that love requires a choice.  God loved us enough to invite us and we should love Him enough to immediately RSVP, "Yes!" as if there is no other option.  It's not really an invitation if there is no choice to say, "No," however anyone who says "No" to the king in such a situation knows they will incur his wrath--you don't dishonor the king by dishonoring his son by saying you have something more important than the son's wedding.  In this situation where the Father and the Son are both Persons of the Godhead, the offense is infinitely more and it would be absolutely right for the Father and the Son to say that anyone who refused the invitation expressed that they did not want to be a part of the Son's Kingdom and they will be put out of the Kingdom of God and their end will be the same as the devil and his rebellious angels.

So, the sum of all this is that we may not fully understand the mind of God in all this, but we don't need to understand it to love the result of it--"We love Him because He first loved us."  It brings Him pleasure and more glory and there are more people to worship Him for who He is and what He has done.  I can see nothing wrong with that.  The very fact that we are not worthy speaks to the goodness and greatness of God.  When the world sees people like us invited or chosen, they know that they too can be included in God's plan to redeem a people to Himself.  Will they accept the invitation, or will they be part of the group of alternates that God compels to come to the wedding banquet?  We don't know--the choice is not ours.  That's what the Doctrine of Election is all about, and I am thankful that the choice of who is saved is not up to me (though there are times I want to choose some of my friends and family members, but all I can do is pray for them and share the gospel with them).

I'll primarily be talking about "sin" in this blog though from a different angle than my other blogs involving that.  There are two primary viewpoints out there in other worldviews to try to explain where evil comes from.  One is fairly deterministic in origin and uses the field of psychology to say that issues of evil are mostly issues of emotional and mental health disorders caused by bad genes that were passed down from generation to generation.  There would be some argument from this camp that we need less prisons and more mental hospitals where the mentally ill can be institutionalized and eventually this worldview offers the opinion that these mentally ill people should be chemically or physically castrated so as to not be able to reproduce and pass on their "bad genes" or they should be euthanized to be removed from the gene pool.  There is the idea that some sort of "Superman" can be made by keeping only the "good people" with good genes and eliminating all the "bad people" with "bad genes."  In practice though, this doesn't work because all of us sin and do evil things.  Even with the Flood that killed all but eight people who seemed to be the only "good" people left on the earth, that didn't solve the problem of evil because each of those eight survivors of the Flood still had a sin nature, so this argument doesn't seem valid and must be rejected.  

Another view is that all children are born good, but they are corrupted by bad influences in society (no one usually explains where these bad influences come from, but they might be willing to agree with the first group of people that there are some cases in which certain people are broken from birth--they just wouldn't call that the norm).  This second group would like to imagine that therapy and counseling are the answer to everything and that if a person would realize how much their actions are hurting themselves and other people that they would have to stop doing that because they this view says that no one intentionally hurst themselves or others.  There are a few problems with this view.  First, we don't have to teach newborn children how to do things that are evil.  They come out of the womb with a selfish ethic that the ends justify the means.  Young children will take what they want and fight others who try to take something they want.  If they cannot employ physical tactics yet, they instead resort to screaming and crying and throwing some kind of tantrum until someone gives into them.  We don't like to think of this as a sign of the evil nature that lives within them, but it really is.

Next the second viewpoint has an issue that if they are correct counseling should work more than it does in cutting down on what we call recidivism for those who commit criminal acts, get institutionalized (usually in jail where there is mandatory counseling) and then after they are "rehabilitated" go back out into the world only to, many times, commit exactly the same crimes again, or maybe even commit worse crimes that they learned about from others while they were in prison.  The situation I just described is more the norm than we want to admit, and it is why there are "three strikes" laws in many areas that after committing three felonies, there is a mandatory 25-life sentence for the third "strike."  We don't usually see criminals becoming better people after being in prison, we usually see them become better criminals after being in prison.  So, this issue too seems to not answer the question of the nature of evil or give an adequate answer to how to deal with it.

The Bible tells us both of the nature of evil and the answer to it.  In the beginning, God created everything good and perfect, but angels and humans that He created, He created with the freewill to obey Him or rebel against Him.  Once an angel rebelled, their destiny was set--there was no plan of salvation for them and the third of the angels that rebelled with Lucifer against the LORD became what we know today as demons.  Lucifer is known by several other names like Satan (The Tempter) and the devil.  He is pictured in the Bible as both a snake and a dragon, but he is also described as an angel of light and his name literally means "light bringer" or "son of the dawn" (it would seem like his glory was compared to that of the Sun).  Once Satan "fell" (was kicked out of heaven because of his sin), he was sent to earth (along with the demons that followed him) and Satan made it his mission to get God's crowning achievement in creation, mankind, to fall with him.  If Satan couldn't hurt God directly, he was going to attack him indirectly by hurting the ones God loved.  How would Satan do this?  Simple, he was going to convince Adam and Eve that God didn't really love them and hadn't been completely honest with them and that His rules were meant to keep them from experiencing something good that He was withholding from them.  God had only given Adam and Eve a couple of rules to start off with.  They could eat of any seed-bearing plant in the Garden of Eden, but they were not to eat of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that was in the center of the Garden.  They day they ate of it they would surely die (literally they would die die or they would doubly-die).  They didn't understand the concept of death yet because all they knew was the life that God had given them.  Nothing yet had died, but death was not something that God ever wanted them to have to experience--not physical death, and certainly not the spiritual death that is separation from God.

However, when Adam and Eve gave into the lust of their eyes, the lust of their flesh, and the boastful pride of life with which they were tempted in the Garden, humanity fell and was separated from God.  They became a part of the kingdom of this world that Satan had been given dominion over, and all those who were born to them were born as citizens of the kingdom of this world with a nature that was bent towards rebellion against God.  That's something I talked about in are-we-being-judged-for-adams-sin-or-our-own.html, but evil people do evil things because they have evil hearts.  That's the short answer to the nature of evil.  Each of us naturally has an evil heart and without a miracle we will be inclined towards the "darkness" and not the "light."  Jesus even says this in His parable about the tree and its fruit where the "tree" has to do with the nature of the tree and the fruit has to do with the thoughts, words and actions that come as a byproduct of the "nature" of the tree.  An apple tree produces apples because it is an apple tree.  It does what is natural to it and it produces that fruit.  So it is that the works of the flesh are evident for those that are controlled by their "sin nature," 


Galatians 5:16-23
English Standard Version
​
Keep in Step with the Spirit
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

We see here that there are works of the flesh and they are contrasted with the Fruit of the Spirit.  This blog is not going to deal with the Spirit-filled and Spirit-controlled life so much other than to say that each man can only have one master and will be mastered by sin or by the Spirit.  We can only have one of these natures.  Jesus said it this way.


Matthew 7:15-20
English Standard Version
​
A Tree and Its Fruit
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Matthew 12:33-36
English Standard Version​
A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,


Matthew 15:10-20
English Standard Version
​
What Defiles a Person
10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”


Isn't it strange that the very things that Jesus says defile a person and make them unfit for the kingdom of heaven are the very things we are told that we need to accept, tolerate, and now may even be told that we have to celebrate when evil people want to do the things that are consistent with the evil in their hearts?  Let's take a look at another passage from 1 Corinthians that says this as well.


1 Corinthians 6:9-11
English Standard Version
​9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

There it is again!  There's something about having a new nature that will change us on the inside and the outside (the inside appears to be changed first, which then causes a change in behavior).  1 Corinthians uses words like "washed" and "sanctified" (made holy) and "justified" (declared righteous) to describe what happened and says that it happened in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  So it seems that there is some need for a new nature that we as Christians would call the need to be "born again."  We see Jesus tell Nicodemus of this need in John 3.


John 3:1-15
English Standard Version
​
You Must Be Born Again
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

We see here that even the wise people like Nicodemus were confounded by man's greatest need.  How could a man be "born again" and receive a new nature?  Surely it was not meant that they were to be physically born again because physical birth is what got them into this broken state in the first place.  No, Jesus is talking about needing to be born of the Spirit.  Jesus says unless a man is born of water and the Spirit that man cannot enter the kingdom of God (let's save that discussion for another blog as it probably deserves its own), but we see a theme here of "washing" (by water) and "by the Spirit" that we've seen in several verses so far.  Then Jesus makes the point that we know someone is born of the Spirit not because we see the Spirit but because we see what the Spirit does (the Fruit of the Spirit that was talked about in Galatians 5) much like we don't see the wind, but we see what the wind does so we know the wind is there.

So, it seems that it is possible for men to be born again and their nature to be changed so that they are controlled by the Spirit of God and that the Spirit acts through them and does what is pleasing to God, but that the natural man who is controlled by his flesh will not naturally do the things that the Spriit wants him to do because the flesh and the Spirit are opposed to each other.  So, it would seem that "regeneration" or being "born again" is the answer to the nature of evil or in short, the gospel that changes people from the inside out is the answer to the problem of evil in the world today.  We can look more into what this means as we study more in these "Faith and Culture" blogs, but I hope you walk away from this one realizing that no one but God alone is good, and only the Spirit of God working through those that have been born again can produce what God would truly call "good works."  Also, I would hope that you would see that there are only two possible "kinds" of people.  Romans 5 calls them those who are "in Adam" and are controlled by their flesh.  Their end is the death that was promised when Adam and Eve sinned, and they are in rebellion against the LORD and will be separated from Him for all eternity.  The other kind of person are those who are "in Christ" and have been made "new creations" or "new creatures" in accordance with not only Romans 5, but in this verse from 2 Corinthians.


2 Corinthians 5:17
English Standard Version
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.