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Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

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Donald S. Whitney

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“These scholars were not pulling the language of the scriptures into the English they knew and used at home. The words of the King James Bible are just as much English pushed towards the condition of a foreign language as a foreign language translated into English. It was, in their words, more important to make English godly than to make the words of God into the sort of prose that any Englishmen would have written, and that secretarial relationship to the original languages of the scriptures shaped the translation. Of course, individual English words and phrases are held up to and examined to the point of a knife.”

“The Great Apostasy: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 9-12, NKJV).”

“Eastern Mysticism and Western Esotericism Claim that All May Become Divine (gods): The Mystery Religions claim that all may become divine. Today, both neo-pagans and Gnostic Christians claim they will become immortal “Christs” upon the earth. Mathew 24:24 says, “For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and show great signs and wonders; so that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (AKJV).”

“There will be a Falling Away from Scriptural Truth Before the Return of Jesus Christ: The harlot church Mystery Babylon promotes blasphemy and spiritual fornication. They follow the Mystery Religions of Babylon. This is Eastern mysticism and Western esotericism. The Bible says, “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or a letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So, he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, Berean Study Bible). Colossians 2:8 says, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ (NKJV). “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts, shall they heap unto themselves teachers; having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned aside unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, KJV). * These Scriptures warn us that a counterfeit Church will promote a false theology, not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“Still, education is what foundationally supports philosophy, so I will focus my attention on educational aspects that I think should be promoted----this includes helping students learn the logic behind why something is true, use things that have been memorized to apply them in tasks involving critical thinking or real-world problem-solving, improve modeling skills, explain why skills are important to learn, instead of forcing people to remember them, and---” “Please, stop it, Martha.” “Wait--what?” “Luke 10:41.” I looked for my One Year Bible, searching for Luke 10:41, which said, “But the Lord said to her, ‘My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these DETAILS.’” (The emphasis on “all these details” was Dad’s, not mine.)”

“One recent example of my fear of ambiguity was the instance with the beaten slave. Completely aware I was bluffing, I insisted that Ken Lar misinterpreted the Bible verse he quoted, but again, I was bluffing. I thought that that Bible verse was ambiguous. It could have actually been used to justify slavery, but I always thought that God was a pacifist, so I tried to comfort myself with the theory that God was forced to accommodate slavery because the world had gone corrupt, but then again, that verse described slaves’ submission as a way that helps them “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior,” so there is still a possibility that God would actually approve slavery. But still, the passage describes slaves to be faithful and to not steal and argue, which have been commands for Paul’s followers, who were not slaves. The passage could have been encouraging slaves to try to follow the path of God the way free people do. Still, if I recall correctly, in Leviticus it mentioned that the Israelites, right after being released from slavery in Egypt, were allowed to buy slaves from nations surrounding them, and it even said that the slaves could be the Israelites’ PROPERTY!!!! But then, I have heard of many African American pastors who use the Bible to support equality. But could it all be a scam? Who knows? That was ambiguity in its biblical form. There was even more ambiguity associated with that incident, because after thinking about that controversial passage, I wondered whether or not I was screwing my chances in Heaven for thinking like that. The Bible says that you shouldn’t lie, and by thinking like that, I was being honest with myself, but people died for blaspheming God, and if thinking those thoughts was considered blaspheming God, then who knows?”

“I still haven’t had the courage to ask him whether the Bible glorified slavery, but thinking about the Bible and slavery, if I have to be honest with myself, has not been good for my mental health, and the most psychologically logical thing to do would probably be to prevent or eliminate what is being detrimental to my mental health. Still, as a Christian, I know I was raised to be softer on the Bible than I would be if I simply stayed true purely to my ideals (which could either have subscribed to atheism or agnosticism if I hadn’t been raised to be a Christian). Still, there were times when I used my dedication and faith to the Bible in a way that has shown that the Bible is not as fatalistic, science-hating, and misogynistic as it appears to be…”

“Good question. You have studied your history, and you know that slaves were property, not human beings, so they were objects instead of subjects to the government. To view another human being as property—objects instead of human beings—would not be biblical, because a slavemaster would kind of be acting like God–ruling over others and trying to use them for their own desires. That is not right, because the Bible says that no one is like God, and they shouldn’t act like a God over other people, because there is only one God, as one of the Ten Commandments mentioned. “Also, even if human beings were allowed to act like God, the way those types of people rule over their slaves is unbiblical, because they do not follow the commandments about love. The New Testament says that we should love, forgive, and help others the same way Jesus did, but if people are going to objectify each other and view each other as property, slave masters' intentions to love, forgive, and help others would be reduced, if not unfulfilled. “You also mentioned the New Testament’s commandments. You are correct, there are verses about slaves. Titus 2:9-10 says, ‘Slaves must always obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way.’ By law, a slave would have to obedient to his or her master, so Paul was sent to show that God acknowledges the existence of this law, but even though this law was used, notice how slaves are required to not argue and steal, and they are required to be trustworthy. Those are values that were taught to freed believers! Titus 3:9 talks about preventing quarrels, Exodus 20:15 literally says, “Do not steal,” and Proverbs 11:13 condemns slanderers and praises trustworthy people, so even though slaves were still expected to follow the law, they, like other believers, had the opportunity to uphold biblical values and become strong Christians. Colossians 4:1 also says, ‘Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.’ This verse actually ensures the welfares of slaves. The laws that the government enforced at that time probably did spread the notion that slaves are property, and so, by law, slaves were still property, but by Christ, they were quite equal to the status of a freed believer. Their was care for slaves’ welfares, which, under Christ, raised them to a greater status than just property. They were property by law, but children of Christ through God.”