Crabtree Acres
There are many ways that we allow truth to be eroded from the foundation of our lives, but the basic reason we as Christians allow this to happen is sin in our lives. I grew up in a Bible teaching church and literally believed the word of God as truth. While I was in college I came to believe that God created through evolution; I was trying hard to hold on to the Bible teachings that I had as a child, while adjusting my mind to accept the teachings of my college professors. As a result, I began a process of changing my beliefs in other parts of the Bible, not just the Old Testament but the New Testament as well. What happens to us when we begin to question the Biblical account of the Creation in Genesis, is that it becomes easier to throw away other parts of the Scripture as well. The loss to us of our belief in truth is subtle and slow; we may not even realize that certain beliefs are going away until they are completely gone. Another thing that begins in us when we question the Lord’s word is we begin to search for teachers or pastors who will “tickle our ears” and reinforce our new ideas. If we are people who have been exposed to the truth in the past, as more and more of this false reinforcement becomes the foundation for our thinking and our lives, we eventually must find that the foundation is sand and will collapse. Even what little truth remains in our lives will be like the falling of pillars that are not secure on bedrock; the sand has washed away under them and left even truth to fall down.
About twelve years after graduating from college I was attending a revival meeting in a Methodist Church in Versailles, Kentucky. Dr. David Kinlaw, President of Asbury College, was preaching a sermon about hell, repentance from sin and the need to have Christ living in our hearts. Greg and I normally attended a large church in Lexington that was more like a social club than a life-changing source of truth. Our foundation was on sand and we did not even realize it. Yet, as I heard Dr. Kinlaw preaching from the Scripture, I remember thinking to myself, “I used to believe what he is saying; what happened to that belief in me?” I had thrown out the very basis for salvation from my life because I was so eager to let my belief in God’s word be eroded from my life. This one little incident started me back on the path to rebuild my life on solid rock.
Why had I allowed my belief in the Bible to be eroded? For one thing, I had always been taught that your teachers were always right and to accept whatever they said as fact. A far deeper problem was the real reason for the breakdown of my faith – sin. When there is sin in our lives we try to change the truth into a lie so that we do not have to face God with our sin and confess our sins before him. It becomes easier to push God aside and believe that He created through evolution and cares nothing more about His creation now that it is working to His plan. Then it becomes easier to tell ourselves that the rest of Scripture is not true either, including the passages that tell us we must face God with our sin and repent.
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