Revival Thinkers
Peace if possible - Truth at all costs
Experiencing God and thinking deeply about the God you've experienced are not mutually exclusive.
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The Bible's truth does not depend in any way on whether or not a person believes that truth, said Ligonier's R.C. Sproul.
The Bible's truth is the kind of truth that can set you free. The sort of wisdom-infused truth that guides your whole life. The type of courage-building truth that calls for service and sacrifice. The sacrifice-inducing truth for which you will die. Truth with those characteristics calls for nothing less than complete submission. This true-Truth is so profound, broad, deep, challenging, obvious, and pervasive that it changes a person, changes people and communities, and can change the world.
Now "Truth", by definition, corresponds to reality. That is to say, if something is true, then it corresponds to something real. Truth corresponds to the way things are, in fact. God is the foundation of all reality, and so, while the Bible doesn't have a monopoly on truth, all truth (wherever it may be found) is God's truth. Keep that in mind as you think about the different things that can rightly bear the label "truth".
“Truth-sleuthing” (my words for pursuing, discovering and understanding truth) requires persistent intellectual exertion. In the fields where truth is buried deeply, truth-sleuthing is not accomplished by shallow digging or sifting through the leaves.
As well as a disciplined intellectual endeavour, truth-sleuthing in God’s word rewards those who pray, discuss and are committed to tracking truth wherever it may lead. Prayer and meditation are necessary for the Holy Spirit’s illumination. Discussion and debate are the tools in the blacksmith shop where “iron sharpens iron.” Commitment is required when the reality you find does not match the truth you have come to love.
Here are some truth-sleuthing tips:
- Consensus can pave a peaceful path to Hades. Agreement and lack of contention are not always measures of truth value.
- While some truths do not matter as much as others, the most important are issues of salvation.
- Not everything you discover (or hold dear) is a diamond of truth. Some “truths” are nothing of the sort – nothing more than fake diamonds and fools gold. Courage is required to lay them aside and walk doggedly along discovery’s sometimes rough and jumbled path.
- If two people have opposing views on a subject, while they can both be wrong in their opinions, they cannot both be right. In the example below, Ariadne and Aden cannot both be correct.
- Ariadne: “Of course, everyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit (everyone who is saved) will speak in tongues. That's the Bible way.”
- Aden: “That's clearly not the Bible way. A person's salvation rests in faith alone, and a person who by grace is saved through faith will have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They may speak in tongues, but they may never have that gift.”
Our churches are filled with Christians who are idling in intellectual neutral. As Christians, their minds are going to waste. One result of this is an immature, superficial faith. People who simply ride the roller coaster of emotional experience are cheating themselves out of a deeper and richer Christian faith by neglecting the intellectual side of that faith. (William Lane Craig)
List of Services
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A Journey to Take. Why?List Item 2
I'm coming to grips with a concept. It's a big one. It is about as big as you get. It touches integrity, inspiration, conscience, contentment, ethics, eternity, morality, mission, head, heart, self, service, sacrifice, submission, peace, purpose, and my place. The concept? Truth. Not just any truth. The truth I'm interested in is the kind of truth that's supposed to set you free. The sort of wisdom-infused truth that guides your whole life. The type of courage-building truth that calls for service and sacrifice. The sacrifice-inducing truth for which you would die.
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Critique of the CriticList Item 3
This article tells you a bit more about me, my history and why am I writing anything at all. Hey Ron, why are you "poking the bear"? A good question. Because truth is too important to kill it in the streets for the sake of peace.
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The Need for Answers
The world's morality seems to have been turned on its head in only the last decade or so. The degree and rapidity of change are staggering, frightening, and confusing. The world's moral compass is broken, and for the lost, confused or bewildered, there is no "True North". Do you want to be a lodestone? Then live by and confidently contend for God’s Word. God's people and his yet-to-be-saved elect need Bible-based answers which stand up to scrutiny and criticism and provide the solid ground that the saints are looking for and the unsaved need.
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The Conversion of Paul
I think it would not be too difficult to argue that Paul, after Jesus of course, is the most influencial person in Christian history. Paul did not found the Christian faith. He was instead, as he described himself more than once, "a slave of Jesus Christ".
There is one aspect of Paul's conversion we in the Revival Fellowship find difficult to explain: When Paul was saved he didn't speak in tongues. Why is that a problem for us in the Revival Fellowship? Read more in "The Conversion of the Apostle Paul".
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In the SpiritList Item 4
We are told in the Bible to "Pray in the Spirit" and to "Live in the Spirit". How do we be (or do something) 'in the Spirit'?
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The Holy Spirit and the Elect, Part 1
Along with most “revival” churches, we set out to differentiate ourselves by propagating a unique version of the “full gospel” with a distinctive doctrine mandating speaking in tongues as a rite of passage for sinners moving from death to life (circa 1958 - 1963). We judged a lack of a "Holy Spirit Speaking in Tongues" experience not just a lack of depth or commitment but a lack of salvation itself.
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A Christian Myth, God Always Heals.
Of course, I knew we all die, but this was personal. Death had taken my wife of 39 years. The situation could have been different. I do not doubt my Father in heaven could have healed my wife, but I also knew without a doubt that He was not going to do that. Does God always heal? If not, why not?
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Doctrine Wars
Many have no idea about doctrine, or they have a mistaken understanding of what doctrine is. As we follow the well-worn revival path of rejecting Church tradition, and the wisdom of the historic Church’s teaching and creeds - should we then reject all Doctrine? That’s not possible. Every Christian is a theologian, and all Christians are involved with doctrine (even if they believe otherwise).
In this article I'm calling for a new approach where all our doctrine is carefully examined in the light of scripture and accepted, modified, or rejected on that basis.
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Relationship - Me and Jesus
I grew up with no relationship with Jesus. He was just a figure in the Bible to me and a mysterious and largely irrelevant one at that. After my introduction to the Revival Centres (as we were called then) and my “born again experience”, my relationship with Jesus was … the same. How can that be? I’m glad you asked.
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Pitfalls of Gullibility
Many Bible believers and Bible readers (not always the same...) harbour all kinds of not-so-true ideas. Pseudo-truth, deception “dressed up” as truth and so-called truth which are founded upon falsehoods or misunderstandings have in history (generally) and in the church (particularly) been the responsible agent of world-shaking, negative, life-diminishing change. Recent and remote history is full of examples where the world was turned on its head by false ideas passionately believed and acted out. Can you tell the difference?
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The Bible: Chapter and Verse
The Bibles we have available to us now (I think at least 50 or so English translations alone) are divided into books, chapters, and verses. However, the original Bible manuscripts (and the copies of those we use as the basis for our modern Bibles) had no chapters or verses, and in fact, they didn't even have much in the way of punctuation.