My Journey of Faith Part 17
Freed in the Son through Rebirth
During my journey of faith, I have fallen prey to countless lies. By God's grace, I have been delivered from many lies to which I had been held captive. As a child, I was reared Catholic. I remember being maybe four or five, seated beside my much older cousin in church. I asked her what was in the box, that is, on the altar where the priest was doing his thing. She said, God. I asked her how he fit in there. She chuckled.
In the 1960s, in America, a big push happened to do away with God by turning the theory of evolution into a fact of science. I trusted my father, who taught me that there was a God. However, I began to negotiate with the idea that evolution had some merit. When I told my dad that the dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, he laughed in a way that told me he wasn't buying it.
A monumental transformation happened in my mind when I was born of the Spirit of God. When God breathed eternal life into my soul, He imparted the motivation to know the truth and be delivered from the many lies I had already been told. It would take the rest of my life to discover how many there were.
Freed in the Son by Studying the Bible
The first lie from which I was set free was that the Catholic Church was not Christian at all but a cult. I spent much time reading about all the Catholic doctrines I could find in the library. At home, I would read, pray, and study my Bible; I would uncover those teachings that did not align with scripture. In the late 1970s, I went with other students from Elohim Bible Institute to Attica State Prison, where we met with inmates and attended a religious service. A notable inmate in Attica was David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, a serial killer who confessed to killing six people and wounding several others in New York City during the late 1970s. I shared my testimony of salvation and elaborated on Christ's saving love to a large group of men. Then, a Catholic spoke, and when he was talking, an inmate on the front row sounded like he had spent much time studying his Bible and would concurrently say, "That's in the Bible" when he heard something he liked. When the speaker got to the immaculate conception, he shouted out, "That's not in the Bible."
God working in my heart set the stage for uncovering untold lies that originated with the devil and were perpetuated by false teachers and sometimes well-meaning but deceived men of God. False teachers or godly men - a lie is a lie.
Freed in the Son from the Most Devastating Lie
Having come into a relationship with God and having responded to the message of the Gospel through Billy Graham, I was unable to understand the Scriptures, being separated from the fellowship of more mature believers. Therefore, I could not grow in spiritual understanding. I was overwhelmed by temptation until I sought out godly people.
Here was my problem: I started with almost a blank slate. Biblically, I accepted much as true at twenty years old because my understanding was little to refute what was inaccurate. Many believers begin their Christian walk in the same way and become students of their denominations more than the truth revealed in scripture, notably when a study of scripture is missing. It's hard enough when one studies scripture. Reading the Bible and studying it are two very different things. Blindly following church leaders is dangerous for the Christian faith.
The devastating lie I am referring to, in my subtitle, is the misinterpretation of Paul's epistle to the Romans, 7:14-25. This portion of scripture, which discusses the struggle with sin, has been misapplied over the centuries, leading many believers to feel bound by sin. Just like the inmates of Attica, the believer who misunderstands the meaning of scripture can be bound by the lie they accept. No one can overcome temptation if they believe a lie about who they are and how they have been set free.
Sometimes, I speak about free will, which may upset some, but I am not arguing doctrine but attempting to raise awareness about a belief I have experienced as devastating in my life for a time. Romans 7:14- 25 is not about free will; I only use that as an example, but it is about identity and the struggle with sin. If you believe that you can't avoid sinning, you will surely sin. If you understand yourself as having the controlling solution to your temptation problems, you will stumble and fall much more than you need to.
If you want to be set free to live an overcoming life for the glory of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, you must understand Romans 7:14-25 correctly. You will find a very brief rendering of the passage in my post, The Prisoner of Lies, which I posted yesterday. Reading it will likely not be enough to convince anyone of the correct meaning, but much more study will be needed. If you understand the importance of its correct rendering and, in your innermost being, you desire your obedience to Christ to be more important than clinging to what you were previously taught, then you will do the work. You can write to me on my website if you need help with how to do it.
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