Christian Sophistry – Part 1
Thus says the Lord, “Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away [Isaiah 50:1].
Divorce is such a common thing nowadays, even in the church, that no one wants to listen to it denounced by the Word of God. We want to be Christians, you see, but we don’t want the Lord to be our Lord. We want to be our own Lord.
The result is that we use the word Bible profusely, but we don’t read it. We read other men’s words about the Bible and think that suffices for being a child of God and being spiritually astute. So we pick and choose from the Bible what we will eat—usually milk, with a little filler from other books tossed in to add worldly flavor—and we pretend the rest doesn’t exist.
Should anyone be so impertinent as to point out the other parts when we violate them, why, we become defensive and put up our barriers to keep them out. Whereas divorce dominates the American landscape today, both in and outside the church, it is one such solid meat teaching of the Lord that we cannot stomach.
I’ve even been challenged by thin-skinned Christians who are divorced, with a reference to the verse with which we kicked off this study. Their understanding of the verse is that the Lord divorced Israel, so divorce can’t be wrong.
What they fail to realize is two things:
1. we must keep the verse in context
2. the entire verse must be read, not a phrase out of context
Let’s diagnose the issue. The Lord divorced Israel, yes, but He did so for one reason only. He wasn’t fickle about it and walked out on Israel for every little thing! The Lord is perfect, so He makes no mistakes. If He divorced Israel, it was for a right reason. And guess what? This right reason He accepts from us mere mortals as well.
“So, then, what is this legit reason?” you ask. Listen and learn:
It was said, “Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce”; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery [Matthew 5:31-32].
Those words were spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He noted how the Israelites quoted the Law of Moses to justify divorcing their wives for any reason they felt like. Suchlike fellows claimed the Lord commanded them to divorce their wives by giving their wives a certificate of divorce.
On the surface this argument appears plausible. But even the devil quoted Scripture at Jesus in the wilderness, in order to tempt Him to sin! Of course the devil took Scripture out of context each time. In reality this is a type of argumentation known as sophistry.
Oh, but we’re out of time again! Tomorrow we will hear Jesus’ rebuttal of the sophistry. For now let’s come apart with Him and allow Him to speak softly to us. We cannot help but be blessed abundantly when we do.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Divorce is such a common thing nowadays, even in the church, that no one wants to listen to it denounced by the Word of God. We want to be Christians, you see, but we don’t want the Lord to be our Lord. We want to be our own Lord.
The result is that we use the word Bible profusely, but we don’t read it. We read other men’s words about the Bible and think that suffices for being a child of God and being spiritually astute. So we pick and choose from the Bible what we will eat—usually milk, with a little filler from other books tossed in to add worldly flavor—and we pretend the rest doesn’t exist.
Should anyone be so impertinent as to point out the other parts when we violate them, why, we become defensive and put up our barriers to keep them out. Whereas divorce dominates the American landscape today, both in and outside the church, it is one such solid meat teaching of the Lord that we cannot stomach.
I’ve even been challenged by thin-skinned Christians who are divorced, with a reference to the verse with which we kicked off this study. Their understanding of the verse is that the Lord divorced Israel, so divorce can’t be wrong.
What they fail to realize is two things:
1. we must keep the verse in context
2. the entire verse must be read, not a phrase out of context
Let’s diagnose the issue. The Lord divorced Israel, yes, but He did so for one reason only. He wasn’t fickle about it and walked out on Israel for every little thing! The Lord is perfect, so He makes no mistakes. If He divorced Israel, it was for a right reason. And guess what? This right reason He accepts from us mere mortals as well.
“So, then, what is this legit reason?” you ask. Listen and learn:
It was said, “Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce”; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery [Matthew 5:31-32].
Those words were spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He noted how the Israelites quoted the Law of Moses to justify divorcing their wives for any reason they felt like. Suchlike fellows claimed the Lord commanded them to divorce their wives by giving their wives a certificate of divorce.
On the surface this argument appears plausible. But even the devil quoted Scripture at Jesus in the wilderness, in order to tempt Him to sin! Of course the devil took Scripture out of context each time. In reality this is a type of argumentation known as sophistry.
Oh, but we’re out of time again! Tomorrow we will hear Jesus’ rebuttal of the sophistry. For now let’s come apart with Him and allow Him to speak softly to us. We cannot help but be blessed abundantly when we do.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
No comments have been added yet.
