"What We Believe" OR "What You Have Been Pressured Into Believing"

God created us with brains, not hard drives. He has also given us "The MIND of Christ", not a jump drive. True revelation, free thinking, intuition and perception are clouded whenever we choose to take man's word for something without proper analysis, sincere questioning, personal study, and the true witness of the Holy Spirit and the Word. I will also contend that many in the Western Church have been brainwashed into believing that institutional regurgitation is more trustworthy and readily accessible than Divine Revelation...which is discovered through personal relationship, personal study, and free thinking.

Just because you have heard something incessantly repeated throughout your lifetime doesn't make it true, nor does it prove that there isn't a more excellent way and a deeper understanding to be obtained.

Are you able to intelligently discuss the "What We Believe" page on your church's website; while providing strong, true, Biblical substantiation? Did you have to believe "What We Believe" in order to join the "church family"? Is "What we Believe" perfection? What if you "stumble upon" something Biblically more than "What We Believe"? What then? What does it mean when the church up the road's "What We Believe" page is longer than yours? If "What they Believe" is from God and can be substantiated through the Scriptures, why wouldn't you and your church want to believe that too?

How can we be calling out "secular" colleges and universities for indoctrinating and brainwashing young minds while many in "Christendom" place greater value on the incomplete revelation of dead Theologians and Denominational "Founders" than the Bible, The Holy Spirit, His ability to reveal Himself to modern-day people, and the God-given wisdom of our contemporaries? His Word is PERFECT, while our understanding of His Word isn't quite there yet...and can't be found by digging up the corpses of our favorite, historical Theologians (Many of whom were deemed "heretics" according to the "What We Believe" pages of their contemporaries). It is wise to ponder and build upon their writings which are in alignment with God's Word, but foolish to place their words on the same plane as the Bible and the Holy Spirit's ability to reveal Christ in and through us!  That's ancestor worship!

Now, take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Is 'What We Believe' all that I truly believe and am allowed to believe?".
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Shalom!
~Joe