Dark Christian Doctrines

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Part 1:  The Cause of Dark Christian Doctrines

Have you ever heard someone say something to this effect….”There’s just some things we’re not supposed to understand, you just have to accept it by faith.”  I don’t find that doctrine in the Bible anywhere!

I John 1:5  This then is the message which we have heard of him (Jesus Christ) and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. 

This seems to be a new revelation concerning God.  Don’t think that people in the Old Testament knew this truth.   In the Old Testament, God was and did good and evil, a belief that persists today.

Isaiah 45:5a, 7  I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:  I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil:  I the Lord do all these things.

Whoa, whoa whoa!!!   This picture of God sure doesn’t line up with the merciful, loving, kind God that Jesus preached.  Here’s another example.

I Samuel 16:14  But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.

This is rather troubling, if you believe (like I do) that God is love, don’t you think?  The Old Testament God seems a fickle God indeed.

James 1:13   Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God;” for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man:

The word “tempt” is the same as the word “test.”  God does not  test people.  This is very clear.  God does not tempt people.   Yet in…….

Genesis 22:1  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, “Behold, I (am here).”

To tempt means to put to the test.   Same meaning in both verses.  You know the record.   God asked Abraham to sacrifice to death his son Isaac, and then at the last minute, just before Abraham went through with this macabre deed, God supplied a ram, which was caught in a thicket, to take the place of Isaac.   This seems so other than the God that Jesus came to make known.

Here’s another one.

Romans 11:29  For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Yet, in the Old Testament….

I Samuel 15:10, 11  Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king; for his is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.  And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.

All it took was 5 chapters of I Samuel for God to change his mind, to repent of His calling of Saul to be king!  That sure seems fickle to me!  You might respond, “Well, but Saul didn’t obey God.”  Well then, we’re all in really big trouble!

I could go on and on.  How God seemed to have hundreds and thousands of people killed, murdered, assassinated.  How He apparently tricked them into sinning, and then had them killed when they did.  How He is recorded as asking advice from, and then accepting help from, devil spirits, in order to cause someone’s death.  On and on it goes, in the Old Testament; a God at severe odds with the loving, caring, merciful God whom Jesus made known.

John 1:17, 18  For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared (to lead or bring out so as to be on display) Him.

Take a close look at the above.  If truth came by Jesus Christ, where was it in the Old Testament?  And if Jesus brought God out so as to be on display (so that He could be seen), how did anyone in the Old Testament know Him clearly?

Because God was really and truly hidden from view in the Old Testament, many Christians, who do not know or accept the revelation of the true God as declared by Jesus Christ,  have accepted, if not developed many “dark doctrines.”  Beliefs founded on the obscured God of the Old Testament, and which blatantly contradict the clear revelation of God as declared by Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the other New Testament writers.

Always read and understand the Old Testament in light of the truths revealed by Jesus Christ (whether while on this earth, or later via the holy spirit of God, which revelations are recorded in the epistles and are indeed ongoing today).

II Corinthians 3:13-16  And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:  But their minds were blinded; for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which (veil) is done away in Christ.  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.  Nevertheless when it (the nation of Israel) shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

I hope this is clear for you.  Because despite what is written here, a majority of Christians today do the exact opposite.  They magnify the God of the Old Testament, ignoring the true God and Father of Jesus Christ, whom the Son came to make known.

In the Old Testament, there was only one God (see Isaiah reference above).  In the New Testament, there are two.

II Corinthians 4:3, 4   But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are perishing;  In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

In making known the true God and His true nature, Jesus had to separate out the false god of this world, of this age …. Satan.  This did not occur in the Old Testament, but was for Jesus himself to do.

John 12:31  (Jesus is speaking)  Now is the judgment (krinos – a discernment…a dividing off) of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out (cast outside, into the open).

This never happened in the Old Testament.  Satan was not divided off from the true God.  He was never exposed for what he truly was.  This happened (and happens today) only by the work of Jesus Christ, who operates within us by the holy spirit of God.

I Corinthians 2:14, 15  But the natural man (who does not have the spirit of God) receives not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (krinos – judged; same word as in John 12:31).  But he that is spiritual discerns (krinos) all things, yet he himself is discerned (krinos) of no man.

Again, we’ll go back to Jesus’ own statement of his job in separating out the god of this world from his Father, the one true God.

John 16:7, 8, 11-13a  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but when I depart, I will send him unto you.  And when he is come, he will reprove (reveal the true nature by exposure to light) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (krinos).  Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (krinos).  I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear (handle) them now.  However when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth;

Without the spirit of God, sent by the glorified Jesus Christ, we cannot see the truth of God, or of the enemy of this world, Satan.  By means of this Holy Spirit, there is a very definite distinction (dividing) made between the true God, who fathered Jesus, and the god of death and destruction, the devil.

In the next study, we’ll take a look at how a lack of discernment, of dividing out the work of Satan from the working of the true God in the Old Testament, has resulted in the development, establishment and enforcement of what I call Dark Christian Doctrines.  Among others, we’ll take a look at:

The sovereignty of God.  The idea that “God is in control.”                                                         The continuing need to walk by the 10 commandments.                                                           The idea of “blind faith.”
That asking too many questions angers God.
The requirement to belong to a Church.
The need to invite God into your presence.                                                                                Plus, notions of heaven, hell, baptism, repentance, the Holy Spirit and the true nature of God Himself.

We’ve got a lot to look forward to, as we divide out in the Bible the god of this world from the true God.
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Other studies:
To Judge or not To Judge
The Nature and Source of Light
Satan Exposed
Satan’s Justification
Why do we get Tempted?
Does God Kill …. A More Thorough Response