There are a multitude of reasons as to why I find the Lord Jesus Christ to be the most fascinating Person ever to enter the human race, not the least of these being His distaste for the complicated and the sophisticated. Jesus’ lack of regard for man’s worldly-wise, complex, intricate belief systems and processes was one of the huge attractions for me. To discover this reality became almost as liberating as my once-and-for-all deliverance from sin’s penalty. Until that time, I had always believed that the more complicated and sophisticated things became, the greater the intelligence needed to solve the problem.
It was only through doing systematic Bible studies did I discover that it was, in fact, the intelligent who created the complicated and sophisticated. No wonder Jesus was not impressed. The Spirit of God is unimpressed too – so much so, that He warns us in both Testaments of the Bible of His intended destruction of such at the end of this age Isaiah 29:14 cf 1 Corinthians 1:19. Why is God against these things? He’s against them because they draw us away from true knowledge of Him, plus true dependency upon Him. God is against them because they make us proud, haughty and arrogant.
During those early studies I once read, “If you fail to take a stand for the Bible, you will fall for anything.” The writer, in qualifying his statement according to Psalm 119:160, meant every word, from the first in Genesis to the last in Revelation. Regardless of my understanding of the Bible at that time, I made the decision to take a stand. I’m glad I did so. If I had failed there, I would have failed to discover this distaste of Jesus. Of the many people with whom I endeavoured to share the gospel, a bulk of them rejected my message on the basis of it being, “too simple to make it believable.”
One of the problems the apostle Paul had with the Corinthian church was similar and it greatly concerned him. He feared that they would be led away from pure and simple devotion to the Lord, just as Adam and Eve were when they yielded to the devil’s seductions in the garden of Eden. In that church were gullible people, failing to take a stand for the Bible by listening to the complicated and sophisticated messages of those preaching “another Jesus” placing them in grave danger of receiving “another spirit” 2 Corinthians 11:3-4. The simplicity of the salvation message, along with the plain (poor) speaking of Paul was beginning to be looked down upon.
Like people anywhere who fail to look beneath the surface, they began equating sophistry and eloquence with that of spiritual power and authority. For a short period of time I sat under a female minister similar to that. She came into the church as a seminary trainee-pastor’s assistant. Without ever knowing the full story, the pastor left and she was invited to take up that role. Some months later she received her qualification as Reverend. She loved that title. She loved her preaching too plus the over-use of computer PowerPoint. But she greatly confused competency and positional power with spiritual power and as a result, the devil was walking all over her. Still is.
A highly educated mind with certificates of qualification is nearly always a stumbling block to a person receiving the true gospel of the biblical Jesus Christ. The reason being that the gospel requires absolute humility and surrender – of all we are, all we know and all we have. After all those years of study (at such great cost for many) they’re just not willing to be put in a position whereby they may have to give it up. So they dare not get too close to God to find out if they have to, or not. That is one reason why most of these same people will deny any teaching on baptism into the Holy Spirit.
One pastor I know claims never to have heard the voice of God for himself. I believe that. It shows up in him as a person and in his ministry and spiritually dying church. Often we spoke the same language in our Christian-speak, but there was never unity in the spirit. There rarely is when one meets with another who does not accept the Bible as the total, authoritative word of God from Genesis to Revelation – and especially the literal, systematic, plain-sense meanings of those two books just on their own! I’ve also noticed how easy it seems for these people to express themselves with a double-tongue as they quote the Scriptures and yet not appear to notice the seriousness of such sin.
People who are unwilling to accept “the simplicity (singleness, sincerity, bountifulness, liberality) that is in Christ” love to argue for something much more complicated and sophisticated. But upon hearing or reading what they have to say, I have found that it takes much more “faith” to believe them than it does to believe God. Now, I know that this is only because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to me, but I also know that because of such, their writings and teachings are not from the Holy Spirit, regardless of who says what about them. This can easily be tested. Love for truth is the ultimate test, but once we cry out to God for that, He’s going to shift heaven and earth to ensure it is brought to us.
That is why yet once again, I’m saying that there is very little love for God in the institutional church system. There can never be whilst there is very little love for truth. People love the complicated and the sophisticated. It gives them a sense of superiority over others. And because they have given no thought to the truth of themselves as being proud, haughty and arrogant, these things rule no matter how religious and humble they try to be. No better place does this show up than in those who disagree with the writings of Paul the apostle.
Only a proud, haughty, arrogant heart could ever say, “Paul got it wrong!” “Paul and I would come to blows over this!” “I cannot agree with Paul here, he had no idea what he was saying!” “If Paul lived today he would think very differently, theologically!” No born-again, Holy Spirit-led, Jesus Christ-centered, Bible-based Christian would ever dare come to that conclusion. It would never enter his or her mind. There are many reasons why it would not, but one of them is, although the message of the gospel is simple, uncomplicated and unsophisticated, receiving the Lord of gospel is the most deep and profound reality any human being can ever experience.
One soon learns that the reality and power experienced from the Lord Jesus is quickly confirmed by the words He declares from His living and powerful Bible. Such an experience now prepares us to believe every word within as God’s, regardless of who it was He used in putting pen to its paper! The fact that we can’t adequately explain much within its pages causes us to humble ourselves before God in deep reverence – which is the exact opposite heart expression. One who has had the born-again experience will do what the prophet Jeremiah did when he found God’s words – eat them! Jeremiah 15:16. No wonder we agree that Jesus is the Bread of Life!
Christian or otherwise, those who love the complicated and the sophisticated work hard in giving the appearance that what they believe sustains them in life too – whether this be their theology or philosophy. But their lives give witness to the untruthfulness of that. The “bread” they feed on reminds me of yesterday’s stinking manna that the children of Israel discovered in their wilderness experience. Many a person did I get to meet (including reverends) who could sit, talk, dispute and justify as they wove their webs of worldly-wise, complex, intricate belief systems and processes. But their lives failed to work! Nervous, bitter, angry, defensive, argumentative, psychiatrist or psychologist-reliant, marriage and family out of wack, etc.
In spite of appearances, those people did not enjoy their lives at all. And as for the professing Christians among them – they were running from God. They didn’t enjoy Christ’s life, so there was no way they could enjoy their own. True freedom did not exist for them. Here they were, each trying desperately to cling on to their life, but all the time losing it, just as Jesus declares it to be so Matthew 16:25. Their love for the complicated and the sophisticated blinded them to the reality that under God – once a person chooses to discipline himself to God’s kingdom and allows himself to be narrowed of his own will – God will then go to work and broaden that will into the plans and purposes of His own. That alone, is what ultimate freedom means.
The Bible declares, that Jesus Christ Himself, is the Creator Who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t see. He was before all else began, and it is His power that holds everything together Colossians 1:16-17. Therefore, if anyone has rights to the complicated and sophisticated, and then be proud, haughty and arrogant about who they are, what they are and what they know as a result, those rights belong to Him alone. But He would have nothing to do with such. No wonder He found/finds ours to be distasteful. “…..Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” 1 Peter 5:5-6.