ON PHILOSOPHY

 

KEY VERSE: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Col 2:8)

  I thought that I was a Christian from birth because I always believed in Jesus, and that He Is God. With that, I was only half a “Christian,” but only half is not a Christian. I remained a believing sinner. What was missing? I failed to trust Jesus in anything let alone in all things.

  “Wisdom,” according to Paul, is perfection in Christ Jesus (Col 1:28). Paul taught antinomialism; that doctrine is “against legalism.” Then what is legalism? Strict obedience to the Law out of obligation. What is antinomialism? Congruence to the Will of God out of love… “above all these things put on love” (Col 3:14). “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:15). Christians are to do things out of love for Jesus.

  Jesus died so that sinners need not. That is “redemption” and for that, the redeemed should have some trust, loyalty, and gratitude. Strict obedience to the Law is as much as obedience to Satan because obedience is self-defense against the evil one.

  Jesus “saves” humbled people from sin. If He has truly “saved” from sin, then those redeemed have no obligation to the Law, but they still remain God’s “itemization” of what He Wills for His heirs. The Ten Commandments are not “commandments” to the Christian but a transfer of God’s Estate to His loving children.

  Paul taught against obedience to the Law in Colossians 2:11-23, then immediately described the character of the “new man” in chapter three. The new persons are to do things much tougher than what was commanded!  Paul indicates that the new man “does what is well pleasing to the Lord” (Col 3:20). The old person does what seemed to be required, but the new person seeks to venerate Jesus by doing His Will and being in the image of Jesus (Col 3:13). Jesus did not die because he had to; He died sacrificially. He gave up His Flesh so that Christians need not give up theirs. He gave up His Ghost, so that Christians do not die in Spirit.

  That is the gospel, but some at the Church at Colosse assumed another (false) gospel. There were many mystery religions in Asia Minor at that time, but the fastest growing one was Simonism; to wit: “There was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God” (Act 8:9-10). Simonism was based on Christianity and seemed good to people because Simon worked miracles just as Jesus had. Although the miracles of Jesus were part of the mystery of God, Simon’s sorcery was slight-of-hand.

  Simon Magus is credited with Gnosticism, meaning “having knowledge,” and in this case “secret knowledge.” Paul spoke about the mystery of Christ and against the secret knowledge of Gnosticism, whose adherents, “considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment” (Wikipedia; “Gnosticism”).

  “Esoteric” means divergence from both orthodoxy in religion and from rationalism, and “has pervaded various forms of Western philosophy, religion, pseudoscience, art, literature, and music, continuing to affect intellectual ideas and popular culture” (ibid).

  When some say, “I am spiritual but not religious,” that is esoteric philosophy. They believe that they have secret knowledge about living beyond God and reason. One of the tenets of Gnosticism is that there was no Savior and no redemption. Only a “phantasm” was on the Cross. Gnostics deny Jesus, and essentially violate all the commandments. False doctrines always dismiss the true Christ, and express secret knowledge. Many false religions did that in apostolic times, and Gnosticism just about overcame Christianity.

  The key verse says much against the philosophy of men and the vanity that goes along with superior knowledge. Christians have the knowledge of Christ, and understand the mystery of Jesus, but the philosophers only the rudimentary wisdom of the world. Philosophy is the original sin. There were two Trees, or doctrines, in the Garden of Eden: The Tree, or Doctrine of God, and the tree, or doctrine, of worldly knowledge. “Good” is spiritual knowledge and “evil,” carnal, or worldly knowledge. Knowledge that undermines God is evil because God can only be diminished, not killed!

  The following is a testimony: I fell for the rudimentary philosophy of men at one time. I trusted philosophers rather than God for healing.

  My son was addicted to marijuana. I could not persuade him to quit as he was sliding fast into the world of drugs. Rather than trust God for divine healing, I trusted a psychologist to “fix” my son. Unknown to me, and I was never told, psychologists never confess that they can “fix” anything; that only you or some unknown “higher power” (phantasm) can. In turned out that after two years, the clinic never “fixed” anything, but my son learned deceit. His new behavior was as if he was fixed, but only known to him, he was as addicted as ever. My trust was misplaced, but I remained too stupid to realize it.

  Because I was so grateful for outward change (legalism), I enrolled at WKU in the family counseling curriculum. There, I thought that I would learn secret knowledge; to learn how the psychologist fixed my son, not even realizing that he remained unfixable.

  It was there that I studied psychology and by God’s direction, the entire Bible on my own. I saw the contrast! In the former, I depended on me, and in the latter, I depended on God, or should have. (I was into legalism since I depended on myself).  I endeavored to serve “two masters” (Mat 6:24).

  Who should I trust, God or mammon? I decided to trust God. It was at that point that I surely became a true Christian. Belief in Jesus had not been enough. My conversion was when I trusted in Jesus in all things! My rebirth had “gestated” almost thirty years. (And we think one minute at the altar makes the new person!)

  Today, my trust is in Jesus and only Jesus in all things. I cannot fix myself, and neither can any philosophy. I have diminished Freud and Jung, and even Carl Rogers, and have elevated Jesus Christ to the Healer that He IS!

  My other son was heading toward divorce. He made an appointment with a family counselor. He may as well have come to his “know-it-all” Dad; the holder of “secret knowledge” that I could share with them, but I had no such knowledge. What I had learned was beyond fixing me or anyone else. There is no secret knowledge! Only the knowledge of God can heal. That is the mystery of which Paul wrote. The Colossians were searching for eternal health from Simon and the other “sorcerers” when Paul wrote to them about Christ perfecting.

  My son said, “This one is too tough for God.” I was astounded because nothing is too tough got the Almighty God!

  I finished my curriculum in family counseling but switched to education for my graduate degree. The Bible had educated me, and I turned away from “vain deceit.” Yes, psychology is deceptive as each and all theories undermine God. I have written this many times, but I asked Dr. Fong, “isn’t psychology just another religion?” She smiled and asked, “Are you just not finding that out?” I had been had. I had stepped into an esoteric belief system, thinking I was safe from deception! My philosophy had become syncretic as I worshiped the Philosophy Tree and The Truth Tree together as if they were the same!

  I am not the only one who fell for that “Big Lie.” Adam and Eve were first, and many sincere Christians still do. In the end, most will fall for the Big Lie. People love a mystery and accept secret knowledge instead. Stand warned; there is no secret knowledge because Jesus has already proclaimed the truth to the world!

(picture credit: All Psychology Schools)