The division continues because some are harder to persuade than others. Even Christianity requires persuasion because the human will is stubborn.
Before skepticism is examined, consider the human “will”. It is a faculty of the mind that makes decisions. Given multiple choices, the cognitive individual will choose one that makes the most sense for the individual. Hence, humans are biased toward an outcome that will favor themselves.
Even charity and social justice are difficult to isolate from individualism because most normal people think of themselves as “good”. If anyone disagrees with that perception, think about how good it feels to help someone in need. Of course, narcissistic personalities and masochists are excluded from that generalization.
God wants you to be skeptical! That is a bold statement because skeptics are agnostic: “One who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). It is not that they are apathetic but only that they must be persuaded. Almost persuaded is not convinced.
King Agrippa was agnostic; to wit: After presenting the gospel truth about Jesus, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.’” (Acts 26:28). Agrippa was never persuaded so far as it is known. He remained a skeptic, and as such, according to what he disbelieved, he was damned.
Persuasion is “an opinion held with complete assurance” (ibid). Convincing arguments are persuasive, but most often “proof” never comes. Persuasion is when offered multiple choices, the most reasonable one is accepted as viable.
Most of my life, I was not fully persuaded because I am a skeptic. You are as well, but if you are not, you need to be! I am of strong opinions.
One reason that I am is to look at the consequences of a wrong opinion. For Agrippa, he never considered strongly, that if he was wrong, what the outcome would be. The outcome of disbelief, according to scripture, is eternal death.
For me, it has always been pragmatic to believe that God died for my sins, because not only is their evidence of that, but it is pragmatic as well. Disbelief is a huge gamble, but agnostics accept the gamble even with the severe consequences. They choose their own death!
On the other hand, most people are not agnostic, and neither are they skeptical. Scripture has a word for them as well: “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). Agrippa was not a fool; he was skeptical, but his own strong opinion outweighed the evidence. The evidence is two-fold: (1) Agrippa had seen God face-to-Face when he looked upon Jesus, and (2) he had seen the creation generated by God.
Agrippa should have considered the facts more intensely. How could this man perform all those miracles, even raise people from the dead? How was it that he died, yet still lived? What happened to the securely guarded body of this dead man? How did the persecutor, Saul, become the apostle Paul? Then he should have looked around and asked himself, “From where did all that I see come?” Of course, the answer to that is, God’s create and if truly a “god” then only One God would be needed for creation.
For me, the skepticism was allayed for two reasons: (1) For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20), and (2) the internal consistency that God generated and has the power to regenerate existence as claimed from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21… from start to finish with no discontinuities. The same God that clothed Adam and Eve with protective skins of lambs is the same God that preserves mankind until the end.
Agrippa had a reason to disbelieve. If Jesus was King, then he would not be. If he had been more thoughtful, he would have thought, I am king so long as Caesar allows, or I die, but Jesus is King forever. You can use the same logic: I am my own master so long as I live or the government allows it, but Jesus is The Master forever.
Pilate thought that he was in charge whether Jesus lived or died. Jesus set him straight, that he was doing only what God purposed him to do! Pilate was also almost persuaded. He did find Jesus innocent, which He was. However, he remained skeptical whether Jesus is God or not!
People have many different ideas as to what it takes to become a Christian. Some say it is the water and others other types of works. Scripture throughout dismisses any type of physical work (Greek, ergon). On the other hand, it requires mental activity; that which is called “cognition” — the selection process of the brain to determine all that people do and to, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). The Greek word translated “work” therein is katergazomai; “to render one fit for a thing” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon from Sophocles and Herorutus down).
How does anyone “render”? Toss it around it the mind; peruse the evidence and form an opinion. And what opinion is that “thing”? Whether to convert one’s thoughts to believe and trust in Jesus. That is what Jesus alluded to when he said, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and used the example of those injected with the deadly virus to look at the dead serpent that Moses was holding aloft. [i]
Jews believed that the Hebrews were saved by whom they looked toward and trusted. They saw the dead serpent, but their minds saw why the serpent was dead and who killed the serpent. Then they trusted Jesus without ever seeing Jesus face-to-Face.
The work of their bodies was futile, but their thoughts saved them. They saw Jesus behind the scenes working miracles and decided could be miraculously healed. That was pragmatic.
Foolish men would not look at the serpent because they feared the truth — that they would have to quit depending on their own devices and depend on God. Skeptics look at the evidence but still deny it as evidentiary because their own skewed thoughts are supreme to truth. People just will not let go of versions of the truth and seek the truth regardless of the pain it may cause. It hurts when anyone realizes that they are not their own masters! It also hurts to be wrong, especially when so ingrained in a fallacy.
Paul was dealing with handmade idols and those merchandising them to people who thought that wood and such had power. “Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands” (Acts 19:26). Paul converted them unto whom to trust… to cease trusting idols made by human hands, but to trust the human “Hand’ of God made by the True God.
Paul always used persuasion. Fools would never have listened to the evidence, but skeptics would. Before Paul could fully persuade that Jesus is God, he first had to persuade them that their gods were not! He used persuasion for them to work out their salvation. Never did God ask the Jews not to think, but only never to work on the Sabbath, even ergonomically.
Paul changed their high opinion of their own thoughts. They thought that the works of mans’ hands could save them. Still, agnostics cannot accept that dunking another with the hands of a man is not saving! They trust the preacher’s activities more so than the blood and water flowing from the Savior as soterial.
Adam was skeptical. God had forewarned them to eat of the forbidden
free would result in death. God wanted Adam to be skeptical! That is why
he allowed Satan to be in the Garden Paradise. Adam saw Eve eat. Follows is his
likely thought process:
(1) I do not know what death is because I have never seen death.
(2) I think I know that death is when the heart stops and I can no longer walk in the Garden.
(3) I know Eve. She is the same kind as I am.
(4) Eve ate, and I saw no change.
(5) Therefore, God must be wrong, and
(6) Thus, I will eat as well and disregard God’s Word.
Adam’s thoughts were superior to God’s truths. God still warns of that: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:9). Skeptics, therefore, can never outthink, outwit, out last, or out maneuver the All-Knowing God, but mankind still thinks they can.
Pilate asked of Jesus, “What is truth?” Truth is reality, and the truth was at that time, that they were killing the Man who existed to save them from themselves!
Skeptics demand, “Prove that!” The evidence was left in hundreds of dispositions left by people with nothing to gain for it, who under persecution, were willing to die for the truth to be revealed.
Then look at the Creation. Who planned and generated it all? “Nobody,” they insist, “It just happened!” Who is the fool for thinking that way? That goes beyond skepticism to outright ignorance for things cannot happen without a cause or a catalyst!
Unlike Adam, Eve was naïve. She had only the knowledge of
good and could not comprehend evil. She was like those of today who believe
whatever the one in charge says. The first thing, the serpent persuaded Eve that
she was in charge, and not God. [ii] It
would be easy to persuade her to eat the poisonous fruit. All that she knew was
good, and Satan made the fruit look good to Eve. He persuaded her
by pointing to the “bright object” so to speak and all that she could see was “good”
and neglected to even heed what God had warned about the inside of the fruit.
She should have been more skeptical:
(1) How is this serpent speaking?
(2) What is in it for him whether I eat or not?
(3) What is inside the fruit?
(4) The serpent has pretty colors on the outside but how does he look inside?
(5) What is so important to God what I eat?
(6) Explain to me, Mr. Serpent, just what is life and death?
(7) Is the fruit merely good-looking and tasteful, but are there side effects?
(8) Who is the all-knowing and who is deceptive?
She could have been much more skeptical than that. God wanted her to know the knowledge of good, but she ended up knowing evil as well, and she was sorry for her lack of inquiry. The truth is that God wants inquiring minds!
I have commented on the poison that was jabbed into the Hebrews in the day of Moses. I have also commented on the “poison” induced into the flesh of Adam and Eve when the Serpent convinced them to partake of his elixir. Now, how about the here and now?
The governing authorities and the media are as cunning as the serpent. They present much truth but leave out vital information. Adam and Eve knew nothing of death but did not even ask the Serpent pertinent questions. The result is they died spiritually inside where it went unnoticed, and they also began to wither so slowly that it too was undetectable. It took Adam 930 years to wither and die, and Eve even less. They looked only at the present and failed to seek the long-term side effects of even delicious fruit.
They died inside at that moment because they became master of their own destiny. Then when their fig leaves failed to alleviate the emptiness inside, God had mercy on their new selves and made coats of skin so that the darts of the Serpent [iii] could not penetrate to their flesh.
Now for the current subtilty: Many, even friends, are ostracizing me for not taking the jab. I too am skeptical; I admit that! Even calling it a “vaccine” makes me unsure.
A vaccine is a dead virus injected into the patient so if they have contact with a live virus, their own God-given immune system will preserve them. The jabs are called “vaccines” because makers of vaccines are immune from liability of deaths result from those who have been vaccinated. Calling non-vaccines “vaccines” is a warning that they are not what they seem to be! What is more, suddenly the truth was changed on paper; vaccines were redefined by the dictionary. The jab did not change, but only what it was called to make it sound good, just like the serpent presenting dangerous fruit as good!
In years past, the FDA was established for one reason: to prevent dangerous or foreign substances to be introduced into the system of people who would not or could not do that for themselves. They would take whatever was produced as if it was good.
The “vaccines” are experimental and are not approved by the FDA. The Federal Drug Administration, the government themselves, say the truth: This is an experiment and if you take this concoction, you are the experiment!
Humans are not guinea pigs but sometimes are less inquiring than even Pavlov’s dog would be. It must be good, they think, even without knowing it is good, and they salivate at the thought of ingesting a substance that looks good but might be evil. Vaccinated people are of two kinds: Adams or Eves. The latter is not inquiring and eat whatever is low-hanging fruit. Some are more cautious, like Adam, and wait and see. Adam waited a few moments then ate. How long should he have waited? Until he saw the long-term effects and see inside Eve what had changed.
God only wanted that the two take His Word over their own ineffective cognition. They were deceived by the cunning of the Serpent, but it was their own skeptical thinking that caused Satan to persuade them to follow his doctrine — that they shall not die if they crossed God. The solution to that is to persuade skeptics and fools that God IS Truth; that the words of others must be analyzed. It is not the water that saves, but the gray matter of the brain convinced that God’s Thoughts are greater than their thoughts!
By thinking of God, indeed, those with inquiring minds will be persecuted for His Name sake. [iv] This day, I was persecuted by some who were trying to humiliate me for having an inquiring mind. In effect, the woman said, You accept the government’s advise without questioning. Is that what Nazism did? People obeyed orders and did not question the ethics or morality of people being killed. Are we today persuaded by neo-Nazis to do as they say? Certainly, the intimidation has commenced already.
Believing lying or deceptive lips can be not only physically debilitating but also cause spiritual despondence. Beware of possible perversions of the truth by those who you do not even know!
(picture credit: SnowBrains; "Human Brain")
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