What Are Sins Against Faith?

 You should understand that we are all people of faith and that with different systems, it’s not a matter of faith vs. reason, but faith vs. faith. Faith is trusting in what you have good reason to believe. Doubt is not a sin against faith but a necessary component. No one has perfect faith: God requires sincere, unfeigned faith. Note: even Christians can be guilty of these sins. A sin against that would obviously be anything done in “bad faith” or demonstrating “no faith.”

1. For instance, having blind faith or not knowing why you believe or believing for no good reason at all. Not knowing what or why you believe is a way of not believing at all.  Faith without rational evidence is blind faith! 
2. Another would be the escapism and crutch of skepticism or of not accepting faith at all as a system to find truth, though it is a philosophical fact that all knowledge begins in faith and is contingent. You must always commence with some presupposition you cannot prove or disprove.
3. Nihilism is another anti-faith belief system whereas one denies truth can be known or anything has real meaning at all, or that even nothing makes sense at all or has purpose or even can be known; basically belief in nothing at all.
4. Postmodernism is a threat that denies absolute, transcendent, objective truth can be found or established at all; basically, to them, all truth is “relative.” The catchphrase is “That may be true for you, but not for me!”
5. We live in a post-faith era whereas Secular Humanists believe that faith is the enemy and that the only reliable tool for gaining knowledge is the scientific method. Therefore, one must observe it or be able to measure it for it to be true. But they don’t realize they are putting faith in the scientific method, their own power of reason, other scientists, materialism, and naturalism.
6. New Age or New Spirituality says we can find truth in ourselves and the “God within.” There is no universal truth at all and dogma is unofficial and personal.
7. Pragmatists are also anti-faith in that they say the measure of an idea or system is not whether it is true but its results and effects.

Focusing On Worldviews...

Deciding who to vote for is more than getting what you want on some issue that you deem vital. They don't buy your vote! What you may see as the most important stand he takes may be of no value or consequence to the opponent. It is not a matter of having a wish list and whoever gives you what you want wins your vote. A person can be a godly person and have a Christian worldview, and still be wrong on something--no one is infallible and inerrant. There is such a thing as selfish voting for one's personal agenda to advance one's economic cause or predicament. We shouldn't be able to vote ourselves out of poverty. True decisions should be for the welfare of the people at large and not favoring one group with a bias. The government is of the people, by the people, and for the people (all the people!). What happens usually is that when someone gets elected he only feels beholden to those who put him there and fails to realize faithfulness and responsibility for all the people. Everything is not going to change when your candidate gets elected and it is just pie in the sky to hope that a would-be messiah will save our nation.

The most dangerous thing is an idea whose time has come and this is what we see now is new ideas that resonate with the people--a revolution in politics and things are not as usual and candidates march to the beat of a different drum. I've never seen such finger-pointing and using someone as a scapegoat. The campaigns seem like movements and I'm not the only one saying that--people are voting who have before felt disenfranchised--but I question the sincerity and naivete of the youth of our nation who don't realize that candidates basically make empty promises to get elected, and true competence is a rare commodity in the political arena.

I find myself agreeing with a candidate some of the time, and simultaneously finding him obnoxious and repugnant personally--but this is the way the common man in our nation is and they relate to him. I believe that "character counts" and one must have a candidate that God can use and can be trusted--God is the one who is really in control and is the one who ultimately decides our election, though we must be good citizens and vote the best we know-how. One can be right on a number of issues and still not have a Christian worldview--it is not a matter of who is right on the most issues like a math equation. Some politicians are more problem-solvers than ideologues or purists. Martin Luther said that he'd rather live under a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian--but I think he means one that doesn't think like a Christian (have a correct worldview) and is one in name only without conviction. God gives a nation the politicians it deserves and politics is dirty business according to Goethe and makes strange bedfellows--so we must beware that they all pander to a degree and are saying what they believe we want to hear.

What is problematic is when you find yourself agreeing in spirit with someone who doesn't qualify and may be dangerous. I'm not saying that there are parallels to the way Hitler had so much charisma and promised to make Germany great again (great slogans, but no record), but we have to look beyond the issues and the promises and really find out what kind of man we are voting for--can he be trusted? Do we want a candidate that appeals to our lower nature that is divisive? The litmus test: "Power tends to corrupt," says Lord Acton, and "absolute power corrupts absolutely"--can we trust them with the nuclear code or national secrets? After all, we are electing the diplomatic leader of the free world and the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces of our nation--not designated wheeler-dealer or deal-maker who thinks the path to prosperity is as simple as a trade war. As Bob Dylan sang: "The times, they are a-changin'." Promises have to be realistic and achievable, because anyone can just tell people what they want to hear and give their own solutions, but are they trying to buy votes with promises?

One must realize that in today's politics pragmatism rules and the test of the truth of an idea is its effects or whether it works. Adolf Hitler got a lot of success for that matter but was dead wrong--"the final solution" (making the Jews the scapegoat and eliminating them) looked like it was working. The end doesn't justify the means as pragmatists and utilitarians ultimately believe, and we can't just look at results to judge the morality of a law or action. Doing anything to win today's credo and saying anything to win is just politics as usual. The New Morality of today only looks at the motive and if one is sincere and well-meaning or doing it out of love, the methodology or the end result doesn't matter. In a Christian perspective, the motive, as well as the result or goal, must be concordant with Scripture and morality.

In the final analysis, we really don't know who God's man is until he wins and we acknowledge God's sovereignty. We do err in judging our fellow man for his political opinions, (no one has a monopoly on truth or wisdom) which may be due to ignorance of the biblical perspective, though he may be a Christian himself. No one is right on all the issues and should be crowned the king; we live in a democracy that respects everyone's right to vote their conscience and the way they see things in their world. Only God knows what is the most important issue--all we can do is vote according to what we know and our worldview and being willing to reach across the aisle and compromise to get things done in an otherwise dysfunctional government in gridlock. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Assault On Truth

"TRUTH forever on the scaffold, WRONG forever on the throne."--James Russell Lowell, The Present Crisis, 1844" TRUTH is that which corresponds with [describes] REALITY."--John Locke (now known as the correspondence theory of Truth)
"To begin learning, you must admit your IGNORANCE."--Socrates
"...as the TRUTH is in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21, NKJV).
"... Everyone who is of the TRUTH hears My voice" (John 18:37, NKJV).
"... [B]ecause they refused to love the TRUTH and so be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10, ESV).
"Politics without PRINCIPLE ."--one of the seven deadly sins that will destroy society per Mahatma Gandhi
"These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A LYING tongue..." (Proverbs 6:17-17, NKJV).
"Only simpletons believe EVERYTHING they're told" (Proverbs 14:15, NLT).
"If the FOUNDATIONS are destroyed, What can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3, NKJV).
"No nation has ever survived the loss of its gods."--George Bernard Shaw
"The simple believe ANYTHING..." (Proverbs 14:15, NIV). (ALL EMPHASIS MINE.)


Who would ever think that someday the very notion of truth would come into the debate, not just not knowing what it is like Pilate, but denying it exists--this is Postmodernism! There is no universal belief, but there is universal truth.
NB: WE LIVE IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA NOW POLITICALLY.

Pres. Trump has told at least 118 outright lies in less than a year in office, according to an investigative report team of The New York Times, while Obama told a mere total of 18 combined in his two terms--not exaggerations, nor differences of judgment or opinion, mistakes, or misspeaking, but proven lies with evidence! For example, he claimed to have signed more bills than any president except one in his first year (which is a big fat lie); however, he delegitimizes the "mainstream press," because they didn't cover this so-called fact, or, in reality, a lie of his. He claimed that 3-5 million illegal aliens voted for Clinton to give her the popular vote with no basis in fact or evidence to substantiate it. 

 Yet despite these prevarications, his base hasn't yet realized that our president is a congenital, habitual, boldfaced, shameless, pathological liar and the truth is not in him--he will even prevaricate about easily verified data that can be Googled! What's more, he repeats his lies and refuses to correct them or own up to them. The joke around the Beltway being circulated is that George Washington said, "I cannot tell a lie," Richard Nixon couldn't tell the truth, Jimmy Carter promised not to lie, but Donald J. Trump cannot tell the difference! It is even said of Trump that he lies even when the truth will do and won't do him any harm.


Basically, his base relies on FOX News and his Twitter feed for their information and news flashes and to be informed of the latest news cycle, twisted in favor of the president's viewpoint. If you only rely on one source of input or worldview you'll lose your discernment! FOX News is unapologetic about the president and refuses to criticize him, even if he is patently wrong. Breitbart News is the president's propaganda machine armed by his self-proclaimed "wingman," Steven Bannon, a right-wing party hardliner, called a "white nationalist" and a spokesman in his media for the "alt-right," which is set against the establishment GOP. Trump resents a free press and strives to discredit it, realizing it inhibits his power and authority and is a wannabe despot who is only limited by our governmental system of checks and balances, which he wants to destroy and discredit because he doesn't want restraint on his agenda, power, and authority.


How is it that the public tolerate such lies coming from the top? Some even know it and are unconcerned or apathetic, even thinking it doesn't matter. Pragmatism is not concerned with truth, but what works, or results, as the effectiveness of an idea or policy. People just believe in what "works" for them! We live in the age of Postmodernism, whereby truth is individualized and relative to a situation, person, or time: "You've got to change with the times!" \

Everything is in a state of flux. The citizenry doesn't know what truth is any better than Pilate, who asked Christ at his trial: "What is truth?" People are simply clueless and think truth is unknowable, and you cannot claim to speak for it. Our president has the so-called bully pulpit to propagate his dangerous ideas and notions, and more than that, we have a bully in the pulpit! He spends a large portion of his time insulting various constituencies politicians and opponents he deems his enemies in a paranoid mindset.


Joseph Goebbels, the "notorious chief of Nazi propaganda," believed in telling big lies or whoppers and frequent lies to fool and brainwash or condition the common man, in his ignorance (Scripture says the simpleton believes anything in Prov. 14:15) --a large section of Trump's base is uneducated working-class folks who don't know how to fact-check, or do any research. They are mostly highly gullible and don't think for themselves or make up their own opinions--but are just sponges of the conservative media and radio hosts (they're also called ditto-heads). These naive people buy into the lies of the alternative universe of Trump politics. Trump couldn't be truer to the ideas of Joseph Goebbels, "notorious chief of Nazi Propaganda, because he is engaged in propaganda himself, telling lies over and over again until they get accepted, even big lies a la Goebbels, and never admitting error or that it was a lie, and to this day he has never admitted being wrong or apologized for it. The president sees it as a sign of weakness to say, "I'm sorry!" or "I was wrong!" Never before has any president been able to lie with such impunity and unchallenged by his partisans.


In the final analysis, education is going from an unconscious to a conscious awareness of your ignorance, and Trump doesn't seem to gain anything by O.J.T. and his learning curve is extremely low. As Socrates said, you will never arrive at the truth, unless you admit you could be wrong! No one has a monopoly on wisdom or truth and doesn't need feedback, rebuke, or correction by others at times when he makes mistakes--if you've never made a mistake, you've never made anything, goes the proverb. In modern terminology, truth has become "a short-term contract," and, even if knowable, not communicable--denying universal and objective truth (true whether believed or not), there's no Truth with a capital T! In sum, it's the truth that's under siege and Christians must not stand in the sidelines, (1 Tim. 6:12, NKJV, says, "Fight the good fight of faith..."), but make their stand clear and declare their Christian colors, even if it means going solo: The true statesman will stand for the truth, declare his colors, and let the chips fall where they may in a posture of moral courage. (By definition: Believing something doesn't make it true, and not believing it doesn't make it false or wrong.


CAVEAT: Just like the emperor who wore no clothes, many of the leaders of the GOP know in their hearts that Trump is a liar, but for the sake of self-preservation and survival instinct, and because they want to look out for Number One; Job One is protection of party reputation and their job security. They refuse to acknowledge this because it would be political suicide, as they are also afraid of Trump's base, and in effect, they are his ENABLERS and are equally guilty of dismantling our democracy and its foundations under the rule of law, the US Constitution being the supreme law of the land.


Two germane verses from the Word come to mind: "Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, That they would consider their latter end!" (Deut. 32:29, NKJV). "The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3, NLT).

I deplore the reality that the day has finally arrived for politicians to be more concerned with public opinion than the truth and/or principle; how can a man call something crooked, if he has no idea what straight is? The truth does matter, whether we realize it or not, Jesus said in John 18:37, NKJV, "... Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." As a word to the wise is sufficient: Paul depicts unbelievers as those "who suppress the truth" (cf. Rom. 1:18) and who "reject the truth" (cf. Rom. 2:8; Titus 1:14). He also says they "exchange the truth of God for a lie" (cf. Rom. 1:25). Their judgment draws nigh: "because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they may be saved ... that they should believe the lie" (2 Thess. 2:10-11, NKJV). We can only hope if perchance God may do a work of grace in their conversion: "... Perhaps God will change their mind and give them a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:25, CEB).


Knowing this, one realizes that the truth is the antiseptic of error and wrongdoing and we must never give up fighting the "good fight" (cf. 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7) for Him who came to bear witness of the truth (cf. John 18:37). Paul tells Titus that the "acknowledgment of the truth ... accords with godliness" (Titus 1:2, NKJV). One should never feel he has a monopoly on the truth, has cornered the market, or closed his mind to new ideas whose time has come--no one has all the truth! Note and apply Paul's admonition: "And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?" (1 Cor. 14:8, ESV). Those of us who know what to do should declare our colors and take our stand, as the immortal words in Esther 4:14, NKJV, say, "... Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"


There is a condition to finding truth: "Science says to sit down before the facts as a little child, be prepared to go up every preconceived notion, be willing to be led to whatever end Nature will lead you, or you will know nothing." Finally, bear in mind, in the search for ultimate truth, the immortal axiom of St. Augustine: "All truth is God's truth," and similarly of St. Thomas Aquinas, "All truth meets at the top." Soli Deo Gloria!