"For the word (Logos) of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
(1 Corinthians 1:18--NASB)
A friend of mine once asked a translator in Romania, "How do I know you're translating what I say?" The Romanian said, "Well, if I like what you're saying, I will translate it. If I don't, I'll say what I want to say." Even though he was joking, this is exactly what is happening today in much of Christendom with the "word of the cross."
In the last one hundred years of Church history, influential theologians did not like what the "God-Breathed" Word was saying, so they began to, "say what I want to say." I experienced this for myself in seminary. "I am the way, the truth and the life" no longer means, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It means, "I don't like such authoritarianism. We are such a kind, understanding, open-minded, magnanimous people, we cannot have a religion like that. We'll tell people, 'Well, that isn't what Jesus said; that's what John said Jesus said." These fools are, "those who are perishing."
My "formative" years were shaped by a man who loved Jesus Christ with all his heart, who loved, preached, and taught exegetically the Word of God, and was the most effective soul winner I have ever known, for which I can only say, "Thank You, Lord Jesus!" I saw the Word of God in our home. By the time I got to the university and graduate school, the anti-Christ system was too late. I had been ruined for them by the Blessed Trinity, Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit (whom my Dad often referred to as, His Blessed Majesty, the Holy Ghost), a strong Church example, and parents who were living examples of, "the word of the cross."
If you have no such heritage today, start one! Someone once said, "A man with an argument is no match for a man with experience." Our heritage is not argument. We are "those who are being saved" by "the word of the cross." This Word is "written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, of the heart." No power in Hell or in the earth can take that from you.
Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You that I saw You more than "heard" You when I was growing up. May others see just as much of You in me, as they hear of You from me. Amen.
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Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
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