Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
In my efforts to witness for the Lord and share my faith, I have recently encountered two very dogmatic men. One is a Calvinist, the other a Catholic. I am also dogmatic. I am firm in my faith and in wavering in my convictions. In the case of these two, they could not converse with me without accusations. It is not difficult to see how they would both have felt justified in persecuting me in a different setting and at another time in history. The Catholic man called my understanding of both history and Scripture “lies.”
I wanted to point out that he and I looked at the same evidence from different perspectives. He could only see that my perspective was a lie. He did not believe that I had succumbed to a lie but that I was a liar because I interpreted the evidence the way I did.
Lie, Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines the word,
“A criminal falsehood; a falsehood uttered for the purpose of deception; an intentional violation of truth. Fiction, or a false statement or representation, not intended to deceive, mislead or injure, as in fables, parables and the like, is not a lie.”
The forefathers of my faith were tortured in some of the cruelest manners for precisely this definition. Those who disagreed with their understanding of the Bible, salvation, and the church that Jesus promised to build could not see their understanding as a different way to interpret the Word of God. They viewed their interpretation as a criminal falsehood. And they frequently killed them for it.
How can men ever grow if the exchange of ideas, even those we may strongly disagree with, is suppressed?
To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.
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