A Circle of Secrets (Telephone Part 2)
Yesterday, I talked about the dangers of misunderstood communication (with the game of Telephone as an example). And I promised I’d share how that can influence and change the church. For example, the Bible doesn’t say “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” anywhere in Scripture. I’ve heard that it is actually in the Jewish books of wisdom, though. But it made it into regular church vernacular enough that many of us grew up thinking it was in the Bible.
Also, it never says there were 3 wise men, or that the wise men were kings, and yet we sing about it every Christmas. Oh, but wait, it doesn’t say a thing about Christmas either, but we can be relatively certain that December isn’t the correct season for the miraculous birth of Messiah. Yet, we create full programs and times of devotion around the season. And we surround our manger scenes with “angels” wearing halos not knowing that the word “halo” comes from the Greek word “Hélios” meaning “sun” and from the practice of sun worship.
The Bible does say to study to show yourself approved, and it warns that the ignorant may twist words (in the case of the Scripture reference, Paul’s words) to their own destruction.
2 Timothy 2:15 NLT
[15] Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.
https://bible.com/bible/116/2ti.2.15.NLT
2 Peter 3:16 CSB
[16] He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.
https://bible.com/bible/1713/2pe.3.16.CSB
I’m not saying these things in fault-finding accusations or demanding that people stop celebrating Christmas or singing We Three Kings, but rather I’m sharing as a wakeup call to understand how quickly and easily truth can be distorted until it looks totally different. There’s a great article about 8 things many believe after having been taught incorrectly at Christian Publishing House and it even included one I was taught and believed, but nope, there is no archeological or historical evidence of a gate in Jerusalem called “The Eye of the Needle” where camels must be unloaded before they can pass through. Of course, there are way more than 8, but this should stir Christians to seek truth and not just take what they’ve been taught to hear without first using research and prayer to confirm it.
One of my personal issues is found in the statements of faith for almost every church and religion. It’s the oft-repeated phrase “God in three persons,” also used in the song “Holy, Holy, Holy,” which is unsupported by Scripture many times, but especially in Colossians 2:9 where it says…
Colossians 2:9 CSB
[9] For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,
https://bible.com/bible/1713/col.2.9.CSB
God does reveal Himself in a triune nature, but only one body (person), and the three are One…
1 John 5:7 KJV
[7] For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
https://bible.com/bible/1/1jn.5.7.KJV
But we would never say “God in three spirits” or “God in three fathers” so why do we say “God in three persons”? And it does matter because there’s a huge difference in “these three are One” and “this One is three.” The latter supports multitheism and can cause those raised in monotheistic religions to refuse to seek the grace and mercy of Christ that Christianity teaches. These three are One being (and in only one human person) does not deny the Tri-Unity/Trinity, but rather defines it according to Scripture. And it makes it even more clear how we are made In His Image since we also have one body, one soul, and one spirit that all dwell fully as one being inside one body. And it clarifies the juxtaposition of the two verses in John 14:16 and John 14:18 where YahShua says He will ask the Father to send The Comforter and then says “I will come to you.”…
John 14:16, 18 KJV
[16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
(VERSUS)
[18] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.14.16-18.KJV
But somewhere along the line, the spiritual game of Telephone created these and many other mistaken understandings. Too many people are okay to start rumors, like whoever started all the ones about atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair wanting to take religious programming off radio and TV. They later added that Dr. Dobson requested signed petitions to prevent it. And that hoax became so widely circulated that the FCC had to create a special phone number just to deal with calls on that subject. The hoax said they needed 1 million petitions to the FCC, and the FCC said they quit counting when it reached 25 million. That was in 1994. While it’s good that so many Christians are passionate about our religious freedom, this also shows how prominent a lie can become. It was one I also believed many years ago as a new Christian.
Too many are content to believe things at face value when they come from a trusted source. I’ve mentioned in other posts that I believed the Neiman Marcus cookie hoax because I heard it at a Tupperware meeting where I trusted the leadership sources. But every one of us needs to seek truth and guard it when we find it. With AI growing, it’s getting harder to tell real stuff from deep fakes, so all of us must be careful both inside and outside the spiritual realm. I’m beginning to understand how spiritual changes have taken place for so many years, even centuries back when Israelites believed untruths presented by someone with a loud voice or high position. Will you join me in becoming a truth seeker no matter how many waves it creates?
And just to end on a lighter note, I found an article with all kinds of ideas for the Telephone game (also called Chinese Whispers) at https://k12loop.com/hilarious-broken-telephone-game-phrases-prompts/ and that makes me want to play the game again.
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The Preacher and The Pig
You never know what unknown history you might uncover by looking at the various sites telling why a day is special. Remember the one I found with the story of milking a cow on an airplane? And today, I could’ve used the story about the guy who delivered a 250-pound cheese ball to the White House, but then I saw something else that grabbed my curiosity. It was about a trial in the year 1521, and the trial was at “A Diet of Worms.”
Are you saying “huh?” right now? Me, too! I’ll start with the simple thing, the definition of the word diet in 1500s Europe…
From the Shun Keto website: The word diet has had different meanings throughout history. In the political context, a diet refers to a formal deliberative assembly, such as the German Imperial Diet, which was the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.
One of those assemblies in the “Holy Roman Empire” was called A Diet of Worms and it was the assembly that tried Martin Luther in 1521. And it was on April 17th, thus it showed up in my daily history search.
Now, in case you’re wondering about the image and title for this blog, it is a reference to one of history’s most awful acts of anti-semitism. And I only learned about it when studying a book called “Holy to Yahveh” by Terrye Goldblum Seedman about 20 years ago. I was only able to find one copy at Thrift Books, but maybe by leaving a link here, it can help people find it elsewhere by seeing the cover image.
In her book, the author talks about how hard Martin Luther tried to convert Jews to Christianity as he understood it. When he failed to convert the masses, he got extremely angry and created an 8 point outline for killing them and removing all knowledge of their religious practices from the world. He called it “The Jews and Their Lies” and his suggestions for their destruction were followed by Hitler during the Holocaust. She doesn’t include all of it, but just a small part of it says…
First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly and I myself was unaware of it will be pardoned by God.
Another part of his behavior she covered in the book was about how he carved an image of a pig over a door to keep the Jews out of his church. I looked for information on that to see if that’s why he was on trial, and I was shocked to see it was far worse than just a carving of a pig. It’s a detailed portrayal of Jewish men doing perverted acts with a pig. I didn’t make it large enough to see the details, but I’m shocked that anyone who calls themself a minister of God and His Holy Word would commission something so disgusting. It’s called The Judensau, and Wikipedia has a full article on the one at Wittenberg. Yes, apparently there are more than one of these. Yuck!
So, I know this is a little less positive than most of what I share on this blog, but since the date popped up in “This Day in History” searches, I’m sharing what I’ve learned. My hope is that when you see how far off one man can go, and then you look at how much influence those off-kilter thoughts can have, you’ll understand the desperate need to study God’s Word and get a solid understanding of it in your own life. Even Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, ended up building an altar to at least one false god for one of his wives.
It’s sad that humans can fail so miserably, and I’m also reading about plenty of failures on the parts of the Jews in the Bible as I read Isaiah right now. It’s not an excuse for anti-semitism, and they all paid heavy prices (like years in bondage) for their failures, but we have a God who does not desire to see any of us perish for our failures. That’s why He provides the blood of Christ to save us from our sins. Whether preachers end up riding pigs or riding circuits to get a solid gospel from God’s Word to the masses, they are still human, so I encourage you to follow the biblical instruction that, if you think you are standing, take heed lest you fall. Keep a healthy appetite for The Bible, and study to show yourself approved unto God. It’s your safest place to avoid the traps in this world.
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Proverbs 26: Fools, Slackers, Meddlers, Gossips, and Liars
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
We often see the quote, “Hurt people hurt people,” but I’ve never fully agreed with that. From my own experiences, and what I’ve seen in others who experienced hurt, hurt people often become extremely empathetic to the pain of others. They would never cause it intentionally. But a fool doesn’t function that way.
In Psalm 14:1, we read…
Psalms 14:1a WEBUS
[1] The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
https://bible.com/bible/206/psa.14.1.WEBUS
Today’s reading in Proverbs Chapter 26 deals a lot with fools in addition to other types of people who tend to regularly hurt other people. The chapter begins with a sort of what’s wrong with this picture statement…
Proverbs 26:1 WEBUS
[1] Like snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.26.1.WEBUS
Though the little kids immediately run to play under the snowing tree in the summertime, the adults are likely confused by this oddity. Snow is a winter thing with maybe a few surprise downpours at the end of fall and beginning of spring. But by the time summer and lemonade show up, it’s definitely not right to have snow–even over only one tree. And it’s not right to give honor and preference to a foolish person, especially with what is likely in their hearts. Verse 8 even tells us what we are like if we’re the one who offers honor to a fool…
Proverbs 26:8 WEBUS
[8] As one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a fool.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.26.8.WEBUS
It makes sense. What good would a rock tied into a sling do when you need to throw it. Like those old, dangerous toys called “Klick-Klacks” or “Clackers,” (there’s an interesting article about that toy at A Woman’s World magazine online) it’s a recipe for disaster. And it would certainly not help you with hunting–or killing giant Philistines. We must not assign improper honor based on our feelings. Like saying, “God bless you” to a person who would only dig deeper into their sins if they only had blessings and no struggles to make them stop and look at their conditions. It’s not loving to honor and uplift someone who’s stuck in foolishness and needs a jolt of reality to repent and be set free.
Verses 3-12 have so much more to say about fools than I can put here. It’s almost a blog post already created for April 1st. 😁 Verse 11 is the saddest one as it says that a fool never learns…
Proverbs 26:11 WEBUS
[11] As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.26.11.WEBUS
Verses 13-16 switch subjects and talk about slackers, or sluggards in the World English Bible. And since verse 16 says the slacker is wise in his own eyes, I’m guessing the teacher is showing the slacker is just another type of fool. He then switches subjects again and begins talking about meddlers who (again foolishly) meddle in others’ business and how it’s like grabbing a dog by the ears. We know what happens there. I’m not sure if the joker in verses 18-19 is the same meddler from verse 17, but saying he was only joking doesn’t fix his offenses either way.
As the chapter finishes out with verses 20-28, the subject turns to gossip. It seems this gossip is a contentious liar who hates those he makes into his victims. He is somehow able to convince people to listen (silver-covered lips speaking dainty morsels in verses 22-23), but when things turn on the listener, that one will become even more of a victim because the hateful gossip will convince him it’s all his fault. I see this manipulation as the gossip being yet another type of fool: an arrogant one. But back in verse 20, we get the wisdom that if we just don’t allow the words of the gossip to spread, the quarrels will die like a fire with no fuel.
So this chapter didn’t have a lot of happy blessings to hand out unless you consider warnings that protect you from being victimized as its own type of blessing. I do. And I’m thankful for wisdom that works hand-in-hand with discernment to protect us. Sadly, we often let our feelings get in the way of both discernment and wisdom, but that’s where walking with God helps us get through the hard places in this life, even if we brought them on ourselves. But, there is one huge piece of good news in this chapter, so I’ll end with what it says in verse 2…
Proverbs 26:2 WEBUS
[2] Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved curse doesn’t come to rest.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.26.2.WEBUS
It seems out of place in this chapter, but it’s a statement of faith to undo the lies and harms of the subjects in all the other verses. Resist even the accusations of foolish ramblings and know their manipulative curses will not be able to stand against you and rest in your life.
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