[TruthTalk] The Right Way To Get To The Truth

[Judy Taylor]

John writes: The claim was, people live what they believe.   My answer was "not always."   Was Samson a believer  --   a man who couldn't get women off the brain, was spiteful and vengeful and died an ignoble death of revenge?   What about Noah, his drunkenness and immorality with his daughters?  And Abraham, when he decided to manipulate the promise of God with Ishmael?   Or Jacob's deceit of his father, or Jonah's persistent refusal to do God's bidding and his anger at God's success.     jt: Wow! The above looks like Bible Study in reverse ie sifting scripture in search of sin and sorrow. To answer your questions (assuming they are sincere - I'm told that mine was not). Sadly Samson in his youthful folly did not listen; he broke his vow as a Nazarite for which he paid dearly - but what you see as a spiteful, vengeful ignoble death of revenge pleased God because at the end he rose in faith one more time to defend the cause of God and he managed to kill more Philistines in his death than he had done in all of his life (Judges 16:20); this can't be all bad since he is included in the Chapter of faith (Hebrews 11:32). Noah's drunkenness/immorality is not a good example but he is the only one in his generation who found grace in God's eyes and he was to be honored as a father Ham was punished and made a lifelong servant for "uncovering his nakedness" (the other brothers had more sense) and the fruit of Noah's immorality with his daughters became the Moabites/Canaanite Nations leading to even more grief for the people of God. Sarah was complicit with Abraham in trying to perform God's promise after the flesh and we are today reaping the consequences of that choice. God had chosen Jacob rather than Esau and would have given him the birthright with or without his help - What can I say about Jonah other than that 'he learned obedience by the things suffered because of his folly' as per his prayer in the belly of the whale "Those who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy" (Jonah 2:8) which is genuine repentance from the belly of the whale. We are told that the things written aforetime were written for our learning so that we don't repeat the same mistakes. Also on this side of Calvary we have the indwelling Spirit and insight into the realm of the spirit that old Covenant saints were not privy to and so more is expected from us.   Or your judgmentalism or my sarcasm or ----------------  you get the point.    Linda just got through reminding me that there was was none righteous, "no not one."     jt: I believe it was I who quoted Romans John - unless Linda did also and I missed it.    Our righteousness is as filthy rags before the Lord.   Soooooooooooooooo,,,   no one is left to believe if our actions always demonstrate what we really believe and know to be true?      jt: No John, God has always and will always have a people. They may not be the majority but they will be there and they will make their presence known by faith in his great and precious promises, that is by acting upon and their example will be one of righteousness rather than a life of sin and shame. (Hebrews 11) So we need to focus on their victories rather than where they missed it.   Indefensible in my book.  The only reason "confession" works is because it is a statement of regret for sins and a pronoucement that we want agreement between what we already believe and our activity.   Do a word study on "confession."  You will find at its root this notion of agreement.     jt: I have already studied confession John and I understand it to be agreement with God; it is when we say what He has said already about the situation.  ATST this is never possible without spiritual discernment.