Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Indoctrination~ In 1959 a very controvercial book was published that was titled "The Manchurian Candidate, by Rickhard Condon. It is a political thriller about the soldier son of a prominent U.S. political family that is captured by the Chinese in during the Korean war, and it 'brainwashed' into becoming an assassin for a Communist conspiracy. It became a best seller, and eventually made into a movie in 1962, and a remake in 2004. Another word for 'brainwashing' is indoctrination. In the brainwashing process, the agent systematically breaks down the target's identity to the point that it competely removes the target's current social, political or religious paradigms, and replaces them with new paradigms that work to the agent's advantage. This type of indoctrination is very insidious, because the victim does not realize that their congnitive and emotional processes have been altered to the extent that they can no longer recognize truth from lies. There are those in today's world that through a deliberate and subtle long term process have been forced by indoctrination to believe lies as if they are the truth. It is easy to see that this has and is still occurring in many aspects of life, especially in politics and religion. If this is NOT apparent to you, then you HAVE BEEN brainwashed. The Devil has had over 2000 years to perfect the deception in making it look like the lies that he has had propogated through the words of the 'aposlte' Paul are the truth. This subtle and insidious propganda has 'converted' the very words of God from an asset to the Christian church to a liability in the knowing a practicing the Truth. If you claim that you are a Christian today you simply MUST believe the words of Paul above and beyond the words that Jesus gave to His own disciples. "See to it that no one deceives you."

"Style"~ A friend of mine posted an interesting video today on Face Book, that showed BB King explaining where his 'style' came from. He cited 3 players that he thought had a unique sound, and tried to incorporate their sound into his playing in order to create a 'unique' playing style. In Back to the Future #1 Marty McFly (Michael J.. Fox) was playing guitar at the 'Enchantment Under the Sea' dance as a fill in for Marivin Berry, the injured lead guitarist, who heard Marty's riffs, and liked them so much he called his cousin, Chuck Berry, so he could hear the 'style'. When a musician tries to copy 'style' it never turns out exactly like the sound of the original, because the two players are do not have the same physiology, or musical identity. Musical style is unique to the player. This idea of 'style' does not cross over into the study and finding of truth.  Truth is not unique to an individual, because "Truth is singular and absolute". Truth is not beholden to individual identities or personalities. You have heard (in one form or another) the expression that "Truth is in the eye of the beholder", that "Truth is what you believe to be true", and that "Your truth is just as good as My truth". The idea that is expressed in philosophy is that everyone defines their own idea of truth, and no one should force anyone else to subscribe to a truth outside of themselves. This is the reason that after Jesus spoke with Pilate (recorded in John 18) that Pilate (who was a trained philosopher) said, "What is Truth?" Jesus declared to Pilate that He came to earth to "Testify to the Truth; everyone that is (already) of the truth hears MY voice." (John 18:37). This shows that Truth IS a Universal Constant, and is not a personal perogative.

Treason~ In case you missed it, January 28, 2020, FBI Agents arrested Dr. Charles Lieber, chairman of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, wio was accused by the Department of Defense of taking secret monthly payments of $50,000.00 from China, and receiving millions of dollars more to help set up a chemical/biological “Research” laboratory in China. 'Coincidentally', this lab was set up at the Wuhan University of Technology which is in the city that has been called 'gtound zero' for the world wide outbreak of the 'Coronavirus'. Also arrested were two Chinese “Students” working as research assistants, one of whom was actually a lieutenant in the Chinese Army, the other captured at Logan Airport as he tried to catch a flight to China - smuggling 21 vials of “Sensitive Biological Samples” according to the FBI. This person is a TRAITOR to his country. This is horrendous, but nothing new as a human activity. This happens all the time, often to a lesser but still significant degree. There are also traitors to the Kingdom of the Heavens; people that 'say' they are 'of God', but are not', but lie. These are people that 'lead many astray' by claiming that what they are teaching is from God, but in reality is from the Father of Lies. There words can be found in the Bible. Jesus specifically warned us of these people: And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. Matt. 24:4-5. How can we possibly be mislead? By WORDS that 'sound' good, but are poison to the intellect.  We are protected ONLY by the words of Jesus that HE gave to His eyewitness disciples. Think on this.

Lies Become Truth?~ The President of the United States has been accused of Impeachable Offenses by his political opponents. These opponents have stated over and over that Donald J. Trump has used the office of the President to try to get the government of the Ukraine to investigate one of his (the President) political opponents. These opponents have repeated that he did this hundreds of times over the past months, hoping that repeating these lies will make them true in the minds of the American people. Right now in the Senate chambers the Republican Council to the President has clearly laid out that these accusations have no actual basis in fact, and that by revealed testimony of four major witnesses there was NO Quid Pro Quo spoken of in the call to the Ukrainian President of July 25. The Democrats have tried to turn lies into truth by repeating the lie countless times over the past months; this has failed. Just as with ALL lies, when truth is revealed the lie is exposed. It is for this reason that the leadership of the Jews during Jesus' ministry here on earth HATED what Jesus was teaching the people of Israel and His own disciples. The Jews had been teaching lies to the people about how salvation worked for centuries, and had gained massive amounts of wealth and power from those incidious words, so much so that when their purfidy was revealed by the Son of God they became insensed and angry, and tried to 'take him out', and stop him from removing them from power. Time and repetition does not make a lie into truth. The play book of liars is still the same today as yesterday. When faced with the Truth lies become untenible, and believing a lie as if it is the Truth only happens by faith, not by evidence. Jesus came to earth to bring the EVIDENCE of the words of the Father to this earth so that ALL mankind would be able to see the difference between Truth and Lies. John 17:17.

Confusion and Fatigue~ One of the principles of developing a physical skill is based on the idea that you first must realize that there is something you don't know how to do, and after you have been taught the HOW of doing it correctly you practice until you have done it enough to become tired. This is called the principle of Confusion and Fatigue.  For instance, in golf (still one of my favorite games even though I don't play) the first time you attempt to make a swing on the driving range NOTHING works. You swing, the ball skulls along the ground, or you miss it altogether, or you jam the club into the turf. You have no idea what you are doing. All you know is that you know is a deep sense of confusion, because you now KNOW that you don't know how to make a good swing. Then, with proper instruction by a compitent player/teacher you gradually begin the process of understanding the HOW of making a proper swing, but now you have gotten tired after just a few miniutes in the practice of the movement needed to accomplish the new physical process. This confusion and fatigue is also present when dealing with intellectual and emotional learning. We here at Spirit of Truth Ministry see this all the time when telling the truth about salvation to people that have learned a process that is counter to what is truth through the words of Jesus. At first, when you have been exposed to the process of sanctification as defined by Jesus to His own disciples there isa massive amount of confusion; most Christians have never heard any of this 'alternate' method from the pulpit at their church. so when they here it from us is sets up a radical cognitive dissonance, which is the very definition of confusion. Amd when they begin to practice this new process, they tire easily both emotionally and spiritually, and feel like they want to go back. Yet in learning the new reality the more they see truth. Rev. 3:10.

27th Anniversary~ Today is the 27th Anniversary of Spirit of Truth Ministry. We never thought that we would still be here after 10 years, but here we are still waiting for the King to appear.  Join us today as we rememger from where we came, and more importantly where we are going.

Get a Gtip~ When beginning to learn to play golf the most critical thing that a person must learn is to place your hands on the club in such a way as to be able to make a solid an productive swing. If your hands are not comfortably place on the grip with just the right pressure you can not hope to have the golf ball land in the fairway or on the green. Getting a good grip is so important it is the very first thing every golf instructor works on with their students in order to insure a secure foundation for the swing. We have all had friends (certainly not us) that have succumed to a sense of panic when they were faced with a stressful situation. At that critical moment when a decision MUST be made when faced with DIRE consequenses you might say to them, "Get a Grip!" This means that just as with golf that person needs to go back to the basics and reassess the situation without the debilitating emotion of fear of the result. When a psrson is faced with a 'new' truth for the first time, a truth that is diametrcally different from what they already 'know' to be true, their first reaction may be to lash out in fear against the person that revealed that truth to them. This is especially true when it comes to religious and spiritual identity, as in the case when they are first told about the problems with salvation model of the Apostle Paul. It is at this point that you must GENTLY tell them to 'Get a Grip' on the words of Jesus that He gave to His own eyewitness disciples. It is ONLY through those words that a person can realize that there is nothing actually to fear from learning the truth about salvation, because perfect truth casts out all fear.  Jesus brought the truth from the Father to this earth in LOVE, for it is the Love of the Father for His Kingdom that caused Him to send His only Son to testify to the truth (John18:36-37).  This is how we 'get a grip' on Truth!

Trusting Trust~ Trust is a difficult proposition. One one hand most of us want to truth something or someone. Yet, we hae all been bitten by trust that has been abused. This has set up a cognititive dissonance situation in our minds where when we are put into a situation that demands trust we often act by faith instead, and say we will try this 'one more time'. Confusing faith for trust has gotten all of us in trouble. Trust is something that is learned over time, it is not learn in the spur of the moment. Getting through those first tenuous years of marriage is difficult, because in every marriage there are times when you wonder if you can actually trust your partner. Getting beyone these moments is what makes a marriage work. Giving the other person the 'benefit of doubt' allows for the time it take to turn faith into that much more satisfying place that is whole hearted and unadulterated trust. It appears that this is why Jesus used the identity of the marriage covenant as a metaphor for His relationship with His Kingdom. God never waivers in His commitment, but His Kingdom still has a difficult time believing that God will accomplish what He said in developing a RIGHTEOUS Kingdom on the earth, and as a member of that Kingdom believing that it is actually possible for you to become righteous in fact, or indeed need to do that in the first place. Jesus said in John 3:19-21 that we must learn by doing Truth, and trust that in doing so we will gain the goal He sets before us. Trust is a two edged sword: no one likes to be in situations where one must 'trust' in the Lord in order to get through, because those are always tough situations. Yet without those very situations we would not be able to develop the trust that it takes to accept the blessings that the Lord has in store for us found in those situations. Hmm! Maybe that is where we get all of our battle scars?

Fire, Fire~ Australia is burning! It is now estimated that more than 1.5 million acres have been burned, several fire fighters have lost their lives, millions of animals have been killed or displaces, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in trying to put out these blazes. It was originally thought that the cause of these fires that have set the continent ablaze was caused by 'global warming', but this conjecture by the media and proponents of this hoax have been proven wrong, because of the arrest of over 200 arsonists that have purposely set these fires. Motive has not yet been established.  Fire plays a pivotal role in end time prophecy. Rev. 8:7 speaks of a warning that a third of the earth, trees, and grass will be burned up. Later is seen burning hail, and a burning mountain cast into the sea. All this to let the people of the earth know that something well out of the ordinary is happening, and that they need to get ready for the judgment of the earth.  This is one type of fire. Another type is depicted in the motet that Thomas Morely composed in 1595 called "Fire, Fire", which speaks of the fire that burns in the heart of one lover for his beloved. The fire of the heart! There is another fire that also burns in the heart, and it can come from two different sources. This has been described as the "fire of the spirit", that makes people yearn for God. Many mistake being 'slain in the spirit' as being given my the One True God, but this spirit is actually the spirit of the evil one, who is masquerading as the Holy Spirit, and makes feelings become more important than finding truth. The True Holy Spirit reveals Herself through the Words of the ONE that sent Her to those that LOVE the truth, The Words of Jesus that He gave to His own disciples. These words turn the intellect/heart to the discovery of Truth that brings Eternal Life.

Under Weigh~ The New Year is now firmly "Under Weigh". This is a nautical term that means to WEIGH anchor an put a vessel in motion.  When I was a freshman in college I was very interested in a number of things other than the forced interest of 'hard' classwork, notably learning to pilot an airplane and sailing.  The school I attended actually (at the time, and no longer) had a Small Boat Handling and Piloting class, along with a sailing class. As a result of taking these classes I gained a Coast Guard Inland Waterways ticket, and learned to sail boats with single sail and sloop rigs. As part of the class we went to Newport Ca. four times in the semester to learn coastal sailing, and the boats were just tied up to the dock. We did, however, have to learn how to set an anchor in a near shore situation such that the boat would not be carried onto the shore and damaged, and also how to 'weigh' and stow the anchor so that we could put the boat under sail. It is literally impossible to put a boat (or ship) under sail without knowing how to 'un-set' the anchor from the sea bed. In fact, if you set the sail into the wind without weighing anchor you can actually capsize a boat that does not have a weighted keel. Bad news. If we start to seach for truth in this new year without having first removed the anchors of predetermined paradigms that weighs down our Intellect it will be impossible for us to find the truth we are searching for, and set our 'boat' of truth in motion.  The paradigm that is most difficult to pull up is the idea that we have NOT been fooled into believing lies as if they are the truth. This concept is so heavy that it is nearly impossible for us to 'weigh', and we must 'slip' the cable and let the anchor go.  Resolve that in this new year you will let go of those things that prevent knowing truth!