January 15, 2024

 

Hello my Beloved,

It’s been an interesting week.  Carpentry class has been light on building things and heavy on renovation.  This involved the demolition of one of the 12’ x 24’ houses that sit on a 2’ block foundation.  The one we demolished only had 2 exterior walls, so it didn’t take long.  We also had to lift and move around 15 28’ trusses to the foundation of the house we just demolished.  My knees are screaming at me for putting them through that much abuse.

I continue to work with MJ on apologetics, theology, and philosophy.  He is getting good at Tactics.  We spent a lot of time this week looking at the arguments for and against the Young Earth and Old Earth positions.  MJ is a Young Earther like I am.  I wanted to instill in him a respect for the various Old Earth Positions.  It’s always good to know the arguments for and against any major position that you hold.  This will do several things for you.  First, it will make you a lifelong learner.  A dear friend once told me that learning is a change in behavior due to new information.  This means that I must ne open to listening to opposing points of view.  Furthermore, I must be willing to change my position if I find a more reasonable one.

Second, it helps to give you some insight into other people’s views so that when you engage them, you can more easily go to the core of their arguments.  MJ started the evening by ridiculing the Old Earth position.  By the end of our session, he respected their position while maintaining his Young Earth Position.

I went to the Thursday Prison Fellowship Bible study.  Jason was there.  I finally got a chance to engage him on his ‘interesting’ theological positions.  It was a ‘fun’ engagement.

1

Let’s see, where do I begin?  I have been hearing about Jason for a while now.  Many Christians have been engaged by him.  They said he was very forceful and very knowledgeable.  I had been in 2 Bible studies with Jason so far and in both of them he tried to take over the study to teach what he kept referring to as the ‘Laws of Christ.’  He said he was the only one that knew them, and 2000 years of Christianity had gotten them massively wrong.  He also strongly insinuated at each study that any other topic we covered was nowhere near as important as what he had discovered.

At Thursday’s Bible study, Warden Beale started his lesson with Proverbs 4:26-27 which says, “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.  Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”  It’s a great passage.  I pointed out that the word ‘ponder’ means to reflect over something or to consider it deeply.  I said that the chapter tells us how to ‘ponder’ in the preceding verses.  To ponder something, to think or consider it deeply, requires wisdom.  That’s why verses 5-13 implores the reader to get wisdom.  It then lists many of the benefits of a life guided my wisdom.  Verse 7 says that the beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom.

Since we are commanded to get wisdom, I asked the class if they knew what wisdom was.  If you don’t know what wisdom is then how do you know if you have it?  I explained that wisdom comes in two forms; one is a type of knowledge, the other is a skill.  Wisdom in knowledge form can be seen in any true ‘how to’ book.  Proverbs is a book of wisdom.  It gives ‘how to’ instruction on life.

2

Wisdom as a skill involves the ability to discern the inner qualities and relationships of something.  This requires the use of logic and reason.  At the sound of those two words, Jason rolled his eyes.  He immediately told me that neither logic nor reason were of God.  We shouldn’t use them as Christians.  I pointed to Acts 17:2-3 which said, ‘And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on 3 Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” ‘

I said reason was good enough for Paul to use, so it’s good enough for me.  Jason then told me that Paul was a failure for using reason, just look at his results, only some believed.  At this point I began to wonder if he even knew what reason was.  So, I asked Jason if he knew what the term ‘reason’ meant.  He said yes and none of us should ever use reason because it goes against God.  I asked him if he had reasons to back up his statement.  He said yes.  I purposely said, ‘So, tell me what reasoning lead you to your conclusion?’  Jason got about a sentence and a half into his ‘reasoning’ and started to yell and me and call me names.  He said I was arrogant, not of God, didn’t know the Bible, and I thought I was smarter than everyone else because I had been to seminary.  He then went on to angrily explain that my main problem was that I had allowed myself to be taught by men and not by the Holy Spirit.  I should never allow a man to teach me.  I should be like him and only be taught by the Holy Spirit!

I resisted the urge I had to point out that Jason was a man, and he was teaching me.  Should I reject his teaching since he was a man?  (I was almost afraid that he might claim to be the Holy Spirit since he was so bent on teaching everyone.)  Instead, I told him that I apologized if I came across as arrogant in anyway.

3

I am so glad I have made a habit of reading a chapter of Proverbs a day.  They help me immensely in conversations like this.  For instance, Proverbs 12:16 says that the vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.  Likewise, Proverbs 15:1 says that a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

After my apology, I told Jason that I just wanted to be more like Jesus.  In Matthew 11:2-6, we see John the Baptist doubting if Jesus is really the Messiah, so he sends his disciples to ask Jesus if that is who He really is or should they wait for another.  Jesus doesn’t tell John to just believe, just to have faith, or ask the Holy Spirit.  He tells John’s disciples to go back and tell John what they see and hear, the blind receive sight (Isaiah 29:18), the lame walk (Isaiah 35:6), lepers are cured (Isaiah 53:4), the deaf hear (Isaiah 35:5), the dead are raised (Isaiah 26:18-19), and the good news is preached to the poor (Isaiah 61:10).

In His response to John, Jesus first appealed to the empirical method.  He asked John’s disciples to notice what they had experienced using their senses, particularly sight and hearing.  He specifically pointed to these events because Jesus knew that John knew the prophesies in Isaiah of what types of miracles the Messiah would do when He came.  In doing so, Jesus appealed to reason.  He used a form of valid, logical argumentation called Affirming the Antecedent.  It looks like this;

If p then m.

p.

Therefore m

‘p’ stands for the Messianic prophesies being fulfilled by a person.  ‘m’ stands for Messiah.  In plain language the argument looks like this;

If a person fulfills the Messianic prophesies, then that person is the Messiah.

The Messianic prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus.

Therefore, Jesus is the Messiah.

4

At this point Jason said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know what reason was.  I agree then that we should use both reason and the empirical method.’  Building on the good will I had just gained, I thanked Jason for his passion for God and His word.  I told him I was really interested in what he believed.  I told him it would be bad of me to assume he believed something he actually didn’t believe and then I attacked that position (just as he did.)

Jason agreed and went on to explain to me his views.  I even got him to write them down for me so I wouldn’t mix them up or forget them.  He believes the Bible is inerrant.  He does not believe you can lose or walk away from your salvation.  He also believes he is a Christian, but he is not saved.  You can only be saved when you reach a state of sinless perfection in this life.  That way when you die you can go to heaven.  :0 You have to be sinless so the Holy Spirit can dwell within you.  Jason shared with us that he had been the pastor of 2 different Pentecostal churches on the outside and started his own ministry there as well.

I thanked Jason for sharing his point of view.  I told him I looked forward to going back to the dorm and looking up the verses he wrote down for me and studying.  He again reiterated that we were wasting our time studying anything else because his views were foundational to all Christianity.  I suggested that next Thursday we allow him to make his case, since it was so important to him.

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Pray that next Thursday I am able to win Jason to the truth.  If I can’t do that, I want to cast so much doubt on his position that he stops pushing it so hard.

I love you so very much my Beloved.  Thank you again for all that you do.  As I have said many times, I wish you could see on a face-to-face level the impact you and the others are having on many of the inmates in here.  Love you!!!

Love,

Me

SCRAP!

GELPOY!

ILYSOOOOM!

LAAF!