It is a well-known philosophy that if you want to detect whether something is fake or counterfeit, study the real thing. If you know the real thing so well, you would be able to spot something that looks close but just not quite it. You could study the fakes, but then you could either get clouded, and the difference gets blurred, or later get convinced that the fake is the real one. If you know the real one so well, usually looking at the fake is more about curiosity about how it was faked; there’s no need to study it, but it may satisfy that curiosity.
This applies not only to things but also to how I have approached my writing. There is a lot of information out there. I have seen videos and read articles by those who have gone into great detail on many of the topics I mentioned, and I agree with some, others only partially, and others not at all. The difference is that instead of poring over the hows and whys in detail, I note what needs to be emphasized and move on. I do believe this is very Biblical and Godly for several reasons.
Matthew 7:24~29 and Luke 6:47~49 tell a story that Christ said about laying a foundation. Those who heard Christ’s words, listened to them, and understood were like a man who laid a strong foundation; when the storms came, the house stood firm. Likewise, Paul mentions in Ephesians 4:14, and James mentions in James 1:5~7 that we are not to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine; we need a strong foundation. That is why I first laid the foundation of God’s desire for a relationship. That one deep, strong foundation weeds out some false doctrine, from there studying what that relationship means and looks like weeds out other false doctrine. I don’t have to study the false to know that it is, because if it doesn’t line up with the real thing, well, then it’s false no matter how much I may want it to be true. So instead of spending a lot of time going over the details of what the false is, I look at what the correct is. Sure, you can find plenty of people who can give the gritty details if you look. But sometimes there is only partial truth, or they will start to sway the conversation with smooth words and things that seem logical. But as Scripture states, don’t be swayed; sometimes it’s just better to stick with the core foundation, rather than to start swaying due to smooth logic or circular thinking.
Actually, my journey into writing all started with a simple yet complex question. I read in Galatians 1:8 – “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” and Paul was so serious he repeated it as verse 9. That led to a question I thought would be easy to answer, but I found it was not. Most Christians would easily rattle off an answer, but I did not want an interpretation from a person; I wanted the direct answer from Scripture. I could not find one. I wanted to call up Doc Brown and ask if I could use the DeLorean to go back in time and ask Paul directly. What was what Paul called here “gospel”? According to Paul, what was the gospel he was teaching? But I did not find any place where Paul said, “here is the gospel I am teaching”; instead, I only found places where he says, “do not accept a contrary gospel that I have taught.” As we know, all the New Testament letters were responses, so we don’t know exactly what they were responding to; we can only guess. That led me down the path to ask, “What is the framework and foundation of Salvation, and what exactly is the Gospel?” The result is everything I have written.
A strong foundation is necessary to keep you on the right track. As Peter states in 1 Peter 5:8, our enemy is quite cunning and vicious, and a strong foundation keeps you grounded. I covered much of this in my post, “Foundational Framework.” As time goes on, I am seeing this concept of laying a strong foundation being lost in Western culture. Schools no longer focus on ensuring a child understands the basics before moving on; many high school students lack basic reading and math skills because they are just pushed along to get them graduated instead of making sure, in earlier grades, that they actually understand the basic reading and math foundations. If a child falls behind, they just do “teacher-assisted cheating” to score high enough on the test instead of helping the child understand the work. You find this everywhere; many people in the fields they work in lack the basic foundation for what they do. They follow the instructions of someone else who knows the foundation, but when something goes wrong or there is a challenge, they have no idea how to move forward. This is partly due to the rapid pace of our progress over the last 100 years. There is no way to acquire so much knowledge in such a short time for every topic, and the focus is on quantity rather than quality.
That does not mean that when you have a strong foundation, you are always correct. Although I have a strong foundation in my understanding of what I do for a living, there are times when I am wrong when I base my actions on what I know and the circumstances, and I miss or do not fully understand something. The same goes for here. I run what I see, hear, and read through the foundation I have laid, but I in no way say I have it all together or figured it out. Some things are pretty obvious and incorrect that I do weed out. That is where the personal relationship with the Holy Spirit comes in. He does know all and can weed out the wrong. But you also have to be discerning, because the Holy Spirit will not violate the core foundation either; He will confirm it. As mentioned, our enemy can also appear to be correct (2 Corinthians 11:14). I am not writing this to define what that foundation is, but to define what I found it to be.
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