Study – Grow – Know

Gospel of Nuancing

August 25, 2023 at 1:50 PM 4 comments

Nuancers have the ability to present information in a way that causes people to stop for a second or two, consider what’s being said and either accept or reject it based on how mysterious it sounds. Whether they are in the pulpit, in politics or in business as con artists, these people thrive on convincing hearers that what they’re saying is true and should be accepted as fact.

Here are a few quotes that include some type of nuanced and implied meaning.

1) He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions.

Interesting?

2) Do not go there, my son! When you doubt your powers, you give power to your doubts.

Seems legit and reasonable.

3) If you are intolerant of intolerant people then you are intolerant and doing the same thing you accuse of others.

That’s actually a loaded statement, using the word “intolerant” as a hook, a hammer and even gauge to determine our actual motives.

4) It is no more narrow to claim that one religion is right than to claim that one way to think about all religions (namely that all are equal) is right. We are all exclusive in our beliefs about religion, but in different ways.

Read that again please. It’s actually nonsense. The speaker is implying that only one religion cannot be right while all others are wrong. If the speaker had used the word “denomination” as opposed to “religion,” he/she would have been closer to the truth.

5) Two things we want so desperately, glory and relationship, can coexist only in God.

Is that what you want, dear reader? If you do, then you’re actually doing it wrong because all glory should be directed to God, never to ourselves.

6) To move from religion to secularism is not so much a loss of faith as a shift into a new set of beliefs and into a new community of faith, one that draws the lines between orthodoxy and heresy in different places.

What does that mean? Is the speaker implying that a person can leave Christianity or is he/she using the term “religion” as inclusive of all religions, including Christianity? He/she is also implying that leaving “religion” to become secular simply moves a person from a religious community to a community of faith…whatever that means. Atheists have faith they are correct, but are they?

7) The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s but the A-Z of Christianity.

Okay…

8) Sin is brokenness.

Is it, or does sin result in brokenness? How does the Bible define sin?

9) The Bible is not considered an accurate, absolute, authoritative, or authoritarian source but a book to be experienced and one experience can be as valid as any other can. Experience, dialogue, feelings, and conversations are equated with Scripture while certitude, authority, and doctrine are to be eschewed! No doctrines are to be absolute and truth or doctrine must be considered only with personal experiences, traditions, historical leaders, etc. The Bible is not an answer book.

Is this true? What does the Bible say about itself? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 comes to mind – all Scripture is God breathed…

10) If Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed were to bump into each other along the road and go have a cup of tea or whatever, I think we all know they would treat one another far different and far better than a lot of their followers would.

That statement implies Jesus would never say to Buddha or Mohammad what He openly stated to the Scribes and the Pharisees. And what about Moses?

11) Discipline will never bring about love for God, but love for God will bring about discipline.

Where did this person come up with this idea? What would Paul say about it?

12) So, if you stepped away from Christianity because of something in the Bible, if you stepped away the Christian faith because of Old Testament miracles, if you stepped away from the Christian faith because you couldn’t reconcile 6,000 years with a 4.5 billion year old earth and something you learned in biology, I want to invite you to reconsider, because the issue has never been, ‘is the Bible true?’

Seems to me the issue has always been “is the Bible true?” and from there people make their conclusions for right or wrong.

13) It is when our hearts are stirred that we become most aware of what they contain.

Yawn. Seems similar to #1 above.

Okay, let’s chat briefly about the quotes. Granted, these quotes are not within their original context, yet these are quotes that others have pulled out and listed as worthy quotes, quotes believed to provide clarity and define what those quoted believe.

The first two are from the character, The Sphinx, from the movie, Mystery Men. This was a bit of a dark comedy about ordinary people who became superheros. The Sphinx becomes their trainer.

Quotes 3 – 7 are from the late Tim Keller. Number 6 irks me. When Keller stated “Two things we want so desperately, glory and relationship, can coexist only in God,” he assumes that glory is what people want. The truth seems to be that chasing after our own glory is anathema to Christ because it pushes Him out. Only God should receive the glory. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but let’s move on.

Quote #7 says, “The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s but the A-Z of Christianity.” Is it? Ask yourself what is the difference between “the A-B-C’s” and the “A-Z”? Aren’t they, in the end, the exact same thing or both? Christianity represents the ABC’s of living once we become Christians. Christianity also represents the end of our searching. We need go no further because Christianity is the be-all, end-all of everything we search for regarding eternal life. In essence, the ABC’s and the A-Z are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other, but Keller makes it sound as though one outperforms or is more valuable than the other.

Quote #8 is attributed to Dr. Manfred Brauch, a professor of mine when I went to graduate school for my M.Div. When I first heard that, I thought, “Wow, yes.” Then I quickly realized that nowhere in the Bible, does God’s definition of “sin” correlate with Brauch’s. In fact, repeatedly, God defines sin as lawlessness (1 John 3:4), which can certainly create brokenness and often does; between people and God and people and other people. But at its root, sin remains lawlessness.

Quotes 9 and 10 are from Brian McLaren. I’m not even sure this guy started off well, but he captured quite an audience for himself. People with itching ears seems to love this kind of thing. Yet, McLaren is awkward yet obvious in his attempts to remove ultimate authority from God’s Word. McLaren was at the forefront of the “emergent church” or “postmodern church” movement where it was fashionable to question the Bible’s authority and to push a type of New Age Jesus. It is a repeat of the 70’s-80’s when the Battle for the Bible really heated up then.

Quotes 11 is from Matt Chandler. Regarding discipline, rightly entered into (reading His Word daily, memorizing Scripture, diligently repeating and praying that Scripture, etc.), is a form of discipline that every Christian should be involved in. Chandler seems to be confusing ritual for discipline. A person cannot grow in love for God without a growing understanding and awareness of what His Word actually teaches. As we read and memorize Scripture (literally, hiding it in our hearts; Psalm 119:11), God uses that to help us grow in grace with greater understanding of who God is and how He works. Those who do not read His Word but focus instead of feelings grow in love with a growing feeling that they sense is God’s Presence, but it is not necessarily so. Again, 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Quotes 12 and 13 are from Andy Stanley. You can see with quote 12 that he is really stating he himself doubts the truth of God’s Word – miracles in the Old Testament (I’m assuming like the parting of the Red Sea, etc.), and the Creation account. The more you listen to Stanley, the more you come away realizing his problem with many areas of Scripture and the overall issue he seems to have with the full absolute authority of God’s Word. Unfortunately, I know family members and friends who hold him in high esteem. His deceptive maneuvering of the Bible captures those who are not well versed in it themselves.

Such is the life of the “nuancer.” Their job is to create doubt and to ultimately redirect away from God and the truth of His Word. They are the worst of deceivers because they are so nuanced in their speech/writings. Their words leave just enough room to make a person think they are hitting the mark biblically, but in the end, miss it altogether.

Folks, I hope and pray you have a wonderful weekend. Mark and avoid those nuancers who do nothing but pull people away from the God of the Bible. There are too many to list here. Pay attention to what they say so you can see the error. Once you see it you cannot unsee it.

Entry filed under: agenda 2030, Agenda 21, alienology, Atheism and religion, christianity, Communism, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Cultural Marxism, Demonic, Eastern Mysticism, emergent church, Emotional virtue, eternity, Religious - Christian - Prophecy.