On Thursday mornings I meet with a pastor in another country via webcam. We have been doing that for two years. This morning we were in Jeremiah 29.
One of the observations my friend made was that even though the leaders, prophets, and priests were proven wrong by the reality of Babylon’s carrying Judah into captivity, they continued to prophesy about their situation. They resisted and contradicted Jeremiah’s every word.
As he shared that I began to think about how we do similar things. There are those who teach that every disease we have is a result of a lack of faith. That if we believe aright, we will be healed of our diseases. Those people seem to have overlooked Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:7 – 10, or else they believe as they tell those who are not healed that Paul’s faith was somehow deficient or misplaced.
The leaders, prophets, and priests continued to stick with their message even after it had been proved by the actual events that they were at a minimum incorrect. But rather than acknowledge their error and Jeremiah’s obvious accurate prophecy, they continued to stand against him.
We do this.
Not wanting to lose face we will stick by a position that has proven erroneous. Even though the data does not support what we firmly support as true, we will stick by our guns, not wanting to appear ignorant or incompetent.
Bottom line that is simply arrogance. We know better. We are right, have to be, our image demands it, even though nothing we assert seems to happen. I have seen it in business and in church.
Arrogance is sin.
Not to acknowledge that sin and repent, according to 1 John 1:5 – 10, is calling God a liar and proves that we do not know the truth.
It would seem a better approach is to approach life holding our positions much more tentatively, knowing that there is much that we do not understand. Open to learning and quickly admitting and repenting from error.
As he shared that I began to think about how we do similar things. There are those who teach that every disease we have is a result of a lack of faith. That if we believe aright, we will be healed of our diseases. Those people seem to have overlooked Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:7 – 10, or else they believe as they tell those who are not healed that Paul’s faith was somehow deficient or misplaced.
The leaders, prophets, and priests continued to stick with their message even after it had been proved by the actual events that they were at a minimum incorrect. But rather than acknowledge their error and Jeremiah’s obvious accurate prophecy, they continued to stand against him.
We do this.
Not wanting to lose face we will stick by a position that has proven erroneous. Even though the data does not support what we firmly support as true, we will stick by our guns, not wanting to appear ignorant or incompetent.
Bottom line that is simply arrogance. We know better. We are right, have to be, our image demands it, even though nothing we assert seems to happen. I have seen it in business and in church.
Arrogance is sin.
Not to acknowledge that sin and repent, according to 1 John 1:5 – 10, is calling God a liar and proves that we do not know the truth.
It would seem a better approach is to approach life holding our positions much more tentatively, knowing that there is much that we do not understand. Open to learning and quickly admitting and repenting from error.
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