Part of my research for my apologetics articles
and videos is to try and understand where various theologies and beliefs come
from. We find, these days, the wider community that identifies themselves as Christian
is overgrown with a tangled mess of complicated, conflicting and competing
theologies and beliefs which, for the most part, do not accord with the Bible.
The perpetual virginity of Mary, the belief Mary is herself deity to be
worshipped and "Queen of Heaven". The orphaned "70th week of
Daniel" cut off and lost in some kind of strange time warp. All those
Millennial theologies and their tribe of "Tribs". And more seem to
spring up each day. Where is this veritable jungle of strange ideas coming from?
I was surprised (yet also not surprised) to find
that every single one of these theologies I encountered stemmed from one single
thing - UNBELIEF. The inability to believe what the Word of God actually says.
A theology seems, to me, to be what a person thinks the Bible SHOULD say when
they are unable to believe what the Bible DOES say.
If you have ever been involved in a theological
discussion it is almost certain that at some point somebody will eventually
utter the words "I know that is what the Bible says but that is not what
it means." ... WHOA! back up a moment. (especially if your the one who
said it). Did that person just say that the Lord does not mean what He says!!!
They have a name for somebody who does not mean what they say, they are called
... "deceivers" or "lairs", those whose words are not to be
trusted or believed because they do not say what they really mean or really
mean what they say. Are they really accusing the Lord of such a thing?
Of course that is not what they are really saying
(even if they don't realise it). What they are REALLY saying is "I know
what the word of God says, *I* just can't believe it means what it says."
For instance the whole theology of the perpetual
virginity of Mary is simply the inability of some to believe that after giving
birth to the Son of God Mary could possibly use her womb for anything or anyone
else. That after having the child of the living God of all creation she could
never even consider having normal relations with Joseph. Therefore when the
Bible speaks of the brothers of Christ they cannot believe that is
what it means, and so begins the process of reinterpreting everything else the
Bible says to conform with a theology born of unbelief.
The theology that elevates Mary to the Mother of
God Himself and therefore Queen to God the Father ("God the Mother"
as it were) comes only from the disbelief that Mary could be nothing more than
an ordinary woman before AND after being blessed to be chosen by the Lord to
bear His Son. Therefore when Jesus tells them point blank in Matthew 12:48-50,
(and in Mark 3:33-35 and Luke 8:21) that His mother and brothers are absolutely
no different to, or better than, any of those who believe on Him they are
unable to believe even His own words. Indeed had they paid proper attention to
the scriptures they would have known that Mary is not the "Mother of
God". For Jesus the SON OF GOD existed before He was begotten of Mary as
... SON OF MAN (flesh and blood). They must then keep on reinterpreting
everything the Bible says in order to hold on to a belief they maintain by NOT
believing what the word of God AND the word of Jesus actually says.
The theology of the orphaned 70th Week of Daniel
arises from the inability to believe that Gabriel answered TWO questions Daniel
had, not one. (One was dealing with the sevenfold increasing curses of
Leviticus 26:14-46. The other was dealing with Jeremiah's prophecy about the
coming Messiah.) Because of that inability to believe what is written they mash
together two answers that were never intended to be mashed together. Nor do
they believe the words of Gabriel when HE clearly declares in Daniel 12:7
"when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people,
all these things shall be finished." (the sevenfold increasing curses of
Leviticus 26:14-46 ends with the scattering of the nation of Israel - the power
of the Holy people - it is from the sevenfold increases we get the 70
"weeks" or 70 x 7 years, the timing of the last curse after the 70 year
exile).
They then have to reinterpret a WHOLE LOT of
other passages throughout the entire Bible (and history also) to fit in with a
"missing" 70th Week that has never been missing. It is only missing
in their eyes because they have not believed what the words of Daniel himself
clearly say, that he was puzzled over TWO separate prophecies from two separate
prophets at two separate times, not one single prophecy. Gabriel only gives a
start date for the coming of the Messaiah, but in Daniel 12:7, gives an ENDING
of the prophecy of the 70 weeks with the total destruction of ALL cities and
high places in Israel and the scattering of the Israelites among the Gentile
nations as prophecied in Leviticus 26:14-46. This prophecy has already come to
pass in 74AD with the scattering of the nation of Israel after the fall of the
LAST city and stronghold of the Jewish nation - MASADA. (Jerusalem was not the
last city of the nation of Israel to fall.). AND it occurred precisely 70
"weeks" (in Jewish years) after Nehemiah's restoration of Jerusalem
was COMPLETED circa 409BC.
But they do not believe that either Daniel or
Gabriel mean what they say. And now we have a whole lot of followers of a
theology that has risen out of unbelief in the word of Daniel, the word of
Gabriel and the word of God.
One of the purposes of many of my videos and
articles is to show that the Lord DOES mean what He says and says what He
means. That you can believe what the words themselves say no matter how
unbelievable they may seem. That you can be 100% certain that if you have trouble
believing them the error lays in what you may have been taught, or in your own
preconceived notions or assumptions, not in what the words and sentences and
paragraphs of God actually say.
The bottom line is that if you have the Word of
God you do not need a theology to interpret it for you as if the Lord was a man
that He would lie. The born again believer does not require a theology because
they HAVE the Holy Spirit to lead them into all UNDERSTANDING of what the Lord
has actually said and NOT said in HIS word.
It is by God's word that we judge the truth of
all other words. It is the compass that always points to the truth. Those who
do not believe it points where it should will lose themselves in an ever
changing sea of words blown about by the diverse winds of tradition and the
tides of popular opinion. We need to understand that the foremost experts on
the Bible are those who, by the power and Spirit of God, WROTE it. Their words
above those of ALL theologians, commentators, churches, and other
"experts" are to be believed as true and faithful. But even more than
that, THEIR words, no matter how unbelievable they may seem, CAN be believed
for the Lord does not say what He does not mean. God is not a man that He
should lie. (Numbers 23:19)
D.J. Ludlow
Provided it is done freely and without charge
"THEOLOGIES: The Weeds From The Seeds of Unbelief"
may be copied, used
and distributed
(in its entirety only, including this notice)
by brothers and
sisters in Christ
to the profit and glory of The Lord alone (ttpagoTLa)
By special permission of
D.J. Ludlow
copyright 2015
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