Why does God use completely opposite ways of thinking?
I've heard from hundreds of people; people who say that poverty is the key, people who say abundance is vital, people who say we need the power of God, people who say "Focus on love and everything else falls into place", etc. Two main things jump out at me about these things:
1) They are definitely NOT teaching the same things, and often are completely contradicting each other.
2) With very few exceptions, God is using them in mighty ways for the Kingdom!
What am I supposed to do with that?
Turns out, in arguments throughout the centuries, people have used the fact that God is using them mightily as support for their validity. Hundreds of years ago, when John Calvin had a beef with the Catholic Church, this came up. The Catholic Church looked at Calvin and said "I don't see any healings happening in your little group while we have many documented miracles in our congregations. Therefore, God supports our doctrines." It was true - the Church DID have many documented healings and miracles. So Calvin said that miracles weren't supposed to support doctrine, only lead people to salvation (basically, he tried to take the miracles out of the argument). Valid or not, that's what happened.
So apparently, because most of us don't completely agree with the Catholic Church, we in some token way agree with Calvin that mighty works for God don't necessarily endorse personal doctrine. And with that, we are left wondering what criteria to use for discerning truth within the Scripture (you can easily argue two opposing points - using Scripture to support BOTH!).
Funny side note: Even Paul himself told his readers not to believe him at face value but because of the miracles he did - and then Jesus says not everyone who does miracles in His name will be saved! God has a sense of humor.
Right now, the only sense I can make out of this is that God judges you not based on your superior view of Him, but what you did with what you thought. Let me illustrate:
In the parable of the talents, one man is given 5, one is given 2, and the last is given 1. The first two double up and are rewarded. The third guy hides his talent and says "I knew that you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, etc." The master replies, "If that's what I'm like, then why didn't you act accordingly? (paraphrased, read it yourself)" The master did NOT say "You're right, I am like that." Point is, he didn't correct the man of his opinion, but judged based on what the man did with what he knew. So to me, as I see men of extremely varying opinions being used mightily by God, it looks to me as if it is because they stewarded their "revelations" of God more than others have. Of course there are limits to this, but there are many theologies that can easily be made WITHIN the Bible and without involving sin, evil, etc.
So are you right? Dunno, but being right ain't all what its cracked up to be sometimes.
John H.
