...trying to change the view of most Christians...trying to change their use of the dialectic, and their loyalty to their man made theologies...
This is true, and I fully understand your frustration, as the dialectic has already conquered and defeated the church. Yet praise the Lord that our respective callings do not require us to convict anyone! That is the job of the Holy Spirit, while ours is to stand and deliver.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isa. 55:11)
Numbers 15:30,
"But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people."
Deuteronomy 17:13,
"And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously."
Psalms 19:13,
"Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression."
When you're confronted by
presumptions or
accusations, you'll know what it's based on, and it's based on
natural reason. Unless it's an unrebuttable presumption where, in fact, you have committed evil, and there's a witness. But we're confronted with rebuttable presumptions every day and we probably don't know it because we're trained to 'answer the good officer's questions.'
We've already been conditioned with a response.
Presumptions are something that the natural man has created. The natural man comes up with a presumption and they cast a
burden on you to prove otherwise. The natural man
presumes evil, and those who presume evil where there is no evil, they are wicked men. You either serve Christ or you serve man, and that's why man will presume evil because that's what they involve themselves in, and that's all they see. Until you bring the Light of the Word to them and shine the light on them, and that does away with the evil if what you bring to them is the truth. The only way you're going to be able to rebut their presumption is to
bring the Sword of the Word to them, to bring the Truth to them. That is the only thing which will overcome wickedness, and that's our duty.
Here's a typical definition of presumption:
Presumptions: "A Presumption is but a rule of procedure used to supply wants of facts and its only effect is to
cast burden on opposite party of going forward with proof."
Chechy v. City of Hamtrunk, Mich. 170 NW 2nd 58.
This all stems out of reason. And the reason they do that is because everyone is in the world (not necessarily of the world) and when we're in the world we are in tribulation, and this is part of the tribulation; the natural man presuming evil.
A typical example of a presumptuous question would be something like, "Have you beaten your wife lately?" Either a "yes" or "no" answer is bad. This question "presumes" you have beaten your wife already. If you answer "yes," you admit guilt. If you answer "No," you still admit to having beat your wife, just not lately. Their presumptuous questions steer your mind to the answers they want. In scripture, you don't find where God asks a leading question.
Now, our Master, Christ Jesus rebutted many presumptions, and whenever we do these things, we always have to look to him, because he is our example. Here's a couple of the presumptions he rebutted, and it deals with the Pharisees and Sadducees because they always presumed evil, due to their natural reason, they were all "reasoning together."
In Matthew 12:23-28, they made a
presumption that Jesus was casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Jesus
rebutted this presumption with the Truth in question format. By asking them a question, you shift the burden from yourself to the intruder. In this case, Jesus rebutted their presumption with the following two question:
Matthew 12:26-27,
"And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?"
That's how we rebut their presumptions, you bring the
Sword of the Word to bear down on them.
A presumption is a lie to begin with, and the natural man admits that when he says it's a burden they put on people.
And the only way to rebut a lie is to bring the truth, and the only place you find the truth is in the
Word of God.
In Luke 20:1-8 and Matthew 21:23-27, the Pharisees asked Jesus,
"By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?" (Matthew 21:23). That was their
presumption of evil because they already had in their mind that he was casting out devils by Beelzebub. By asking this question, the Pharisees passed the ball in Jesus' court. How did Jesus rebut their presumption? With another question! Now the ball is in
their court, and the burden is upon
them now. This is how Jesus responded after the Pharisees asked him their question:
Matthew 21:24-25,
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?"
Then the Pharisees "reasoned" with themselves, trying to figure out how to answer Jesus. If they answered "from heaven," they feared Jesus would ask them, "then why didn't you believe him?" And if they answered "from men," they feared being stoned to death by the people because the people believed John was a prophet from God. So what did the Pharisees say to Jesus?
Matthew 21:27,
"And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
The Pharisees could not give an answer! So they lost by default. Their own presumptuous question (evil intent) was destroyed by another question (placing the burden upon them instead) that brought the Truth to them and exposed their hypocrisy.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness,
Jesus rebutted with the Word of God every time. And that's what we must do. By doing that, you not only honour the father, but you glorify him to the natural man. By expressing the hope that is in us, we glorify the Father.
Its only a small number who have ears to hear.<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
I believe God would have us endeavor to bump up that number! And ours is a relatively 'cheap date' - a keyboard and a bit of time and we're off and running!
Matthew 11:29-30,
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
The ‘rest’ that Jesus promises is a release from the works of sin, not from the service of God. The ‘yoke’ represents diligence, submission, humility, patience, and being yoked together with our fellow servants, keeping up the communion of saints. Two yokes cannot be taken on simultaneously, for that would represent double mindedness. Exercising your right of avoidance shakes off the burden of that heavier yoke so that the easy yoke can be taken on.
Deuteronomy 22:10,
"Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an *** together."
A "yoke" is something fixed together on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding them so that they might draw the plow. The reason God forbids and ox and an *** to be yoked together is because they would plow in different directions. This is also the reason why God commanded us to be seperate from unbelievers, and why Jesus commanded to be yoked to Him. If we do His will, He will guide our steps. If we do our own will, we will pull in different directions.
We must realize
"the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). When you read the Scripture, you never read or hear about any man of God putting on a legal personality. When you start taking on legal personality, you take on obligations and duties that are extra and outside the Word of God. To get back to the simplicity in Christ, where the yoke is easy and the burden is light, you must start shedding those things that have to do with the codes, rules, and regulations of the natural man:
1 Corinthians 2:14,
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
It's like rat poison; it's 99% good food, but it's that 1% of poison that kills the rat. We know what the rats like, "Caesar" knows what the people like. Everything Caesar does, he has an ingredients list on it, and people just look at the good but they don't look for the bad. This has to do with separating the bone from the marrow and the wheat from the chaff. If we're not able to do that then we'll fall into those things, and that's why we continually have to be diligent on these things, and the diligence has to do with separating the lie from the truth, and to not let the two mix. No matter how hard you try, you can't do anything against the truth (2 Corinthians 13:8). You can try to mix the lie with it, but the truth still stays pure. And that's where we have to remain, in the truth at all times, and eliminate the lies and untruths that have been taught to us since we came out of the womb.
The bad news:
But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues (Matt. 10:17).
The good news:
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:32-33).