Let’s Talk About Truth

Intro

Cookie Face

Place an Oreo on their forehead, no hands, get it into their mouth using only facial muscles.

Lesson

What is Truth?

Biblical truth should...

Be clearly stated in Scripture

Be practiced by the early church

Produce positive results in the believer

Why So Much Division?

Many non-believers attempt to use denominal divisions regarding doctrine as proof that the Bible isn’t reliable or truthful. However, correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

Are there so many division because the Bible isn’t clear, or have religious groups intentionally ignored Scripture because of personal pride or gain?

Both history and the Bible, itself, show the latter.

Three Major Divisions Regarding Truth

Baptism (how and why)

Receiving the Holy Spirit (how)

A life of holiness (what)

An Apostolic View of Interpretation Requires…

Valuing the Word of God over cultural/church traditions

Maintaining original meaning of Bible words/terms

Permitting scripture to interpret scripture

Trusting the plain meaning of the text

Allowing the practices of the early church to clarify their doctrines

Understanding the context in which changes were made

See the Shift by Timeline

This timeline shows you when and how people got away from the truth of the early church.

Silenced

The period following the Council of Nicaea became one of the darkest times in history as professed “Christian” persecuted and killed other Christians.

Thousands of Christians who denied the trinity were exiled, imprisoned, tortured, or killed. It is estimated that over 10,000 written works and copies that opposed this doctrine were burned or destroyed in this period.

By the 700s only around 14% of the population could sign their name, Biblical manuscripts were rare, and teaching was strictly in Classical Latin. Even is given access to Scripture, the common man could not read it; religious power had been consolidated. Any who dared speak out were killed.

“To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, it is to kill a man.”

Sebastian Castellio on the death of Michael Servetus

QUESTION: Is this about biblical and doctrinal accuracy or POWER and CONTROL?

Secular Influences

Philosophy

Greek Metaphysics/ Plato’s Divine Logos

Redefining and Creation of Terms

Begotten, Person, One God

Trinity, three persons, God the Son, eternally begotten

Pagan Triads

Egyptian: Osiris, Isis, Horus

Babylonian: Anu, Enlil, Ea (Enki)

Hindu: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva

Roman: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva

Neoplatonic: The One, The Nous (Logos), the Soul

Politics

Constantine and Uniting an Empire

Colossians 2:8-9

Colossians 2:8–9 KJV 1900

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Aftermath of Apostasy

Definition of Apostasy: the formal abandonment, renunciation, or desertion of one's religious faith.

As churches and denominations rejected clear, Biblical teaching, there was significant aftermath in the wake of those decisions:

Murder, torture, and censorship following Nicaea.

Steady decline of denominations that are not “spirit-filled.”

Numerical decreases in churches that do not preach a life of holiness.

Increase of anxiety, depression, suicide, and divorce rates alongside denominal rejection of gender distinction, holiness teaching, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

As we have become increasingly less Biblical, nothing has improved.

Why Apostolic?

Being a oneness Apostolic Pentecostal is about restoring God’s intention and design for the Church. It is an intentional return to the actual teaching and preaching of the apostles, which has continued, even through persecution for thousands of years.

That Truth, the oneness of God, baptism in Jesus’ Name, infilling of the Holy Spirit, and a life of holiness is what transforms people and changes lives. It is what works because it was undeniably the Biblical practice.

Truth is not followed by a trail of bodies, censorship, gender confusion, anxiety, depression, divorce, and dying churches. The Truth is Jesus, and He sets us free.

Conclusion

What Do You Believe?

Biblical truth vs. religious tradition?

Doctrinal purity vs. pseudo-intellectualism?

The apostles vs. the philosophers?

2 Corinthians 11:3-4

2 Corinthians 11:3–4 NKJV

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

2 Corinthians 11:3–4 NLT

But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

In other words, we shouldn’t put up with anything that is not The Truth!

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