Some Believed...

Good morning friends,

Today I’d like to share a bit of insight that struck me a while back. Like many flashes of clarity, you realizes afterwards that perhaps the thing was known all along. But there did come a definite point in understanding when it popped more fully into comprehension and since that time you were never able to unsee what you saw. I like to call these flashes of light "Aha moments."

This particular Aha moment was about believers.

Christians through the ages called themselves believers and have been called that by others. “Are you a believer?” we may ask when we meet someone for the first time from outside of our particular faith community. Some of the very old Christian groups in countries like Ukraine, Russia, and Romania to this day simply call themselves ‘Old Believers’. I like that.

It’s impressive to study through the book of Acts. Almost every time, as the good news of Jesus and His Kingdom was preached to groups of curious people in places like Corinth, Athens, Philippi, and Rome, the narrative concludes with something like this: “And some believed... and some believed not.”

The stories are not always worded the same, but the recurrence of this distinction between “those who believed” and “those who believed not” is repeated at almost every new city where Paul, Silas, Barnabas, Mark, Aquila and Priscilla and other new Christians taught.

So maybe this, way back in Acts, is where the Christians began to think of and call themselves believers and, of course, those who “believed not” were called unbelievers. Not necessarily in a derogatory or put-down way... just a matter of statement and of fact. They did not believe, at least not yet, and others did believe.

Then one day while meditating on some of these things it occurred to me that everyone is a believer.

Everyone believes something.

Everyone follows what they believe.

Even if what they believe is their own thinking, they do believe something and what they do afterwards, the actions they take, the decisions they make, how they live their lives, is a total reflection of what they believe.

So the world is not so neatly divided into believers and unbelievers. It’s divided into those who believe one thing and those who believe other things. We are all believers in something.

I want to clarify that by saying we all are believers, I’m not fighting with nor contradicting scripture when it says some believed and some believed not. Every time this "some believed and some believed not" type of statement is made in scripture, it is in the context of and speaking in relation to truth. Some believed that which was taught was true and... some believed it was not true.

For example, in Acts, where the excerpt above was taken, the full quote is, "And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not." Acts 28:24

If we were to flesh this verse out to add in all the unwritten (but understood) communication, the statement would read something like this: And some believed that the things which were spoken by Paul were true, and others believed that the things which were spoken by Paul were not true.

So both groups did believe something. It's just that some believed that Paul was not speaking the truth.

Jesus is clear that the devil is the fathers of lies, yet the only way his lies are hurtful and dangerous if we believe them. If we fully believe they are false, they carry no power over us.

The reason that Eve, our first mother, disobeyed God in Eden was because she was a believer. But she disastrously believed the wrong thing, the wrong voice.

God said that to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree would bring death. The Serpent in direct contradiction to God said it would not bring death. "Ye shall not surely die!"

Eve had to decide which of these two she really believed. She chose to believe the words of the serpent. So as a new believer in the words of Satan, she acted according to her new belief and ate of the tree. And the rest, as we say, is history.

Probably one of the most patently false and ridiculous statements of postmodern relativism is the one which says, "It's not important what you believe; it's only important that you sincerely believe something."

Really?

A man who jumps off a cliff sincerely believing he can fly still falls.

One who sincerely believes and sends his SS# and bank account info to the distraught widow from Nigeria who desperately wants to bequeath him her millions still gets scammed.

The person who sincerely believes the lies of the thief and robber still finds that the abundant life which The Good Shepherd intended for him has been stolen, killed, and destroyed. - John 10:10

We are all believers… but we get to choose who we believe.

Think about it.

I will be.

I need this everyday, too.

We are what we believe.

We’re all believers.

Beliefs do matter.

Blessings until next time!

Your plain, Christian farmer-friend,

Edwin Shank

"Intensely striving to be... A follower of Jesus indeed... In whom there is no guile"

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." - 1 John 4:1