Perspectives – We All Have Them

Everyone has a perspective on just about everything. The question to ask is if our perspective relates to the facts at hand or if our perspective is out of sync with reality. Today, many people process their perspective on life by how they “FEEL” far more than by the facts before them. Reality has a cruel way of hitting us right between the eyes when we least expect it because facts don’t lie but feeling do.

One of the hardest things to overcome in life is when you have a perspective about something and are convinced that what you feel is correct and are challenged by someone with a different perspective.  They try to convince you that your perspective is wrong. We generally go into protective mode when challenged about what we believe, which often causes us to put up walls around our hearts and minds. Few of us like to admit that we might be wrong about anything, whether spiritual or natural.  When we encounter particular views from others about God or Christianity which are different than ours most people become defensive and combative rather than attempt to hear the reasoning behind the other position. The whole reason the apostle Paul told us to study was not to encourage us to win every argument but to be sure about the biblical concepts we hold dear. Any honest saint will tell you that some of the things they believed when they were young Christians they no longer believe because that were proved to be weak or altogether wrong. If there are any people who should be honest it should be Christians but unfortunately that’s not the case.

I can remember hearing in school growing up that Christians believed the earth was flat and science proved them wrong. The truth is that this was a myth created by an anti-Christian ideology to support the real myth, which is the theory of evolution. Today, there is enough factual historical information showing the Jews and the church believed in a round earth.

FLAT EARTH THEORY

Jeffrey Burton Russell is a professor of history at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He says in his book Inventing the Flat Earth (written for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s journey to America in 1492) that through antiquity and up to the time of Columbus, “nearly unanimous scholarly opinion pronounced the Earth spherical.”

Russell says the flat Earth mythology flourished most between 1870 and 1920, and had to do with the ideological setting created by struggles over evolution. He says the flat-Earth myth was an ideal way to dismiss the ideas of a religious past in the name of modern science.

Take, for instance, the words of God in the book of Isaiah, which was written 750 years before Christ.

Isaiah 40:22

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

(The Hebrew word for “circle” is the same as “sphere”).

DEFINITION

A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

Perspective in art usually refers to the representation of three-dimensional objects or spaces in two dimensional artworks. Artists use perspective techniques to create a realistic impression of depth or ‘play with’ perspective to present dramatic or disorientating images.

In my painting class I was taught the idea of creating “Perspective” so that my painting represented true dimensions, such as the drawing of a road going off into the distance. If an artist doesn’t understand perspective they can’t adequately convince their audience of what they believe or propose. Like the flat earth idea, for a time the general population believed it to be true until the facts of history were uncovered.  Too many times, if a lie is presented long enough then people embrace those lies as truth.

With spiritual things, teachers may have ideas and perspectives about how life works or how it doesn’t and they convince the untrained mind that what they teach is both accurate and true. Church history is notorious for teaching certain concepts, like the “Rapture”, which are totally untrue based on the facts and yet the general Christian population has embraced this theory for nearly 100 years now. Any caring person can research the facts and discover this doctrine didn’t become popular until the mid 1800s when Scofield and Darby promoted these ideas in their study bibles.

I believe many well meaning Christians live their Christianity as if there are not two simultaneous worlds co-existing, the natural and the spiritual. The Old Testament makes clear that they both exist sanctimoniously yet these same individuals who believe in Christ and the bible don’t live their daily lives as if there is a spiritual world.

One account of the supernatural working in the background of life happened when the prophet Elisha was walking in the confidence of God while his servant was freaking out because an invading army had surrounded the city they were in. Elisha helps his servant and asks God to open his eyes to see this spiritual world, which reminds us of how wrong we can be about our misguided perspective.

2 Kings 6:15-18

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”

[16] So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” [17] And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”

Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. [18] So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

The point here is that we can hold a perspective which we “Feel” is true when, in fact, it is false. Remember Satan lied to Eve and she changed her perspective about who God was and this false perspective ruined her and Adam’s future.

Don’t let a closed mind keep you from God’s best. Don’t let wrong thinking rob you from the future God wants to release in your life. You have the ability in the spirit to know the mind of God if you don’t walk in fear or stubbornness. Walk in the freedom Christ offers and trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit more than your current mindset.

Questions:

1) Could there a perspective you have that hinders your walk in the Spirit?  A regular and strong prayer life will reveal  this through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2) Are you flexible enough in the Holy Spirit to change any misconceptions in your biblical beliefs? Real maturity accepts healthy change as being normal Christianity.

Praying a walk with Jesus will set us free,

Pastor Dale