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"Go ahead,
prove me wrong!!" MP3
Had a gentleman send me a series of hot, raging e-mails proclaiming
that though he knew this was God's true church and that there were no
false ministers in its ranks, we were completely and totally wrong on
one of our core doctrines and beliefs. He then waxed eloquent with
what he saw the truth to be. Rather than making a straight-forward
and sincere inquiry about the subject, he peppered me with accusatory
questions and statements as if I were the defendant in a murder trial
and he, the hot-blooded prosecutor who has never lost a case.
Rather than approaching me in a sincere quest for truth and
understanding, he laid out in some detail what it was that he now
believed. He then challenged me to "prove him wrong!!" The
problem with this rather forceful request, is the fact that God's church
has no biblical mandate or instruction to prove people wrong about any
contrary belief they might hold. All we can do is state what it is
we believe out of the Word of God. This is what the church is
doing for this gentleman.
Can the Ministry Convince You of Anything?
It has long been my belief and proclamation that the church has no power
to convince anyone of anything. All we can do is tell the public
what we believe. All a minister can do for the congregation is
expound the Word of God and discuss those things we hold in common
belief. Fact is, however, there are two kinds of convincing and I
want to take this opportunity to define them both.
Physical Convincing
Just about all of us have the ability or tools to convince another of
some subject. I suppose that I could guide you up to an electric
fence and convince you that touching it will result in great bodily
harm. I could simply throw an object up against the fence and we
could watch the sparks fly. I suspect you would be thoroughly
convinced. Taking something more complex, I might be able to sit
you down to a chessboard and convince you that playing an aggressive
game will reap more wins than playing defensively. I would
probably have to show you several entire games where each approach is
used and delve into minute tactics of the game, but I believe I could
prevail in convincing you in time. However, in the spiritual
realm, I, by biblical decree and definition, have no such power, in and
of myself.
Spiritual Convincing
God gives His church two great commissions. One is to
proclaim the gospel to the world and the other is to feed the
congregation in the ways of the Salvation Process, the central theme of
the Word of God. In neither commission are we instructed or
promised the power to convince anyone of anything in and of ourselves.
The ministry has no power to convince nor to convert. Garner Ted
Armstrong in approximately 50 years of preaching never converted one
living human being. Jesus Christ had a ministry of three and
one-half years and He never once shared a meal with a converted person.
As we all know, conversion comes with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
and that came for the disciples and others after Jesus had risen from
the grave and ascended into the third heaven. All of the
instruction He gave to the disciples made full sense
after they received the Holy
Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
The ministry can preach with great power with the Word of God in their
hand, quoting scripture for every statement they make, but it is the
work of the Holy Spirit that does the actual convincing and which gives
the clarity of truth. We see this in the reading of 1 Corinthians 2:14
and 1 John 2:20. The first verse tells us that one without the
Holy Spirit cannot understand spiritual things. The second
confirms to us that unction [endowment by the
power of God] comes by way of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 1:9 and Jude 15
Now someone might point out these two verses which seem to be saying that
the ministry does have the power to convince. Let us take a closer
look...
Titus 1:9
Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be
able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to
convince the gainsayers.
The meaning here is to "confute" or admonish the gainsayer. To
confute is to prove to be wrong or in error; refute decisively. To
"refute" is to overthrow by argument or proof. In other words, the
minister presents his case using the word of God. He presents the
scriptures, commentaries and word meanings to the individual, but he
makes this case to the Holy Spirit in that individual. It is the
Holy Spirit that imparts the proof to the mind and does the actual
convincing. We can see this right in the verse. It says that
the minister does his convincing "by sound
doctrine" which we have already established can only be
understood by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Notice the commentary...
Titus 1:9
[Both to exhort and to convince] To
persuade them, or to bring them over to your views by kind exhortation,
and by the instruction which shall convince. The former method is to be
used where men know the truth, but need encouragement to follow it; the
latter, where they are ignorant, or are opposed to it. Both exhortation
and argument are to be used by the ministers of religion.
[The gainsayers] Opposers Literally,
those who speak against; that is, against the truth.
~from Barnes' Notes
Clearly the convincing is done by and through the Holy Spirit.
Jude 15
To execute judgment upon all, and to
convince all that are ungodly among them of all their
ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
In this verse, the word "convince" has the meaning "to convict" the
ungodly of their wrong doing by comparing their deeds to the Word of
God. Notice the commentary...
Jude 15
[And to convince all] The word
"convince we now use commonly in a somewhat limited sense, as meaning
'to satisfy' a man's own mind" either of the truth of some proposition,
or of the fact that he has done wrong, as being in this latter sense
synonymous with the word "convict." This "conviction" is commonly
produced by argument or truth, and is not necessarily followed by any
sentence of disapprobation, or by any judicial condemnation. But this is
clearly not the sense in which the word is used here. The purpose of the
coming of the Lord will not be to convince men in that sense, though it
is undoubtedly true that the wicked will see that their lives have been
wrong; but it will be to pronounce a sentence on them as the result of
the evidence of their guilt. The Greek word which is here used occurs
nowhere else in the New Testament. ~from
Barnes' Notes
Therefore I cannot and will not attempt to prove this gentleman wrong
other than to show him our established doctrine. The Salvation
Process denotes a special relationship between the firstfruit human and
both God, the Father and Jesus Christ working through the power of the
Holy Spirit in that person's heart and mind.
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth [it] not, neither knoweth [it]: but ye know [it]; for [it, the
Spirit of God] dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. –John 14:17
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