Jack Pelham

He is mad at the world for its dismal failure
To fill his personal void to his satisfaction—
That void existing in him on account of
His refusal to take in the things of God,
For which that space was designed.

I see that the teacher who loves the subject matter is often found teaching and discussing it, whether being paid for it or not—even if he or she really needs the money. And this is doubly true of the teacher who also loves the students.

But the teacher who loves only the money—or perhaps, the prestige of being the teacher—tends to be stingy and personally disinterested in the subject, even a high expertise.

And the experience of the students, from the one teacher to the other, is like the difference between day and night.

In the previous methods, we looked at questions that are actually stupid. Today, we consider a scenario in which you want to ask a question that will be taken as stupid.

METHOD #4

1. Find a person who has these qualities:

• Confident in his understanding.
• Considers himself above you.
• Hasn’t considered all the possibilities on a certain matter, yet
• Has a strong opinion on the matter anyway.

2. Ask a question that assumes that some other possibilities may have some merit and should be considered carefully.

3. You’re done! You have successfully asked a question that’s sure to be taken as “stupid”.

As I asked him questions about the doctrinal assertion he had made, he said, “I feel like you’re trying to trap me.”

But what I was trying to do was to demonstrate, by way of my questions, that he was already trapped by his own bad thinking—both by ideas that conflict with one another and by ideas that conflict with the very Bible he assumes that he believes.

But he has no apprehension, it seems, about traps of that sort.

Surely, God could have written us a manual
With precise explanations of everything,
So clear as to defy misunderstanding
And disagreement.

They would, from time to time, look around in puzzlement as to why things weren’t going as well as expected, for they had tried and tried in their camps to be as loving and gracious as inclusive as they could figure out how to be, and still, such things had not produced the church of their expectations.

But failure ought not give one pause where faith is concerned, they thought.

So they barreled ahead with their religion, assuming themselves among the accepted,
even though they had repeatedly ignored his many calls to repentance, caring only to sit with the cool kids, and to go to Heaven, of course—but not for sharing in his philosophy and character and way of truth and life.

And it was with this heart—and not a heart like his own—that they would read their scriptures
and misinterpret half the meanings, never figuring out that the writings are designed not
to yield up all their treasures to the defiant, the incorrigible, and the halfhearted. That is, to the very ones the camps are so eager to include with their Just As I Am bent that makes a mockery of the repentance required by the real Jesus, and with their incessant promises that he loves them and accepts them, even though he himself was adamant that he actually hates some, finds them repulsive, and will eternally reject them, based on their failure to repent from their sins.

But they would continue to spin and spin, expecting him never to call their bluff, but actually, to congratulate them instead—even as they are were blocked from the kind of success they expected at church and from the fruit of the Spirit that they assumed they already had in sufficient measure.

And so they stood between God and the sinner, promising a different kind of grace than what God gives, so as to satisfy those who would be satisfied—as they were themselves—with something less than the real Jesus who demands repentance.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ² And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Luke 13:1-5. ESV

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.^{[c] 49} But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Luke 6. ESV

Billy may be concerned with righteousness and unrighteousness—even strongly concerned and very vocal about it. But this does not mean that Billy has considered the righteousness/unrighteousness of as many things as God has considered. And it doesn’t mean that Billy has got it all right, either. He may well count as righteous some things that God condemns, or as condemnable some things that God has declared righteous.

I think it’s very common for Christians to have a view that differs from God’s view, and yet not to be actively aware of it. What seems woefully uncommon, however, is for Christians to grasp the import of this prophecy:

Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 4:20. ESV

Such peace comes at last
From setting a thing
In proper order.

I have always loved the wilderness,
Where this ruckus of society is
More often remembered than heard
And where man-made things
Seem quite the inferiors
To the God-made.

And having taken only lately to reflecting deeply
On the ways of that grand Lady Patience—who,
I must admit, seemed less regal in my youth—
I find myself rather suddenly convinced
That the wilderness simply must be
Where Lady Patience Lives.

He thinks that Bible study is:

• making a list of a bunch of passages he has not duly contemplated himself.
• reading what scholars say about passages he has not duly contemplated himself.
• gathering and giving out statistics about word usage in passages he has not duly contemplated himself.
• a thing to be done as a leader/teacher, for the benefit of others, to help them understand passages he has not duly contemplated himself.

He goes to the trouble to do these things, but will not go to the trouble of giving a passage due contemplation himself. He’s not listening to the scriptures. He’s busy trying to play the role of a good student or a good teacher, perhaps, but he’s got his priorities off as he has neglected that fundamental task of listening to the scriptures himself.

Beware of this man. He is everywhere.