... are the only words besides "Romans 12:1" on the only graphic tee-shirt I choose to wear. And it's true, insofar as (in our culture) the words "manly" and "masculine" have taken on the nuance of "stand alone, army strong, stem the tide, brace the storm, don't give in, don't conform."
THEREFORE I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
One of my Psychology classes is entitled "The Social Animal," which is drawn from Plato's calling man "the social animal." Social Psychology looks at society's role in producing certain behaviors; Personality Psychology looks at how an individual (or type of individual/group) will act across various situations. There's this cool matrix, which unfortunately bashes on Sarah Palin, that demonstrates this difference, which I'll try to paste here...
Suffer me a little, and I will show you that I have yet to speak on God's behalf.
I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
For truly my words shall not be false: He that is perfect in knowledge is with you [Job].
---
And if they [the righteous kings] be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;
Then He shows them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.
He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.
If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when He binds them.
---
Behold, God exalts by His power: who teaches like Him?
Who has enjoined Him His way? or who can say, "You have done iniquity"?
Remember that you [Job] magnify His work, which men behold.
Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
-Job 36:2-4, 8-13, 22-25 KJV (in context of Elihu's "prosperity gospel" advice)
The thesis of the proverbs of God, written by kings:
to know wisdom and instruction,
to discern the sayings of understanding,
to receive instruction in wise behavior,
righteousness, justice and equity;
to give prudence to the naive,
to the youth: knowledge and discretion,
a wise man will hear and increase in learning,
and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
-Proverbs 1:2-7
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
-Hosea 4:6
The gospel requires knowledge, and what is knowledge besides know-able truths, and what is truth besides the Word of God?
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?
-2 Corinthians 2:14-16
(Paul actually answers his question in 2:17-3:6, but I've fallen in love with Colossians, so here's the plug:)
For I want you [Colossian church] to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
-Colossians 2:1-4
"Sanctify them [Christians] in the truth; Your word is truth."
-John 17:17
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
-John 1:1
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me."
-John 14:6
THEREFORE I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
One of my Psychology classes is entitled "The Social Animal," which is drawn from Plato's calling man "the social animal." Social Psychology looks at society's role in producing certain behaviors; Personality Psychology looks at how an individual (or type of individual/group) will act across various situations. There's this cool matrix, which unfortunately bashes on Sarah Palin, that demonstrates this difference, which I'll try to paste here...
Yay! It worked!
ANYWAYS.
There's this guy named Festinger. Horrible name. He came up with an idea as to why people conform, and in 1954 coined it as the "Social Comparison Theory." According to my professor, Festinger says that "people have a need to evaluate their abilities and opinions, but they have few 'objective' standards, so they compare themselves to others." Opinion uniformity enables social quiescence; no opinion uniformity is unstable and violent/radical change would be immanent for one's own/the other's opinion(s), or else the group will lose dissenting members.
Heaven forbid people disagree! *sarcasm
So why do people conform to normative social influence? According to social psychology, "we want others to believe as we do because that is the only way we know we are right!" (italics mine)
[Perhaps I'm being too harsh; the professor who teaches this class is fresh meat; this is his very first class. But then perhaps it is a flaw in the content, and not the form of the rhetoric, for this teacher does a great job of managing the classroom. He knows how to work lighting, timing, appropriate videos, humor, and examples to grasp an audience's attention. But then again, perhaps I'm only partial to him because he looks like Ted Moseby from the CBS show "How I Met Your Mother." But then again, if he's not a Christian, then where else will the children of men turn to for knowledge but the best philosophy of the time, humanism?]
I will be harsh on this next point without remorse or regret, for Professor Mastronarde then used the Crusades as an example, a deviation from the more-common social-psychology favorite of the Nazi officers. He stated: "The more important the belief, the more emotion is associated with the need for opinion uniformity." Ok. I'm not condoning the crusades, but the "everybody else is doing it, so it must be right" argument can hardly be accurately applied to religious warfare. Greater motivators were fear of excommunication (for the Christians) or fear of death/rape/plundering/territorial loss (for the Muslims). I highly doubt either side's soldiers had mid-combat doubts as to the veracity of their respective causes, religious or political, nor of fears of ridicule or social punishment for disagreement or abandonment.
[Though perhaps I ought to be more compassionate; our American culture (fallaciously) attributes emotion to religion, and vice versa. He is merely following suit.]
[SUPER COOL SIDEBAR. "Ought" comes from the Greek word for "owe." (ώφελοv) That is why it carries more weight than "should."]
Carrying onward, digging himself deeper in debt, Prof. Mastronarde said "Social influence is important and powerful because almost all knowledge is socially-derived."
If by "socially-derived" he had meant that a person learns primarily through listening to instruction, watching demonstration, or observing persons and behavior and how they relate across different paradigms (see chart above), then I'd be cool with that. But because he instead meant that almost all knowledge, as in: the stuff you know to be true, is derived from observing reactions to behavior (yours and that of other people), my professor sins in his assertion. You don't form core beliefs based on subjective opinions. Your worldview is not open to popular vote, or some Gallup poll. Relativism does not breed truth.
Boast no more so very proudly,
Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the LORD is a God of knowledge,
And with Him actions are weighed.
-1 Samuel 2:3 NASB (Hannah's song of thanksgiving)
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
---
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to sheol.
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of your ways.
-Job 21:7,13-14 KJVSuffer me a little, and I will show you that I have yet to speak on God's behalf.
I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
For truly my words shall not be false: He that is perfect in knowledge is with you [Job].
---
And if they [the righteous kings] be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;
Then He shows them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.
He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.
If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when He binds them.
---
Behold, God exalts by His power: who teaches like Him?
Who has enjoined Him His way? or who can say, "You have done iniquity"?
Remember that you [Job] magnify His work, which men behold.
Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
-Job 36:2-4, 8-13, 22-25 KJV (in context of Elihu's "prosperity gospel" advice)
The thesis of the proverbs of God, written by kings:
to know wisdom and instruction,
to discern the sayings of understanding,
to receive instruction in wise behavior,
righteousness, justice and equity;
to give prudence to the naive,
to the youth: knowledge and discretion,
a wise man will hear and increase in learning,
and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
-Proverbs 1:2-7
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
-Hosea 4:6
The gospel requires knowledge, and what is knowledge besides know-able truths, and what is truth besides the Word of God?
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?
-2 Corinthians 2:14-16
(Paul actually answers his question in 2:17-3:6, but I've fallen in love with Colossians, so here's the plug:)
For I want you [Colossian church] to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
-Colossians 2:1-4
"Sanctify them [Christians] in the truth; Your word is truth."
-John 17:17
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
-John 1:1
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me."
-John 14:6
No comments:
Post a Comment