Christianity was supposed to be about becoming like Jesus. We went in the wrong direction.
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Chapter 10 - Using Truth as Measurement Standard

Jesus gives us an example of how one can test for the presence of truth.

And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. - Matthew 21:23-27

In considering how to respond to Jesus’s question, the idea of what was true was never considered. Truth had no role in their deliberations, only what effect they could obtain. Their disregard for truth freed Jesus from being obligated to respond to them. The position they held gave them the authority to ask, but their practice (disregarding truth) nullified that to which their position entitled them.

The Bereans were able to measure truth by using the standard of the bible (this is why Satan works so hard to get people to see the bible as unreliable). We can also see where Jesus (who is called the word of God) is also used as a measurement standard.

An illustration was once made that God works in us to be more like Christ like a blacksmith working a piece of iron. He plunges it into the fire until it is made maleable by the heat and then places it on the anvil so that his blows can change the shape. This happens over and over until the thing being worked on begins to take the desired shape. (us made more like Jesus)

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.- Romans 8:28-29

We know that all that happens to us is for good (not necessarily comfort, prosperity, or ease) so that we be conformed to the image of Jesus.The radical Christian recognizes this process and seeks to surrender to it rather than resist it.

  

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