Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas

NT Framework - Unbelief Reinterprets

• Jeremy Thomas • Season 6 • Episode 181

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When faced with a truth that requires a change, or just doesn't fit with our existing beliefs, the great tendency of everyone is to reinterpret this new information to fit within our beliefs so we don't have to change.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't think you can do that. Nobody can do that, right? Did Jesus actually roll the stone away from inside the tomb? I mean, like, are you serious? I mean, how would you do that? You just got to put your hands on the rock and move. I mean, these are giant stones. They're not little bitty, they're big. So, and in his condition, he did that?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. A little odd.

SPEAKER_02:

And so after he gets out, let's assume he's able to move the stone aside. Did he just sneak by the Roman guards or did he actually fight them off in that condition? You know, I mean, like, come on, seriously. And then Jesus walked seven miles on the road to Emmaus with those kind of injuries? Well, none of this seems very convincing, does it? But these are all unbelieving responses. Because what unbelief has to do is it has to reinterpret facts. And they're always going to interpret it inside their framework of unbelief. Okay? I mean, the unbelieving heart does not want to accept a fact inside the Christian frame of reference or Christian network or system of thought. It wants to isolate the fact, just look at just that fact, and then it has freedom to reinterpret it however it wants. Now, and we've seen several strategies for how that's done, right? The theft theory, the hallucination theory, and the swoon theory. All of which you may say, these are absolutely silly stories or silly ideas. But I mean, do people believe silly things? Do they believe ridiculous explanations? All the time. That's what they're excellent at doing. And so now I want to move and talk a little bit about the unbelieving strategy of envelopments. Remember, I wanted to talk to you about the human heart and how desperately wicked it is. Okay, so basically the principle is the idea that the unbelieving mind, when confronted with an isolated fact, rather than a fact that's placed within a network or system, will always reinterpret that isolated fact inside a framework of unbelief. Now, the Bible shows us over and over that people do this. So let's go to Exodus 32.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'll just show you some examples. Exodus chapter 32. Now, y'all know what this event is, right? What's Exodus 32? The sin of the golden calf, right? Where's Moses? He's up on the Mount Sinai. He's receiving what?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, receiving the law. And the people are down below. Now, let me ask before we go into this chapter and what kind of happens here what has happened in the last year in the life of these people?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, weren't they in Egypt, right? And there were these ten plague things that kind of happened, you know. Like an Isle turned to blood, the frog to darkness, hail, gnats, darkness, the death of the firstborn. Did that happen?

SPEAKER_02:

Did they walk through the Red Sea? Did they see the greatest army in the world? The greatest superpower army in the world totally drowned within just a few moments.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Did they have the pillar of fire by day or by night and cloud by day? Did they drink water out of a rock? Did they eat manna off the ground? Had God done great and marvelous things for them? Now, here we are at Mount Sinai. You know, and I mean, who brought them out of Egypt, by the way? I mean, did they not know that God led them forth through Moses? I mean, did they know it's only been a few months, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Now, verse 1. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a God who will go before us. As for this, Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know, we don't know what's become of him. And so Aaron said to them, Tear off the gold rings. Now, it's interesting. They just basically said, Hey, you know, Moses took us out of Egypt, but now look what they say. Verse 2, tear off the gold rings, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters. Where'd they get all that, by the way? That was the national treasury of Egypt. They walked out. Can you imagine somebody coming? Well, we don't have any gold anymore in America, so never mind. But imagine somebody walking in here and taking all the gold right out from under us. Can you imagine? I mean, only God could do that, right? Something like that. And he's done it all for them. Verse 3. Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears, they brought them to Aaron. He took them from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf. And they said, They said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

SPEAKER_01:

Huh? Huh? What? Did they not just entirely reinterpret the Exodus?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, these people lived through it. And weeks later, they changed the whole story and reinterpreted it to be, no, this golden calf brought you out of Egypt. That is what I mean by the unbelieving heart taking a isolated fact, in this case, the Exodus, and reinterpreting it and giving credit to another or explanation from another source.

SPEAKER_01:

You say, Well, I would never do that. Next, Acts chapter 2.

SPEAKER_02:

Here's another one. This is the this is the fallen sinful heart. This is what it does to truth.

SPEAKER_01:

It manipulates. Remember on the day of Pentecost? They're all there waiting in the upper room.

SPEAKER_02:

The Spirit comes, they begin speaking in tongues, right? The twelve are speaking in tongues. And uh there's some discussion about this. They're speaking not only in other languages, but in also other dialects. So it's as if they were native speakers of these languages. In verse 12, they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, and they said to one another, What does this mean? But others were mocking and saying, There it is.

SPEAKER_01:

They are full of sweet wine. In other words, these people are drunk.

SPEAKER_02:

See how they took an isolated fact, the fact that these individuals are speaking languages they've never studied, and they reinterpreted it. And they said they're drunk. Because that's what the heart of unbelief does. It always will reinterpret the fact. And of course, Peter says, Are you serious? You know, it's nine in the morning.

SPEAKER_01:

Come on. Acts 14. Here's another. Let's just do Acts 17. Acts 17. We don't need to do all these.

SPEAKER_02:

But you see this repeatedly. I'm trying to show you there's a pattern. You can watch how unbelief reinterprets an isolated claim. Here we are in Athens, verse 16. Okay, Acts 17, 16. Paul's waiting for them at Athens. His spirit is provoked within him as he walks around the city, observes, right? This city's full of idols. I mean, it's Athens. What did they say? It's easier to find a God than a man in Athens. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with Jews and God-fearing Gentiles and in the marketplace. That's just out there with, you know, various philosophers or philosopher wannabes every day, right? With whoever happened to be present. Verse 18, and also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, What would this seed spitter, this idle babbler, wish to say? In other words, they thought he had just like thrown together pieces of various philosophies and was trying to pond it off sort of his own philosophy or whatever, and they're like, What are you trying to say? Others said, Well, he seems to be the proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Jesus and Anastasis, Jesus in the resurrection. Now, let me ask you a question. Did they understand the gospel? I mean, he obviously talked about Jesus and the resurrection, right? But they think that he's trying to introduce two new gods into the Greek pantheon. Did they understand his message? No, they were they were interpreting Jesus in the resurrection inside their pagan frameworks of unbelief. And they were putting him in a Greek pantheon. This is what happens when we preach the gospel, and this is what makes it so difficult. You preach it, you think you've been perfectly clear with someone, and then they come out with something like this.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spoke and Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.