"Setting a Heading for the 'Truth'"

Note:  Somehow I deleted the original post.  What follows is an attempt to rewrite the post.  If you should have a copy of the original post, please forward to arobbfam@yahoo.com.  Thank you.

Maybe you saw the YouTube video of a military aircraft, a C-17 landing at the wrong airport.  If not  you may view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuqsd_tRHw.

Did the aircrew fly a perfect downwind, base, and final?  Yes they did.
Did the aircrew turnout on the correct final heading?  Yes they did.
Did the aircrew execute a flawless landing?  Yes they did.
Did the aircrew execute a flawless roll out, tactical as it was?  Yes they did.

The problem was that both airports were on the same heading and although they did everything right, they ended up landing at the wrong airport!  Why?  Because the aircrew did not validate the decision of the pilot, assuming that he had made a correct decision.  Thus, they ended up in the wrong place on the wrong runway.

So it is with many of the decisions of our lives and as well those things which we have come to believe.  Some beliefs have consistency, integrity, even believability and yet because the underlying assumption is faulty the outcome is faulty as well.  That which appears to be true in reality is anything but so.

If you view the landing you will see that the aircrew and the airplane survived.  Not so when one lands on the wrong runways in one's life and in doing so misses the truth or reality as some choose to term it.  The consequences will be dire.

Simply said, what may sound so very good at first hearing and accepted on that level may not alert the believer in that "truth" to the difficulties in that particular belief system.  However, when one devotes effort to a deeper examination of the "truth" and one looks into the presuppositions and assumptions that underpin it then the belief breaks down.

Fortunately with the skill of the pilot, the C-17 was stopped before the end of the runway.  At some point the aircrew seeing how short the runway was, realized they had a problem.  So too with beliefs.  If one is to push them out to their logical conclusions, their failed veracity will be seen.  However, many become so caught up in the initial relationship with truth that they fail to see the eventual outcomes.

What are some of the outcomes of belief systems build on faulty assumptions?  First there is the question of validity.  Just know that a valid belief cannot be deduced based upon a faulty assumption.  In addition there can be other outcomes such as incorrect biases, chaotic relationships, deception, denial of conflicting truths (these may in fact be reality), imposition, intolerance, crisis of truth, and much, much more.

As to outcome for the C-17, you may view the take off at the following site.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=805M1svwp_8.  It is interesting as you view the various videos available at YouTube the reactions of the people.  Indeed their view of the landing and take off and their reactions were once again based upon their assumptions about the airplane's capability.

We must exercise great caution in the matter of what we accept as truth and/or reality.  Such should begin with a careful examination of such presuppositions and assumptions that underpin our beliefs.

"Responding to The Intolerance of the Tolerant"

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACIOUSNESS:  May we who have standards and convictions not be intolerant of the intolerant!  What a curious situation the public debate this week as those who accept almost everything reject Chic-Fil-A based upon a thought expressed by its founder.

The owner of Chic-Fil-A simply gave his position on the matter of marriage being as the Bible describes it, between one man and one woman.  Someone said that God established marriage between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve and certainly he would agree with that idea.  Whether one agrees with it or not is not the issue.  How we disagree is in fact the concern.  Not so long ago the right was challenged with its need for graciousness in difference, now the left progressives need to hear the same admonition.

THE CHALLENGE OF BELIEFS EXPRESSED:  At question is that matter of one's right even responsibility to set forth his beliefs.  Certainly no one seems to object with those on the progressive side of the argument impose their notions but let the other side say something as benign as was said and there is an outcry but it does not end there.  Notice that there was to be a "kiss-in" as same sex couples demonstrate their "love" at Chic-Fil-A locations.

Chic-Fil-A being a privately owned company have not great responsibility to allow this sort of thing to go on however, since they seem to be gracious about this whole discourse I suspect that they will not take action.

THE CHALLENGE OF CONVICTIONS:  Such being so there are some things that we need to think about!  We who take a conservative view of the Scriptures must allow nothing to dissuade us from the position we take of the Scriptures.  The more that we are surrounded by the permissive message, the more those of us who hold to the Bible are placed in difficult even untenable positions.  Such is not so in reality only in perception.

The reality is that the same God who designed each of us in our uniqueness, also moved on righteous men of old to author the Bible.  Personally I do not find anywhere that I or anyone else is exempted from any of the Scriptures.  

There are those who would argue that the Christian's shortcomings are license for others to live outside the guidance of the Bible.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Certainly we all make mistakes but that in no way obviates others from their responsibilities.  In fact that is the value of being in a Christian community for in failure there we find support and care.  Then too there is the support to be found in prayer as we pray the Scriptures. 

THE CHALLENGE OF/TO THE CULTURE:  As alluded to earlier, there is a problem.  It is that we are so surrounded by the messages of the media and academia that we either consciously and rationally or without giving it much thought have come to embrace things that are not acceptable to God.  The drift from what is right and correct is so gradual that it is imperceptible.   However, think back a few years to what was acceptable and what was not.  

Of course the Bible is the same as it always has been.  It did not change but we did and in that course of that change we have reinterpreted the Bible to be what we want it to be. The outcome is as one post-modernist writer put it, “…we see the demise of personal definition, reason, authority. . . All intrinsic properties of the human being, along with moral worth and personal commitment, are lost from view...” (Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self)

Is it any wonder that people live largely insecure lives, without a sense of direction, a certain fatalism, and an inadequacy in and of themselves.  Perhaps that is why those who have followed along with culture are so threatened by those with conviction.

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACIOUSNESS:  As the business owner who made the statement regarding the family, let us take our stand wherever we are located but let us do so in wisdom.

Let us do so relationally and not with criticism and rejection

Let us do so graciously not returning evil and insult for evil and insult

Let us do so welcoming the person while disallowing the sin

Let us do so with understanding not condemning for that it is God’s to do.

Remember Jude’s command, “save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear…”  In other words, some we confront others we persuade over time but to all we in some form witness.  (Jude 23).