To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 10:5 “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God”

The verse above was one that our pastor referred to in his sermon last Sunday morning.  The words that appear above are from the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.  Our pastor quoted the New International Version rendering of this verse.  This version translates the Greek word (which is the language in which the New Testament was originally written) that is rendered “lofty opinion” in the ESV as “pretension.”  The actual Greek word used here is “hypsoma.”  It can be defined as “an elevated place or thing.”  The word pretension tries to get at the meaning of the word as it is used here, for a pretension can be defined as “an allegation or claim of doubtful value.” What the apostle Paul is talking about here is that one of the purposes of his ministry was to engage in a war of words regarding the many ways people try to bring disrepute to the Word of God. He prefaces the verse above with the following: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”  Strongholds are arguments that Satan has used over the centuries to deceive people into doubting or even rejecting the things God has said.  They are strong arguments. They are arguments that have swayed the minds of millions of people.  But to say that they are “pretentious” is an understatement. For anyone to claim that they know more than or better than God knows about anything is most certainly a claim that no one can ever back up.  You see, “pretension” is closely related to the word “pretend.” To pretend means “to speak and act so as to make it appear that something is the case when in fact it is not.”  Do you realize that anyone who makes (and believes) a statement that is “raised against the knowledge of God” is ultimately living a “pretend” existence? A person can “claim” anything, but if that statement is opposed to the knowledge of God (which is provided to us in the Word of God), then that claim is nothing more than make believe.  It’s a fantasy, little more than a fairy tale. 

We see this in the current battle over transgenderism. Here we have people who are of one sex claiming to be of another.  The Bible clearly says that in the beginning God created males and females (Genesis 1:27). As such God has told us that our sexual identity is an immutable creation of His and His alone.   A person can claim otherwise and thereby exalt their opinion above the knowledge of the omniscient God, but that claim is a pretension and their existence in terms of their sexual identity is nothing more than pretend.  Likewise, any other statement or opinion that is a claim against the Truth of God. It’s all pretend.  It’s not real.  It’s a claim the person who makes it can never back up.  And so, a person can claim to “know” that the world came to be without the hand of God and that all the life on it came to be through its own power by the process of evolution; however, the fact is that God created everything that is, and any statement to the contrary is nothing more than a fairy tale. 

The religions of the world and the teachers that promote them are a dime a dozen.  Do you realize that every single one that does not teach that faith in Jesus Christ alone is the Way to eternal life is teaching a “fabricated story,” as 2 Peter 2:3 puts it? In other words, it’s nothing more than a pretension that men have foolishly raised against the infinite knowledge of God. It’s all make believe. Worse than that, it’s an unmitigated lie. 

So, what about you? What do you believe about the big questions of life? Do you know where you came from? Do you know why you’re here? Do you know where you are going after you die?  Whatever you believe about these things, is it rooted in the knowledge of God which He has provided for us in His Holy Word, or is it based on something else, something you think is better, something you think makes more sense?  If so, you certainly can think that, just like you can think that a frog can become a prince.  But like that fairy tale, any claim that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is nothing more than make believe.  It’s all pretend. It’s all a lie. And, in the end, it will be a story that no one who tells it will ever be able to back up.