There is an old philosophy from Blaise Pascal that acts as a fail-safe for our faith. It’s called “Pascal’s Wager”. It states that what you believe about the afterlife is a gamble, because you cannot truly know what will happen after death. The main point is that one should behave as if God exists, because the possibility of eternal punishment outweighs any benefit of atheism.
So the atheist wagers that there will be no God, and no afterlife. The Believer wagers that there is a God and as a result there is an afterlife.
Both cannot prove what they think in the present moment, that is why it is a wager. Pascal argues that The Christian’s wager is better or safer than the atheist’s.
If the atheist is wrong, he goes to hell. If he is right, he goes to non-existence. His wager is a win-lose scenario, a 50/50 chance of his gamble working out in his favor.
For the Christian: if he is right, he goes to heaven and eternal pleasure. If he is wrong, he goes to non-existence.
His belief is a win-win scenario, a 100% chance of the afterlife working out in his favor, because there is nothing wrong with non-existence. In fact, some might find the idea of non-existence more pleasing than the idea of heaven. This is a result of the way that weak people in the Church have decided to describe heaven. In reality, men don’t want to sit around singing “Days of Elijah” on an endless loop for all time. That is how the Church describes heaven. That is one reason why men don’t find the idea of heaven very motivating. Some may even leave the Church because of this.
This entire wager is a buffer for us as weak men. We will doubt our faith, doubt God, doubt the afterlife, but this wager can be a tool that we use to combat the doubt. I know there are some pusillanimous people who will freak out when you try to use anything besides mindless “faith” and emotional “belief” when it comes to your motivation to do what is right. Many days you will have to conjure up some sort of external motivation.
Hell deters us from evil. Pascal’s wager deters us from leaving the faith. Use this tool to maintain the faith when you are particularly weak.
Mantra
Faith has no downside.
Application
Use the wager to beat your doubts. When your emotions begin to fail you, use your rational mind to maintain the faith. Pascal’s wager is designed to appeal to the rational mind. Use the wager to remind yourself that your “gamble” about the afterlife has the best possible outcome.
It is in your best interest to behave as if there is a God. No immediate pleasure is worth eternal punishment. Always be mindful of that.
“Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”
Three problems have arisen because of the ways people interpret the teaching of Jesus about hypocrisy.
One
No one corrects anyone in the Church because they are afraid of being hypocritical, thinking that they themselves must first be perfect before they can criticize anyone else.
Two
Individuals have acquired the classic “You cannot judge me” attitude, and assume that everyone has some form of hypocritical trait which prevents them from passing any judgment.
Three
People think that they have no beams at all and are therefore free to criticize and rebuke anyone they want.
Let’s break down each of these reasons.
1 – The fear of rebuking and criticizing hypocritical brethren has been a longstanding fear in the Church. The results of this became apparent in the last sixty years with the baby boomer generation and the”no spanking” parenting movements.
Congratulations, not disciplining children resulted in the worst generations to exist.
Men must take the offensive position and correct the wrongs they see in others. We do not have to be flawless to point out flaws. The teaching of Christ seems to point at people who are rebuke others for the same sin that they themselves are engaged in. A drunkard rebuking another man for drinking, for instance.
2 – The world has confused the idea of “judge that you be not judged” with the fallacy of “do not judge at all”. We judge people by our very nature, it is not something we can avoid. Humans are constantly making judgements about our fellow-man based first on how he looks, and secondly on how he acts. We do judge other men, and the reality is that we are allowed to do so. The text simply says that the standard we use to judge others will be used to judge us. There is difference between not judging entirely and using a fixed standard to judge which we also apply to ourselves. Are we measuring up to our own scrutiny?
3 – Some individuals have come to think they are perfect. They are hypocritical, stupid and know nothing. This unfortunately tends to be older women first. Older men maintain a close second place followed by middle-aged women and lastly middle aged men. Young men and women who think they are perfect are simply classic narcissists. It is almost impossible to deal with any of these toxic types.
The purpose of the teaching of Christ is to guide us towards being more self-aware of our own behavior.
We need to conduct thorough examinations of ourselves, taking inventory of our character and of where we fall short. Through this we can begin to improve on these weaknesses which improves our character overall. Through years of this focused application and the teaching we may wake to find ourselves significantly improved from our earlier state. Then others come us for advice and guidance on how to improve their own lives and weaknesses.
Correct the self first, then correct others.
Application
Dealing with the Three Types of Hypocritical Church Members
One: People who are afraid to rebuke others want to be liked, and no one likes the man who rebukes others. This is simply human nature. These people must be instructed on how to deliver a rebuke that does not seem like a rebuke.
The difference between a rebuke that a man will take to heart and a criticism that will cause you to be hated by the man is all in the delivery. The delivery must be tailored to the personality of the person you are speaking to.
Aggressive, egotistical types need an aggressive criticism, because they understand that type of power.
They must be withstood to the face as Paul addressed Peter in front of the whole Church. Peter was a strong, extroverted personality type that would respond best to that type of address.
Quiet introverted people need to be taken aside and spoken to quietly.
An open rebuke would do infinitely more harm than good to the introvert. This is seen with the teacher Apollos in Acts 18. Apollos taught boldly, but he only knew the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and taught him the Way of God more accurately.
While the scripture might seem to indicate that Apollos was a strong personality type (he taught boldly/refuted vigorously the Jews in public) it seems less likely that he would become a “learned man” as an extremely extroverted person.
To become a “very learned” or eloquent man and one who can debate vigorously requires a great deal of time spent alone in study. Lecturers, professors and people who engage in debate tend to actually be introverts much of the time. Therefore, it seems that Apollos was likely an introvert who would respond better to quiet admonition and instruction rather than a public address.
Tailor the delivery of your rebuke/admonition to the personality of the individual you are speaking to and you will have a much greater chance of being heard.
Two
People who think the Text says “you cannot judge me” are narcissists who only see what they want to see in the scriptures. They want to live their own life in the way they desire and still sneak into heaven at the end. This type of individual is usually a young person, as you will rarely heard older people tell you not to judge them.
It is extremely difficult to instruct this type of individual because they are likely the result of lax parenting. The primary way to get your message across to them is to first strengthen your relationship with them. People deal better with criticism when it comes from someone they have a relationship with and when the delivery is properly tailored to their personality type. Open rebuke does little for those individuals, they will just hate you for embarrassing them. Be strategic in your approach.
Three
The classic narcissists who think they are perfect need open rebukes. They have constructed a false self-image that needs to be shattered.
The old need to remember they are not perfect.
Relationship is not necessary here, for these people also think they themselves can criticize others without having a relationship with them. They need to understand their own position and they need to be instructed as to why their criticisms of others are not taken to heart. They are the Medusas who must be shown their own reflection. Give them a taste of what they give out, because they have forgotten what their reflection really looks like.
Some will humble themselves and repent, others will simply find another church that will tolerate their narcissism. In this way you have purged you assembly of these self-absorbed, hypocritical parasites and judged with righteous judgement.
Is your faith weak? Or do you have no idea what faith is?
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
“He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’”
Is your faith weak? Or do you have no idea what faith is? What many individuals in the Church have done is they have confused faith with an emotional state.
Faith is not emotion, it is action.
Action then in turn creates the emotions commonly associated with faith. Do not confuse what you feel for genuine faith. In the same way that you should not confuse what you feel emotionally towards another person for genuine love.
You think your faith is weak because you have thousands of questions about the nature of God.
You wonder why He is the way that He is.
Why He chose to destroy people in the Old Testament or execute a furious vengeance on people who did not obey Him.
You question your own salvation and wonder if the grace of God is enough to save even a soul like yours.
You are not sure if you will be saved because you are confused by God’s justice and the way it differs from man’s justice.
You wonder if you are wasting time in the Church, wasting time in your faith and giving up on pleasures of life solely for the purpose of faith.
All these thoughts are the attacks of the enemy on your faith.
You hold fast to the faith even when you do not feel like it, when you do not want to or even when you think everything about it is wrong. You hold fast the faith through discipline and focus because that is how a disciple behaves. This is true faith. Staying in the Church when your emotions pull you away from it is faith. Doing what is right even when it is inconvenient is faith. Faith is trusting in God’s plan even though it looks wrong to you. Faith is maintained despite everything you feel. Real faith is not an emotion, it is an attitude combined with an action.
Faith is the attitude of relentlessness, knowing you will never give up the faith. Then following it up with the action of maintaining that faith. Christianity is very difficult, very Spartan. It is not for the faint-hearted. Modern culture has made it possible to have a weak faith and be faithful because there are no real consequences to being faithful right now. When the times arises for the true warriors of Christ to rise and resist a violent persecution, the weak will fall away. The strong and faithful will remain.
All of your questions will not be answered in this world.
You will not get to the bottom of the way you feel and you will not know if your sacrifices in life have been worth it until the very end. You will not know if giving everything up in life was worth heaven. You do not even know if you yourself are going to heaven.
This is not weak faith, this is a faith that is being refined by fire.
Your faith is tested and tried through all of these assorted evils. The most faithful will survive to the end of the gauntlet and be rewarded. Maintain your faith. You do not have weak faith, you have a faith that is under assault, there is a huge difference.
Faith is action and Attitude.
Application:
Recognize that every thought, fear and worry you have in your mind regarding your faith is merely a test. The strength of your character, mind and discipline are being tested against the evils of this world.
You have to make large sacrifices of pleasure in order to hold the faith. You will not know if it is worth it, but you must maintain the faith nonetheless. You must hold fast to the disciplines that you know and blot out the evil thoughts of the adversary that pollute your mind. This life is a game of endurance, all you have to do is endure to the end and you will be victorious.
Do not question your faith if you are having great difficulty in your life, for this is merely the fire that is turning you into the strong individual that you want to be.
Every great person that you admire, whether in the faith or in the world, has undergone this transformation. A valuable gold cannot be refined without a hot furnace. Endure those moments of refinement and you will understand that your faith is not weak, it is being built into something great.
Prepare your mind for the siege of the enemy. Gather together positive thoughts and ideas that you will contemplate when you are attacked by the enemy. Create the best possible mental image of heaven to motivate yourself to that goal. Resist every evil thought of the evil one. You can win this war, it is only a matter of time.
Rome did not fall apart in a single day. The fall came over time, fueled by decadence and hedonism.
People are panicking about the state of the country. That is fine, the concern may actually be a good thing. But there is much more hope than people realize. There are still thousands of individuals “who have not yet bowed to the Baals”. If American collapse is coming, it will not happen overnight.
We will not wake up one morning to overwhelming tyranny and government regulated living and think, “I wonder how we got into this situation”.
The majority of countries fall apart slowly over time.
They decay slowly instead of combusting spontaneously. This is how Rome fell: slowly over time, instead of overnight in mass hysteria.
Historians have generated hundreds of theories as to why the Roman empire fell. The real reason could be any one of those theories or any possible combinations of various theories. However, the primary point to be noted is that Rome did not fall apart in a single day. The fall came over time, fueled by decadence and hedonism.
The citizens focused on pleasure and the enjoyment of life, causing them to become soft and weak. The empire was only as powerful as its people. The people only as powerful as their minds allowed them to be. The fall happened slowly.
The fact that there is panic about the state of the country actually provides some positive facts.
1 – We the People are Aware of what is going on in the country.
We are aware of the decadence and the destruction of core values that made America a world power. As long as we are aware of the problems, we can stave them off. Destruction and death happen to the people who are unaware of them. Countries are destroyed by apathy and stagnation.
The American people are fully aware of the condition that the country is in and the direction that it is headed. Because of this awareness, there is hope. Awareness is the foundational principle and key to all improvement and change. As long as we are aware of the evil that exists, there is still plenty of time to change it.
There also seems to be a delay in how nations decay when they have solid religious foundations. Many historians are shocked that the Roman empire lasted as long as it did. It could be because of the heavy Christian presence there. Just speculation, something to think about.
Britain would become a world power much later in time, and Christianity would find its base there. It seems that whatever the world power is, it is infused with faith. And this faith preserves the nation because the nature of God is merciful.
God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of 10 people. That is less than 2% of the population of those two cities alone, not counting the other two cities that were destroyed (if historians are correct about the population of Sodom and Gomorrah being around 900-1200 people).
The American country will be spared as long as there is righteousness in it. And as long as we the people are still panicking about the state of the country, then we have enough righteous souls to spare the nation. We are aware enough of the evil to keep it at bay for a few more years. There is hope for the country yet.
“Hypocrisy is preaching a standard that you do not practice. It is telling others how they should live and then consciously choosing to live in the opposite way.”
The Problem with Hypocrisy is that is has not been clearly defined.
Matthew 7:1-5 – “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
Romans 2:3 – “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?”
Titus 1:6 – “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work”
Hypocrisy is a term that is thrown around as if it means nothing. We have forgotten what this word means because it is so overused. We accuse everyone and everything of being hypocritical without first defining the terms of what hypocrisy is. Here we define terms.
Definition: What Hypocrisy is NOT.
Hypocrisy is nothaving a high standard and failing to live up to it. That is called being a human being and making a mistake.
Hypocrisy is notcommitting sin.
Hypocrisy is notfailing to do something we know we know we should, nor is it doing something we know we should not.
Hypocrisy is nota single failing or even a batch of failings.
Definition: What Hypocrisy IS.
Hypocrisy ispreaching a standard that you do not practice. It is telling others how they should live and then consciously choosing to live in the opposite way.
Examples
1 – If a man promotes the standard of abstinence until marriage, yet he fails in this and has sex, he is NOT a hypocrite.
If the same man tells others to be abstinent and yet willing goes out and has sex repeatedly, he ISliving a hypocritical life.
2 – If a man promotes sobriety, the avoidance of alcohol and other substances, yet he stumbles and has a drink because he has little self-control, he is NOT a hypocrite.
The man who preaches sobriety and maintains a lifestyle of constant drinking and drunkenness IS a hypocrite.
3 – If a man believes that is is wrong to curse, yet one day he accidentally loses control of his mouth and says a word he considers to be a sin, he is NOT a hypocrite.
The hypocrite tells others not to curse and then goes out and uses whatever language he wants without even trying to restrain his tongue.
The difference is that the man who is not a hypocrite stumbles and makes mistakes, while the man who IS a hypocrite lives a constant, conscious lifestyle of evil that is in direct opposition to the lifestyle he wants others to live.
A person trying to live a “green lifestyle” (heaven help you) but every once in a while drives a gas burning car or needs to take a plane somewhere is not a hypocrite. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez IS a hypocrite because she wants everyone else to live a green, inconvenient life while having the rules not apply to her
The hypocrite dictates rules to others that do not apply to him. He is very aware of what he is doing. He usually attempts to disguise or bury it so that he can live the way he wants to while still attempting to appear as an angel of righteousness.
All men make mistakes and stumble, the hypocritewillingly lives the lifestyle he preaches against.
Some may even unknowingly live in hypocrisy. However, these individuals are hypocritical to a lesser degree because they do not actively choose to do what is wrong (We will examine these in detail later).
This is the difference.
This is true hypocrisy.
To require a person to never commit any of the wrongs he is opposed to is unreasonable and illogical.
We are still men in the flesh.
We will fail, but we will not willingly live in evil.
Hypocrisy is a choice that we will avoid.
Application
Correct your perceptions about what you think hypocrisy is before you begin another day. Do not allow the false notion of what the weak call hypocrisy delude you to reality.
Do not require perfection from people who hold high standards. No man can reach perfection. However, that does not mean that man cannot have very high standards for himself. Those standards will only press him on to more greatness and improvement.
If you are wallowing in hypocrisy, purge it from yourself immediately. There is no need to contribute to the bad name of hypocrisy that Christians have built for themselves already. Eliminate your vices and replace them with strength and honor.
