Faith or Flesh—Choose Wisely

Mankind is at a tipping point. This is not a surprise because it is mankind’s destiny!


The world is in turmoil and in need of guidance and inspiration. Today many depend on others to get their guidance and inspiration rather than finding it within themselves.

Some turn to family, friends, close relatives. Others turn to social media. Some join organizations with goals similar to theirs. Others join political parties or social movements. Some turn inward and only think about themselves.

Many seek pleasures of the flesh to satisfy their thirst for happiness.

QUESTON: Why do each of these always fail?

ANSWER: Because they all lack the one great truth—faith is the only answer.

In the 3rd Century AD, Saint Augustine of Hippo in Book III of Confessions wrote, “The blindness of humanity is so great that people are actually proud of their blindness.”

The Wreckers

The wreckers are those who are so self absorbed, sinister and diabolical that they carry out unspeakable acts against their fellow human beings. In the times of Augustin of Hippo it was the Romans who persecuted the Christians and even crucified them or fed them to various beasts in the great and grand Colosseum in Rome. And the wreckers cheered as the blood of innocents and gladiators alike was shed. The more blood the more the wreckers cheered.

Today we have similar wreckers who take pleasure in persecuting others globally. According to Open Doors,

Around the world, more than 360 million Christians live in places where they experience high levels of persecution, just for following Jesus. That’s 1 in 7 believers, worldwide.

As Saint Augustine wrote the aim of the wreckers was, “to persecute them by mockery and so to feed their own malevolent amusement. Nothing more resembles the behavior of devils than their manner of carrying on.”

So no truer name could be given them than the Wreckers. Clearly they are themselves wrecked first of all and perverted by evil spirits, who are mocking them and seducing them in the very acts by which they love to mock and deceive others,” wrote Augustus.

Our world has now given power to these wreckers, either voluntarily or by force. We see it all around us. Yet many remain silent to the wreckers perversions.

Faith or Flesh

Mankind in general, and individuals in particular, must now choose between faith and flesh.

Augustine confessed, “I pursued a sacrilegious quest for knowledge, which led me, a deserter from you, down to faithless depths and the fraudulent service of devils. The sacrifices I offered them were my evil acts.”

Are you seeking knowledge for its own sake and by doing so have you deserted Him, the only one who can truly redeem you?

Today, popularity is more important than faith. We see it all around us, engulfing us and leading us down to faithless depths of depravity.

Augustine asked, “Who can untie this twisted and tangled knot?

But the answer is clear.

What does ambition seek but honour and glory?” wrote Augustine, “Yet you alone are worthy of honour and are glorious for eternity. The cruelty of powerful people aims to arouse fear. Who is to be feared but God alone. What can be stolen from his power? When or where or how or by whom? Soft endearments are intended to arouse love. But there are no caresses tenderer that your charity, and no object of love more healthy than your truth, beautiful and luminous beyond all things.”

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” Matthew 7: 7-12.

Knock and He will open the door so that you may enter—for ever.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

1 reply
  1. Ed
    Ed says:

    Augustine missed his own blindness that has blinded millions, including but not limited to Calvin and Luther, and through the seminary in the doctrine of original sin. Sadly it is his teachings that have brought men to believe the Bible teaches a god who hates the many and loves only a few. A god who predestinated babies for the fires of hell. A god who requires the bloody and torturous death of the innocent to appease his wrath.

    This man must not be exalted as a great teacher. But, a great deceiver. The epitome of the blind leading the blind.

    Reply

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