For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
I love history. I love studying history, I love looking at the different personalities in history, I love the whos, whats, hows, whys, wheres and whens of history. The problem I have with it, though, if I'm honest is that most people who use history don't approach history correctly. Yes, there's a correct way to approach it! You see, what we do in modern times is we tend to look down on historical persons by judging them based on modern sensibilities. Why is this wrong? Simply put: we remove someone from their own personal context, their society's way of thinking, and their time, and apply modern standards to someone who has absolutely nothing to do with us apart from being our forbear. It is important to study history, yes.
It's important to learn from the past, absolutely, but when we remove the context from history and judge the people of the past based upon present circumstances, we're pretending we're more superior than they are. Funnily enough, it's the same when we read the Bible. We take a letter, a prophecy, a scripture written to certain people in a certain time, and we try and judge it by our standards instead of trying to figure out where the author was coming from. When we do that, we diminish the scriptures by making it all about us, instead of trying to figure out the whos, whats, whys, wheres, whens, and hows. God will not be mocked. He is not answerable to us. Unfortunately, many have made it all about us. When we seek ourselves in Scripture, we lose our way. When we seek God in it, we find exactly who we are looking for.
He does not stop the world for us personally. When Jesus returns, He's returning for the Church, not those who have a personal relationship with Him. So let us stop acting foolish, and adding our perspective. Let us understand the scriptures, not just on the surface, but on the level it was written. Let us seek God's correction, and to do things His way. It is from a CORRECT understanding of Scripture that we may be who He calls us to be.
Ephesians 2:11-22
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise,having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought nearby the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace,who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
