Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The Flat Earth of Kyrie Irving? Is it true or is it a lie?

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At first when I read the comments of Kyrie Irving flat earth, I thought to myself this is ludicrous. How could an otherwise intelligent professional athlete, (at other times I would call this an oxymoron) like Kyrie Irving really believes that the earth is flat. I began to investigate, and found that what I thought to be ridiculously obvious was not so apparent to others.  Or to grasp the other end of the spectrum those things that were obvious to those that believe the earth is flat had completely eluded my mental facilities or crux of discernment.

Yet this juxtaposition viewpoint leads us to conclude that either the majority that believe the earth is a globe are incorrect, or the minority (the flat earth believers) are incorrect. Both cannot be correct. This is the elementary law of non-contradiction which states that any statement cannot be true and false at the same time. For instance the earth cannot be flat, and not flat at the same time.  If the earth is flat, than to say the earth is a globe must be a lie, (Kyrie Irving says we have been lied to) and if then the earth is in the shape of a globe to say it is flat is just wrong, and Kyrie is correct.
Yet weather the earth is flat or globe shape is not the crux of this blog, the issue is simply both cannot be true. And what is scary is on this issue we have no problem with saying one is true and the other is a lie. However, as Christians on weightier things we fail to take a position, not functioning  as soldiers for the kingdom but as bond servants to a secular worldview. for fear we might hurt someone's felling with Truth!

Tolerance of a Christian

Yet for the postmodern Christian when we say that we and Muslims do not worship the same God, or that every other belief contrary to Christianity is false. We are said to be insensitive, judgmental or intolerant. Yet tolerance is not agreement with a thing, tolerance acknowledges a conflict of views. In fact tolerance requires contradictory opinions. This is important because most of the time when we are accused of being intolerant we are not being asked to acknowledge the rights of our accuser to have a different opinion, we are being manipulated by our accusers to be in agreement to their opinion.  We must understand this is not called tolerance, its called submission. And on many issues the world wishes impose the submission of Christians views, not the tolerance of other views that Christian find contrary to a Biblical Standard.
That being said let us clearly define tolerance so that the christian will be circumscribed by that definition and so that the world my see that Christians are among the only group that is tolerance today.
  • Tolerance is recognizing another opinion is not the same as your opinion, it is forbearance that restrains us for showing anger or inflicting punishment because of that opinion. 
  • Tolerance is always given to an individual but never given to an idea or principle. Jude 1:22-23 teaches "And have mercy on some, who are doubting;  save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh" (NASB) this oulines the concept of tolerance perfectly where tolerance is given to the person (sinner) but hated is given to the principle or idea (sin)
 Yet for the Christian if we do not agree with the principle of any anti-christian group we are punished for that disagreement. As much as I voted for Obama for president, I think the bane of his presidency was his willingness to impose punishment on Christians for their non-secular worldview. 62% of Americans identify themselves as Christian, yet anti-christian policies were constantly made which punished the 62% majority for the sake of the 3.9 percent minority. But don't get me wrong, I am not advocating a majority rule mindset. I am in opposition to a policy whereby the universally tolerant majority is punished for their opposing moral based worldview
Tolerance applies to persons but never principles, while Intolerance applies to principles and never persons. Archbishop Fulton J Sheen more clearly explains this truth

“Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error … Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory. Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.”  (Fulton J Sheen)

 

Gentle and Kind Christian

 Yet even though the secular world imposes their view of what is true and what is not true, we cannot become fooled by what seems right to man (Judges 21:25) but must have a Biblical worldview concerning what is truth and what is a lie. We must not fail in the face of  incorrectly apply tolerance and intolerance toward our christian life.  We must refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing they produce arguments, being kind to everyone and able to teach with patient and gentleness when we wronged. Correcting those that are in opposition, in hopes that maybe God will grant them repentance which leads to the knowledge of truth. ( 2 Timothy 2:23-25)


Your Brother in Christ
Tcharves FireSpeaks


[1] Quote Mining; The practice of quoting out of context (sometimes referred to as "contextomy), is an informal fallacy and a type of false attribution in which a passage is removed from its surrounding matter in such a way as to distort its intended meaning.