Such Foolishness

But who's fooling whom?

I dashed off a quick comment in another Stack this morning, and it seemed worth re-posting here, with much added material following.

The following passage is from where I happen to be in my in-depth study. It sums up all I see going by in all my news feeds. One source believes we need to focus here and another says no, focus there, and it's all foolishness that will never resolve anything for any great length of time. Always, the message is "this is all somebody else's fault."

Meanwhile, the Cross and the wisdom of God are rejected as foolishness.

CHRIST THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD

1Cor. 1:18-25 (CSB¹)

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. For it is written,

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.

For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

This comment was not directed toward anything specific in that news summary. I was commenting in general about the news contained in news feeds that I follow, of which that is one.

I find much useful information in the news feeds that I choose to follow on Substack and elsewhere. They offer many helpful insights, from authors dedicated to exposing the truth as well as the lies, often being willing to put their own well-being at risk to get the word out. ²

All that said, my feeds are full of foolishness. Reporting on and warning about what is taking place in the world can be of great value, particularly when populations are under attack, using technology and methods of persuasion that are beyond the imagination — let alone the understanding — of many people.

But there are reasons why this is happening, reasons that are beyond the understanding of most of these authors, resulting in conclusions and recommendations that amount to foolishness. Humanity has been trying to solve these problems for thousands of years, and yet they only grow worse. When something doesn’t work, it’s time to try something different. And there isn’t much time left for that, since we appear to be approaching the brink of self-destruction.

I don’t expect that we will succeed at self-annihilation, although I do expect us to come close, but there is something that we need to do, and it is the opposite of what most of my feed authors are proposing. We need to surrender.

From verses 24-25 above, “… Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.“

I know this sounds like utter foolishness to many, while trying the same things again and again over the course of millennia seems like the solution — we just need to try harder. We need to once and for all rid ourselves of all those evil people that are messing up our lives. Except they keep coming back. So try yet again, so long as we’re still around? I don’t think so.

The expression “the power of God”, θεοῦ δύναμις in the Greek (word order and inflection vary), appears here in verses 18 and 24, and also in Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 2:5, 2 Corinthians 6:7 & 13:4, 2 Timothy 1:8, and 1 Peter 1:5. It is the missing element in all human-derived solutions to our problems. Our efforts will never be adequate. We’re not put together in a way that we can do that, and we can’t change the way we are put together, try as we might, not for the better anyway. Higher order does not arise spontaneously from lower order in this universe. This isn’t so much “religious” as it is common sense.

So surrender or die (i.e. or keep doing what people have always done). That is a choice, sort of. Your outcome depends upon what you do, not what you think or believe, although the latter may direct the former. We have this time of being alive to choose our paths and to do what those paths call for. We have the ABCs. No, not the alphabet. Read on.

This surrender involves more than waving the white flag. It begins with A. admitting that you — we all — have a problem, commonly known as the “sin problem”, and that we are sinful and need Jesus as our savior. While many might laugh at this statement, perhaps in part stemming from the bad example set by certain “Christians” saying one thing while doing another³, but it’s no laughing matter. This passage, highlighting the problem, quotes excerpts⁴ from the Old Testament:

Romans 3:10-12

…as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.

This verse is explicit:

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

What is sin? A short answer might be “anything that God is not”. It’s unholiness. If you ask what that is, look around. We’re bathing in it. Or it can be understood as “falling short of the glory of God”.

Surrender continues with B. believing that Jesus is Lord, that he died for our sins, was buried and rose to life on the third day, and ascended to God the Father. This can be harder to see, especially when Jesus has been and continues to be so misrepresented by some:

John 14:6

Jesus told him [the disciple Thomas], “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Unbelievable, I know. It gets worse.

Romans 5:8

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But there is an excellent reason for that.

Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are under a curse of death (Genesis 3:19⁵). There is only one way out, and it is not trans-humanism. Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension opened to us a pardon from the curse (Genesis 3:15⁶). As humans, we could never become good enough to accomplish this. Again, lower order is increased by higher order. We have no means by which we can elevate ourselves, try as we might. And we certainly have tried.

I could say much more, but I am trying to keep this somewhat simple (but not too simple). Questions are welcome.

We can’t save ourselves (how many times have I read otherwise in these blogs?), but we can C. confess our belief and call upon Jesus’ name.

Romans 10:9-10

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

We must individually believe and respond, deeply and truly, putting an end to our rebellion and returning and surrendering to our Creator.

Rom. 10:12-13

…the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

This is not just words. Belief, or faith, is nothing without action (James 2:26⁷). The action, in response to God’s drawing us to Him, is us calling upon him, accompanied by a wholehearted turning from former ways commonly known as repentance. The latter is not simply saying we’re sorry, although that feeling certainly should be there. And we don’t accomplish any of this through our own efforts.

Nor is our transformation complete at this step — we remain flawed but we enter through the narrow gate to the path that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14⁸ and Matthew 7:21). There is a cost (Luke 14:28-30⁹), but it leads somewhere worth going.

Jesus repeatedly mentions something more. It makes some people uncomfortable, even when leaving some of it out as I do here. (I explore this matter further in this post, which I also linked above in connection with “choice”.)

Matthew 24:11-13

Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Endurance. What path will be yours?

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Related:

• Who Will Save Us?

• Hearty Fools

1. All biblical citations are from Christian Standard Bible, Holman Bible Publishers, 2017

2. There is so much information coming in that I have had to resort to “feed triage” and even “paid subscription triage”. I hate to end paid subscriptions, but I am semi-retired with limited income and lots of expenses, and the payments go to those feeds that most closely align with what I do here, and that set changes over time.

3. We all have our limitations and flaws, but some seem to go for extra credit in this department.

4. Likewise, I am quoting excerpts from New Testament passages that highlight the biblical message about “what to do”. Each such passage has its own relevant context, but I am not attempting to explore those here.

5. Gen. 3:19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

6. Gen. 3:15 “I will put hostility between you [the Serpent] and the woman [Eve],
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

This verse is known as the Protoevangelium. The “offspring” is Jesus. Striking the head is fatal. Striking the heel is not.

7. James 2:26 “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”

8. Matt. 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.”

9. Matt. 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”