“DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR OR READ!” Part three

“DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR OR READ!”

Part three

By Keith Bellamy

While I was out at the prison making visits in the High Security Section, an inmate asked me a question about all the End of Time Theology he was hearing and from some of the publications he was reading. He wanted to know about some of the predictions some preachers and writers were making.

I asked him to read Deuteronomy 18:20-22, that says, “But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death. You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”(NIV)

Then I asked him what that passage said. He said most of what he was hearing wasn’t going to happen because some of these religious experts had made predictions that had not come to pass.

Why could he understand that, and the average person on the street could not? It was because he read the passage for himself.

So just because he said, or she said, or they said does not make it true. Before you believe any allegation, you had better check it out. It may not be the truth. Before you believe anything…check it out for yourself. What you heard or read may not be the truth!

My dad was a wise man! I would use the phrase They said. He asked me who They were. That really got me to thinking. “Don’t believe everything you hear or read!”

What do you think?

The 4th of July

The 4th of July

by Keith Bellamy

If I went around our community and asked about the 4th of July I wonder what kind of response I would get. And if I asked the average junior high or high school student what the 4th of July was about, I wonder if I would get the right answer.

“During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great Britain. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the wording of the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4th.” (Wikipedia)

A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” (Wikipedi

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The declaration was signed on July 2nd; final approval was on July 4th.

Now what does any of this have to do with a religious column? A lot!

Human beings forget. So, if we forget what the 4th of July is about, what will happen to our history--let alone our country?

A number of years ago I completed a series on Sunday evenings on Church History. The purpose of the series was not to condemn but to inform. And if the History of the church is forgotten what does that say about its adherents?

I am thinking of Hosea 4:6. “My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children” (NLT).

“DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR OR READ!” Part two

“DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR OR READ!”

Part two

by Keith Bellamy

Someone has said that our nation has become a country where certain people don’t believe the average citizen can understand what is said or presented. Someone has to tell us what is said or what it means, because we have become lazy and won’t investigate for ourselves.

Years ago, when I was involved in politics and held a political office I watched certain people vote for a candidate because someone told them to vote for “so and so”. On one occasion a group started a petition against a decision the City Council and I had made. One very good friend discovered her dad had signed the petition. He had never read the petition, but he signed it anyway. His daughter told her dad he had stabbed me in the back (I never felt that way.). Her dad had been a very fine supporter of mine and he had spent hours making signs for our election campaign. Someone had played the race card and sadly he fell for it all because he didn’t read the petition before he made his decision. The daughter asked her dad how many times she asked him to read before he acted. As a result of not reading for himself (and he could read), he made a decision based on faulty information.

I can’t help but admire those good folks we read about in Acts 17:11. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”