We’re going to do some heavy lifting in this devotional. I sincerely hope and pray you gain some strength from this devotional.
Shortly after Apple released the first version of their Maps app, my wife and I were driving home. Being far from home and hungry my wife decided we should stop at a Cracker Barrel, her go-to place on a trip. Well, I retrieved my iPhone, opened Apple Maps, punched in restaurants, found a Cracker Barrel that was not far out of our way, and off we drove.
And we drove, and we drove. Following Apple Maps, we’d left the interstate and were now on country roads. This just didn’t seem right at all. But in for a dime, in for a dollar. We drove on.
And In The End
Finally, the GPS said we were close. Hmm. This looked like a residential area, not commercial. Having made such a significant investment in our quest for food, we decided to see this to the end, and end it did. In some person’s driveway in a residential neighborhood, on a dead-end street where we could see the Interstate traffic go by. Apple Maps let us down. Not only did Apple Maps not find us a Cracker Barrel®, I had no idea how to get back to the Interstate.
When I Get Home
Hey, I had Google Maps!! I typed in our home address and looked at the map it showed. The map made sense so off we went. I told myself, “When I get home I’m going to delete Apple Maps”. My mistake was that I trusted an untested (by me) mobile app and it failed us.
Apostle Paul urged his “son” in 1 Timothy 6:20-21 (ESV), Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.
Do You Want to Know a Secret
Just like me with the new Apple Maps, we all like “new” and we expect what is new to be better. That’s what the Early Church was wrestling with and it still is. The beginnings of Gnosticism had begun before the birth of Jesus but they quickly incorporated Jesus into their belief system. So, by the time of the Apostle Paul people were departing from the true, proven faith in the Gospel of Jesus to run after this new thing. This “secret knowledge” that Gnostics claimed to possess, this esoteric, mystical knowledge.
Chains
The old, chained, Apostle Paul, spurned his scribe, and wrote the closing of 1 Timothy himself. He wrote, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust.” Paul is literally saying, “guard the deposit.”
Paul saw that the frontal attack by the enemy of God was to be through pretentious knowledge. And so it has been and continues to be so. Science is observation of what God has created. Belief that creation is something God observed is heresy.
The Church has been thrown out of public institutions because of “separation of Church and State.” However, what has been done is to throw out “observable science” and replace it with a derivative. It is not actual science but a set of “truths” that are continually subject to correction or replacement. “Science” is now accomplished through mathematics with “fudge factors” justified by peer reviews rather than empirical data. The actual truth no longer exists.
Something
I have closely followed science for many years, having grown up on university campuses. Something I’ve observed is that scientists, working as they’ve been trained, add “correction factors” to their formulae to get their calculations to agree with the outcome they expect; not always, but often. They have also learned that adding Albert Einstein’s name to their work is very helpful.
As an example, here is an excerpt from a NASA article about “dark matter”: Then one version of Einstein’s gravity theory, the version that contains a cosmological constant, makes a second prediction: “empty space” can possess its own energy. Because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as space expands. (https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy)
I’m a huge fan of Dr. Einstein and have read several books about him and about his theories. Now, I could say “suppositions” instead of theories because theories mean suppositions. However, in the media and in education a theory is often presented as “truth waiting for proof.” This is a disservice to the hallowed halls of education.
Anyway, please, please, please, don’t be misled by data dressed-up as information**. Guard the deposit God has placed in you.
Just to show the silliness of “Gnostic Nonsense” when it’s exposed, I buried a secret in this devotional. What is it?
** By the way, Data and Information are separate things. Data is like, “16”, whereas information is “16 fluid ounces equals 1 pint.” My point is that data without context is just data. It doesn’t mean anything.
Photo by Anika Mikkelson on Unsplash