“I Know, Therefore I Am”
I know, I know … that’s not how the saying goes.
It’s: “I think, therefore I am” René Descartes
I am slightly modifying it to illustrate something that has been (as I see it) prevalent in our lives as believers a very long time. I am not excluding or exempting myself as I reflect upon what I’m about to write.
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Some time after my salvation in 1973, I started to suspicion what looked to me like a thinking process commonly practiced within the body of believers. This thinking process manifests itself through a strategically implemented form of subtle self-delusion.
Please understand, I’m not hurling accusations at us. I’m hoping to make us aware of a commonly accepted modus operandi of what I’m terming as:
Christian = those who are born-again having been washed in the blood of Christ.
Cognitive = of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering) {Webster}
Dissonance = inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs {Webster}
Which when all put together, Christian Cognitive Dissonance rationalizes like this —
If I KNOW it, {if I believe it, if I think it, if I agree with it} therefore I am … it. That is: I AM what I know.
By way of application:
*Because I know correct Biblical doctrine, therefore I am … it — even though my life might not reflect it.
*Because I know how to dress and look the part outwardly I am … it — even though inwardly I know differently.
By way of extended application:
*If I acknowledge things are escalating toward the end-time Biblical revelation —— that acknowledgment translates into I’m … OK — even though nothing changes in my life to help me prepare spiritually for that eventuality.
*If I’m convicted and acknowledge I don’t spend enough time with God in His Word, therefore that acknowledged conviction counts and, I’m … OK — even if day-after-day I don’t meet with God in His Word.
Do you get my point, what I’m driving at?
Let me reassemble it this way:
We, through a thought process of self-deluding rationalization, conclude we ARE what we KNOW — even though deep down inside we KNOW differently. And … we also know nobody knows differently about us.
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A few verses to help bring some illumination —
*“Thou BELIEVEST that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also BELIEVE, AND TREMBLE.” (James 2:19)
We can actually “believe” something just as much as the devils do … and somehow never, ever TREMBLE? How can that be?? How is that even a possibility???
Could it be the devils know the truth of the verse below and do everything in their power to keep us from experiencing it?
“For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and TREMBLETH AT MY WORD.” (Isaiah 66:2)
I have a sneaky feeling the devils are happy if God never looks to us.
*“Therefore to him that KNOWETH to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)
That is such a penetrating concept. We can know all we want to and yet … if all we do is know it and don’t do it then … it is sin.
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This might be seriously more relevant than we are aware,
Because …
*If we only believe and never tremble …
*If we only know and never do …
What does that say about us?
It says that in our practice we are not what we think we know.
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Wrap up time.
Ponder the following as I have. —
We may believe all it is that we believe
and
We may know all it is that we know
but that …
in-and-of-itself, doesn’t necessarily mean …
Because “I Know, Therefore I Am.”
Remember:
You can factually KNOW, but not actually TROW.
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May our constant objective be —
“I DO, therefore I KNOW”
Works for me.