My Journal

Plenty of articles out there trying to justify that the Bible speaks against curse/cuss words. I'm not talking about making profane statements or speeches which are made up of a bunch of words. I'm referring to singular word like: Fuck, Shit, Damn, etc. Of course, in other languages, they have their own set of "accepted" cuss words.

Another term for this is "dirty words".

I don't think the Bible ever teaches against this. Profanity, swearing, yes, but not specific words that somehow the majority of society has collectively accepted as "dirty words". These "dirty words" are not vain, they have meanings assigned to them. Fuck means having intercourse. Saying "having intercourse" is acceptable, but not the word "Fuck" in the social norm. Why is that? They both designate the same meaning.

So instead of shit, kids are taught to say "poo" instead. "Making love" instead of "fuck". Of course, one may even get so uncomfortable saying any of these culturally accepted substitutions and turn the whole language very general: "Going to toilet/ Taking number 2" instead of saying poo, "sleeping together" instead of fuck. The less specific the better it is. Hence, sacrificing details in speech. I think this is treading on sinful ground as well - not making clear statements.

True, there are times and places we don't just say anything we want, even if they are the truth, just like we would hide our nudity in public. So I'm not talking about such cases. Yet, often times, we hesitate in our speech to find a less offensive terms despite of non-offensive intention. I think it is not necessary.

That doesn't mean that we should now start using these "dirty" words. We should speak truthful and contently. Some people use these "dirty" words sinless, I must say, because of their own background, the kind of people they grew up with, but their hearts are purer than those who even refused to use the word "poo". Some of us have trained ourselves to use our own substitute words or languages, that is fine too, as long as we do not take those "dirty" words as if they have some bewitching essence (Idolatry/lies) nor having some unclean property (lies/calling God's creation unclean). It is the heart that is unclean, not the words. Words are just words. How we use them matters as they communicate our hearts, but the culprit would always be us, not the words themselves. So for the sake of others, we do control our speech and the choice of words we use.

Again, using of the words in itself is never a sin, just like being strong is not a sin, it is the choice of words out of our hearts and motives that would result in sin.

As a conclusion, I would not use some words if they would cause my brothers to sin, as they lack faith. I would not be sinning by merely using these words.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-francis-lords-prayer-our-father-change

The Catholic leader changed the phrase "lead us not into temptation" to "do not let us fall into temptation," as mentioned in the gospel of Matthew 6:13, because the original translation implies that God induces temptation. The change, officials said, is closer to the original intent of the prayer.

"I am the one who falls; it’s not Him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen," Francis explained to Italian broadcasters about the phrase change. "A father doesn't do that, a father helps you to get up immediately. It's Satan who leads us into temptation, that's his department."

This is a no brainer: The Roman Catholic theology does not admit the noetic effect of sin. So, they presupposed that we walk not in sin at some level until we walked into the hole of temptation. But then they contradicted themselves when they say: We are all sinners. Secondly, because of such lousy theology, they could only conclude the alternative being God "pushing" me into temptation, as if I was holy to begin with.

Often times I hear American pastors in the pulpit demanding that congregants should follow their leaders. As if blindly. Obviously, they are not saying that this includes heretic leaders or blindly follow incompetent leaders. They are saying this under the umbrella of trusting and obeying Christ. However, the lack of expounding the other side of the truth is always lacking among these preachers. As if they inherited a sort of intellectual shallowness from the fundamentalists in the 20s, the Bible college camps.

The lack of "go out and experience more", consideration of various problems of diverse Christians, from these preachers are deafening. I imagine if I were to ask them: What about following leaders in those charismatic churches, liberal churches, etc. I can bet that their responses would be: Those are not churches because they aren't Bible believing churches.

On the contrary, I see Joel Osteen's church as a church, I see many problem churches as churches. If there's a church that's not a church, it would be that of the Mormon's, Jehovah Witnesses', etc. These strident fundamentalists just somehow lack something beyond their comfortable never growing American inheritance to perceive a bigger picture. I see a female pastor's church as a church while many of these fundamentalists would just say: everyone is disobeying God for calling this a church.

It's as if they are moving towards legalism: mandatory family Bible study, no work on Sundays, etc. They preach all these on the pulpit but when they are facing these issues from the congregants' mouth, they would treat it as if they never preached what they preached, as if there' some exceptional clause in their preaching against these things, like doctors have to work on Sundays since Jesus heals on Sabbath; but if there are exceptional clauses, why aren't they mentioned during the sermon? Either way, somehing is wrong.

This is of course, due to lack of evangelism, outdoor preaching. Something they have educated themselves against today.

A good preaching to me is always one:
After hearing, the congregants are moved to love, praise and study God even more.

Any other kinds of preaching, are in error with God. No matter how much they claim they are of God. I can write notes against it, during these sermons, thereby still satisfying it being beneficial to me through God's blessing, but I will not refrain myself from criticising.

After listening to Rev. Paul Murphy's latest sermon: The Truth about Lying, I definitely have a bone to pick, because it is unexpectedly serious. It's quite an err. WHY?!?!? I'll get to it at the end of this.

I would have never thought Murphy would go this shallow. First, he watered down the definition of lying, to the point where withholding the truth is also considered lying, as well as telling a different truth, trickery in battle fields, concealment of facts, etc. in order to justify his message: lying for the greater good, viz. to preserve lives. Thus "lying" in some situations is not only permitted but required at times.

Then he compared the commandment against lying to the 6th: Thou shalt not murder. If killing is permitted and can be justified, then the 6th commandment has an exception, he said. Has he not heard of some exposition on the differences between murder and killing? I think the theory behind murder vs. killing could use more work, but it's far better than diluting the differences all together.

Then he raised about 9 biblical passages to support his claim. I'd just touch a couple of them because Murphy's basically just justifying himself with these verses by 1. muttering the definition of lying (i.e. anything more than telling or doing something you know is contrary to the truth), and, 2. committing a logical fallacy: Propositional fallacy - affirming the consequence (i.e. If I don't get burned, then my lying is justified).

Murphy's definition of lying includes tricking your opponent in games, etc. This is not lying as they are called tactical maneuvers or stratagems in games or battles. As both sides should expected their opponents to play in the rule of games. It is different than witnessing in the manner of a contractual relationship.

1 Samuel 16:2: Where God told Samuel to say he has come to sacrifice to the Lord, instead of anointing a new king. While Murphy justifying this as a lie, God's "lie", one can easily find multiple reformed answers against such online: i.e. here. My personal lesson from this passage is that God is rebuking Samuel indirectly. The type of rebuke only a true man of God would recognize. That the sacrifice is more important. The line of David will come to The Paschal Lamb! So, to conclude God lies or tricks from this, one would definitely fail to see this.

Luke 24:28: ...He "acted" as if he were going farther (ESV) The Greek word being προσποιέομαι (G4364), which is similar but not the same as ὑποκρίνομαι (G5271) = hypocrite/feign, see Luke 20:20. Just because someone called his wife's ex-career (actress) a liar, doesn't mean Murphy should fall for it. There really is no issue despite the omniscient of his divine nature, Jesus would have gone farther otherwise. There's no purpose nor ignorance to be a lie, if one were to insist it being a lie.

I don't know why Rev. Paul Murphy would preach such message, for it is very very contrary to the reformed image that he has been exhibiting. I have a guess...that he probably got caught telling a lie recently, probably even a white lie, and got offended. Hence, this sermon. As for misdirection in the code of sports and battles, that's just a test of agility, wits, etc. Nobody will complain about that before the judgment seat. I guess Murphy's not much of a sports person all his life.

Trust God. Murphy was essentially saying that God is powerless at times without the help of lies and deceptions. There's a serious theology failure the West is committing today, among the reformed, which is why they cannot evangelize properly. That is why God does not bless them with numbers. Because they trust their own calculators more. They lack faith in God to do the impossible.

I shall pray for him. This is a weakest point of his character I believe. I fear...no...I should praise God, should it be a time, an opportune time, God wants to use me to do to the West what he's done in Dr. Tong's ministry.