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Is Sincerity Enough?

Is Sincerity Enough?

I have been asked many times if sincerity is enough, whether it really matters what one believes as long as one is sincere in their beliefs. The simple answer is that it depends on what belief one is sincere about. There are some things that truly don’t matter, but others certainly do.

For the purpose of this blog, we won’t explore issues of physical health, such as whether it matters if someone smokes cigarettes or marijuana as long as they sincerely believe that cigarettes help their lungs function better or that marijuana improves their brain health. Our beliefs do not change physical reality or the laws of health, so we won’t be exploring this.

People’s concern and the intention of their question about sincere beliefs are almost always related to salvation, to right standing with God and receiving eternal life, regardless of one’s belief. People want to know if they and their loved ones who believe things differently can both be in heaven, and they wonder if the key might be sincerity, that even if they believe differently than another, both can be saved as long as both are sincere in their respective beliefs.

However, the issue isn’t simply sincerity but what we are sincere about—is our sincerity about facts or about methods?

If someone sincerely believes something wrong regarding some fact, such as the method of baptism, which beast is what nation, or who is the king of the north, but they simultaneously are sincere about their trust in God and the methods of God and practice those methods, then their character is demonstrating that the law of God has been written upon their heart (Hebrews 8:10). But if someone is right on the facts but wrong on the methods of God, then as they practice the wrong methods to advance the right fact, they corrupt their character and harden their heart and close the Holy Spirit out of their life.

What are the methods of God? Truth, love, and freedom.

 

Truth

The righteous are not those who know all truth—only God knows all truth. But the righteous have hearts that love truth. They are humble, teachable, and willing to listen and be corrected by God’s revelation of truth. By contrast, the lost love their position, power, creeds, and preconceived ideas and resist the truth, argue against it, and they will use methods that obstruct unfolding truth—censoring, restricting free speech, burning books, and deplatforming, imprisoning, and even killing those who share the truth. Jesus, right after telling us that God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever trusts Him will not perish but have everlasting life, said:

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (John 3:19–21 NIV84).

Those deemed righteous will be sincere lovers of truth, eager to advance in the truth, grow in the truth, and embrace and practice the truth as soon as they are capable of appreciating it. But the lost will “perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10 NIV84).

Yes, it matters whether we sincerely love the principle of truth, or whether we love our doctrines, our creeds, our dogmas, “our truth” and close our hearts to the ever-increasing light of God.

 

Love

When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replied:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:36–40 NIV84).

God is love, and He has created life to live, function, and grow only upon the principle of love, the method of other-centered giving. The more love we give, the more we receive.

Jesus said,

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12, 13 NIV84).

The apostle John wrote,

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:16–21 NIV84).

And Revelation describes those who are ready to meet Jesus when He returns with these words:

They overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death (Revelation 12:11 NIV84).

The saved are sincere about loving God and others more than self. The saved may not understand every text of Scripture correctly, but they will love those they view as wrong, so much so that they are like Jesus and would give their lives to save others, even their enemies.

But the enemies of God are dominated by fear and selfishness and will not sacrifice self to help others, but will coerce, exploit, and force others to comply (the methods of the beast) to make themselves feel safe.

 

Freedom

Love exists only in at atmosphere of freedom. Take away freedom and love is destroyed, rebellion is instilled, and individuality is eroded. It is only leaving people free after presenting the truth to them in love that wins hearts and minds to loyal love and friendship.

This is why the Bible teaches that every person must be fully persuaded in their own mind (Romans 14:5).

God is infinitely powerful, but what God wants—our love, trust, loyalty, devotion, friendship—cannot be achieved by Him using force, pressure, external power, or threat. This is why the Bible says that God advances His cause “‘not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6 NIV84).

It is important to present the truth, yes, but truth only has transforming power when the individual freely chooses to embrace it for themselves. As the famous saying goes, a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still. Thus it is only by leaving people free to decide for themselves that transforms hearts and minds from enemies of God into friendship with Him.

This is why the Bible says:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV84).

And those who have the Spirit of the Lord have God’s law written upon their hearts. And God’s law is His design protocols of truth, love, and freedom. The saved live out God’s principles in how they treat others. And when we live His law, His precepts, we are free from fear, selfishness, and sin:

I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts (Psalm 119:45 NIV84).

This is exactly what James meant when he wrote:

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25 NIV84).

The saved are sincere about loving truth; they are sincere about loving God and others; and they are sincere about loving freedom. They sincerely live out God’s methods in how they treat others.

But while the lost may have some doctrinal truth, they reject the design laws and methods of God and seek to advance their “truth” with the methods and practices of Satan and this world; they use force, coercion, pressure, deceit, and control. Such people are “springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2 Peter 2:17–19 NIV84).

In Matthew 25:31–46, Jesus says that when it comes to separating the saved from the lost, the differentiating factor is not doctrinal beliefs but how we treated others. Why?

Because the methods we choose to apply to ourselves in how we treat others determines what law gets written upon our hearts and minds!

Are we practicing God’s methods of truth, love, and liberty in how we treat others, or are we practicing Satan’s methods of fear, self-preservation, self-deception, and justification of using coercion and force as necessary for the “greater good”?

If one sincerely believes a wrong fact or doctrine but they know God and practice His methods of truth, love, and freedom in how they treat others, then believing the wrong fact won’t obstruct their salvation.

But if one believes the truth on some doctrine but sincerely believes that Satan’s methods of the ends justifying the means is right and, therefore, they use propaganda, force, coercion of conscience, and restrictions of liberties upon others, even if for a good cause, such as seeking to save lives, then even if their doctrinal belief happens to be right, their character is wrong and they will sincerely end up like Satan in character and be lost.

So is sincerity enough? It all depends on what one is sincere about. I encourage you to be sincere in your love for God and His methods of truth, love, and freedom.

 

 

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Testimony 28

I have been following your Bible study class for about a year now. I must say I am impressed with how your ministry has grown. I took it upon myself to listen to all your lesson podcasts from the past and they have both enriched me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I have learnt a lot from this class. I have also noticed how the class has grown in spiritual strength. One of the things that benefited me is that now I am not afraid of God. I use to be, but now it has melted away. The second thing is that you helped me to have a real life relationship with God. Now He is my friend that was always there and I love having him with me all the time. Thirdly, because of this class, it inspired me to take over and lead a class. I have called it “Let Us Reason Together,” adapting your inquisitive style and creating a class of free thinkers.

T. Banda, Malawi, Africa

 

Testimony 16

Your seminars are still inspiring and changing our lives and we continue to share the principles we have learned from you. Your ministry has changed our lives!

E.W.

 

Testimony 57

You have helped make sense of thirty two years of confusion. The material you freely provide reorganized so much of my life into such a beautiful pattern that has always been hinted at from within, but misguided with my training and what I was experiencing externally. My filipno parents, who were converted from Catholicism to SDA, were sincere and did their best to raise me the right way and I have deep respect for them. However, being immigrants and not understanding the language made for a difficult transition as I was growing up, which also applied to my spiritual growth as I learned the patterns of religion. I have been listening to as many bible study classes and reading blog posts as my time in a work truck will allow, searching for the practical applications of where spirituality and reality meet, and I thank you for helping me find that. You have helped me reach a point in which I can truly say that I love God, that I believe He loves me, and, like David, I delight in His law. God bless.

Emmanuel V., Calgary, AB Canada

Testimony 52

Your unique way in spreading the truth is what we all need today. Most of us don’t recognize the contamination coming from all the lies and selfishness in the world. Because of our fear of death, we forgot how to live. Lies left and right. I was losing hope and faith, because of so many ideas that are always contradicting each other – so many questions answered by other, more complicated, questions – until I found your channel on YouTube.

You did not just give me answers, you also taught me how to answer new questions that arise in my mind. Now I see things differently. I see God’s mercy, grace, and Love everywhere, in spite of all the chaos that we all have done as humans. I don’t fear death anymore. Accepting the Truth and Love about God is truly a genuine Freedom from all the confusions, sufferings, selfishness, pain, and death.

I just wanted to say, thank you, sooooo much for revealing the real Remedy for our infected life. I have a new hope and now see the world in a different perspective!

Wheinny P., University Place, WA, USA

 

Testimony 65

I have been tuning into your weekly study classes for a while now and wanted express my appreciation for the teachings that ha been a huge blessing in opening up the true message of the word. Viewing scripture under an imposed law theory always, without fail, raised more questions, concerns, and conflicting scripture interpretations that were discouraging at the very least. Looking at scripture through the design law lens has brought more truth to light for me personally and an understanding of our Heavenly Father that places Him “above all others,” where I am now more than thrilled to witness and serve Him.  I “stumbled” across this ministry a year or so ago and would only watch a few minutes at a time. But the more I listened and the longer I paid attention, the more my spiritual eyes were opened to the ever present truths of scripture. The comprehension of the great controversy and it’s origin by the lies perpetrated and perpetuated throughout the Bible on the attack of God’s character and government is truly priceless. Keep up the Good Work! Your servanthood is desperately needed in such a time as this!

Jeff D., Reading, MA, USA

 

Testimony 37

Hearing Dr. Jennings’ presentations in person came at a pivotal moment in my spiritual journey that began about nine months ago, when the fault lines inherent in my belief system began to crack under questions that most reasonable people end up asking about God and His nature. These were questions I couldn’t find answers to, and they shook my faith. I was unable let it go any longer and be satisfied. My Christian experience became distant. I was afraid; the fear in me rose like thorns, pushing me away from Jesus. And then someone heard my questions and introduced me to this ministry, and my life has totally changed.

I can tell you that this new, “present truth” message is far grander and life-changing than when I shifted from being an agnostic and then a nominal Christian. It has radically altered my worldview, because it reveals a God that makes sense. It is a revolution. I believe that Dr. Jennings’ message is the final message that must go to the world. If any message could be called “righteousness by faith,” as abused as that term is by the right and the left, this is that message, because Jennings’ biblical message identifies a God who is different, whose character isn’t an impossible contradiction.

I walk this path now without fear. I see people differently, and the Holy Spirit burns in my heart. Many call Dr. Jennings’ message false and compromising, but it isn’t false, because I’ve seen the fruits within my mind and body. It is not compromising, because in this message is the only road to holiness that makes any sense. No longer do I behold a pagan god who is always angry and suspicious. Instead, I behold a God who is freeing and loving, always working for our good, and giving me every reason to love my enemy even to my own death, just as Jesus pleads with us. God is good.

Anthony L., CA, USA

 

Testimony 70

I have been watching you for many years and have learned to love God with all my heart. I was raised by a loving Christian mother that had been lied to about who God really was, so our religious upbringing was hell fire and damnation. As soon as I was old enough and moved out, I not only left the church, I ran as fast as I could to get away from it. Sad to say, it wasn’t until the past couple of years that I learned and understand who my Father really is and how much He loves me. I understand God’s Design Laws (which make sense) and when I’m teaching my church Bible study class, I’m able to really put to use the things I’ve been learning and Holy Spirit is leading. Thank you for introducing me to my Father of true, pure love. Everyday with Him is new and exciting. One thing that breaks my heart is that I didn’t know Him sooner. God Bless you and your ministry!

Judy Phelps, Reno, NV, USA

Testimony 5

We listen to your bible studies lessons in our class in Montana. You actually were the main reason I decided to get a laptop, so I can go to your site and listen, read, learn, and print the class notes. I am so grateful to learn the correct view of God and his character. Now, to just have others have an interest in knowing, so I can share it with them. Good thoughts your way.

R. N., MT, USA

 

Testimony 25

I just want to say thank you so much for your conversations via YouTube. I regularly tune in to your lectures, “Let’s Talk” sessions, and many others. Through these I’ve found greater depth and meaning to God’s word. Thanks for all that you do and please continue. I’m currently working in the middle of Silicon Valley at Stanford University. I feel like God really has me in the right place right now and I’m sensing that your teachings might be part of it.

B. F., Silicon Valley, CA, USA

 

Testimony 6

I got the book “Could It Be This Simple?” a few months ago and the reading was wonderful and I was fascinated. I lent the book to a friend at work. She is having a difficult time and the book is helping her to find Jesus and I found this very exciting. She has asked me questions and I can see her life changing.

H. S., Australia

 

Testimony 24

I wanted to thank you very much for presenting your understanding of God. I’ve always been troubled by this question: Why did Jesus have to die? Since my conversion I understood that The Father & Jesus are one, I did not have issues with that. But was there not any other way to save us than for Jesus to die? I guess I actually had a question about God – if He is so wise, how come He did not find another way? I did not see the real ‘beauty’  in the cross. Only when you explained the picture in the medical context, Jesus providing medicine for my selfishness, have I started to finally ‘see the light’. Thank you so much. Your seminar, “Healing the Mind,” are absolutely marvelous & have shared them with my family and many other people, including colleagues at work. Thanks, thanks, thanks. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry.

M. W., Australia

 

Testimony 44

We were given a gift of the DVD set, “God and Your Brain,” and we just finished watching it. The truths in this are so powerful and truly an answer to a prayer. We’re seeing hope where once we thought God wasn’t answering our prayers to be free of certain mindsets. He answered with these DVDs and we are hungry for more. Thank you!

Daniel T., Easley, SC, USA

 

Testimony 32

The message [of Come And Reason Ministries is] for all Christians (and those who may become Christians) and not just Adventists or any other group. It is difficult to imagine why any [anyone] with intellectual and spiritual honesty could find fault with the way you explained the healing substitution concepts and the truth about God’s character, though I know some will reject and criticize. On behalf of those in our group near Tacoma, WA, thank you and your staff for all of the hard work and for sharing the Gospel in this manner. God’s message of healing love will be carried to the whole world and then Jesus will come – He promised it.

Terry U., Tacoma, WA, USA

 

Testimony 15

I have been sharing Come And Reason Ministries Bible study lessons with several folk. You have such a beautiful view of the plan of salvation. If we had this message preached when I was young, my generation would still all be in church.

H. R., New Zealand

Testimony 49

I came into the church at 21, but that is as far as it went. I was so confused about what love is. I couldn’t find it in the bible, because I am not a person that can read between the lines. I have no logic. I have read many, many books; trying to figure out the crux of the matter. They were helpful, but something was still missing. I have become very frustrated to the point of crying out to God, “Where can I go?”  I needed some basics.

I found two books, written by Timothy Jennings, MD, to be very helpful. God showed me that I had lived my whole life in fear. I didn’t even see it. Now, I do. God is so good.  I discovered the “The Remedy”  Dr. Jennings new book, “The God-Shaped Heart!” Oh, I was so excited, I purchased them right away.

I can get rid of most of my books, because “The Remedy” brings the Love of God out so clearly, even I can’t miss it. Now, I want to sit and read my Bible. Wow, what a revelation! It is just simply Awesome! I am so grateful to Jehovah Almighty for hearing my prayer for more understanding! I am so encouraged!

Jackie S.