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Confusion Is Not From God

by Dr. Henderson Ward  
1/12/2016 / Christian Living

It is almost certain that at some point in your life you have suffered confusion. Maybe someone said something to or about you that left you confused. Maybe you went to some strange place, like when I first went to London, and the effect was that of confusion. Or maybe you drove your car through an intersection and turned the wrong way and found you did not know what direction to take; simply you were confused.

Or maybe your confusion was of a different order. Your mind was swirling and twirling with loads of fact that you just could not make sense of; you were unable to distinguish what was real and what was fictional or inconsequential.

Perhaps it was worse, you were confronted with moral dilemmas where it was imperative to make important decisions and yet the mind seemed to offer nothing but fogginess and shadows and a nebulous reality.

It is telling that God disown confusion, especially with respect to believers, and the Bible puts it like this:

"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." (1 Corinthians 14:33)

It is manifestly the case that confusion, like pride and lies, and it takes no great research to establish the truth, is a product of Satan and errant humanity.

Confusion is about bewilderment, lack of clarity, mistaking one for another, disorder, embarrassment, disoriented state of mind, and the definition goes on.

The devil loves confusion, spreads confusion, generates confusion everywhere to more easily hide his devilry, in similar manner to an army carrying out an operation behind a smoke screen.

In the world generally confusion is disastrous, but when it rears its ugly head in the assemblies of God, or among believers, it can become more serious, it can become deadly.

Confusion prevents clarity. It can be argued that Satan managed to confuse one third of the angels and lured them to vacate heaven and to certain destruction. Clear-thinking angels could never have chosen Satan in preference to God. No matter your good intentions where there is confusion the seeds of catastrophe reside.

An interesting quote says, "You can't follow your heart when it is more confused than your head" and when there are those who are bent on adding to your confusion, you can see that is part of a plan to derail you and your good intentions.

There are some in the church, among them ministers of the gospel, who have clearly lost their faith and rather than do the right thing and move on would rather stay and spread confusion.

And they are young, impressionable minds seeing all this are apt to be thoroughly confused.

What are the youth to make of a same-sex couple in your church who are in full communion, partaking of the Sacraments, and even adopting a child with the church's blessing?

What are the youth to make of a minister of the gospel, who professes love for God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, marrying a same-sex couple?

How do you explain to the youth why there is obfuscation about what is clean and unclean when the Bible goes to great pain and gives so much clear details?

The greatest error anyone can make is to get so confused as to credit Satan with that which belongs to God. It is called blasphemy, and is the one sin that is not forgiven. The Jews fell into this trap when they said Jesus was performing miracles because he was the prince of devils, Beelzebub.

It should have been clear to the Jews that no one but God, and his agents, could perform these awesome miracles that Jesus did; for their rulers had already concluded such, "The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." (John 3:2)

Confusion is like a snowball rolling don hill that gets bigger as it goes because it does other bad things as well.

Confusion generates disaster and strife, i.e., conflict. Even among Christians who have left the world and embraced the teachings of Jesus Christ, confusion, that leads to conflict, is never far.

Paul and Apollos, two very sincere Christians, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to believers in cloistered assemblies, you would think, would be the epitome of harmony. You would be wrong. People in one of those assemblies, at Corinth, found something to be confused about and fomented great conflict that required the stern intervention of the Apostle Paul.

Paul saw the confusion and strife that was tearing the church Corinthian apart; and he addressed it directly. This was not a dispute about doctrine, or theology, which in some ways would be understandable, but this was about personality, about preaching styles, oratory and preaching performance. How very sad that people could believe virtually the same thing and create strife about some pettifogging issue.

There is a long list of trivial issues that believers fight over, each believing that it is necessary to contest and win, and some go so far as to require resignation and expulsion for the losers or those in opposition.

Paul was right to point his finger at the underlying cause of such confusion and strife, "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? (1 Corinthians 3:3-4)

Confusion undermines divine plans. God is the God of order, of organisation, of harmony and of arrangement. We see very early in the creation cycle what God was like, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." (Genesis 1:2-3)

God wants people to see clearly so that they can make informed decisions.

God wants people to be able to distinguish right from wrong so that they know precisely what they are doing and can evaluate the consequences.

God plans are, and always have been, that all humanity be saved even if it goes through the most intense hardships during the process.

Satan's plans are to add confusion, and thereby undermine God's plans.

How does Satan manage to use confusion to his advantage?

Satan knows that humans are vulnerable; especially when their prestige and pride are brought into question or perceived as threatened.

Eve fell to temptation in the Garden principally because she was full of herself, she did not even consult Adam before acting so rashly, she thought God was holding out on her and she was going to do her thing; whether God liked it or not.

The truth is that people get confused when they turn away, wholly or partly, from the clear teachings set out in the Bible and do their own thing.

Like the young Christian woman who could not find a husband among the believers, so she married a nice young man who was not a Christian. Guess what happened.

Like the man, saved and sanctified, who could not find employment so he went to work as a barman serving drinks in a brothel.

Like the Christian mother that thought it was fine to be the banker to her drug-dealing son as he peddles death to the youth.

Confusion is piteous, debilitating and shameful but some don't seem to care. "My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me". (Psalm 44:15) To get rid of confusion is to fully and without reservation trust God, and it might even prevent confusion in the first place, "In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion". (Psalm 71:1)

Enough said.

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Dr. Henderson Ward received his Doctor of Divinity in theology, with distinction, from Masters International School of Divinity, USA, where he is currently a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Ward's career involved pastoring, evangelism, and teaching. Copyright 2017

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