Aimee K
Introduction
Last night at dinner my mother very excitedly shared with me a YouTube interview that Mandy Green gave in the Spring of 2020 for Easter.
This is SO good! I’ve already listened to it THREE TIMES!!!
She got it from our mutual friend Daphne*, who got it from her daughter. I’m glad she listened to it. It is really good!
The thing is….I sent this to Daphne more than two years ago. And then re-sent it five months ago after mentioning it to her again and she asked for the link.
The material stands on it’s own. It has nothing to do with me other than I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I won’t even take credit for finding it on my own. The interview was shared with me by another good friend.
Trusted Sources
The problem is not inherent in the material itself. Our willingness to consider new information reveals something about ourselves.
Are we filtering information through our preferred sources or measuring it by an independent standard?
Human beings are notorious for prioritizing efficiency.
I am not holding myself up as a perfect standard by any means. For example, more than twenty years ago, when I was a young wife and mother, my mother-in-law gave me a copy of the book The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura.
Oh, I bristled.
Of COURSE she would take her son’s side! Over here implying that I’m the problem. The actual gall.
Some months later my sister-in-law saw the book laying around (untouched, mind you) and gushed to me about how good it was. Coming from my SIL I reconsidered the prospect of actually reading it.
That book was transformative. Life changing. I appreciate now in hindsight the gift that I was given. I gained so much insight into both myself and my husband. Several times over the course of reading it I’d set it down and go out to hug and kiss my husband and apologize.
The opposite is also true. Someone who gives you bits of truth can sell you a whole-cloth lie if they can get you to trust them. That’s why its called CON man. The “con” is short for CONFIDENCE.
Any information that you weigh against the standard of the person sharing it, you are turning them into a CONMAN. Don’t do it. It’s not polite.
The Prospector and Merchant: A Parable
I look at the issue similar to how we might reject a dirty prospector with a handful of little gold nuggets but accept the polished and packaged version of that same gold from the local merchant who is clean and has certificates of authenticity.
The thing is… the merchant inherited his gold from the original prospector without ever learning how to mine or pan for it himself. The merchant packaged a few gold flakes into little vials for sample testing.
It’s real gold. No doubt about it. There is an original certificate of authenticity from when the first prospector tested them against the gold standards. The merchant even invites you to test the gold in the vials so you’ll know firsthand it’s the REAL DEAL!
The problem comes when the merchant’s son starts carrying pyrite in the shop. Was it intentional deception or lazy ignorance? Either way, the fools gold is now a part of the inventory but the new merchant doesn’t care. Sales are through the roof!
The original certificate of authenticity is proudly displayed on the wall. His beautiful storefront and paper trail of authenticity have people willingly and eagerly buying more nuggets. The merchant reassures everyone,
If the stuff in the sample vial is real, the entire inventory of nuggets is too!
Some is real, but some is fools gold. Without doing the standard tests for gold on every single nugget there is no way to tell the difference.
The merchant declares,
The original prospector has mined all the gold and there is NO more to be found anywhere in the hills. If you want REAL gold, my shop is the only place to get it! I’m not just a merchant, I’m a prospector too!
The merchant tells everyone that he has a corner on the gold market.
A few townsfolk discover that they have chunks of fools gold in their inventory and throw away everything they’ve bought from the merchant, including real nuggets of gold. They stand outside the shop and protest holding up evidence that pyrite is fake. They mourn that so much of their time and effort has been wasted on fools gold.
Other townspeople don’t bother looking at the evidence. They’ve tested their vials of gold flakes. They have first hand knowledge that the vial gold is real. So everything else must be too! Their collection of nuggets remains intact and they confidently estimate how much the Appraiser will say it’s worth.
Years later another prospector comes to town. He’s been taught the old ways: where to look and how to pan for gold. He’s got flakes, little nuggets, big nuggets, all sorts of gold. But he doesn’t sell it to you. He’d rather keep his inventory, thank you very much. Instead, he’s willing to teach people where to find gold nuggets themselves and how to test against the gold standards the Appraiser will use.
Melt the flakes. Weigh each nugget. Streak what you have left. Don’t take my word for it.
He teaches the people how to make their own certificates of authenticity for their personal records.
Certificates are for your own use. When the Appraiser comes, he will test each nugget regardless of what your paper says.
Only a few townspeople are willing to learn the old ways from the new prospector. They try to show their nuggets to their neighbors and tell them where to find some of their own but the neighbors laugh at them saying,
That is pyrite for sure! There’s no more gold to be had in the hills. Why waste my time doing the gold standard test on something that I know to be fake? You didn’t get that nugget from the merchant.
And the new prospector’s students go away sad, knowing that when the Appraiser comes their neighbor’s inventory will be worth far less than what they’d anticipated.
The prospector’s students continue to learn. They pan and mine collecting and testing all their own nuggets and dust. When the Appraiser comes they’ll know for sure what they have is the real deal.
Conclusion
Just as gold is tested by weight, streak, and melting point, truth should be tested by its substance and God’s standard—not by the credentials of the one who shares it with you.
“Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:1
Christ grew up “as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”
He had no bona fide authority to which we should submit. Or perhaps, He had no standing or credibility. He had no position that we should acknowledge him.
Christ grew to adulthood in a desolate place, called “dry ground.” The desolation was of the people. His generation was barren, devoid of the knowledge of God. Christ came to the men of a barren religious wasteland. He was a new “shoot” or “branch” or “tender plant” because He brought life again. In the face of death, He was life.
Those who saw Him asked, “Why should we believe you?” They did not want what He offered. He did not have “authority, majesty or any desirable thing”—which is what is translated in the KJV as “beauty.”
p 530, Preserving the Restoration by Denver Snuffer
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Well said, Thank you!!!