Skip to main content

"Credible" and "Credulous"

Here are two words that have different meanings with the same root. They are “credible” and “credulous.”

Credible: offering reasonable grounds for being believed.

Credulous: ready to believe, especially on slight or uncertain evidence.

Many Christians are credulous. Fairly often I receive a long e-mail that has been forwarded to me of something wonderful that God supposedly has done. At the end of this wonderful letter I am instructed to forward to ten or thirty or everyone on my mailing list within ten days. If I do I will receive a great blessing, normally in lots of dollars. If I do not follow the instruction then something bad will happen to me. God could well have done this wonderful thing, but when I see the instruction at the end I know the whole thing is a lie or euphemistically, a fabrication. Satan is the master liar. A good liar does not go around saying “I am a liar, do not believe me.” He says that he is telling the truth. The false prophet does not say, “I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing I am here to eat sheep.” He says, “I am a sheep.”

Both the truth teller and the liar say that they are telling the truth.

Discernment! Look for verifiable facts in the story, names, addresses, dates, witnesses, hospitals by name, and doctors by name. If they are listed, call them. If they are not there, do not forward the message, at least not to me.

If you have the gift of discernment; use if for the benefit of the whole body.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Old

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a

Three Types of People Christians Aren't Loving

There are three types of people in the world that Christians do not love with the Gospel . The first type are the people we witness to but do not love. The second type are the unbelievers that we do not witness to. The third are people we love but do not witness to. That sounds like doubletalk. Let’s change it. 1) We witness to people we love. 2) We love everybody and witness to them with love. As Christians, we have the fruit of the Spirit—love. We are commanded to love our neighbors and our enemies. The first thing is to have the love. The second is to choose to love our neighbors and enemies. Sometimes we can’t make the choice because we have lost the fruit of the Spirit, love. We lack the fruit of the Spirit of love because we are under the chastening of the Lord because of unconfessed sin. In order to get the love back, we must confess sin. Once we get the love back, we can choose to love our neighbors and enemies and preach the gospel to them.   Written December 22,