Natural man looks at the cross and the message of the Gospel and scoffs. However, when the Holy Spirit moves through the preaching of it, opening hearts to it, then the object of God’s love sees it as the most glorious wisdom. Then they see the wisdom of the world as the ultimate foolishness.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (NASB) 

Have you noticed, have you become aware, how being a Christian in this world makes you a secondary level person? On the other hand, I have paid special attention to the attacks on our faith and they are all made up of a form of a form of debate called a “strawman” attack. . For instance, in the movie Zeitgeist, the attack was on a false view of genuine Christianity. One of their attacks was centered on them trying to prove that Christianity simply used the Egyptian myth of the  god Horus as a model for Jesus Christ. One of their arguments was that both Horus and Jesus had the same birthday, December 25th. Well, we don’t believe that December 25th is Jesus’ actual birthday. In fact, we teach that the Bible does not tell us when Jesus was born. Therefore, this argument is a strawman.

This is just one of many arguments in that movie like this. I have never heard of anyone successfully attacking the real Jesus, but I have witnessed innumerable strawman attacks against Him. This should tell us that those doing this do not have the Holy Spirit, therefore they simply do not understand the truth.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
1 Corinthians 1:18-19 (NASB) 

What is the preaching of the cross? This is God’s total revelation, the Gospel in all its fullness. This preaching or teaching is centered in the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ. It also includes the entire divine plan and provision for the redemption of sinners. This is the theme of all Sacred Scripture. This teaching is foolishness to those who are perishing. The Greek word that forms “foolishness” here is the root word for our English word “moron.” It means “absurdity.” Those who are perishing see the message of the cross as utter foolishness or moronic or absurd. What does it mean that they are perishing? The Greek word that is translated as “them that perish” is a present participle. It implies continuous or repeated action. Later in v18 we have the term “saved.” It is also a present participle.

What is this telling us? The Greek Interlinear for v18 reads, “For the word of the cross is truly foolishness to those being lost; but to us being saved, it is the power of God.” There are two groups of people on this planet. There are those being saved and those being lost. This is speaking of a process. Those being saved are in the process of salvation. It will not be completed until the redemption of the body. (Romans 8:23; Romans 13:11) Everyone else is in the process of destruction. What makes the difference? Those being saved responded to the message or preaching of the cross by receiving Christ as Lord and Saviour. Christ rejecters are in the process of destruction. (Ephesians 2:1,2) To them, the Gospel is nonsense. To those being saved, it is powerful wisdom.

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