When we slowly eliminate the truth of God’s word from our lives and accept human opinion as truth, we will experience a form of self-induced torture that resembles something called lingchi. Lingchi is a form of Chinese torture, meaning “death by a thousand cuts.”

The process of lingchi slowly kills someone by cutting them slowly, executing multiple cuts that initiate a slow and torturous death. Executioners slowly and methodically cut off parts of the condemned person’s body over a long period until the victim finally expires.

Paul wrote, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). What we know about the Lord has been revealed in Scripture or by a personal revelation from Him that will never violate the unchanging truth of God’s word. God’s word, not a sermon series that announces human opinion over the truth of God, is what will keep us safe in times of testing and help us not yield to the spirit of apostasy.

To the Church in Philadelphia, one of the seven churches He Lord addressed in the book of Revelation, He said to them”, Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown” (Revelation 3:10-11).

If we let go of what is true and unchanging, to look and sound like a lost culture, we will abandon the Lord and eventually lose our crown. Holding onto God’s truth will keep us safe in “the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.”

To live a life that has cut away God’s truth from our faith and relies on human opinion for our support, we will be the ones who have self-induced a spiritual form of lingchi. We will be left with a shredded corpse of our faith that will not survive in times of testing.