The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests bear rule by
their means; and my people
love to have it so: and what will
ye do in the end thereof?....
Behold ye trust in lying words,
that cannot profit....
And come and stand before me
in this house, which is called by
my name, and say, we are
delivered to do all these
abominations?
Jeremiah 5:31; 7:8,10
Does not the words of the prophet Jeremiah as told to the people of Israel have an application today? Do we not see in many Churches "priests" and so-called "prophets" teaching whatever they have come to believe, ruling by their means? Are not many congregants trusting in lying words? Do not those who are teaching doctrines believing that they are teaching the truth and are delivered from their abominations? Yes! Why is this so? As will be shown, the Bible is God's word for it is He who is speaking: "the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying" (Jeremiah 7:1), this passage and much more will admit that God does speak to His people, so why so much confusion in the Church? Why do those who call themselves believers in the Bible have an interpretation that is contradictory to the Bible? There are many reasons that could be stated but the one reason that stands out as being a major culprit is: Liberalism, those who hold to a liberal theological doctrine that is diametrically opposite to the Christian view. Before I move on to teach more about the basics I must address this most important issue for it is it alone that has cause people to follow after those men and women who teach from their own means, their own presuppositions that they have caused the Bible to prove rather than have the Bible determine their presuppositions, or suppositions. This infection has caused a disease to infect many people causing them to believe a lie.
Modern liberalism can be traced back in time to men who concluded that the Bible must be interpreted in ways that the early Church Fathers did not, and opposed the men and teaching of the Reformation, a time when men saw the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church who had deviated from the Bible and taught and did things that were not according to the Bible, they returned, or reformed to what the Bible actually stated. We can look back in the history of America and find that liberal theologians began a new era of preaching and teaching, but had lost sight, as do liberal theologians of today do, of the two great presuppositions of the Christian message: the living God and the fact of sin. This liberal theological view is a divergence from the teaching of the Bible inasmuch as it diverges not only in their presuppositions of the message, but also the message itself. We must admit and realize that the Christian message comes to us by means of the Bible; therefore it is important that we understand the truth of the Bible as the Bible interprets His words. What we think of the Bible and the message it contains is how we will live our Christian life and in our exercise of our Christian life. It must be admitted as did the reformers of the Christian faith that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and the Bible contains an account of God's revelation to man. No other religious book teaches about God in the manner by which the Bible informs us of Himself and His purpose. The Bible teaches that God has revealed to us those revelations that it was God who has made all things and those revelations are confirmed by the conscience of man: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1). We are without excuse for God has revealed Himself, not only in the Scriptures, but by nature itself, by nature God is confirmed and we by our consciousness can admit of that truth. Further God has revealed the state of man: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). This too is confirmed by the consciousness of man. The Bible contains and affirms an account of a revelation which is absolutely new. Not revelation as taught by liberal Churches, those who teach a supernaturalism that is not to be found in the Bible, rather this new revelation concerns the way by which sinful man can come into communion with the living God. A communion that was dissected by Adam and Eve, a lost communion that only God's children may have in accordance with God's revelation to them and the gift of faith given to them so that they are now part and parcel, the family of God. This way was opened up, according to the Bible, by an act of God, this act was by means of offering His Son as a sacrifice for the sins of men, a sacrifice that is infinite, eternal, when by the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of God making an infinite intercession for all those that His Father had given to Him: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word....I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and I am glorified in them" (John 17:5,6,9,10). It is to this great event, the cross upon which Jesus Christ was laid for the sins of the world that the Old Testament points to, and the New Testament looks back upon, and within the New Testament there is a pointing to the future return of Jesus Christ for His people, His Church. This is the uniqueness of the Bible. Yes, there are similar idea of Christianity to be found in other religious books, there may be a similarity of Christianity in those Churches that claim to be Christian, but only the Word of God as found in His Word, His Scripture will suffice to teach the truth and that the uniqueness of the Bible sets forth His revelation to man, and the revelation of Himself. Christianity does not depend upon a complexity of ideas, but upon the narration of an event. Notice, I did not say, events! It is that event that occurred some 2,000 years ago on the hill outside Jerusalem that we as Christians must keep in view for without that view the world is dark and humanity is lost under sin. But, through the Bible we can discover truth, and eternal truth, and by means of that truth we can lose our despair, our find the God who has revealed, promised, a salvation for our sins. This is the crux of the message of the Bible and when the Bible is misused, misunderstood, and utilized in manners that are not outlined in God's Word, there is futility, a life not communicating God to the people, we will live a life that as a similarity to the revelation of God, but we will have substituted our presuppositions to meet our desires and not His. This is what liberalism has done for the Church. This is why before we more on to discuss other issues, i.e., cannonization, the Apocrypha, etc., we must address this infection within the Church, a Church who attests that they are following the Bible and the doctrines within the Bible. Are they? Is your Church liberal or conservative, that is are they truly teaching what the Word of God teaches, or are they simply tickling your ears, giving to you what you want to hear and believe? This is important for it is the Bible and our belief in and of the Bible that guides and determines our theology and if we are askew in our theology due to poor interpretation, then our lives are not in communication with our God, and Savior. Jesus in His prayer gives this request: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). Many will not like the fact that you are living according to His word, but it was and is the word given to God's children by Jesus Christ: "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14).
Immediately we come to discover the difference between the Christian Bible and all other religious books: God has revealed Himself and His purpose for man; salvation from their sins given to man by Him, and eternal life given to man by His Only Begotten Son, life eternal, no end, infinite. Furthermore, God has communicated to man Himself, by means of His Word, not be some experience, some vision that cannot be confirmed by His Word, rather He has given to you and me, the truth, and has given to His children more, more that we could ever earn or have a right so as to deserve what He gives, that is: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26).
Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, behold,
I lay in Siaon a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious:
and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded.
1Peter 2:6
Let Us Be In Subjection To Him
Richard L. Crumb
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