The
one statement I want to make and have others hear clearly is this: you cannot
trust ANY other person with telling you what God’s word says. You MUST read it
for yourself. You can’t trust me, you can’t trust your pastor, you can’t trust
the church worker who seems to know, and you surely cannot trust what you read
on the Internet.
You
have to check out everything you are told or that you now believe in your own
Bible, with prayer and supplication that God will help you with the wisdom and
understanding you need.
The
beginning of Proverbs talks to us about wisdom and where it comes from:
Prov 1:2-7 KJV
2 To know wisdom and
instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
(The word “fear” should often be translated as “revere” in the Bible…)
I
have to recommend one Bible version to everyone – it is the King James Version.
It is not completely perfect as a translation, but is much closer to the
original manuscripts than any other English version of the Bible. Tossing those
versions and getting a King James Version makes total sense. Yes, yes, the
“thees” and “thous” aren’t like modern English writings, but do you want the
truth? The other versions have been horribly messed with, even the NKJV. And,
as I have discovered for myself, you will soon get past the difficulty with the
language differences from then to now, and will find a much richer experience.
And a much more truthful recounting of the word, which of course is the
important thing.
* That
being said, I want to give an example that has horrified me for months since I
first read it. Some background: for many years I have supported a certain youth
organization that helps troubled children and teens. It’s a Christian
organization that teaches with the Bible, with church, with many other
activities like caring for animals and so forth that very much enrich the lives
of these kids who have a hard time with where they came from. The organization
will remain unnamed here, but I will be sharing my thoughts with the
organization once I have them written. I won’t withdraw my support at this
time, because I think they are doing a good job with these children overall.
But after reading what was told a young girl in answer to her questions about
“Why?”, I can see that they are not teaching real Biblical principles, just as
many churches and other organizations don’t. And why is this? Because, they
don’t really know, and so they spout things that are “traditions of men” and
aren’t based on what God has said at all.
To
explain, the girl who is now 17 years old has been living at the organization
for two years. She had a lot of trouble in her early life, was angry, was
self-harming and totally didn’t trust adults. And as you will read, doesn’t
trust God either. But when she turned to those in charge of her Christian
education at this organization, she was given such a song-and-dance response
that I was shocked. The reason I know about it is that the organization sends
out a publication several times a year, and her story was in it.
Two
disturbing things that happened in her early life were that her younger sister
died of a rare chromosome disorder; and her best friend committed suicide when
they were in the 5th grade. Tough things, both.
So
she has reservations towards God, because she doesn’t understand why God would
have done these things to her. She wonders why God didn’t plan her life
differently.
We
can say her concerns are somewhat reasonable, coming from a teenager. We all
remember that we were completely the center of our little worlds when we were
teens, it was all about “us” to whatever level we were allowed to take that
idea.
Unfortunately,
here is the problem – first of all the Senior Chaplain of the organization says
in the article that the young girl has “an important, authentic perspective” and
that her journey is “unique”.
But
the awful thing is that the Director of Christian Education there says this: “for many of these “why” questions, there
simply aren’t answers “on this side of heaven”. Oh my, that is certainly
poetic. As well as being a terrible, un-Biblical answer that can never help any
child. That same Christian leader of these children says that chapel staff emphasize to
these hurting young people that God values and loves each of them.
I’m
floored! Hello!! Hello!! You are Director of Christian Education and THAT is
the answer you give a hurting child? That there are no answers but don’t worry,
God loves you? Have you ever opened a Bible and read the story? It’s very
difficult for me to write about this because that is the dumbest response ever.
Why
do I say that? Because one constant thread throughout the Bible is this: there
is an antichrist who has a lot of power to deceive flesh humans, and who is
intent on deceiving as many of those humans as he possibly can during their
lives, before his time comes to an end. Satan knows he is sentenced to the most
final death possible, and all he cares about is lying to each of us as much as
he can before that happens, so that we can be taken to that final death along
with him. He never wants us to put on that “gospel armour”, because he knows
that if we do, we will be able to “stand”.
(Ephesians 6:11-14).
Satan
is alive and well, and his story is detailed throughout every book of the
Bible, yet “there are no answers this side of heaven”? Oh no, that’s not true,
it’s wrong, and somebody needs to go back to the beginning, to Basic Bible 101,
before she is allowed to spread this kind of information to children or to
adults again.
And Senior Chaplain too. Don’t say the girl has an “authentic perspective”. She doesn’t trust God! Tell her the truth. Yes, there is a battle going on for your soul! Yes, God loves you, but Satan hates you, and your Creator, your Father, has set in motion the only possible plan for your salvation, and you need to know what it is. God put you here on this earth, in a flesh body with Free Will, so that you could make a choice between Him or Satan during this life. Period. You need to know the true story, so you can make an educated choice. You need to read it. God wrote you this letter, gave you every bit of the truth, so you could make the right choice and not be fooled.
So,
that is why none of us – NOBODY – can ever trust another person with our
Christian education. Because as God says about a thousand times throughout the
Bible as warning to us: false pastors, false priests and false prophets destroy
His Word. If you doubt that – just do a search for the word “pastor” in the
book of Jeremiah. There are eight instances just in that one book. Here are two
of them:
Jer 12:10 KJV
10 “Many pastors have
destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made
my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.”
We
are His vineyard. We are His pleasant portion. Many false pastors are
destroying us with teaching traditions of men, and not God’s true word!
And a
second example:
Jer 23:1-2 KJV
1 “Woe be unto the pastors
that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.”2 “Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.”
Who
said it? “saith the LORD”. Those are two small examples of how God feels about
those who mislead His people. The Bible is riddled with similar statements made
by God. He doesn’t want us trusting “pastors” who don’t teach the true word. He
wants us to trust and know Him. This doesn’t mean you should never listen to
others. Just that you must check out what they have said about God’s word and
about his plan for yourself.
God
wants our love. The only way we have to show Him that we love Him is to read
and understand His word. Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14). This should
give us some idea how important God’s Word is. If we know the word, we know
Jesus; and Jesus is the only name by which we can be saved. (Acts 4:12)
John 1:14 KJV
14 “And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Acts 4:12 KJV
12 Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved.
Don’t
be deceived. Find out what the Bible really says.
It is written.
Have you read
it?
