We debate a lot of issues today: music, order of service, salvation by grace alone, spiritual gifts, six-day creation, the priesthood of every believer, eternal security, all kinds of things in eschatology, even morality, and on and on. But those things have never been the real issue--not since the beginning. The issue, starting way back in Genesis 3, is the authority of Scripture. Satan's attack was on the Word of God. His weapons: doubt, denial, and deception. Is that what God said? Do you really think that's what God meant? Surely, you don't believe that what He said will be the consequences for disobedience will actually happen? And the battle has continued throughout history. The message of the prophets was under constant attack. Paul warns us that in the last days--those days that began when Jesus set foot on the earth--men will try to undermine the truth of God's Word. Men will go looking for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear so that they can live the way they want to live regardless of the teachings of God's Word. Men will become more and more the victims of deception and the perpetrators of deception--worse and worse as time goes on. Most New Testament books warn us to be on the alert for false teachers, to try the spirits, to be sure the truths we are being taught have not been twisted or perverted to fit someone's personal point of view, to look out for Satan's servants who come as angels of light. Like the Bereans we need to be students of the whole counsel of God; we need to test those teachers' ideas against the teaching of Scripture--no matter who the teacher may be. As a teacher of God's Word, I constantly pray that God will keep me from misleading those I teach. I rightly am under a stricter judgment as one who opens the Word to others. And being human I know at times I do error. I pray as well that the Spirit will make the hearers forget those words that originate from within my self while imprinting on the hearts of my listeners the truths that I teach by the Spirit's guidance. The first person whose teaching I must examine is me.
I must be careful. It is not what does the verse mean to me, but what does it say. What did those words communicate to the one whom God choose to pen them? How do those words fit into the whole counsel of God, the context of the situation? My intellect and my personal experiences do not make me the 67th book of the Bible. All the degrees behind a "scholar's" name do not make him or her the 67th book of the Bible. Culture, science, the Talmud--you could add to the list--none of those are the 67th book of the Bible. I am so prone to justify my experiences, to avoid at all cost being considered a fool, to worry about alienating those I deeply love and care for.
I understand that as Paul affirms unregenerate man has no chance of understanding the Word. The thoughts of God can only be spiritually discerned, and the man or woman without Christ does not have the Spirit. And yet I fear that even within the church God's truth can be undermined. We must be prayerful, discerning students of God's Word. We must be constantly on the alert for those who would deceive us--and nothing is more subtly dangerous than self-deception. Will those who deceive--intentionally or even accidentally--be held accountable for their deception. Beyond a doubt. But we will be accountable for allowing them to deceive us. Pray for the Spirit's instruction and guidance, read, believe what God says is exactly what He means, and beware of those who would tell you otherwise. Sadly, all false teachers come from the same place--inside the church.
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