Christianity as a whole in today’s world has a diverse range of beliefs. It seems that some of them are so drastically far-removed from each other that the only thing that they have in common is that they claim to follow the same book. Is it really possible that all of these denominations are right? Is it okay for everyone to have his own interpretation of the bible? Not only do I believe that this is not okay – I can show you from the bible that it’s not okay:
1 Peter 1:20-21
No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
There was no such thing as a denomination in the day of the Apostles. There were groups of churches that were close enough together to keep correspondence and visit with one another, but they were all considered part of the “church of God” and they all held to the same doctrines. But which doctrines did they have? And how did they get them? Just as Peter stated in the above scripture, there is only one correct interpretation of the bible: God’s interpretation.
God revealed the correct understanding of the scriptures to the Apostles of the New Testament church by the Holy Spirit – this teaching is clear and often restated throughout the epistles. But because men are fallible, we now find ourselves with the amalgam of false teachings that exist today. This inconsistency begs the question: how did God ordain for the correct teaching to be preserved? When the church of God began in Acts 2, the brethren in Jerusalem answer this very question by their example:
Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The apostles were taught first by Christ, whom they did not understand during His life, and then they were taught by the power of the Holy Spirit, which gave them understanding of all of Christ’s teachings when they received it on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. God gave the church the correct understanding of the bible to begin with, and it was the duty of the believers to preserve that understanding in spite of those who try to change it. Jude has the following to say of people who would come to change the apostles’ teaching:
Jude 3-4
I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
How could anyone calling himself a Christian be swayed by someone who denies our Lord, Jesus Christ? My conclusion is that these “godless men” do not outright reject Christ in their words. They don’t come out and say, “I don’t accept Christ,” because no Christian would fall for that! Instead, they deny Christ by distorting God’s true teachings. In this scripture, Jude was giving an example of one such teaching that they would distort: they would “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality,” and, in doing so, they deny Christ through their actions. Similarly, any time throughout history that men have come along and changed God’s doctrines, causing people to follow a teaching other than the “apostles’ teaching,” they were denying Christ by distorting the “faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” – that is, the truth of God that had been revealed to the apostles by the Holy Spirit and given to the church.
The logical implication for today is that we, as Christians, should all have the same “faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints,” and that we should be devoted “to the apostles’ teaching.” Therefore, the next question is self-evident: What was the apostles’ teaching? Unfortunately, almost all of Christianity has been deceived on this matter. It began just as the apostles claimed it would – by godless men who infiltrated the church and began changing the apostles’ teaching.
The only solution is to look to the one unadulterated source of truth, God’s Word, and to strive to discern from it that same understanding that was given by the Holy Spirit. Remember what it says, that we are to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” – the faith was delivered to the saints once for all – it need not be delivered again, because we have record of it through the New Testament, and we indeed must contend for it. Don’t get caught up trusting someone else to teach you about God: for how do you know that they actually preach the Word of God unless you read the Word of God for yourself? And how do you know the motives of someone who teaches you, when we are often too blind to discern even our own sin? For if not by the law of God, you would not know whether you were sinning or not! How much more then should we look to God for His true teaching in all things, since we cannot even discern our own actions without God’s reproof! And how do we discern His teaching?
Acts 17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
These people didn’t take Paul at his word, though he spoke the truth, and they are commended for it! Once they received his message, they were eager to see if what he taught about God was true, and they decided this by searching the Scriptures. This is the example that we are to follow. Read the bible with an open mind. Forget everything that you have been taught about God’s Word, read it for yourself, and seek diligently to understand what God wants from you. Examine every single little thing that you do so that you are certain that you are not deceived by the traditions of men, as so many have been.
To conclude, one of my favorite quotes of all time seems particularly relevant:
"I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said 'We ought to obey God rather than man' "
-Polycrates
Let’s go through every Holy Scripture. Let’s obey God rather than man.
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