Do You Obey God Rather Than Men?

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.

The Measure You Use

When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray in what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer, one of the points that he emphasized was forgiving “those who trespass against us.” Afterwards, he expounds on this:

Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

That sounds scary – the only way that we can be forgiven (and therefore saved) is if God forgives us of our sin, but he will not do that unless we forgive those who sin against us!