Biblical truth or tradition Pt. 2
While I was growing up I was always told that Christians were not supposed to be rich or even have a lot of nice things. At the age of 10 that made no sense to me at all. Scripture says that God will supply all our needs, Philippians 4:19. If we tithe He will open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we can’t contain, Malachi 3:10. There are hundreds of other verses that refute the claim that we aren’t supposed to be wealthy and I covered them in my series Are Christians Supposed to be Wealthy? that is archived on NewswithViews.com. This concept is a tradition of the church and not a biblical truth. I would like to discuss some of these areas that the church has seemed to cast aside for one reason or another. Things like knowing the will of God, healing, speaking in tongues, God can do anything and the relevancy of the Bible for today. This will be a quick overview not an exhaustive study.
First let’s look at the will of God. Again, growing up the denomination I grew up in was always declaring that no one knows the will of God and most people in the pews accepted that and never studied the subject on their own. Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Notice the phrase ‘rightly dividing the truth’. Not many do this. It does take a little work and a little study but it is well worth the effort. When searching this you will find that there are 23 times in the New Testament the phrase ‘will of God’ appears. Jesus Himself states in Mark 3:35 “For whosoever shall do the will of God”. If the will of God was not available to man Jesus would not have made that comment. Paul makes the statement 15 times, Peter says it 4 times, John once, the author of Hebrews and Acts also states it once in each book. One cannot logically believe that we cannot know the will of God. Most pastors use 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him., but they fail to read the next verse: 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. When we don’t study all the Word we lose much of the meaning or miss the meaning it all together.
Hosea 4:6 states: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. This is one of the reasons that the church doesn’t know the will of God, they have rejected His Word or they have distorted it beyond recognition. Take homosexuality and same-sex marriage for instance. Leviticus 18:22 states: Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination., but there are several denominations that have embraced this lifestyle and even ordained open homosexuals! In many of the states where this occurred same-sex marriage was not legal so these churches were putting a man in the pulpit that was essentially sleeping around. God says that homosexuality is confusion and it is the devil that is the author of confusion, I Corinthians 14:33. If the ‘leadership’ in the church is not capable of discerning the true will of God, the majority of the people under that so-called leadership will be confused. These pastors correctly say that God loves the homosexual and He does but He hates the sin of homosexuality. Paul wrote to the church in Rome about this in the first chapter of Romans: Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
How can one read this and still embrace the homosexual lifestyle? Especially a pastor. Evidence that we are in the last days is becoming more apparent almost on a daily basis. This president has tried to force abortion on the whole of the church, but not the muslim community. There are nineteen times that scripture mentions ‘innocent blood’ with virtually all references declaring that we are not to shed innocent blood and there is no more innocent blood than that of an unborn child. The United States leads the world in abortions and the majority of them are on black babies. Where is the cry from Black Lives Matter when 62% of all black pregnancies end in abortion? Where is the cry when 75% of all black births are to single moms? Where is the cry from the black pastors? It has become an acceptable form of birth control and the life of the child is no longer held in esteem.
Jesus states in Mark 3:35 – For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. Again I say that if the will of God is not attainable by man Jesus would not have made that comment. Sometimes it take a little effort on our part to understand that will but too many are busy with soccer practice or watching reruns of Gunsmoke to spend time with God.
When Paul was met by Jesus on the road to Damascus he had a life changing experience. When God had Ananias pray for Paul he stated in Acts 22:14: And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. It isn’t just a few privileged people that can know the will of God but it is only a few that take the time to seek Him. Paul spent 5 years seeking God’s will. Most people don’t spend 5 minutes.
What are we hearing from the pulpit? Is it the traditions of men that bring God’s Word to no effect or is it the real truth of the Word. Only our study will determine that.
All Scripture is from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
© 2016 Roger Anghis – All Rights Reserved
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