Here is the danger of veering from the truth of the word of God. Am I thus an advocate of sola scriptura? I guess I am guilty as charged.
In Ezekiel, God prophesies of the new covenant. He outlines its benefits and how it will differ from the old covenant, the one we "continued not in".
Under the old, we had need of a high priest to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. None themselves could go into the holy of holies and be in the presence of God. All had to be in submission to the teachers of the Jewish law, the Pharisees, and we see how well that went.
But not so in the new! God promised would be in each of us as the temple of God and each would know Him and be instructed by Him. Listen to this wonderful promise of the coming new covenant:
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them."
Jeremiah 31:33-34
Do we fully realize that the entire Christian church was founded in rebellion to the authorized church of that day, the Jewish synagogue and its sacred teachings, the law of commandments? How was this accomplished? By direct intervention by God into the hearts of individual unlearned men. They no longer submitted themselves to the priests, nor took part in the sacrifices. Everything was turned upside down. The traditions long held as the key to being pleasing to God were overturned as God said that now, in this new and living way, He would speak directly to each man's heart though the gift of the Holy Spirit inside us. Even in the early church itself, in which some believe Peter was the first pope, Paul withstood Peter to his face. Was he wrong to do so? No. Peter himself was to be blamed for his actions.
I find it strange today that we see history being repeated. The very thing we rebelled against we are to duplicate? Are we not rebuilding what He destroyed? The temple of God is inside us. Man so wants to be an intermediary and speak for God, and so many more love to have it so. It removes all responsibility for our actions, because instead of saying "The devil made me do it", we can say in complete confidence "Well, the church said it was OK."
Do I believe fully in the ability of the word of God to lead us into all truth? I do indeed. What I find strange is that there are warnings to not add to or take away from the words of God. Paul warnsus as well that after his demise, grievous wolves would come in, not sparing the flock. It certainly happened as He said it would, in all areas of the church. But these warnings are being ignored as many ofGod's children from all denominations abandon the truth of the Bible for the wisdom of man.
Listen. I do not single out any church or denomination. If a church system is not doing it, individual man has chosen to form God to his way of thinking rather than submitting himself to the God of the universe, whether or not he understands fully the God he is submitting himself to. Did Abraham understand God'scommandment to sacrifice Isaac, the child of promise? I doubr it sincerely. But he obeyed and it PLEASED God that he did. He trusted God!
More and more I see the body drifting away from or "interpeting" the truth held and preserved in God's word, here a little, there a little. Is our God a deaf mute? Can he not communicate clearly what he expects of us? Our problem is that we have not wanted to believe what it says because in may cases, our lives will have to change and drastically. As a result, are there crazy interpretations of every flavor imaginable out there? You bet. Does it relieve us of our responsibility to seek God with our whole hearts, using the scriptures as doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness? You bet not.
In the end, we are told by God that we will be judged by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We are told that men shall depart from the truth of God's word and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. There is much danger in leaving the word of God, altering it, or interpreting it to meet our own pre-conceived notions.
Ultimately, we are the only ones responsible for our walks with God. It is before Him we all will stand or fall. But o that we understood, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. How we nned to take our task with full seriousness and diligence.
Now, in truth, in looking at the whole body of Christ, and I mean all of it, we are a lifeless and joyless bunch. On one side, formalism reigns without life, and on the other every wind of doctrine divides the body down to the cellular level, and confusion reigns with the same lifelessness. Does any of it please God? Let us be clear. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Period.Thank God for a few exceptions but over all, there is not enough evidence in any of our lives to convince those hungry seekers in the world that we have the answers they seek or the "water that satisfies". Is this not the painful truth none of us want to face?
C'mon, if we cannot be honest with one another, what point is there? Do we as a body, catholic and protestant, walk in "joy unspeakable and full of glory"? Sadly, if "The joy of the Lord is our strength" , we are the 98 lb.weakling on the beach and the bully is kicking sand in our faces. If sin is not to have dominion over us, then God has a strange way of expressing that victory through His church.
But listen, all who truly love the Lord, and I do not care what church or denomination you are affiliated with, or what crazy doctrine the Lord has revealed to you that He has hidden from all the rest of us. God is not finished with us yet. Not by a long shot. Let us not underestimate the Holy Spirit's power to bring a disfunctional body back to life again and in the exact way He wants it assembled. Read Ezekiel 37. It is important. We are about to witness a miracle.
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