Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Joe, how do you know the truth? | Rom 10:17 | Bill Mc | 20424 | ||
To Joe only, please, How do you know if your pastor/minister teaches truth? How do you know if your church holds to the truth? No church or pastor/minister is going to say, "Come and hear false teaching." Everyone in Christendom thinks that they proclaim the truth. Many (not all) Baptist would say you've got to be immersed to be saved. Catholics and Methodists would say the sprinking is fine. Pentecostals would say that you need to be baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Conservatives would say that those gifts have passed away. One church says you can't have musical instruments. Another says its fine. One church says you have to worship on Saturday. One says you need to worship on Sunday. One church says you need to confess your sins publically. Another says that open confession is not necessary. One church says that anyone can partake of communion there. Another says that you can only if you are a member. One church says they believe in the free will of man. Another says they believe that God is completely sovereign and man has no choice in the matter. Once church says you can't have female pastors. Another says that there is no male and female in Christ so it's OK. One church says that the Christian is no under Law. Another says that Christ in us enables us to fulfill the Law as He did. One church says that your salvation is secure because it comes from God. Another says you can, at some point, reject it and fall away. Joe, how do you KNOW that you are being taught truth? Everyone of these churches have certain scriptures to back up their view. EVERYONE! So it is not a matter of the church not following scripture. So how do you know what the truth is? In Christ, Bill Mc |
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2 | Joe, how do you know the truth? | Rom 10:17 | Morant61 | 20433 | ||
Middle Ground?................................ Greetings Bill and Joe! May I propose that both of you are right, but that you are both focusing on only side of the coin? Bill, I think that you are obviously correct that we each must go directly to Scripture. We can't simply go by what someone else tells us. Joe, I think that you are obviously correct that we also need to give heed to the godly men and women who have preceded us. But, it takes both! If we go to the Bible and come away with some belief that is in total opposition to what the church has taught for 2000 years, then we need to reexamine what we think. I really don't think you guys are that far apart, one is just focusing more on the personal and one more on the corporate. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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3 | Joe, how do you know the truth? | Rom 10:17 | Bill Mc | 20435 | ||
Dear Tim, I appreciate your input. You may have a point. But at the same time the 'church' also taught purgatory, praying to the saints, the sinlessness and intercessory power of Mary, forgiveness through confession to priests and the sale of indulgences, the crusades and the burning of 'alledged' witches. This is the result of the 'church' leaving the Bible as the sole authority for doctrinal purity and insisting that no one but the special select few had a right to interpret the Bible. Now, of course, one is going to then start to argue, "Well, that was before the Reformation." Granted, but it was still the 'church' that people were told to trust in. The 'church' alone held the keys to heaven and hell. And the 'church' burned William Tyndale at the stake for wanting a Bible in English. "Heresy, cult!" they cried, "God's Word is ONLY inspired in Latin." Even today, many Catholics are told that they can READ their Bible but they have no right to INTERPRET it or think that the Holy Spirit has the capability to do so. "You must be LEARNED, embracing intellect as the key to understanding the scriptures." I'm sorry, Tim, but this is WRONG! If the 'church' believes that God cannot speak to me from His Holy Word, right here, right now where I am through the enablement of His Holy Spirit and divine power, then the 'church' has once again entered the dark ages. In Christ and trusting Him, Bill Mc |
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4 | Joe, how do you know the truth? | Rom 10:17 | Reformer Joe | 20467 | ||
Bill: The very atrocities and false teachings you mentioned are precisely WHY there was a Reformation. And it was private study of Scripture that revealed to the Reformers that such teachings were false. For example, Luther was reading Romans 1:16-17 when the "light" of justification by faith alone hit him square in the eyes. However, swinging to the other end of the pendulum ("just me and my Bible are all I need") was never a position advocated by Luther or Calvin or any of the other Reformers, nor of the Bible itself. Luther just as quickly condemned the "enthusiasts" of his day who rejected the sound teaching of Scripture. He would have never advocated that anyone -- most especially a new convert -- try and grow in truth apart from the teaching God supplies in the context of the church. You wrote: "If the 'church' believes that God cannot speak to me from His Holy Word, right here, right now where I am through the enablement of His Holy Spirit and divine power, then the 'church' has once again entered the dark ages." Where did Tim or I make such an assertion? Of course God can and does speak to you through the Scriptures. The question is, how well do you listen? It does require our God-given brains to understand Scripture. We are to love God with all our MINDS as well as with our souls and hearts. Studying and understanding Scripture is not a "no-brainer" process. Some core issues take time and mental effort to wrap our minds around (try finding ten people at random in your church to show you the full doctrine of the Trinity from Scripture), and God did gift some of his people especially in the area of teaching others these truths. Knowledge and wisdom and the intellect are not to be despised, Bill. Solomon said to God, "Give me now WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours?" (2 Chronicles 1:10). More support? "Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments." --Psalm 119:66 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." --Proverbs 1:7 "How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?... Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD." --Proverbs 1:22,28-29 "Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, And he who hurries his footsteps errs." --Proverbs 19:2 "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment" --Philippians 1:9 "Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness" --1 Peter 1:5-6 God does not despise learning and knowledge the way you seem to; he commands it. The intellect is a key component of adoration of God and understanding His truth. True, the intellect apart from the Holy Spirit will never come to a knowledge of the truth (true knowledge is rooted in the fear of the Lord), but like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit doesn't spoon-feed us his revelation, either. God forces us to use our brains, and has blessed us with keen minds such as Paul and Augustine and Jonathan Edwards and others throughout Church history to be teachers of truth. Do not despise the gift of teaching, and exercise the mind God has given you to its fullest potential for His glory. --Joe! |
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