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NASB | John 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 8:32 "And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin]." |
Bible Question:
How do we know when we are are taught the truth? There are many different denominations and they all claim to be right. There are many different guides on this forum and they all claim to be right. All these denominations and forum guides have scripture to back up their views. But they frequently do not agree. Jesus promised us that we would know it. So how do we know the truth? Many (not all) Baptists would say you've got to be immersed during baptism. Catholics and Methodists would say that 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 publicly. Another says that open confession is not necessary. One church says that anyone can partake of communion during the Lord's Supper. Another says that you can only if you are a member of that church. 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 longer 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. So how do you KNOW that we are being taught truth? Everyone - churches, denominations, pastors, forum guides have certain scriptures to back up their view. EVERYONE! So how do you know what the truth is? |
Bible Answer: Bill, you ask such easy questions! How I wish I knew the answers. For 66 years I've been alive and for 50 or so of those years I've been a Christian. But I am willing to be counted among those who readily admit they don't have all the answers. There is an old proverb whose source I've long forgotten that goes something like this, "The eye of the needle is difficult to pass through; thus, the wise say the path to salvation is hard." The proverb is, of course, a variation of Jesus' statement about the camel and the rich man.....I don't think it is essential to our salvation to be "right" on all the issues your questions address. I tend to camp with an idea C. S. Lewis espoused when he said that some churches are more right than others, but the ones that are less right are not necessarily all wrong either. I am summing up his thought from memory but believe I've captured the essential meaning of his words. It is my conviction, Bill, that the one essential, the sine qua non, is being right in one's relationship with the Lord Jesus. I happen to be a Southern Baptist and subscribe to the Baptist Faith and Message affirmations. But what would it matter to whose faith and message statement I subscribed if my relationship with the Savior were not right?...... I'd like to see more unity among Christians and fewer denominations, to be sure, but emphatically not the kind of coerced "unity" that is envisaged by a movement toward a world religion. Bill, I fear that my response has not nearly traversed the breadth of your questions. Perhaps a better head than mine can lend more to your inquiry which, by the way, is an excellent one indeed. Your presence on this site is a welcome sight. --Hank |