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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, having reflected further on your questions and my answer given earlier this evening, I beg the luxury of being able to amend one of my statements; to wit, "I'd like to see more unity among Christians and fewer denominations." My ideal, my utopia, would be to see complete unity and no denominations at all in Christendom. I'd like to see Christianity become what C. S. Lewis wrote a book about and what he chose for its title: "Mere Christianity." At the first, in those days when Peter and Paul were so actively spreading the good news, the church and its members were called simply "The Way" or, merely, "Christians." It was not, even then, all sweetness and light, however. The early church had its dissenters, its problems, and divisions, to which the book of Acts and the Pauline and Pastoral letters clearly attest. But I believe it's fair to say that the differences were not so vast nor the factions so firmly entrenched then as now. I can't see an iron allegiance to denominationalism as a healthy thing -- not for the individual Christian or for Christianity itself. A long-time admirer of C.S.Lewis, I particularly cherish this line from the preface of his book, "Mere Christianity": Speaking of denominational differences and disputes he said, "I think we must admit that the discussion of these disputed points has no tendency at all to bring an outsider into the Christian fold. So long as we write and talk about them we are much more likely to deter him from entering any Christian communion than to draw him into our own."...... So said, and well said at that, by C.S.Lewis. When I talk with another Christian in person, or interact with him on the forum, and he tosses his creed, catechism or confession at me as if it were the definitive gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that I am out of my depth, and so very likely is he, in such waters -- waters that involve points of high theology and ought never to be treated except by real experts; and even then, they can and frequently do have wide differences in their points of view. --Hank |