Subject: Is not God inside of each of us? |
Bible Note: Parable, I think you have the right idea when you say that "we seek to confirm they (our personal revelations) are truth by comparing them with Scripture." However, there is a bit of danger in saying that the words of the Bible are "the ultimate authority on matters of faith and practice." Here is my contention with that statement: Jesus (as well as other important figures in the New Testament) says time and again that God dwells within us in the being of the Holy Spirit. Isn't God the ultimate authority in all things? If His Spirit dwells within us, shouldn't that be the ultimate authority in all matters of practice? For example, a man living in a remote island in Micronesia, who does wrong by his brother, perhaps stealing from him. This man is convicted in his spirit and confesses to his brother his wrongdoing. Is this conviction because it is written in the scriptures, which he has never read, or because God, having made him in His image, dwells within him and he knows that what he did was wrong? That being said, we who are blessed to know the scriptures should always be thankful that God has seen fit to bless us with this most sacred and precious Gift. However, without a personal relationship with God, without His Spirit dwelling within us, the Scriptures are just paper and ink. It is because God lives in us that the Scriptures come to life and teach us. I think that BOTH scripture and personal experience is needed for understanding and truth. I think the risk of being deceived is not only in the reliance on personal experience but also in the reliance solely on scripture (for as we all should know, words can be twisted to mean anything we want; Satan himself used this tactic when tempting Jesus in the desert). We need both, and the point I was making was that in the posts I have read, there is a heavy imbalance towards scripture alone. Blessings, LGC |