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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: The Foundations of Truth

Wanting to Know What God Has Said

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

There are three types of religious people within the boundaries of confessing Christianity: those who refuse to study the Bible and get around disagreements by simply saying that they will agree to disagree; those who study the Bible to prove that they are right in the face of disagreements; and those who study the Bible to see what it says. Obviously, only those who really want to know what God says are going to find out. The others will go on their religious ways convinced of their own rightness and put out with those who refuse to agree to disagree.

Take the ordination of women for a modern example. The politically correct thing to do these days is to blur the biblical distinctions between legitimate ministry tasks for men and women. However, the Bible has no patience with political correctness. God doesn't ask men and women what they would like to be true. He simply declares the truth so that those who wish to know it can. But what He says about the various ministry issues in regard to men and women doesn't go down very well these days. So, we have these three kinds of people reacting to what the Bible says. We have those who intuitively know they don't have a biblical leg to stand on, but want to get along with everyone anyway, so their stock answer is Why can't we just agree to disagree without being disagreeable? This may reveal an honest desire to have unity, but it is based upon a flawed foundation because the Truth is true and all else is false.

Then, we have those who have already committed themselves to a certain direction in life (like a woman who is already ordained and functioning as a pastor in a church) and their study of the Bible will be a desperate effort to prove that they are correct in what they are doing. It is a devastating thing to be heavily committed to something that is in direct contradiction to the Truth, so many people simply change the truth (as if that were possible) so that what they are doing is right (at least in their own eyes). But, how can God ever bring us to repentance if we are constantly reinterpreting His unchanging Truth so that our interpretation lets us go on with what we ought to be repenting of? Unless we will let God speak, we will never know the benefit of repentance.

Then we have those in whom the Spirit of God has placed a hunger to know the Truth. These folks study the Bible to find out what it says. Then, having discovered that it says whatever it does, they repent of their false behavior and make whatever necessary adjustments must be made to stand in the truth. These folks are the ones who end up knowing God.

In this series of articles (165) we raised the question of where the Truth is to be found. It is found in God; for He is Truth. However, He has spoken, and biblical Christianity is where the truth is found as it reflects the God of the Bible. All who want to know the truth can go to the God of the Bible and ask Him to reveal Himself to them through the words of the Bible and He will do it. Everyone who just wants to be comfortable and think he is right will not go to this God and, if he goes to the Bible at all, it will only be to prove he is right. Which are you?


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This is article #174.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.