Too often we have the tendency to take just one certain scripture, just one verse or even just one chapter and base our belief on our understanding of what it has said. Keeping in mind that what we have learned about anything in the bible is what our belief is based upon. But our belief, if it’s going to be accurate about anything, must be based upon the totality of what is said about any bible subject and not just what one certain scripture states about it. It should be important to all of us to be certain that everything mentioned in the bible is taken under consideration and analyzed to be certain beyond a shadow of doubt that what we have accepted is what God wants us to know and understand.
There will also be other things which we may not be able to accept beyond a shadow of doubt and just as in a Court of Law, we may have to consider what is known as a preponderance of the evidence in order to obtain the most accurate understanding of any certain thing that shapes our belief. What that means is that by weighing the evidence, we should accept as the truth, the amount of evidence, or scriptures, or sayings that provide the most which leans closer to the truth as we can get.
Now I hope that what I am saying doesn’t appear to be so clinical about bible scripture and how we should determine what we arrive at concerning what we should believe. If we are to have a truthful and honest relationship with God, then what other way do we have to foster that relationship other than using the means available to us, which is the bible and God’s written word, to build that relationship?
Should we depend upon our feelings about what is true? Or can we depend upon some sort of spiritual revelation to base our belief on? Maybe we should base our beliefs on what we are taught by a self professed man of God? All of these things could be misleading and could position us even farther away from what the truth really is. The only real solid evidence that we have which can be depended upon is the Holy scriptures which have been written by those who God inspired to write them down for us.
We must depend completely upon the scriptures to disclose the truth and accuracy of any belief we are to adopt. Our opinions, our revelations, our feelings and what we have been previously taught by anyone outside of those identified in scripture should not be relied upon.
Let’s just look at a few examples about what we have accepted as our belief and see if bible scripture supports what we believe.
Take for instance the transgression that was committed in the Garden of Eden. There are many teachings about exactly what that transgression really was. The scripture says that the man Adam committed the first sin when he disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree that God planted in the Garden. That is pretty straight forward and can easily be believed and accepted as one fact that can be adopted as something we can believe. Then along comes a teaching that the eating of the fruit of that forbidden tree was actually a sexual act that occurred between Adam, the Serpent and the woman Eve.
If we examine the scriptures closely, especially Genesis 2:15-17 we can see that the forbidden tree was in the Garden and was subject to Adam to partake of before the woman Eve and any animals including the serpent were put in the Garden. Because Adam was alone in the Garden, God formed the animals and put them in the Garden to keep Adam company, When this didn’t work, then God made the woman and put her in the Garden. All of this occurred after the fact that Adam and the forbidden tree were in the Garden and he had the opportunity to partake of the fruit of that tree before God put anyone else in the Garden. So how could the first sin have been of a sexual nature before the Woman Eve was ever put in there with Adam? According to scripture it could not have been.
Now just to be realistic, it has nothing to do with our salvation as to what to believe about what the original act of disobedience was, whether it was the eating of some kind of fruit or anything else. What is important is whether we chose to believe what the scripture says or not. If we begin to doubt what the scripture says in any one point, it might lead us to disbelieve something that is important to our salvation. So wouldn’t it be best for us to believe what the scripture says throughout the bible and not accept some man’s interpretation of what the scripture means in the event that he might be wrong?
For another example is the teaching that Jesus was sent to be a “Kinsman Redeemer” for all of mankind. This teaching explains that Jesus was a Kinsman to all of mankind simply because He was a man of flesh like we are and that, according to some bible teachers, was the only requirement that was necessary to become a Kinsman Redeemer, being a flesh man.
To begin with, Jesus was not originally sent by God to redeem all of mankind. It’s stated in Matthew 15:24 that Jesus said that He was not sent to redeem all of mankind, but was sent only for the Nation of Israel. Why is this? Because the Nation of Israel was God’s elect people. God said in Deuteronomy 7:6-8 that the Nation of Israel was chosen by Him to be a special people in His sight above all the people on the Earth. Even when Jesus sent His Apostles out, He told them not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but to the house of Israel. (Matt 10:5)
So Jesus was a kinsman redeemer to the Israelites because through His Mother Mary, He was a blood relative to the Israelites which He had to be in order for Him to be a kinsman redeemer. Throughout the bible it says that a kinsman is a blood relative.
For some scriptural verification of this, let’s look at what is said in the book of Numbers. In the Book of Numbers, Chapter five we find that a kinsman was another Israelite and specifically another member of a certain tribe of Israel. The same stands true for what is spoken of in the book of Numbers Chapter 27 and in the Book of Ruth. Then in the Book of Romans Chapter nine, Paul spoke specifically of his kinsmen being the Israelites. All of these examples speak of a kinsman as being a blood relative in the eyes of those who lived back at that time. When the angel spoke to Joseph before Jesus was born he was told that Jesus was the one to come to save “his people” from their sins. His people, that He was sent to redeem from their sins were the Israelites according to His own words. Thus saith the scriptures, no matter what man believes.
Once again, as I said before, whether we believe that Jesus was a kinsman redeemer for all of mankind or just for the Israelites is not going to affect our salvation in any way, but why would we disregard what the scripture actually shows us in favor of what any man teaches?
The last thing I want to cover is the non-scriptural teaching that Jesus and God are the same person. This is one of those cases where there are many scriptures and references in the bible that can be used to both verify that Jesus could have been God in the flesh and/or to disprove that Jesus and God the Father are one and the same. There are many scriptures and statements that were made by Jesus that have been used by those on both sides of the argument, but we are going to look at only those that cannot be misinterpreted and should be taken literally as the truth.
What we should do the utmost to consider is what Jesus said about who He was and not what some other person has misinterpreted the scriptures to state as the fact. Jesus came to Earth speaking the words that His Father in Heaven gave Him to speak. What could be closer to the truth as that?
In John 3: 16-17, it is recorded that Jesus said: God sent His only begotten Son and all who would believe in Him would be saved. Jesus didn’t say that God Himself came into the World in a flesh body and that He was actually God. Jesus made it clear throughout the scriptures that God the Father had sent Him. Nowhere in the scriptures did Jesus say that he sent Himself. Jesus made it very clear that the Father was in Heaven and Jesus himself was on Earth. Two separate individuals, a Father and a Son.
Did Jesus ever say that He personally was the Son of God? In John 10:33-36, Jesus made it clear to the Jews that were questioning Him that He was the Son of God. Shouldn’t we take His word for it? The Author of the book of Mark starts off his writing by stating that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Should we conclude that he made a mistake because he didn’t say that Jesus was actually God in the flesh? In John 1:49-50 when Nathanael first met Jesus, he said that he knew Jesus was the Son of God. Did Jesus rebuke him and tell him that he was wrong? No He didn’t because Jesus knew that what Nathanael said was true. Well that should be enough, as we could go on and on throughout the scriptures and not convince some.
I said before after the other examples of misinterpretation of the scriptures that the importance of how we believe in those cases don’t matter in themselves a whole lot. Although that does not stand true for the third example that we looked at. In this case our salvation just might be in jeopardy because belief in the Gospel of our salvation is determined by our belief in Jesus being the Son of God. If we adopt some man’s teaching that Jesus was not the Son of God, but was actually God the Father Himself who made a flesh body for Himself to dwell in on the Earth, it is certainly putting our salvation in jeopardy. Our salvation is dependent upon believing that God sent His Son to the Earth and as Jesus stated, HE is the Son of God.
Be careful about picking and choosing which scripture you choose to believe. Don’t you think that it would be best to believe what every scripture actually says and not accept some man’s private interpretation that could do you harm in the end?
Quoting 2 Peter 1:20 thru 2 Peter 2:1:
Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord (Jesus) that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
There are many false teachers of the bible in the World today and most of them deny that Jesus was actually the Son of God in favor of their belief that Jesus was actually God in the flesh.
Chose this day who you will believe, God’s Word or Reverend __________’s private interpretation which the scripture says that no man should make.
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