Do You Know Your Bible?

I heard a man of God say at one time that he didn’t know his bible very good, but he knew the Author real well. How can you really know the Author of the bible without knowing what He had written. The bible tells us the history of how God created the World in the beginning. It tells us that He created man in His own image and set man over His creation to keep it. The bible tells us how God interacted with mankind down through the ages and gave them certain laws to live by. It tells us about the first covenant He made with man, that man was not able to comply with. The bible tells us how He made a second covenant with man and sent His only begotten Son to introduce that covenant. God tells us how He made Himself known to man through the supernatural works that He performed through His Son.

Without the bible and you knowing the bible and what it says to mankind, there is no way that you can really know God who authored it.

A man once said: ‘You might not know one word of the bible, but if you know Him, the author, you can have eternal life”. Does that sound reasonable? Absolutely not! Because there is no way for you to learn of and know God without learning of Him from the bible. This person went on to say: “If you know the author, He will reveal the bible to you”.

In this case you need to be careful who is revealing what to you. The scriptures themselves tell us that our belief comes by understanding the Word of God and the understanding comes as the Holy Spirit reveals to us that the scriptures are the truth. Any revelation that speaks of the scriptures not meaning exactly what they are saying is not a revelation from God. If a person has a revelation that they believe is from God, the scripture tells us to prove the validity of the revelation that it agrees with the written word. “Prove all things” is what the scripture tells us, for the Holy Spirit was given to us for our learning, as our teacher and the Holy Spirit will not give us anything that goes against scripture.

There are those who quote the scripture out of context which says that the “letter killeth, but the Spirit gives life”. They use this quote that “in context” was speaking of the Mosaic Law, but use it to mean that the scriptures are not dependable unless the real truth is revealed to you. Doesn’t that sound like something the devil would do by instilling doubt in your heart about the meaning of scripture?

A true God sent teacher of the bible will use the scriptures as they are written as the basis for teaching and not depend on some revelation that says you must get a revelation to understand the true meaning of scripture. If you are looking for a revelation, then let the Holy Spirit, if He is in you, to reveal to you that the scriptures need no other interpretation than what they say.

Now I would like to ask you a question. If you read or study the bible, which version of the bible do you have? Do you believe that all of the versions are the same? What I mean by this is do you believe that all versions of the bible are an accurate translation of the original scriptures? If you believe that the bible you use is an accurate translation, what do you base your belief on? Have you ever taken the time to investigate whether or not you have a legitimate accurate translation or not?

I know these are a lot of questions that the average person probably has never considered, but don’t you believe that is important to know that what you are reading and basing your belief on is actually the accurate, inspired word of God and not a version that man has misinterpreted?

There is only one way that you can be sure that your bible is an accurate translation of the original scriptures. First the bible you are using must be the Authorized King James Version. Only this version is a word for word translation of the original scriptures. Even if this version of the bible is used, you cannot depend upon the translators of this version to have been 100% accurate in their work. A second check of its accuracy must be made by using one other tool. This additional tool is the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the bible. In this concordance every Greek and Hebrew word has been assigned a number which cross references to a particular word in the bible. Only by studying the bible while using this cross reference can you determine the accuracy of the translation into our English language.

Unlike other Biblical reference books, the purpose of Strong's Concordance is not to provide content or commentary about the Bible, but to provide an index to the Bible. In this way Strong's Notes provides an independent check against translations, and offers an opportunity for greater, and more technically accurate understanding of text.

Now what does all of this mean? Very simply it should be obvious that the laity, those who are not schooled in deep study of scripture must depend upon the teaching by those who the Lord has ordained to be Teachers. Those teachers of scripture then depend upon the Holy Spirit to be their teacher and the revealer to them of the truth and soundness of the accuracy they will hold to for the purpose of educating the masses in the church.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit who was sent by the Father to dwell in the heart of the believer would teach us all things and guide us into all truth about what Jesus spoke while He walked the Earth. At one time Jesus told His disciples that they didn’t know what manner of spirit that they had. That is part of the problem that mankind has today, for if they had the Spirit of God dwelling in them it would teach them and testify to them by pointing to the truth of scripture and not the interpretation of man that claims of receiving a revelation adverse to what the scriptures say.

The bible tells us that it was not written because it was man’s will, but holy men of God spoke and wrote the scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. It goes on to state that if any person would add to or take away from the words written in the bible, God will take away their part out of the Book of Life.

Do you know your Bible? If not then don’t believe everything that you are taught without researching and studying the scriptures on your own. We have been warned that there will be false teachers in our pulpits teaching for doctrine the commandments of men and not the words of God.

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Crossroads of Life

Standing at the crossroads

Every person’s life is like traveling down a road from the cradle to the grave. Somewhere along the road of life we all come to a crossroad and a decision has to be made which crossroad that we decide to take. There is the road which we are traveling on which we can decide to continue on and take our chances what the end of the road will bring. Then there is a road going to our right and to our left which gives us even other choices to make. Do we take the road to the right, or do we take the road to the left? The road to the right gives us a choice to use the Holy Bible as our guide and the road to the left is guided by some preacher that tries to convince us is the right road to take. Which road is the safest for us to take?

The Gospel

It is the desire and hope of every believer in God to obtain eternal life and spend eternity in Heaven with Him instead of perishing in hell which was created by God for those who do not believe. God has said that it is His will that all would be saved, but there is a condition that must be met if salvation is in every person’s future. That condition is a must for all people to believe the Gospel of Christ. Simply stated, the Gospel is that God has sent His only begotten Son into the World to atone for the sin of all people and only those who will believe in Him will be saved.

The bible tells us that God visited a virgin girl whose name was Mary and caused her to bring forth a man child who was to be named Jesus and that child would become the only begotten Son of God. At God’s set time, this man called Jesus came to be baptized by one John the Baptist and when He rose out of the water received the fullness of the Holy Spirit and was anointed by God His Father to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and fulfill God’s will to shed His blood on the cross for the atonement for the sin of the World.

After dying on the cross and being buried, God the Father raised Him from the dead and carried Him into Heaven to be seated at His right hand on God’s throne.

Jesus preached that all who would believe the Gospel and were baptized would be saved, but those who would not believe would be damned. In His own words Jesus said: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe the gospel.” ( Now this is not my opinion or my interpretation. The Greek word “metanoeo”, which was translated to “repent” in the English, in the context as Jesus used it is defined as meaning to think differently or reconsider about the truth of the Gospel and does not mean to repent of any sins that you may have committed. It means to turn your previous thoughts from not believing to believing. Jesus said repent and believe the gospel, He didn’t say repent of your sins and believe the gospel, but this is exactly what so many preachers teach incorrectly in their churches.)

Mark 16:15-16 And Jesus said unto them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. They that believe and are baptized shall be saved; but they that believe not shall be damned. ( Again, if a person believes the gospel, they have repented of their unbelief.)

 

John 3: 16-18 Jesus said: “Because God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. They that believe on him are not condemned: but they that believe not are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ( The name of the only begotten Son of God is the man Jesus.)

 

Following are some very important things that Paul the Apostle said and need to be taken to heart and believed.

Gal 1:1-9  Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)  And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.

 

It is important to understand the truths that Paul is speaking of here. Jesus is not God or He would have raised Himself from the dead, it was God the Father that did it. To start off with, if Jesus was God, He could not have died. It was God’s Son Jesus that died and God raised Him. No matter how differently anyone explains it, it must remain just as the scripture states it.

In addition, Paul speaks of another gospel that is being preached by some during his day and warning his people not to believe anything that is contradictory to the gospel that he preached to them. That same thing is happening in our day where the Gospel of Christ with Jesus being the Son of God and not the Father God in the flesh, taking the scriptures out of context with man’s wrongful interpretation being used to pervert the true Gospel.

Remember that Jesus said that would happen when He told us that false christs, prophets and false teachers, even using great signs and wonders would arise and mislead those who are easily deceived and move them away from the true Gospel.

It is God’s desire that all of His people would be saved, but there is a condition that everyone must meet in order to be saved. That condition is that everyone must believe the gospel as stated in bible scriptures, delivered by Jesus the Son of God.

Do you want to be saved, inherit eternal life and make Heaven your home for eternity? If so, then it is required of you to believe the true gospel as stated in bible scripture and not man’s interpretation of what the gospel is because of some private revelation claimed to have been received.

Paul the Apostle made it very clear by saying: “it is good and acceptable in the sight of God; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

 

Have you come to the knowledge of the truth? Jesus said that only God’s Word is truth, not man’s word.