Firming Your Foundation
Lets Check It Out:
With all of Scripture
by George Sinkie
[advance to next article]
In
the religious realm there are various doctrines. Many of
these are contradictory to one another. This is what happens
when man makes up religious teaching because every man has his
own idea about what to do (Deuteronomy 12:8, Judges 17:6;
21:25, Proverbs 21:2) When man makes up the doctrines,
we should avoid that doctrine because it will make our worship
vain (Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7). So how do we know
if a doctrine is from God or from man?
Someone may answer that question,
Does the teacher use Scriptures? On
the surface that may seem like a good answer, but we must remember
that there are those who distort
the Scriptures to teach false doctrine (2 Peter 3:14-16).
A good example of this is found in Matthew 4:5-6, where
the Devil tempts Jesus to throw Himself off the temple and uses
Scriptures to back up that Gods angels would
protect Him. This however was a distorting of the Scriptures,
because it would make one Scripture contradict another. Jesus
shows this by also quoting Scripture (Matthew 4:7). Now
either Jesus or the Devil are misusing Scripture, and I believe
it is the Devil.
It is true that we need to use
Scripture to back up what we teach, but we must check it out
with all of Scripture so that it harmonizes with all Scripture.
This means that the contradictory doctrines taught by men
cannot all be right
they may all be wrong, but they cannot
all be right. Prior to having the New Testament written
down, Christian in the First Century had the childish miraculous
powers (1 Corinthians 13:11). But even though they
only had the New Testament teaching in parts (1Corinthians
13:9), God still expected there to be peace and harmony (1
Corinthians 14:33).
In future articles, Lord willing
(James 4:15), we will examine some commonly held teachings
to see if they harmonize with the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:27). Now
I want you to open your Bible and look up all the Scriptures
I have used, and check it out!
[advance to next
article] |