You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
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652 – Man's Search for Inner Peace (66)
Can you trust the Bible for your eternal life? (cont.)
by Jim Mettenbrink

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     Last week we considered the origin of the Bible - from the inner most part of God Himself.  No part of it came from man.  “
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21).  Over 1500 verses remind us via such phrases as “Thus says the Lord” exclaim it is from God.  Those verses also serve as a subtly implicit warning it would be sinful to change them (edit the Bible) or reinterpret them.  Yet that is the arrogant audacity of mankind - change God’s word to suit himself.

     Decades ago, an old preacher told of a lady with whom he was studying
.  Any passage in the Bible which did not agree with her, she cut out with a scissors.  She had made herself the critic of God.  She knew better than He.  Recently, in a discussion with a person who did not like the instruction of a Bible passage, said, “They need to change that.”  Who is “they?”  That this is not rare, was recently revealed when a person in a Bible class propounded the New Testament should be changed to include homosexual marriage.  Obviously these folks think the Bible is authored by humans and subject to editing spurred by mere whims of personal preference!  Self-made gods!  Humanists!  (Judges 21:25).
     If homosexuals were born with a homosexual gene, then God is a deceiver because He calls it sin which prevents folks from going to heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9,10)
!  How could God who sent Jesus to offer salvation to everyone (Acts 17:30; 2 Peter 3:9) create a person as a sinner unable to repent of sin, simply to send them to hell?  The ultimate assertion is the Bible is open to any interpretation as long as you pray about it then the desired interpretation is acceptable.  Such confusion!  What does God say about this implicit altering of His word?

     Around 600BC, God’s prophet Jeremiah wrote, “
this word came from the Lord, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them.  Do not diminish a word’” (Jeremiah 26:1, 2).  Don’t change one word!  When Jesus walked the earth, He emphasized the unchangeability of God’s word, “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17).  Paraphrased - It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for even one letter of God’s word to change.
     Man’s pride to have, yea demand, his way is not new
.  Shortly, after Israel was taken into Assyrian captivity in 722BC, the people in Judah did not learn from observing 90% of rebellious Israel’s population removed from their homeland just north of Judah (Amos 5:3).  Isaiah called Judah a rebellious people, whose attitude was “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isaiah 30:10).  Isn’t that the attitude so many have today, who want to change God’s word to suit their rebellious desires?  Shouldn’t God’s word be sweet rather than sour to our taste (Psalm 119:103)?  How does it taste to you?

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      © Jim Mettenbrink; used by permission. rev.150601-200302(cont.)
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