Yesterday’s Thoughts Continue

There is another thought from Pastor’s Wednesday night lesson:

There are churches everywhere that used to believe the gospel that today are filled with people who do not believe the Bible is the inspired word of God or that Jesus Christ is the true way of salvation.

I know from my own research that this is a valid statement. I’ve quoted articles from our own country and others written by ordained ministers who have stated (some emphatically) that the Bible is too outdated to be a reference for today’s society. I have read works of academic theologians that posit the same, placing doubt on the origins of the books selected for inclusion as scripture. John ran across these same concepts in the first century:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1 John 2:18-19 KJV)

Too many of these who “went out from us” pick and choose which scriptures to use – for their own gain, whether it be monetary or position. There are some, as Thomas Jefferson, who would delete certain biblical items and retain others as a “benevolent code of morals.” Why it would be considered moral if it were given by a man who lied about being sent from God to save souls is beyond my comprehension. The same man’s word are testified to by those who saw and heard Him. If they lied about a part of His message, why listen to the part he liked? Perhaps that’s what Jesus meant when he spoke of camels and gnats.

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:21-22 KJV)

I can understand why John wrote this – partly because there are readers who are as familiar with the Bible as I am, yet have gone out from us as though the Bible had no truth. Unfortunately, Paul was familiar with them, too:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV)

The same story of the cross that Paul preached:

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. (Acts 17:1-3 KJV)

Please remember that the scriptures Paul used came from what we call Old Testament. The New was being lived, not yet written. It was being preached – and believed. Can we do any less today and be called followers of Christ?