Lately I’ve have seen a lot of people who want to strip way from the Holy Scriptures. One was a video of an atheist who was begging Christians to let her go to Hell, basically because she doesn’t believe in Hell and she didn’t want Christians to share their faith with her after which she posted all the reasons why she thinks the Bible was not reliable. Now I get that to a point, after all some of us Christians have managed to speak the truth while forgetting about the admonition to do it with love. What I do not get is why this person went on to say she had advanced degrees in theology, in effect studying a book she does not believe in. That I will never understand. She had very wordy arguments to support her position. Still it sounds like she spent her life studying the Words of life and still seems to desire hell. If you run into these people as a Christian, love them and pray for them. 

On the other hand, I saw a post where the author, ostensibly a Christian, called the Apostle Paul a false teacher. I find that to be very problematic, since Paul wrote over half the New Testament. When I quoted the passage (admittedly from Paul) that says, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) this person came back with Scripture simply means writings and all writings are not reliable. Respectfully that’s not what I was talking about. I’m talking about the Bible, God’s Word. At that point I could have gone one of two ways, I could have kept going, but I decided instead to appeal to another writing of Paul (2 Timothy 2:23) and pulled my comment. Here’s the thing. I believe my God is big enough to protect His Word. I do not believe any of it is false, especially not the teachings of one who wrote so much strong doctrine. I also believe that if you start stripping away parts of the Scriptures, you’re left in a dangerous place where if it’s not all true, is any of it? Which parts can I disregard? Which are God’s Word? If we can only rely on the Gospels for example, what do we do with all the things Jesus spoke of from other passages? And speaking of that, I’m also done with “Jesus never spoke about…” as a reason to dismiss sin. Further, what do we do with all the passages that point to Jesus and tell us who He is. Yes discrediting the Scriptures is a pretty slippery slope.  

Let me just state it this way, I look at the Scriptures, The Bible, from a position of faith. If I find a part with which I struggle or even disagree, I ask myself a question, “Who is smarter, me of God?” This is an easy answer for me because I accept and believe that God is omniscient, all knowing, and I am not. He is the creator of the universe and I struggle to make a proper painting of His creations. He has all wisdom, and let’s just say, I do not. So when it comes to the point where I find myself at odds with God and His Word, I come to the inescapable conclusion that I am wrong. God does not have to make sense to me. He is under no obligation to do things the way I think He should. He is God and I am not. So I trust Him. I continue to dig in, to learn and to grow, and if any of the knowledge I acquire contradicts what I read in God’s Word, I disregard it. That writer didn’t lay down his life to save me. That writer didn’t take me from death to life. No, Jesus did that, so I will trust in Him. Some might say my view is simplistic. I take no offense to that at all. After all, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” I choose to rely on the Simple Truth.