I find it interesting that so many people comment on my use of the Bible to guide me in my daily life. Often someone will thank me for making the Bible and even God seem more “real” to them. I relate true stories about my own life and how God’s word is applied to a real life situation and I identify God’s hand in it all. It isn’t odd at all to me that God is real and His word the Holy Bible is as well. Nonetheless I hear this over and over and last week had one man come up to me and tell me that he appreciates me because I’m “for real” and I make God “for real” to him.
Hmmm… I wonder why it is that so many share this phenomenon. Why does someone think of God and the Bible in the abstract? God is very real and so is His holy word the Bible; for that matter so is heaven, hell, angels (fallen and not including Lucifer), as well as good and evil.
My Sunday school teacher mentioned a different but similar oddity in his class this past Sunday, stating he wondered why so many people cannot just accept God’s word for what it says, and instead feel the need to change the meaning of what the Bible actually states. He asked, “Why can’t they just believe what it says?” In fact he went around the room asking for opinions on it.
It is astounding when one thinks of it logically. Are we so arrogant a people to believe that we can actually improve upon almighty God’s holy word and laws? Do folks think of the Holy Bible as being akin to the United States constitution whereby it can be amended?
While you might scoff at this notion, incredibly there is currently a big push in some denominations within organized religion to adopt their own version of God’s word to conform to the political correctness of our modern society in order to accommodate homosexuality, abortion, change God’s definition of the role of men and women in church and the household, marriage, divorce, discipline of children and sin, (to name a few). A few are also denying the existence of hell and the blood sacrifice of Jesus and stating that we can actually pray someone into heaven and our “loving God” will warmly greet them with open arms.
Every time I write WFTD about something controversial and politically incorrect I get a rash of e-mails. At the risk of getting a rash of it I wanted to relate a rather comical e-mail that I received just today from a lady that wanted me to teach her Sunday school class on Sunday. Her comments in part were as follows: “Our lesson is on Colossians 3:1-17 (thankfully it stops there and does not get into that submission thing in v.18!)”
Oh let me go ahead and save you the trouble of looking that one up, that verse states: “Wives submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord”.
Yikes… there went fifty subscribers!
As I ponder the question posed by my Sunday school teacher, I think of Moses going up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. While Moses was receiving the word of God directly from Him, the people down below forgot all about God. Instead they proceeded to make a golden calf to worship and then whipped themselves into a frenzy dancing around it and then engaged in an all out drunken orgy.
They had seen the miracles that got them out of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, followed the cloud guiding them through the desert, they had eaten manna, and they heard the rumbling of the mountain when Moses climbed up on it and could easily see the mountain still shrouded with God’s presence in the form of a cloud. They had experienced countless miracles of God and seen His wonders.
Why would they do such a thing?
Hmmm… I believe they took their eyes off the Lord and looked to the world. In part I blame their leader for that. Aaron was weak and did not stick to God’s program, (kind of reminds me of those spineless urchins in congress agonizing about cutting a miniscule portion of the budget for fear of making some union mobster mad and as a result maybe not get re-elected). They wanted to please men and women and not God.
I realize that free will enters into the equation and people have to make their own decisions and will be held accountable for them, but it is not that easy when a so called religious leader joins in the fun and encourages them to orgy on without fear of repercussion. The Bible makes it clear in James 3:1 that these false teachers will be judged more harshly. “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more severely than others.”
Unfortunately this warning will fall on deaf ears and there will be false teachers and they will lead many astray particularly in the “Last Days”. “Swift destruction” will result.
Are we seeing these false teachers today? It’s real and we are seeing them today in large numbers all over the world!
2 Peter 2:1
False prophets were among God’s people [in the past], as false teachers will be among you. They will secretly bring in their own destructive teachings. They will deny the Lord, who has bought them, and they will bring themselves swift destruction.