The Truth is Elusive
If one would ask a professing Christian about their belief in the Bible, nine times out of ten, we would hear “of course!”
Is that the truth, though? Do we really? Our beliefs and our behavior prove otherwise, and our actions speak louder than our words.
The common response to statements like this is “well, it is our understanding that is the problem.” I believe that the answer is that the problem is not our understanding but our ignorance. Most people do not know what the Bible actually says. Many people, however, know what their teachers and preachers have told them.
Those teachers and preachers have shown proof-texts to support the things that they have claimed as “the Bible says.” We highlight those verses and then claim that we know what God has said based on what we have been taught.
However, we are NOT like the Bereans.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17:11 (ESV)
We do not examine the Scriptures daily to see if the things we are told are true. If we like the teacher or the preacher we just accept it as true. Or, if we like what they say, we accept it as true. That is how the majority of us come up with our “beliefs.”
I find that I can generally determine if a person is a student of the Bible or a Student of a Doctrine simply by asking a person why he or she believes what they hold as true. Some of them are advanced enough in their doctrines that they know the references to the proof texts that they were given. However, I have yet to find one who can also reference those verses that speak against their doctrine and explain why they do not hold those verses as applicable. People are simply unaware of them, and the sad part is that most of them want to remain unaware of them.
Life is simpler if they remain in the position they are in without having to reconsider what they believe. Changing what they believe puts a break in their life. It causes some problems:
- They have to realize that their teacher was wrong
- They have to wonder what else they were taught that is wrong
- They may feel some guilt that they had not read the Bibles for themselves.
- They have to figure out what they are going to do with this new version of “the truth.”
Another issue they have to deal with, but it is deeper and might be missed unless a person is a deeper thinker than others, what about all those other people who already knew the truth but were condemned by friends and family as being heretics and wrong for all those years. To now find out that they were correct all along mandates that we do something about all our false accusations.
There is also the issue of having been told that “every word in the Bible comes from God.” Even when shown that not everything came from God’s mouth, there lies the problem of reconciling that one statement with the reality that the Bible claims for itself that not every word came from God.
Take for instance, Paul’s own words:
“Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.”
1 Corinthians 7:6 (ESV)
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16 (ESV)
“To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.”
1 Corinthians 7:12 (ESV)
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”
1 Timothy 2:12 (ESV)
In the Bible, words matter. However, most of us will use some words but not others. When people argue theology, sometimes the truth or error depends on how takes one word over another. We resort to manipulating Greek definitions in order to make a verse say one thing despite the fact that it actually says another.
Yet, here, in those examples; it is implicit that Paul was speaking for himself and not for God. I am aware that there are those who would spiritualize all that Paul wrote and may even claim that Paul was unaware that these were God’s words being placed in his mouth. To that, I hold no argument. It is a waste of time to explore the contradictions that such thinking will cause with other verses as well.
The greatest divider of churches – the major cause of the thousands of denominations we have today – are the word of Paul. It is how we perceive the messages that Paul left in his letters that divides us. I would dare say that, for some people, Paul’s words hold more validity than Jesus’ words.
We finally get the chance to discover a truth that we can claim as our own when we become wise enough to realize that we don't own our truths, because we never examined the ones given to us at church.
