Wednesday, July 1, 2020

GOD’S WORD doesn’t change


One of life’s constants is change. Like it or not, it happens. We grow. We age. Technology reinvents the way we do things. Some relish change, others resist. We like it best on our terms, but don’t always have that option. Sometimes all we can do is cope with it. 

When given the opportunity to exert our will in the matter, we’re wise to proceed with caution. Change for the sake of change is a risk – the grass on the fence’s other side isn’t always greener.  In fact, it can be poisonous and dangerous!

The relentless pursuit for “better” can sometimes leave us bitter, regretting changes we didn’t need to make.  The pursuit of change in the way we are expected to believe and process life’s important milestones can bring us into a kind of change confrontation… when we want something changed to suit us… to meld with our personal expectations and beliefs mostly infiltrated by the cultural dogma around us.

What you believe will have eternal consequences.  Our destiny, our future depends on resisting the pressures to conform, to change core and foundational beliefs simply because attitudes dominating the world we live in are constantly changing.

Bible-believing Christians cannot accept the "many paths" popular view as a genuine cornerstone for their faith. Yet professing Christians consider this "inclusive" stance to be the enlightened one. 

Liberal Christianity offers a humanistic reinterpretation of our faith and claims that Bible-believing Christians are mired in rigid, unenlightened, antiquated thinking. They tell us that times have changed, people have changed, society has progressed, and the church must evolve and change to be relevant.

They even twist the idea of the Bible as the Living Word to make it open to radical reinterpretation—so that its original meaning is turned upside down—as society and opinions change.

It should really pain us to see so much of Christianity today caught up in heresies and untruths in a misguided belief that change is necessary to be relevant in a fallen world. 

So many lives are at risk, as professing Christians embrace “as changed or reformatted truth”  incorrect interpretations of what the Bible teaches simply to be part of a popular religious movement that suits their needs and liberal views.

God knows our weaknesses and how we would try and modify His Word to suit our needs, wants and desires. His warning “not to do this” is sternly given in numerous verses throughout the Bible… none more crystal clear than Revelation 22:18-19... “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this
book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

I can’t speak for you… but that passage scares me!  Why would anyone want to challenge the truthfulness and authenticity of God’s pure and unadulterated Word, just to feel contemporary, relevant or part of the majority?

The Bible does not mince words about its power and influence…"The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

The Bible is NOT subject to generational revisions or "new revelations" driven by the shifting of public tastes and political moods.

The Bible doesn't change; it changes us. If we disagree with something we read in Scripture, it's not the Bible that needs to change—it's us. We must reexamine our opinions and change them in the light of God's unchanging Word.

Consider carefully what you are taught, what you hear and what you read, other than the Bible itself.  Be on guard!  As various leaders and authors in the church subtly move away from a Biblical understanding of social issues, the church is being led into apostasy and error, while the nation is being led into secularism, moral relativism, and depravity. 

There is no question that Biblical Truth and life are on two different paths. We find ourselves constantly colliding with what the Bible says we should be doing and who we must become to please God. 

Here’s what’s happening…. If what God expects of His followers is too much of a living challenge... then change what the Bible says. Rewrite the rules of engagement with God.  After all, the Bible was written a very long time ago, and surely God would want us to update his Word and for Christians to be relevant in the world. 

For the novice believer, updating the Bible’s meaning seems logical. Make what the Bible says fit today’s contemporary culture. Adapt God’s Word to our lifestyles.  If human conduct that God abhors is socially acceptable and popular, then discredit what the Bible says about such behaviors, so the church can be socially and politically relevant. Utter Nonsense!

This sort of thinking, is far more prevalent in today’s culture influenced church than you might think, and amounts to intentional, willful rejection of God’s Word.

The church can only be destroyed from within. If we stray from the Scriptures and contaminate God's Truth with worldly ideas, placating the sinner, the church as a beacon of salvation will cease to truly seek and save lost souls. The church must wake up and shake itself from its dangerous dalliances with worldliness.

You and I and everyone who claims to follow Jesus must take an unshakable stand on the unchanging Truth of God’s Word — His guide for living—the Bible.

The church has all but sidelined itself, making itself irrelevant at the very time when the world is in desperate need of God's Truth.

God's message to us hasn't changed since the beginning of time. It remains the same: Do not tamper with the Truth of God. 

Christ taught His disciples the importance of knowing, speaking, and defending the Truth because Jesus Himself is Truth incarnate

Christian complacency and apostasy are a far greater threat to the life of the church than any other single thing that man could bring against it.

"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him" (Proverbs 30:5).
_________________________________________________


Seeking and Sowing… Anywhere, Everywhere

  Maybe you know a missionary couple who have toiled for decades in a far away country and ended up with precious little to show for their l...