Respect for the Bible

I am just going to say it. I cannot believe what I am witnessing in our 21st century world! We are living in an age in which God is more of a figment of our imagination than the enthroned Creator of the universe. There is a lack of understanding of who God is and what He has done. There is an even greater lack of respect for the authority of Scripture. Some may be offended by some things I am about to point out. But if these things offend you, please know that I love you. I merely ask you to examine the divine text and see if your beliefs measure up to God's perfect and holy word.

1. To preach various and sundry methods of salvation is to disrespect the authority of the Bible. An honest examination of the conversions in the New Testament will lead a person to understand that God is not saving people by different methods. He is not requiring different people to do different things. And yet as I speak with people about their salvation they regularly tell me they went about this process in different ways. It seems for many of them, that as long as they were sincere about their decision that is does not matter what they actually did. This takes the mode of salvation out of God's hands and places it in ours. Last time I checked salvation was something God did. We should comply to what God requires in His word.

2. To call a church by any other name than a Biblical name is to disrespect the authority of the Bible. I can give you 50 different names for churches in our city. There are not 50 different names in the Bible. There are several different ways in which the church is named or described. But you will never see the church of the New Testament named after a man or a methodology. You will never see the name of the church of the Bible attribute glory or honor to anyone but deity. I cannot see how anyone who respects the words of Scripture could even begin to be a part of a church that doesn't even honor God with its very name.

3. To worship God by another method other than what is found in the New Testament and exemplified by the apostles and the church is to disrespect the authority of the Bible. People want to know why I don't worship God the way they do. This is not the correct question. The correct question is, am I worshiping God according to the commandments that He has left for His church? The responsibility lies with the one who is worshiping. Have they done all the Lord has commanded? Have they added anything? Have they left anything undone? God can and will reject our worship if it does not please Him. He has that right. Who is being worshiped here, anyway?

4. To believe that Scripture is open to individual interpretation is to disrespect the authority of the Bible. If I had a nickel for every time a person has told me, "Well you know, the Bible can be interpreted in many ways" - I would be a millionaire! No, the Bible is meant to be interpreted God's way. We do not shape the word of God, it shapes us. We must adhere to the teachings of God's transforming, Holy Spirit delivered will. If the Bible is open to individual interpretation, then throw it away. It has no power over us if the power resides in us. The truth is that the Bible as it stands is the very thing that will measure our souls in judgment. It is the bread of God. It is the breath of God.

As a Christian, I still sin daily. I have plenty of issues and problems. I am realizing as I get older just how little  I actually know. But I am confident of this one thing - The Bible is the divine and perfect word of God. It saves us all the same. It teaches us all the same. It will judge us all the same. It has not changed in 2000 years and it never will. I may do many things wrong in my life, but I will not disrespect the authority of the Bible. When I see something, anything in the Bible that is lacking in me, it is time to make a change.

"Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven." - Psalm 119:89