If the Bible's so great, why don't the churches of today look like the church of the New Testament?

Obey your flesh and descend into darkness

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

It seems as if the Scriptural order of the Church is widely rejected by religious people. There are several reasons.

First, any precept of God is spiritual in nature. Spiritual things must be revealed. They are not reasoned out. Even the Scripture says that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. How can someone walk according to something they can't understand. Every Christian should be in constant prayer for God's continual unfolding revelation. There are things that God would love to reveal to each of us, but we have not yet become alive enough to God that we can receive them. We all walk at a much lower level than God intends. Jesus bought a lot for us on Calvary, which we have not yet been able to receive. May we continue to learn how to yield to the Spirit of God.

Sometimes, a Christian may see God's order in Scripture, and God may begin to reveal the meaning and application, but tradition and the pressure of organizations prevent the Christian from obeying God in the matter. When we disobey God, our senses become dull. Once a person has failed to follow the leading of God, that person may make up a different way or try to explain away the Scripture.

Often, theologies about God and the Scripture will keep us from moving forward with God. We have been brainwashed by theology. It doesn't take much leaven to leaven the dough. Speculation and rationalization take place without our conscious effort. This theology becomes a veil in front of our eyes so that we can't understand Scripture just as it did of the religious people in the days of Christ's incarnation.

The Scriptural order has very little for the flesh. The lure of money, power, and prestige may keep a person from receiving the revelation of God.

There is also the natural human tendency to want to do what we want to do. The flesh does not want to be led by God and is very deceptive.

It cannot be emphasized enough that Jesus paid the price for much more than just our being saved and remaining in rebellion against God. He means to transfigure us by renewing our minds. The Church plays a central role. These are not laws or rules. The ability to follow the Scriptural principles is the outgrowth of being born again and walking in the Spirit of God.

People, even though they are Christians, do not want to be led by the Spirit of God. There is much for the Church to walk into, much that Jesus died for on the cross, but to receive what Jesus has for us requires that we let go of our own ways. This is how we were born again, and this is how we will receive the fullness of what God has for us.

As with everything that God has given, this must be revealed to every person. Many just don't have ears to hear and a heart to understand.

There are many who have been obedient to the restoration of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. There is that which started at Sharon Schools, and this is not exclusive to Sharon Schools. There may be others who have experienced the same restoration. There are many folds now and one Shepherd, Jesus, but there will come a day when there will be one Shepherd and one fold. Unity is coming, but it will come in God's timing and in His way, not through ecumenical movements and human efforts.

We know that this unfolding is counterfeited. Every gift of God, including salvation, is counterfeited. By their fruits shall you know them. The Scriptural order is very plain.

The counterfeits:

There are many instances where authority is claimed but a man or an organization is glorified. Anyone would know that this is not from God.

A friend of mine went to a seminar where anyone who wanted it could purchase the right to be a "five-fold ministry." Anyone would know that this is not from God.

There is a group that saw, in Scripture, that there has to be apostles in the Church. They didn't see any, so they decided to be the apostles. Anyone would know that this is not from God.

There are groups of apostles that function under a one-man ministry. Anyone would know that this is not from God.

There are those who are called apostles but are not under the headship of all the other apostles. They desire to be maverick. Anyone would know that this is not from God.

Some have thought that there should be apostles under the headship of a local pastor. Anyone would know that this is not from God.

If the Bible's so great, why don't the churches of today look like the church of the New Testament?

How can we know anything about anything

The Church, What Is It and What Is Its Purpose

Apostles

God's Way

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