2-5 The Bible - The Only Authority

From what we have seen so far in this study, God’s spirit refers to His mind and purpose, and to the power by which He puts those things into operation. We have emphasised that that spirit is expressly revealed to us in the pages of God’s Word. The many problems of contemporary Christianity all come down to a dire lack of appreciation of this. Because it is hard to believe that such great power is vested in one book, parts of which we find hard to understand, it is tempting to feel that there is some other form of God’s revelation to men, other than the Bible. Because our fundamentally faulty human condition (Jer. 17:9) finds the pure truth of God’s Word (Jn. 17:17) so hard to stomach, many have given in to this temptation by claiming other forms of revelation which are more attractive to the natural mind. A few examples are now given.

Religion

Other form of revelation claimed human advantage/attraction of this:

• Jehovah’s Witnesses - Publications of the Watchtower Society, which are treated as inspired. No personal effort required to think out the correct interpretation of the Bible; an answer for everything.
• Roman Catholicism - The pronouncements by the Pope and opinions of priests, which they claim are automatically the true reflection of God’s mind. No need for personal Bible reading - in the past, Catholicism has discouraged and even forbidden this. Trusting in men rather than having to make the effort to verify things for oneself.
• Mormons - The book of Mormon takes away the need to believe in Biblical doctrines which are hard to accept – the Book of Mormon offers a chance of universal salvation, whilst the Bible says that there are many people who live and die with no hope through not being called to a knowledge of the Gospel.

All this underlines the need for a fundamental acceptance of the Bible as God’s Word, and to search its pages for the true message. The question, “One Bible, many churches - why?” is largely answered when it is appreciated how many churches have, to some degree, claimed another form of revelation of God’s spirit, i.e. His will, doctrine and thinking, in addition to that of the Bible.

If you wish to find the one true church, the one true faith and the one true baptism (Eph. 4:4-6), the call must be coming to you loud and clear - “Back to the Bible!”. It’s not my purpose to recommend a mere denomination to you. For now, read through the early chapters of Acts some time; it is evident that it was Peter’s logical, Bible-based reasoning that really touched the hearts of men and converted them, rather than the miracles he did.

All this said, it must be conceded that many Pentecostal churches exhibit a tremendous vitality and assurance when one enters them. Why is this? My own observation is that many join these groups and then leave them. Therefore those one meets within them tend to be relatively recent converts, who are full of the verve of having found a new church, a new understanding. And so the churches tend to exude energy, rather like the Jehovah’s Witness organization does. But what one doesn’t immediately perceive are the millions of disillusioned folks worldwide, who have been there, seen it all, and quit. If true miracles were being done, would so many become disillusioned with them?

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