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In God’s inspired Word, the Bible, He has revealed everything anyone can know about His mind and will. Either He means what He says in His Word, or He doesn’t. If He doesn’t, the Bible is merely advice that we may ignore with impunity. However, if He means what He says, our eternal destiny depends upon giving His Word “the more earnest heed” (Heb. 2:1).
While God is the God of grace and mercy (Tit. 2:11–3:7), He no less expects His creation to respect and obey His will, to which each one will be called to account (2 Cor. 5:10). Men have no right to presume upon God’s grace by thinking He will “understand” our blatant failures to love others as ourselves (Mat. 22:39), treat others as we desire to be treated (7:12), help the helpless (Gal. 6: 10), and to fulfill other such duties toward our fellow men. While many seem to make this application in matters relating to social responsibilities, they often go no further. The attitude of most (including religious leaders) toward the Bible seems to be that we should honor its moral/social precepts, but its “religious” doctrine is quite elastic.
In other words, although God has given doctrinal instructions and specified the things that please Him in Christian worship, He will excuse our ignoring these. Men thus dare to turn God’s grace into a pretext to fulfill their own wills and desires. With these premises before us, what are some of the things in religion God does not/will not at all “understand” (i.e., “excuse”)?
- The creation of thousands of religious bodies professing to follow and belong to Jesus (He envisioned and built only one church [Mat. 16:18; Eph. 1:22–23; 4:4]).
- The production of humanly originated “gospels,” whether written or unwritten, that perpetuates religious division (there is only one true Gospel—the New Testament [Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1–4; Gal. 1:6–9]).
- The many inventions of men in “worship,” designed for their pleasure rather than God’s (worship must be “in spirit and truth” and as authorized by Christ [John 4:23–24; Col. 3:17]).
- The many “plans of salvation” men have devised that alter what the Scriptures teach men must do to be saved (believe in and confess Christ, repent, be baptized [Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Rom. 10:9–10]).
- The denial that “truth” exists, or if it does, we can never be sure we know it (Jesus said God’s Word is Truth and we can know it and be freed by it [John 17:17; 8:31–32]).
God’s saving grace is for those who obey Him, not for those who suppose He will “understand” (John 12:48; Heb. 5:9).
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Denton, TX, June 12, 2015.]
Attribution: Printed from TheScripturecache.com, owned and administered by Dub McClish.
