{"id":22428,"date":"2023-02-16T16:05:37","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T16:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22428"},"modified":"2023-02-16T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T16:05:37","slug":"the-church-no-6-its-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22428","title":{"rendered":"The Church\u2014No. 6  (Its Authority)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 1<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles-2<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The means of determining whether a church is of human or divine origin and operation is in asking, \u201cWhat authority is honored?\u201d Man-made churches submit to human authorities. God\u2019s church submits only to divine authority. It appears from history that man\u2019s inclination has ever been to elevate man\u2019s teaching above God\u2019s Word. Jesus spoke of this when He warned the tradition-steeped Pharisees \u201cYe have made void the word of God because of your tradition\u201d (Mat. 15:6).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many different types of human authorities are followed in religion, all of which are erroneous, because they are human:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Many believe the majority should be followed, but the majority where? In Asia, the Buddhist makes the majority; in Africa, the Moslem; in Utah, the Mormon. The fact is, that while a majority may mean power, it never necessarily implies Truth. The majority will be eternally lost (Mat. 7:13\u201314).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Many trust their conscience or inner feelings but even the way of a fool is right in his own eyes (Pro. 12:15). Inner, subjective feeling often lead us astray; a thing may seem right and be wrong (Pro. 14:12; Acts 26:9). Conscience is a judge of behavior, not our guide.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Learned men of the past or present are not the standard of religion. Some \u201cwise\u201d men know not God and do not recognize His existence. They frequently contradict one another.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Some accept the religious views of their kindred without question, but as much as we love them, they could still be wrong and keep us from the Truth (Mat. 10:37).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Most who claim to be Christians follow the creeds and councils of men which contradict each other and the Bible and which create and perpetuate religious division. The doctrines and commandments of men produce vain worship (Mat. 15:9), whether they be written or oral.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Christ has all authority (Mat. 28:18). We must hear Him (Mat. 17:5).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong>\u00a0I wrote this article for, and it was published in the \u201cBible Thoughts\u201d Column for the <em>Hood County News<\/em>, Granbury, Texas, February 27, 1977.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 1[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles-2 page.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The means of determining whether a church is of human or divine origin and operation is in asking, \u201cWhat authority is honored?\u201d Man-made churches submit to human authorities. God\u2019s church&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22428\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  The Church\u2014No. 6  (Its Authority)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,68,972,833,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authority","category-christ-authority","category-church-leadership","category-conscience","category-god","wpcat-69-id","wpcat-68-id","wpcat-972-id","wpcat-833-id","wpcat-115-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22429,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22428\/revisions\/22429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}