My Thoughts. . .

Monday, 10-19-2020

Have you ever heard a preacher admonish, “Don’t take my word for it. Go to the Bible and see what it teaches”? Good advice, right? Followed? No. It is seldom followed by the audience it is given to nor by the one who states it. We have accepted things stated from the mouths of those we love and trust. Why? Because we believed they knew, believed, taught, and practiced nothing but the truth. If that belief were always true, neither the preacher nor his audience would ever teach anything wrong! Perfection would be our reward for strict adherence to their instructions. Do honest, sincere preachers never teach error? Like most, we believe our statements are true because we believe they are based upon biblical truth. If everyone is following truth, then why so much disagreement?

Inconsistencies are not usually one-sided. Desire for freedom in one form or another often has its extremes. We live in a world that reveals its own imperfections and lives with the consequences created by those desires. The American Revolution was born out of that desire. If Jesus’ teaching on turning the other cheek had been our foundation in the 18th century, we would still be speaking English with a British accent. Justification becomes our path to right our wrongs even if we are wrong in making them right! Today some believe destruction of statues erases whatever errors our forefathers created and justifies the present riots and destruction. The salvation course being followed is to raise from those ruins a perfect union better than heaven itself. Any movement that builds a foundation based upon sin will limit freedom rather than grant it. History may overlook millions of deaths as steppingstones to power and privilege, but its rewards are always limited to a few. Societies often seal their doom by following such a course.

Those in the past who preached segregation, or second-class citizenship for women, or any other false notion, cannot be erased because it is part of history. Despite their error on those subjects, those individuals were not wrong in everything they taught and practiced. We will make our mistakes which hopefully our children and theirs will not copy. Actually, they will make their own! Mankind has not been perfect since the events of Genesis 3. WWI and II were fought to keep our freedoms. Yet, millions of innocent people lost their lives because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Imperfections are not a respecter of persons. Able was offering his sacrifices with a good and honest heart. He could not control Cain’s jealousy nor hatred. He lost his life due to his brother’s lack of perfection. Bible believers like Jesus’ apostles had their flaws. God added Pharisees to the saved and some of them were a big nuisance years later (Acts 11:2-3; 15:1,5). Yet, they thought they were standing up for God’s 1,600 years of teaching. Sometimes we think we are doing God’s will, when in actuality we are far from it. Rather than admit we have been wrong, we refuse. Why? Because we don’t want others to know that we have been guilty of eating crow!