My Thoughts. . .

Monday, 11-03-2020

Man, in all of his glory is little more than a bundle of inconsistencies. He reads his Bible but develops his own doctrine which is different from his neighbor’s understanding. He makes his religious practices holier than others through his own prejudices. He deifies certain actions that are peculiar to his chosen beliefs. His church has special positions that promote one individual’s faith over another. Power struggles are born out of the human desire to “be first.” Some of those inconsistencies are so subtle that advocates will accept one part as truth and condemn another, although both are related. An illustration?

One church believes they would be without biblical authority to purchase Sunday School literature not developed nor produced by their own Publishing House. It would be a sin to buy another publisher’s material because it would support error. No one consciously wishes to support false doctrine. However, inconsistency is a tool of the Devil and he is the champion of deception.

That church buys their song books from THEIR Publishing House. However, those song books contain hymns which are written by individuals who they believe are false teachers, such as Luther, Gaither, Amy Grant, John and Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, and others. They would never think of inviting any of those individuals to teach nor lead them in those songs. Yet, they will sing them despite the fact that the authors were not members of their faith. Since they paid for song books that contained hymns written by those who were not of their faith, that made them guilty of supporting those they considered to be false teachers! Perhaps they are not aware that their preacher usually develops his sermons using study helps written by men who are not considered “valid Christians.” If the preacher has his degree, even though he attended a university sharing their faith, it still used lexicons, Bible translations, and commentaries written by those who were not considered “real” Christians.

The usual justification is, “Oh! Everyone does it.” Yes, that may be true. But everyone happens to be categorized as “man” and man is inconsistent. If God demands perfection to be saved, then our inconsistencies, no matter how well organized and presented, will not lead in that direction! Justification built upon inconsistency is a poor platform. Man develops his own “Catch-22″ situations. It can cause him to choose the wrong god to save him!