I was on a forum where people were debating over something some TV preacher had said 15 years ago. I find that the church is so filled with the spirit of division, too busy “defending” their dogma to focus on God, that when a preacher/speaker/teacher says something it’s like they’re bound to it forever with no way to escape to the possibility of growth, maturity or a greater understanding. I’ve listen to people speak for 36 years and my own beliefs and understandings have changed over the years. What I find most irritating is that so many stick to the dogmatic teachings of their denomination instead of what the word of God says, interpreting some passage to mean one thing while someone else interprets it another way. Have you ever noticed that? Why would you think the Holy Spirit would allow such division? Simple, because they don’t ask Him. There is only one Truth and the Holy Spirit is the only way to find it out.
Here’s an example “I” had to go through. I did a chronological study of man from Adam to today using the scriptures as the foundation. Now, in my upbringing I was taught that Abraham left Haran after his father Terah died… funny though, that’s not what the scriptures say, but that’s how it’s interpreted. I had a real problem. The mathematics of the scriptures didn’t support the seeming contradiction of Gen 11-12 and Acts 7:4. Knowing full well there were no contradictions in the scriptures I could not reconcile this issue. It took me two years to find the answer. My study stopped all that time because I could not find the answer. Until I asked the Holy Spirit to sort it out for me. The next day I found (and many won’t like this) the book of Jasher and I read in it how Terah attended the weaning of Isaac. I knew it had to be an error, but the Spirit said read the Greek word for “father” in Acts 7:4. I found out that it also means “father: near or far, ancestor.” The math told me the “father” that died was not Terah but Noah! So I looked for a precedence in the scriptures and God Himself said that Abraham was the father of Jacob to Jacob when in reality he was his grandfather (Gen 28:13).
Still many won’t believe this, and that’s fine. It’s not that important since the puzzle kept me in the word of God. As christians mature, they realize what they knew years ago isn’t necessarily the truth now that they know better. This is why the word of God is alive (not the paper) but the message. The entire written word of God is a map to Jesus from any starting point of the reader. It is not the end of the whole story. But because of pride of so many readers, they reject those that see it from a different angle. It’s like the three blind men describing different part of an elephant, or five people explaining the car accident they all witnessed. Imagine the gems within the holy scriptures we are still discovering today, thousands of years later, like current events of dark matter being found in Genesis, because of its power!
See the thing is, the written word of God takes you to the all powerful, all knowing, all present God Almighty where there is no limit. John says that just the things of what Jesus did here on earth cannot contain the books that would be written about Him. The Holy Spirit knows it all and wants to share that information with the bride-to-be, we just have to ask. So what will happen: heresy! Why? Because there is so much more to God that some refuse to accept it solely because it wasn’t first written in a dusty scroll! Think about it: most of you believe the NT but what of those that never had it but only the OT right after Jesus returned to heaven!
Don’t accept everything everyone says (not even me) but ask the One Who can tell YOU the truth and let the others believe what they want. He is all that matters.
1 John 2:27 (KJV)
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Just a thought.