You can twist the Bible. You can make it say whatever you want. You can do a quick google search and bam. Typing whatever you want to believe and requesting back up verses and that’s everything needed for today’s Christians to create their own doctrines and theology’s. There are many blessings in having thousands of Biblical resources at your fingertips, but there is a danger in being able to build and form your world view and slapping God’s endorsement on it, while not being willing to go in depth in your studies. We could make up any foolish theology and google a few verses to back it up, and in depth study is either rejected or viewed as overkill.
Why do I say it’s dangerous to be able to make up your own world view and slaps God’s endorsement on it? Because you could be wrong, maybe just a little bit wrong on a minor issue, but maybe you’re way off on a crucial doctrine. What would be even worse is if you are sharing this wrong thinking with others, while saying you have a biblical backing for what you believe when you’ve only read a few verses that might back up what you’ve said.
But shouldn’t we have the freedom and liberty to believe whatever we want? Yes, this is a free country we live in, and you can believe ANYTHING, but it is a dangerous trend to form your own doctrine in your head first and consult the bible second, and only looking for a few verses that back up what popped in your mind.
Why do I say it’s dangerous to be able to make up your own world view and slaps God’s endorsement on it? Because you could be wrong, maybe just a little bit wrong on a minor issue, but maybe you’re way off on a crucial doctrine. What would be even worse is if you are sharing this wrong thinking with others, while saying you have a biblical backing for what you believe when you’ve only read a few verses that might back up what you’ve said.
But shouldn’t we have the freedom and liberty to believe whatever we want? Yes, this is a free country we live in, and you can believe ANYTHING, but it is a dangerous trend to form your own doctrine in your head first and consult the bible second, and only looking for a few verses that back up what popped in your mind.
Why? Because our mind and opinions are flawed. Let’s look at our opinions. Where do they come from? Our opinions are formed in our minds, and our influenced by how we are raised, by life events, people we meet, and by the knowledge we embrace. Now opinions are not bad, and everyone has one. But opinions are flawed, and we all have at least one wrong opinion about something or someone. Not all are bad, but some are. This is why we must require of ourselves an honest look at the Bible before settling the matters in our minds.
Let’s use Hell as an example. Hell is a very controversial subject right now. Some believe it’s a fable, some believe it’s 100% forever, and others believe it’s just for visiting. Now, the best thing to do if you were to study Hell would be to google something like “Verses about Hell” or using your concordance to find verses about hell and just read the verses straight up. If you get on a blog (like this one) or a commentary, it’s just a man’s opinion (In this case mine). However, just by reading the verses alone in context, and digging as deep as you like, you can form and opinion and be confident that you’ve not been influenced by man’s opinion. If you had an opinion that Hell was a fable, and searched “Verses about Hell not being real” by only searching for those verses, you might be able to construct a doctrine that fits your view, but by searching only a few verses about Hell, you’re missing out on a lot of verses about it that may be helpful to you search. When I’m curious about something, I read EVERY verse I can find about that subject before even considering making up my mind anymore because I’ve found it’s easier that way because I have been wrong so often!. I sometimes wonder if what I already believe is true since I can’t quote a scripture to validate it, so I’ve found many times looking at it objectively helps me the best to either confirm or dismiss my own opinions. If I believed Hell was fake, I would try to build a case against what I think and then another case for what I do think, and see what the bible actually says in the context of all the verses on the subject.
In case you didn’t catch on, I love studying. Anything really, but including the Bible, and not all of you find life in it and will not want to go in depth as I always do, but by looking honestly and objectively, you’ll grow. You don’t need to go crazy if you really are pushed for time, but looking at the Scriptures with an honest opinion will get you far. I always say that if you’re not finding out ways you’re wrong on a regular basis when you read the Bible, you’re not reading it enough!
What motived me to write this blog that is no doubt one of my more boring, less interesting blogs? Romans 1:21-26
In case you didn’t catch on, I love studying. Anything really, but including the Bible, and not all of you find life in it and will not want to go in depth as I always do, but by looking honestly and objectively, you’ll grow. You don’t need to go crazy if you really are pushed for time, but looking at the Scriptures with an honest opinion will get you far. I always say that if you’re not finding out ways you’re wrong on a regular basis when you read the Bible, you’re not reading it enough!
What motived me to write this blog that is no doubt one of my more boring, less interesting blogs? Romans 1:21-26
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts…
When I look at facebook or hear some pastors preach, and I hear and see verses taken out of context, it makes me worry about the shape of the church, where we just construct a God in our own image, rather than coming before Him humbly with our questions and searching His word. I truly long to see a generation form to the image of the uncreated God, but I see how we are so easily forming and fashioning god’s of our own minds and wills to tickle our ears and allow us to do as we please. A god made in our image is dangerous to us, and it’s dangerous to our generation simply because a god in our image is wrong and will lead us deeper into deception and immorality, 100% of the time. Our generation does not literally build or create new gods, but rather, we modify the One we have, till we have nothing left of Him, and are left with an empty religion of death and opinions. We do create new gods in the sense that we make God into whatever we want, and if you read every verse about God’s people creating their own god’s, it always, 100% of the time, ended up in bondage and deeper deprivation and a loss of contact with God.
When I write this blog, I refuse to simply look up verses that endorse my understanding. This blog is an outlet for me to grow and stretch and it requires me to go in depth. There have been times when I had my mind made up about a subject, but as I studied it for posting here, I realized I was wrong, and had taught others wrong, and I had to research and re think life long held values. That’s a part of growing. I see so many times people believing something, and their beliefs never evolve. They may die, and their knowledge never grew. Being wrong is not bad, as long as you are willing to admit it, accept it, and search for truth.
As I write this year, and start posting videos, I plan to post A LOT of scripture references at the bottoms of my blogs and videos because I want you to be able to see where I get my thoughts, what is shaping them, and why. I want to expose how we embrace man made theology, and I want us all to be able to recognize it in our own lives as we grow more familiar with the word this new year
