The religious confusion seen today, is the result of people taking parts of the Bible that they like and rejecting what they do not like. Far too many try to “ride the fence,” flip-flopping from one position to another. We are reminded of the question the prophet Elijah once asked Israel at Mount Carmel, as they strayed from God: “How long will you falter (waver, halt) between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18: 21). This was Israel’s prevailing attitude. And we read in 2 Kings 17: 40-41 that: “They did not obey, but followed their former rituals. So, these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images.” It seems they were continually hopping from one belief to another, like little birds hopping from one branch to another.

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Central to Christianity is that the Bible is God’s inspired Word, and that it is authoritative in all matters concerning the church and our lives. God’s Word does not need revising or rewriting, and yet that’s exactly what a lot of people do. They pick parts of the Bible they like and reject parts they do not like! Augustine, who lived in the fourth and fifth century, said: “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” We need to take to heart what Jeremiah said in Jer. 10: 23: “O, Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” How true it is, that as man stumbles around in the darkness of his own thinking and in the barrenness of humanistic philosophies, he desperately needs to turn to God’s Word, which is “A unto our feet and a light unto our path.” (Ps. 119: 105).

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But not content with God’s Word as a guide, men have written denominational creeds, and, not content with Christ as Lord, they have bowed down to human authorities, and are determined to do as they personally want to do. (2 Tim. 4: 3-4). This is why it is so important that we “search the Scriptures,” which are the original source of truth, and that we compare our own beliefs and practices with them. What is your guide in religion, and for your life? Think on these things.

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Dennis Abernathy