Originally Posted by machew

I want to start by saying, that I Love the church and wholeheartedly believe it to be God's chosen vessel and people to manifest the gospel of the Kingdom on the Earth. This post is not meant to demean the church or anyone here or bring guilt or condemnation. The purpose of this post is to highlight mistakes that the church has made repeatedly over it's history. My hope is that all who read this would not contribute to and/or make the same mistake of past history.

I have put a lot of scripture in this post on purpose, and to really benefit from this post all the scripture should be read carefully..

Key Verses:

John 1:14(NASB)


Context:
The Jewish religious leaders sent people to Corinth to convince them of the law (the Old Convenant), that they had to follow standards and rules, and that righteousness with God came from good works, extensive knowledge about the Word of God, and how well you followed it (Contrary to the New Convenant sealed by the blood of Jesus).


1 Corinthians 2(NASB)(emphasis mine)


2 Corinthians 3:1-6(NASB)(emphasis mine)


The church has made the same mistake over and over again in the past

The Bible becoming your god and not God(pride in your own knowledge of the Bible)

Throughout church history wars have been fought(between Christians), people have been burned at a stake, people have been assassinated, and the church has split and divided a horrendous amount of times.

This all resulted because of contradicting theologies(even blasphemous theologies). We have had more than 1500 years with the same canonized Bible. Nothing in the Bible has changed. We as a church have had 1500 years to understand the Bible and get good theology that we can all agree on. So what gives?

The problem is when people come to the conclusion that they know the Bible better or can interpret the Bible better than everyone else (or even most people). Think about this statement. What is the inevitable consequence of this way of thinking?

1. There is now no room for greater revelation of the scriptures (because you assume to know everything)
Yet the Bible says God wants to take us precept upon precept, and glory to glory.

2. People aren't allowed to disagree with your interpretation of scriptures (because if you know everything, they must be wrong)
Yet the Bible says God alone has all knowledge, and that the Holy Spirit is the only one who knows the things of God

3. If God does something outside of your interpretation of scripture, then you can't accept it as God (even though it might really be Him)
Yet the Bible says God ways are higher than our ways and our thoughts.

4. God looks a lot more like your understanding of Him, rather than who He truly is.
Yet the Bible asks the questions who can know His thoughts and His ways?(He is an infinite God who can't be confined to the limitations of human intellect)

The Pharisees made this mistake. Is your faith and assurance of your righteousness based on your knowledge of the Bible or on the blood of Jesus and your relationship with Him? Jesus gives some very sobering language to the Pharisess (the 7 woes) in Matthew 23. In John 5 Jesus highlights the primary problem of the Pharisees which unfortunately seems apparent in a lot of churchs today:

John 5:39


Too many Christians know so much about God, but don't really know Him. This is what Jesus had to say about this:

Matthew 7:21-23(emphasis mine)


Jesus connects not obeying and doing the will of the Father as the consequence of not knowing Him.
Please understand, I am not bringing this to bring about guilt or shame or condemnation, but only to bring a necessary soberness.

The church needs to stop making it's foundation on the agreement of non-essential doctrines but on common unity in Who they have given their life to. Have you given your life to a doctrine or a person? Does your God look a lot like you or a lot like God? Do you know what grieves His Spirit? Have you felt Him grieved before? Have you shared intimate times with God where you wish it would never end? Have you read the Bible to God, and had Him answer your questions? When you open your Bible do you look forward to getting to know the Bible better or getting to know Him better?

Don't make the same mistake of the ages. If you are filled with the pride of your own knowledge of God, you will never know Him until you are willing to give that up. If you don't give it up you will cause destruction in not only your own life but also in the lives of others.

1 Peter 5:5 (emphasis mine)


Who is the one who gives us understanding of the Bible according to the Bible? The Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit God? Of Course. So what is the ineveitable consequence if you are prideful about your knowledge of God. Will the Holy Spirit continue to teach you the Bible? Look at the verse above.

So why hasn't the church gained great agreement in understanding the Bible over the past 1500 years? Pride in knowledge about God rather than knowing God.

Lets look at John 1:14 again:


It says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word of God. Later on, God sent His Holy Spirit and Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide us and teach us and will do what He would have done had he been here.

If we really want to know and be experts on the Word of God, then shouldn't we devote all of our time to knowing the One who is the Word of God? Just a thought. :-)