But with your idea of individual Christians claiming special revelations. there is no standard by which anybody can say what doctrine is correct, and what is wrong. When God's word is the final authority, then although because none of us has perfect understanding there are genuine differences between Christians about some aspects of Christian belief, there should at least be a common authority, the Bible.
God's chosen ones, because they were commanded to test people (1 John 4:2–3 and Revelation 4:2). Through this, those who are not from God are exposed. They are easy to recognize.
Those verses do not say that Christians are to set a test to their pastors and preachers, like a school setting a test to its pupils. Rather, they are about listening to what the pastors or preachers say when they preach. Do they preach that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? That is fine, and agrees with God's word. If they don't preach that, then John says they are not of God:
(1Jn 4:1-3 NKJV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
The Bible opens with the words, "In the beginning, God....." (Genesis 1:1) The Bible doesn't say that anything or anybody else existed in the beginning except God. The Bible does not tell us that God "saw that it was not good for Him to be alone." The Bible certainly does not say that God "has sought, throughout every generation, those who are worthy to be with Him in eternal life." Indeed, none of us is worthy of anything good from God. The Bible tells us:
It is really difficult for you to understand because you rely on the belief that God does not speak in parables. You especially depend on what is plainly written and what you can readily understand. As a result, you believe that God cannot reveal truths that are not already written in the Holy Scriptures.
God, and particularly God the Son,
sometimes speaks in parables He does not always do so. When God in His word says that we are not to add to it or take away from it, that is no parable. when Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote:
(2Ti 3:16-17 NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
that was no parable.
If we were worth of eternal life, why did Jesus Christ have to be crucified?
Romans 3:10 says that no one is righteous, not even one. However, there are those who will be saved because they are counted as worthy.
They are only counted as worthy, not because in themselves they deserve salvation, but because they have been granted the righteousness of Christ.
They are the ones who come to know the one true God, whose wickedness the Lord will forgive and whose sins He will remember no more.
JEREMIAH 31:34
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
It is easy to say that Jesus was crucified. But I tell you, you do not even know the Jesus who was crucified.
How can you possibly say that? You don't know me. I certainly do know my glorious Saviour. As Jesus Himself said:
(Joh 10:14-15 NKJV) I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
If I may ask you a question: Why did Jesus have to be crucified, and for what reason?
Peter tells us:
(1Pe 2:21-24 NKJV) For to this you were called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: "WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; w
ho Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
