Don’t Be Deceived – Part Three

This post is the “third” in a series of posts, that addresses the absolute Biblical requirement for Christians to exercise Biblical discernment.

Bear with me while I quote six Scripture verses, three from the Old Testament and three from the New Testament.

2 Samuel 23:1-2 NASB
“Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse declares,
The man who was raised on high,
The anointed of the God of Jacob
And the sweet psalmist of Israel, declares,
“The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me,
And His word was on my tongue.” Emphasis is mine.

Nehemiah 9:30 NASB
“However, You remained patient with them for many years,
And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets,
Yet they would not listen.
Therefore You handed them over to the peoples of the lands.”
Emphasis is mine.

Zechariah 7:12 NASB
“They also made their hearts as hard as a diamond so that they could not hear the Law and the words which the Lord of armies had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of armies.” Emphasis is mine.

2 Peter 1:20-21 NASB
“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture becomes a matter of someone’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” Emphasis is mine.

John 14:26 NASB
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.” Emphasis is mine.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB
“All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.” Emphasis is mine.

There are obviously many other Scripture verses that could be quoted but these six should suffice to establish the claims of the uniqueness of the Holy Bible. Yes, I did use the word “claims”. One can earnestly study the validity of these claims, and many have, producing opinions that both back up these claims and those who deny them. I could easily write another six or seven posts just summarizing why I and many others, much more learned than I, believe these claims are valid but that is not the purpose of this series. Suffice to say that I believe that God, who created this universe and all that we see, is thoroughly capable of communicating His thoughts to us via His Holy Spirit, as both the Old and New Testaments testify He has.

Consequently, the Holy Bible, the Word of God, is the yard stick by which all else is determined, because God’s Holy Word expresses the thoughts and ways of God, which God tells us, differs from our own thoughts and our own ways. (Isaiah 55:8 refers)

It should be noted that we have also been given, within God’s Holy Word, the witness of His only begotten Son, Jesus, the Anointed One, the Messiah. Jesus told us that the words that He spoke were not His own, but came directly from our Father. (John 14:10 refers)

The reason why I mention this is because spiritual discernment involves making a judgement on that which correlates or agrees with God’s Holy Word and that which does not. Much of what God communicates to us in His Holy Word is 180 degrees out of sync with what we are exposed to in man’s thinking and ways and as we study and spend time in God’s Word, this becomes increasingly apparent.

Being able to Identify teachings which do not agree with God’s Holy Word is directly linked to being conversant with God’s Holy Word. If your familiarity of God’s Holy Word is only piecemeal, then your ability to identify error will also be piecemeal. Jesus Himself pointed this out to the Sadducees in Matthew 22:29 when He said; “But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.” The KJV puts it this way, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

Learning how to avoid making mistakes or making errors in judgement is what spiritual discernment is all about and the vital element in avoiding those mistakes and errors is having more than a superficial knowledge or understanding of Scripture.

Today, in our society, being critical at all is viewed by far too many as being overly judgemental. Obviously we do need to be aware of our own shortfalls before we are critical with others, but most of those types of judgements have to do with how we treat and how we react to how we are treated by other people. When it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrinal truths of Christianity, we are indeed admonished to be critical.

Consider the words of the Apostle Paul when it comes to making a judgement on the Gospel as recorded in Galatians 1:9 NASB “As we have said before, even now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

Is Paul being judgmental? Yes he is and with good reason. Do not confuse being judgemental on things which can be overlooked as opposed to those things which cannot be overlooked because they are not one and the same.

More to follow.

Worthy is the Lamb. Blessings!