Articles
The Word vs The World
Atheists can shout from the mountain tops, buy the largest billboards, and sit on the most popular talk shows and scream "there is no God!". A Christian can try and quietly tell a stranger in a mall "you need Jesus" and it's considered hate speech and you get the police called on you, or wear a tee shirt with a cross on it and get sent home from camp. How have things gone this far off the path?
Let's admit we have a generation or two now, that for all practical purposes don't know God. They don't even attempt to seek their answers from a spiritual source. People today have to read books to get answers, and the answers they receive are totally dependent upon the doctrine of the writer. That's exactly the reason that the Bible should be the first book we consult, and if other books are not in harmony with the Bible, we should reject them. If we think we find a philosophy we like, we need to subject it to the only reliable test, "search[ing] the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things [are] so." Acts 17:12
Paul challenged Timothy, "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. ... Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you" (1 Timothy 4:13-16).
Hosea 4:6 says ..."my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge."
Is it dangerous not to study the Bible? Absolutely! We must not only study it, but diligently study it. Scripture itself says our salvation depends upon it. "Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21). Do we miss that word "implanted" above? God's Word must be grafted into our hearts, transplanted there so it can grow, inserted there purposefully. Careful study and earnest prayer is necessary for understanding and growth.
If we could get our nation to look for answers in God's word, we would solve most of the nation's problems. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7,8).
