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| Home > Various Christian Topics > Do You Believe What the Bible Says? | Email this article |
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Do You Believe What the Bible Says?
Introduction
Several years ago, God showed me something that shocked me and challenged all of my Christian beliefs and theology. Perhaps it will have a similar effect on you! I never write a new article unless I feel that the Holy Spirit is giving me such a flow of thoughts and ideas that I can't type fast enough to get them all down. The Holy Spirit seems to be stirring this message up in me now, and I pray that as you read this article you will "see" your Christian views, opinions, beliefs, doctrines, and theology in a new light. When I saw this truth, it set me on a path which caused me to revise some of my Christian beliefs. I thank God for that, and I pray that the same thing will happen to you (if it is God's will) as you read this article. The Bible Is Like a Jigsaw Puzzle
Before I describe what God showed me, let me first lay a foundation. Notice that if we pick any topic in the Bible, there are Scripture passages scattered throughout the Old or New Testaments which teach us something about that topic. For the sake of example, let's pick a nice, controversial topic such as the baptism of the Holy Spirit (because there are lots of different viewpoints about this subject). I'm not going to try to explain my own personal views about this subject here, I just wanted to choose a sample topic for the sake of discussion. Now, there are seven New Testament passages which contain some variation of the phrase "baptized with the Holy Spirit": "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Matthew 3:11)On the topic of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, these passages are all pieces of the puzzle, so to speak, and there are many other pieces of the puzzle on this topic scattered throughout the New Testament. Now, imagine that you are starting to put together a jigsaw puzzle, and all of the cardboard puzzle pieces are face-up on the table. When you find two or three puzzle pieces that fit together, you're not yet seeing the whole picture, right? In order to see the full picture, you have to use all of the puzzle pieces and you have to fit them all together properly. In a similar way, if we really want to understand what God has to say about the baptism of the Holy Spirit (or any other doctrine), then we should go through the entire New Testament to find as many of the puzzle pieces as possible that relate to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then we need to study them, pray about them, and ask God to give us understanding and to help us fit them all together properly. Consider that if we have never gone through this process for any of the various Christian doctrines, then maybe we don't have an accurate understanding of those doctrines. Therefore, some of our Christian views might be completely wrong! Notice that we must be extremely careful that we don't focus only on the verses of Scripture which agree with our preconceived biases and beliefs, while ignoring all of the other puzzle pieces in Scripture. We must be willing to discover the real truth, even if it turns out to be different than what we have always believed. This will be a radical step for many people, and it won't be easy. The Lord might lead you to cast aside the views that your Christian friends and family have, and He might move you to an entirely different denomination. That's exactly what He did in my life, and I thank Him for it. You see, the danger that we all face is that our assumptions, our logical reasonings, our feelings, our doctrinal biases, etc., act as "filters," and they affect our understanding of what we read in the Bible. To put it a different way, most of us are reading the Bible through "doctrinal glasses" because the doctrines of our church or denomination tend to influence what we "see" in Scripture. You have probably noticed that different people can read the exact same verses of Scripture and see different things in them, which is why there are so many Christian denominations in the world. In fact, sometimes different denominations use the very same passages of Scripture to prove some of their beliefs, yet the beliefs of one denomination are the direct opposite of the beliefs of another denomination. This is because our preconceived biases are acting as filters and are influencing what we "see" in Scripture. Now, consider that nobody is perfect, and nobody has perfect beliefs. Therefore, your Christian views are not perfectly accurate, right? This means that somewhere along the way you picked up some beliefs that are just plain wrong, and some of your ideas about God and Christianity are wrong! This is true for all of us, because none of us will ever be perfect this side of heaven. But that's kind of an unsettling thought, isn't it? After all, if it's pretty much guaranteed that some of our Christian views are totally wrong, then how do we know which of our views are wrong? If we honestly want to discover God's real truth in the Bible, then it is helpful to try to start with a clean slate by pretending that we don't know anything about the topic that we are studying. It is important for us to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to show us the real truth, which might turn out to be completely different than what we had always believed. It requires being as honest with ourselves (and with God) as possible, being as objective and unbiased as possible, being as thorough as possible, being as prayerful and open to the Holy Spirit as possible, and being willing to believe whichever view has the greatest weight of evidence in Scripture, even if it means making a 180 degree change in some of our Christian beliefs. Search for the Greatest Weight of Evidence in the Bible
Why should we bother to prayerfully search for the greatest weight of evidence in Scripture for each of our doctrines and beliefs? The reason is because it is actually very easy to use the Bible to support any doctrine, no matter how bizarre that doctrine may be, simply by using one or two well-chosen Scripture passages. For example, let's imagine that I want to live the "eat, drink, and be merry" lifestyle. Notice that I could make an argument that this lifestyle is Scriptural: Luke 12:19: "Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."By taking Scripture passages out of context, I can fit several verses together to argue that being a glutton and a drunkard is Scriptural. I could even say that if Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard (see Matthew 11:19, above) then why shouldn't I be one too? This is obviously a false doctrine, but I have some passages (above) which seem to support the view that this lifestyle is Scriptural. In a similar way, the Bible can be used to support almost any set of beliefs, no matter how bizarre they may be, if we are not honestly looking for God's truth. In the above example I have purposely misused Scripture to make it fit a particular viewpoint, but how often do we unknowingly misuse Scripture and come up with erroneous doctrines? Isn't it clear that the only way to avoid these erroneous views is to prayerfully search for the greatest weight of evidence in Scripture for each of our doctrines and beliefs? We need to find the full picture that God is giving us instead of relying on an incomplete (and therefore inaccurate) understanding of Christian doctrines. Consider the following real-life example of an erroneous doctrine. First we'll use two Scripture passages to argue for a particular viewpoint: John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."By looking only at these two verses, wouldn't we have to say that faith in Jesus is the only requirement for salvation and eternal life? Now let's use two more Scripture passages to argue for a different viewpoint: Mark 16:16: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved."By looking only at these two verses, wouldn't we have to say that water baptism is a requirement for receiving salvation? Notice that we have now used Scripture to "prove" two doctrines that completely contradict each other! Clearly one of these doctrines must be wrong, but which one? In this example, both doctrines have the same amount of Scriptural evidence (two passages each), so how do we determine which view is correct? The only way to resolve this contradiction is to prayerfully search for all of the puzzle pieces concerning baptism and salvation in order to see the full picture that God is trying to teach us (if you would like to examine the Scriptural evidence concerning baptism and salvation, I invite you to see my article called Is Baptism Required for Salvation?). In the above example, notice that those two contradictory views directly relate to salvation. When it comes to our salvation and eternal life, we can't afford to choose the wrong doctrine! The people who believe each of these doctrines are convinced they have Biblical proof that they are right, but in reality the Bible only supports one of these views. The only way to determine which view is Scripturally correct is to prayerfully find (and believe!) the view which has the greatest weight of evidence in the Bible. I sometimes carry bookmarks with me so that I can illustrate this idea for people. The bookmarks have a picture of four jigsaw puzzle pieces which clearly form a picture of a giraffe. In the same way, when we fit several passages of Scripture together, they might form a picture of a particular doctrine. But then I point to this giraffe and ask people what the completed picture will look like after all of the puzzle pieces are in their proper places. Is it a scene of Africa? Is it the San Diego Zoo? Is it Noah's Ark? Now the light starts to come on and they can see that several puzzle pieces don't indicate what the full picture is going to be, and they can see that the same is true when we put several verses of Scripture together and assume that we are seeing the full picture of a doctrine. Unfortunately, many of our Christian views tend to be based on what we "feel" is right or what "makes sense" to us, not on what God really says (more on this in the next section). For example, we all tend to believe that our own church or denomination has the most Scripturally-accurate views, right? Otherwise, wouldn't we switch to a different church? But have we honestly asked God which church He wants us to go to? In other words, if the Holy Spirit did not specifically tell you to go to your current church, then maybe you're not supposed to be going to that church! Maybe you are not being taught what God wants you to be taught. The problem is that most of us choose our churches based on our feelings or our reasonings. We tend to go to the same church or denomination that our family or friends go to, or we choose a church because we like the pastor, or we like the programs the church has, or we like the music they play, or we choose our church based on some other human criteria. But of course none of these things really matters if we have chosen a church which God does not want us to be going to. This is an example of how our feelings and our reasonings and our preconceived biases can lead us away from God's will for our lives, just as our feelings and our reasonings and our preconceived biases can keep us from seeing certain truths in the Bible. We might be comfortable with what we believe (and all of our friends and family might have the same beliefs that we have), but this doesn't mean that our beliefs are right! Here's What God Showed Me, Which Challenged All of My Christian Beliefs
Using the baptism of the Holy Spirit as our example, it is probably safe to say that many Christians have some view or opinion about this doctrine. For example, some people believe that it happens automatically for every Christian at the moment of salvation. Other people believe that it is a second experience of the Holy Spirit which Christians can ask for after salvation. Some people believe that speaking in tongues is the outward evidence that a person has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, while other people believe that speaking in tongues has nothing to do with it. In reality, there is only one view which is accurate, right? Only God's view is the correct view. Fortunately, God wrote down His view in a Book so that we would know what to believe! But if God's view is right there in the Bible for everyone to see, then why do Christians have so many contradictory views about the baptism of the Holy Spirit (or any other doctrine)? Again, the answer is that most of us have never honestly and prayerfully tried to find all of the puzzle pieces in Scripture for this doctrine and then tried to fit all of the pieces together properly. Instead, we're reading the Bible through "doctrinal glasses" which are causing us all to see different things in the Bible. To illustrate this, consider three blindfolded men who have never seen an elephant. One man feels the elephant's leg and confidently states, "An elephant is tall and stout like a tree trunk." Another man feels the elephant's trunk and declares, "No, you are completely wrong. An elephant is long and flexible like a large snake." The third man feels the elephant's tusks and says, "You are both wrong. An elephant is solid and curved, and it ends in a sharp point." Notice that each man is basing his belief on accurate information, but each man's belief is also based on incomplete information. Each man is totally convinced that he is right and the others are wrong, and isn't this how we tend to be when it comes to the Bible? We think that we are right and everyone else is wrong. But if those three men would remove their blindfolds (which we can compare to our "doctrinal glasses"), then they would be able to see the elephant in full view, and they would instantly realize how shallow and wrong their original opinions were. Do you see how this analogy relates to the way that we study the Bible? It is important for us to try to get the full picture in Scripture concerning our Christian beliefs and doctrines, because otherwise we might form some wrong conclusions just like the blindfolded men formed some wrong conclusions about the elephant. Notice that our Christian beliefs might be based on accurate information (from the Bible), but our beliefs might be totally wrong if they are based on incomplete information (just like what happened with the blindfolded men and the elephant). Okay, here's the unsettling thing that God showed me a number of years ago. He showed me that just like most Christians, I had definite opinions on various Christian doctrines. However, even though I believed that the Bible is true, I had never taken the time to fully discover what the Bible actually says about all of these doctrines. God showed me that I did not really believe the Bible!In other words, how could I say that I believed the Bible on a certain subject if I didn't really know what the Bible says about that subject? Think about it for a moment and you'll see the truth in that. I believe that when you really grasp this, it will challenge you to re-examine many of your Christian doctrines, just as it did for me. Here's another way to look at it: Do you believe what George O'Connery said about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Consider this question for a moment before you read on. Now, when I asked that question, did you find yourself thinking something like, "I don't know who George O'Connery is. How can I believe what he said if I don't know what he said?"? You see, if we don't know what someone said, then how can we say that we believe what he said? Do you see how that applies to the Bible? (By the way, "George O'Connery" is a name that I made up for the purpose of this illustration). So, do you believe what the Bible says? Not if you don't really know what it says! Kind of an unsettling thought, isn't it? Here's another illustration. Imagine that a friend of ours has the same view of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we have (for example). Then our friend decides to do an honest, prayerful, thorough, unbiased study of every puzzle piece in the New Testament concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and let's say that we have never done a study like that. As a result, our friend now believes something entirely different than what we believe. So which one of us is more likely to be right? Our friend is trying to see the full picture of what God has taught us in the Bible about that doctrine, but we haven't tried to do that yet (in this illustration). Therefore, we are simply hanging on to the view that we have absorbed from other people. But have any of those other people ever done a prayerful, unbiased study of the full picture of that doctrine in Scripture? Probably not, right? So our belief concerning this doctrine is based on what we have absorbed from other people who have never really studied these things out. The people that we absorbed our view from, most of them simply absorbed their views from other people who have never really studied these things out! Now do you see why I said that when God showed me these things, it shocked me to the core and challenged all of my Christian beliefs? Has the same thing happened to you yet? Suddenly I realized that I had no idea if any of my beliefs were accurate or Scriptural, because I had never honestly looked for the greatest weight of evidence concerning each of my beliefs. That's quite an unsettling feeling. Therefore, I began studying Scripture in a completely new way, picking a doctrine and then prayerfully trying to find and fit together all of the puzzle pieces concerning that doctrine, and I ended up casting many of my pet beliefs onto the trash heap. I discovered that Scripture really did not agree with many of my pet beliefs, and I decided that I wanted God's truths, not my own preconceived biases and reasonings and opinions. If you want to know God's truths as well (not just your own preconceived biases and reasonings and opinions) then you might take a look at my article called How Do You Study the Bible?. It contains some suggestions, ideas, reference books, websites, software, etc., to help you study the Bible more thoroughly. Conclusion
I was always taught that prophecy, speaking in tongues, laying hands on the sick, and so on, "died out" in the first century. I was always taught that the baptism of the Holy Spirit happens automatically for every Christian at the moment of salvation. I was always taught that infant baptism and baptism by sprinkling are both valid forms of water baptism. I used my human reasoning abilities (another big mistake that we often make) and assumed that the six days of Creation were really six eons of time. I had strong doctrinal biases towards those views. However, when I decided to make the effort to find out what God really says about these things, I discovered to my shock that the greatest weight of evidence in Scripture does not support these views. I had to discard my strongly-held beliefs because I could not honestly and prayerfully find the Scriptural evidence to support them which would outweigh the evidence against them. These are my own personal conclusions, and I have written several articles which might help you to see where the greatest weight of evidence is for some of these doctrines:
Are you willing to search for the greatest weight of Scriptural evidence for the various Christian doctrines, no matter where your search leads, even if it leads you to the conclusion that many of your pet beliefs are false? It can be frightening and unsettling to realize that our Christian beliefs might be wrong, but I pray that you have such a heart for God that you are willing to embark on this journey, allowing the Holy Spirit to be your guide. Again, for some suggestions, ideas, reference books, websites, software, etc., to help you study the Bible more thoroughly, I invite you to see my article called How Do You Study the Bible?. Teach us and enlighten us, Lord, all for Your glory! |