Misquoting Scripture

Every Word of God is flawless, He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

Proverbs 30:5-6

     The Bible is pretty clear on the shall's and shall not's regarding scripture; you say it as it is, add nothing and don't take anything away (aka add an omission). "Interpretation" stirs up huge debates, a strictly literal reading, a deeper historical reading and so on all can result in radically varying viewpoints and opinions on what a text says and means. But I'm going to keep with the easy stuff; don't mess with what the Bible says.

      Why? It's quite simple. "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). God, using human writers, gave us His words (and sometimes, such as in the case of the Mosaic law, He wrote it down Himself). The scriptures are what we needed to know about Creation, Fall, Flood, Israel, Christ, and the Early Church. From this He also gives us codes of conduct and gives us clear differentiation (in most cases) from right and wrong. Frequently, however, we don't like what's in the Bible. So we... modify it to better suit our desires. Misinterpret a verse here, ignore a passage there, add the book of Opinions and suddenly being a Christian got a whole lot easier (there is no book of Opinions, and if your Bible has one I'd suggest getting a new Bible). But it doesn't work that way. The Bible God gave us is the one we are to live by. Not with an addendum (i.e. The Book of Mormon, the Quran and so on).

      But how do we know we even have the Bible God originally wrote down? Number one: if God is as powerful as He claims to be in the Scriptures, He would have very little trouble maintaining the fidelity of a series of words in a few documents. Second, the Christian Bible has more archaeological and historical evidence than any other major work in or before its time period, COMBINED. Don't believe me? Here's a nice little chart that outlines it all: http://carm.org/manuscript-evidence .

     This article is really short, mostly because there isn't much I can add to the issue. Christianity is incredibly unique in the completeness and accuracy of its text. The Bible doesn't need to be changed to suit history, the Bible shouldn't be changed to fit our moral wants, and Scripture is clear that the Bible is what it is, and God intended it to be that way.

Leaping Lizard

To Do, or Not To Do

"Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"

Luke 17:9-10 (emphasis added)

We all know that sin is bad. Stealing is bad. Hating your brother is bad. Coveting is bad.  We were taught, “Don’t do this or that, because that’s a sin.” And I’m not trying to downplay sin. Doing something that God forbids is horrendously detestable.

However, were we ever taught, “Do do this and that, because if you don’t, that’s a sin”? That’s when it gets a little more complicated. Or actually, it’s not that complicated; we just like to complicate it so then we can excuse it.

“But if I spend an hour doing devotions and Scripture memorization, I won’t get math done in the morning when I can think best, and then math will take longer, and then I’ll get behind in all my other school subjects, and then I can’t go to volleyball tonight, and my whole day will be behind. Yeah, so I’ll just skip devotions today. It’s better this way.” (That’s all very hypothetical, by the way.)

Or maybe we downplay the matter. “Should I wipe down the counters? They’re really not all that dirty… They’ve been worse, so this isn’t too bad, really. They’ll be fine.” “I really don’t need to go make things right with that person. It wasn’t too mean, and they didn’t look that hurt.” “It’s just a three-minute cat video. My chores can wait three minutes.” (Still very hypothetical.)

Sometimes we like to over-complicate issues, and sometimes we neglect “little” factors, but either method, it’s sin. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17, emphasis added).

We can commit, and we can omit. And both are vile in God’s sight.

Because the sin of omission is deceiving, we often wave it away. But look at the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-37. Were the priest and Levite condemned because of something they did? No, it was because they didn’t do anything.

What’s the best way to wreck a relationship? Abuse? Angry words? Or is it… neglect?

I often (and I think this applies to most of us) think I’m doing fairly well because I’m not stealing anything, I’m not lying, I’m not watching X-rated movies. I have my little checklist of “Not’s” and I like to think of myself as “pretty good” because most of them are checked. But how worn is the checklist of “Not not’s”?

Now some may think, “Well the verse says, ‘Whoever knows the right thing and doesn’t do it, it’s sin,’ but what if I don’t know I should be doing this or that?” I would say that’s where sanctification comes in. As you study Scripture and understand God more deeply, you learn to realize what is good and what is bad, what you should do and what you shouldn’t. God gave us the Bible for a reason!

Now some may think even more, “Well, if I don’t read the Bible or listen to sermons, I can claim ignorance, because I didn’t know the right thing to do, so therefore I never failed to do it!” To that, I would question your salvation. The reason we do good is because we love Christ. Paul addresses this issue in Romans 6:15-18:

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

And slaves of righteousness, redeemed by Christ’s blood, would endeavor to be obedient to God in all things.

A sermon on James 4:17 put it this way: “Most people have the idea if they don’t do certain things they are good Christians. If that were true then my dog is the best Christian I know. He doesn’t steal, he doesn’t drink liquor or any of the things we would consider bad.”* We should not look like dogs. We should look like Christians because of not only the sinful things we don’t do, but also the righteous things we do do out of a motivation of love.

~Klipsie

All Scripture references are ESV unless otherwise indicated

Sources:

*“The Sin of Omission” sermon by Melvin Shelton

            http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-sin-of-omission-melvin-shelton-sermon-on-growth-in-christ-60372.asp

The Trinity

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17 ESV

       From the First Century to our present age many people have found the biblical doctrine of the Trinity hard to understand. The doctrine of the Trinity recognizes that God is one God, but is also three distinct Person: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In our material existence the concept that God is One, yet He exists as three distinct persons is foreign to us. However, the doctrine of the Trinity is without questions revealed in God's word.

       The biblical term is for trinity is "Godhead" (Greek theiotes) and it is used three times in Scripture: Act 17:29; Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:9. The word "Trinity" is not found in Scripture, which is a theological word Christians use to refer to the Godhead.

       "Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill." (Acts 17:29)

       "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20)

         “For in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form," (Colossians 2:9)

      The doctrine states that the Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit consist of three distinct Persons, yet these three are one God. There are many arguments espoused by those that deny the Trinity, but the most prevalent is how God can be One God and at the same time be three Persons?

       In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission stating they were to teach and baptize in the names of the Godhead: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

       Further, 1 John 5:7 states, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." Just because God did not inspire the writers of Scripture to use the modern word "Trinity" does not mean it is not a biblical truth. Some who object to the doctrine of the Trinity respond noting the Bible does not use the word “Trinity.” However, there are many words and phrases that Christians use to express a biblical doctrine that are not found in the Bible. One is the word "Rapture." The word is not found in Scripture, by the phrase “shall be caught up” the Greek “harpagēsometha" is used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and means to “catch away” or Latin “rapiēmur”meaning to be snatched away. In fact the word "Bible" is also not found in the Scriptures. Would we dismiss the existence of the Bible because the word is not found in Scripture?

       Those that deny the Trinity are denying the Godhead. They rationalize that it is physically impossible for three distinct persons to be only one. They are both right and wrong. They are right in the sense that it is impossible for us to explain, for this cannot be a reality in our physical/material world. But they are wrong in denying that God is a Triune God. Those that believe this doctrine do so because the Bible clearly teaches monotheism, meaning that God is One God. Yet, the Scriptures unmistakably refer to the plurality of God as existing in Three Persons.

        Most of mankind has no real idea of who God really is. The gods of unbelieving men are small and do not take into account the immensity of Almighty God as He is presented in the Bible. J.B. Phillips wrote a book in 1952 called, “Your God Is Too Small.” He exposed the misconceptions that many have about God in that their understanding of God superimposed upon Him human characteristics. In His greatness and power the Bible says He spoke the universe into existence. God states this truth saying, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Hebrews 11:3)

       Believing that God is a man or any material being shows one does not comprehend the true omnipotence (all powerful), omnipresence (present everywhere), omniscient (knows all things) nature of our sovereign God and Creator, nor does he bow in humility to his Creator. Like Satan, the lost man seeks to elevate himself to God's level and above. Therefore many men miss the truth and reality of God's essence because they ignorantly try to perceive Him as being as a physical being as are they. God has revealed Himself to all men in His word the Bible and it would behoove all men to believe what their Creator has said about Himself. Paul stated God's mandate when addressing the unbelieving Athenians as recorded in Acts 17:30: "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent."

       John said, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world" (1 John 4:1-3).

       His statement makes it absolutely vital that a person fully believe in the Trinity, which means to accept who and what God really truly is. Because all men are lost in sin, only our supernatural Creator can save this lost and dying world, and only by fully believing God's promise of salvation can one be saved and receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The truth of the Trinity is unconditionally tied to accepting Him as who He is.

Malachi

Jesus As A Rebel

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.”  --John 15:18-19

To start with, you should all know that this article is probably not very well organized, due to the fact that I received very short notice on actually being asked to write it, and then being gone the week after being asked, coincidentally also the week before this was due to be published.  So please don’t judge me too harshly. :)  In fact, a friend, on being asked (frantically) for ideas, suggested I keep it short and sweet: “Jesus is Awesome.  The end.”  I figured neither the editor nor you all would appreciate that, and I’d probably get unceremoniously kicked off staff after just having been welcomed back.  (I'm kidding, if you didn't notice.  About being kicked off, that is.  The rest of it?  All very, very true.)  So here is my slightly more-thought-out idea on the topic of Jesus As A Rebel.  …And I may also go slightly off-topic on some of my points, due to my current lack of brain cells… Please forgive me.

---

As Christians today, we often think of Jesus as the one person in the world who has never sinned.  As I explained to my VBS kiddo’s, that means He didn’t ever do anything wrong.  So why is this article titled “Jesus As A Rebel”?  Well, society’s view of Jesus now is very different than it was when He was actually physically here on earth.  As they say, hindsight is 20/20; we have the advantage of having the Bible to read, where we can get more of an inside look at things and see that Jesus really was following the Law (for definition purposes, “the Law” – which shall be capitalized as such to differentiate between it and other laws – are the laws that God instituted back in the Old Testament to Moses and the Israelites) and never sinning, whereas the Pharisees (the religious authority during Jesus’ time) and the majority of the Jewish population saw Jesus as quite radical – according to their religious ideology, societal norms, and also when placed next to their expectations for a savior.

Over time, the Pharisees had added quite a few “little” laws to the Law instituted by God and held them as equally important, not to mention they held to the very letter of the Law – as can be seen in the passage about The Lord of the Sabbath (or at least, that’s the heading in my Bible) in Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 2:23-3:6, and Luke 6:1-11 where the Pharisee’s “complained” to Jesus about his disciples picking heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath because they were hungry.  “This goes against the Law!” was pretty much their argument.  Jesus’s response?  “Here, take a look at how King David – you know, that guy that you all really look up to? – acted in a similar situation.  He did something probably even more unlawful!  He went into the House of God and he and his men ate bread that was set aside only for the Priests!  And you think what these guys are doing is bad…”  (Okay, so not exactly what He said, but pretty close.)  In that very same passage, just a few verses later, we see Jesus being asked by the Pharisee’s if it was lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath.  I’m sure you can guess His response; “If one of your sheep managed to get itself into a pit, wouldn’t you pull it out, even though it was the Sabbath?  And just so you know, if you say yes, you’re implying that you care more about your sheep than you do about another human being.  And we all know you’re not going to say no, because you really care about your property.  Thinking that through, are you sure you even want to be asking me that?”  The last example (there are tons more!) I’m going to share is the time Jesus “literally ‘turned the tables’” as one of my friends put it.  (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, and Luke 19:45-46)  See, it had become perfectly acceptable (encouraged, even) for different booths to be set up just inside the temple where men sold doves and other sacrifices, as well as moneychangers.  None of these were originally intended to be in the Temple and doing business in God’s house was very disrespectful to its actual purpose, so Jesus literally flipped their tables over and kicked them out.  This is, I think, probably the only time in history where there has been a real display of righteous anger by a human being.¹ Anyway, as you’ve seen, the whole “doing ‘work’ on the Sabbath” thing didn’t go over very well with the religious community.  Nor did the fact that Jesus was using their own laws and the historical figures they respected to show the flaws in their nitpicky² laws.  Oh, and did I mention that He claimed to be God?  You can be sure that went over well.

Obviously, Jesus upset many in the religious sect by His apparent disregard for the rules, but He also upset even those who weren’t very interested in religion.  As they saw it, He rebelled even against what was seen as socially acceptable.  He could often be found around those in society that were seen as the “untouchables”³, such as tax collectors (became rich off of charging you more than you actually owed), Samaritans (imposters from during the Babylonian captivity), prostitutes (the horror!), etc.  Oh, and His disciples!  Some of them were fisherman (not the brightest, you know) and at least one was a tax collector!  Can you imagine how they saw it?  Not only did this man who claimed to be God spend much of his time with these horrid people, but many of his closest friends were listed among them!  And some of those “rules” of his… Not retaliating when someone hit you across the face?  Actually turning to let them hit you on the other side of your face?  That was basically asking the other person to attack you!  What kind of crazy guy was this?

Even more than all that, though, Jesus rebelled against the “popular belief” about who the Savior was supposed to be, what he was supposed to be like, and what his purpose was.  See, though Jesus claimed to be God, and subsequently the Savior, He didn’t really act how the Jew’s thought their Savior would.  They expected a military leader who would free them from the Roman’s rule, but instead of ridding in on a warhorse, He came on a donkey – a sign of peace instead of war. (Matthew 21:1-6, Mark 11:1-7, Luke 19:28-35, and Mark 12:12-16)  Not to mention that He was constantly preaching to “love your enemy” and other things that went directly against that idea.  They expected a King, the Son of David, who would lead them after they were free from Rome, but instead, Jesus talked about a kingdom that was not of this earth.

In the end, Jesus was really just a rebel against mankind’s wrong ideas of what a person should act like.  He wasn’t a rebel in the areas where “behavior” really mattered. He upheld all of God’s laws perfectly, set the standard for how Christian’s should treat each other and those around them, and was the perfect Savior – even if He wasn’t quite what everyone expected.

The Comma Queen

¹I know that many people would disagree with me, but please notice that I’m simply saying that it’s my opinion, not something I know for sure.

²For those of you who didn’t grow up with a dad who uses crazy phrases like “nitpicky”, it means (according to Dictionary.com) “Adj. Overly critical, especially on trivial matters; focused on only trivial aspects.”  Those of you who already knew and are nodding your head in a bored manner, brownie points to you!

³“Untouchables” is actually a level in India’s caste system – these people are the lowest of the low, given the worst jobs, and everyone else literally refuses to touch them because of how “filthy” they are seen to be.  Technically, they aren’t even a level – they are below even that.

100th Post

This is just a post, pointing out that we have reached the nice, round number of one hundred posts.

That is all.

Actually, a few more things.

As summer winds down and fall (and school) begin to kick into gear, we have a few minor changes in our writing department (our only department at the moment).
First off, good news! The Comma Queen has finished her writing intensive course and will be rejoining our monthly rotation of writers! Her first article as a part of that re-introduction will be sometime later this month. Chipper will also be rejoining, but on bi-monthly basis! We're really excited to have them both back!
Next, some melancholy news; Malachi will be the first writer to graduate from The Thought Box (rather than simply stopping writing) and will be heading off to seminary this fall! We are extremely excited to see what God does with his life, and there is still the possibility that he will be able to share some of the things he's learned at seminary with us in the future, so stay tuned.

Just to let you know; the Thursday following the last Monday of the month is still open for volunteer articles, just shoot them to tchthoughtbox@gmail.com.
Or just shoot us an email to let us know how we're doing. Tips for redesigning, topic ideas, what have you. We love getting mail!

Have a great school year!

Leaping Lizard