Scripture Part 3: Why Is Scripture Important?

Here’s the BLUF, the bottom line up front: people lie. Whether they lie deliberately, out of arrogant misunderstanding, or just ignorance doesn't matter. It's still a lie. The reason this is important to us is we will stand alone before the bema seat, the judgement seat of Christ. The people we listened to will not be standing with us. That guy that misled us on social media, that pastor who taught a false gospel that sounded good, that friend who said stuff that made sense but took us away from God will not be there to take the blame. To be sure, they will face judgement for what they did. But we will have no excuse for following a false gospel. And we will be held to a high standard, ecause of all people in the history of humanity we have the easiest access to scripture. Failure to know the truth is our fault and no one else's.

If you ever watched the TV show “House” then you’re familiar with that character's mantra that everybody lies. If you watch carefully, you’ll notice that most of the people think they’re telling the truth, even when they are actually lying. Sometimes it’s a lie of omission, not telling everything. And other times it’s a lie that is an absolute contradiction of reality. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what their motivation is. The doctors can’t treat the disease until they know what the disease is. And they can’t figure out what the disease is if they don’t have the truth. The patient is in the hospital to get well, yet they still don't tell the truth to the doctors trying to save them. Without the truth coming out they are going to die. That’s why House used methods to find the truth others thought were crazy. But those unorthodox methods were the way to find the truth and save the patient. The fictional situation on House is a reality for those of us who claim to be Christians. We are doomed without the truth. And if we deny the truth we doom ourselves.

Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'

Think about that carefully. Consider what those verses mean. People who prophesied, who cast out demons, and who performed many miracles will be told by Jesus, "I never knew you". And those people will be told to depart from Him. That means they go to hell. Not even those incredible and miraculous deeds save a person. Because no deeds can atone for our sin. It is only the gospel that saves us. But we have to know it and follow it. Many sent to hell will be those that listened to someone who misled them instead of reading scripture for themselves.

Matthew 7:24-27 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-and great was its fall."

It is only by building our foundation on the rock that we can be saved. The rock is acting on the teaching and commandments of Jesus, and that is found in scripture. All scripture points to Jesus the Messiah, including the Old Testament. Even more, His words and teachings are recorded in scripture. Thus in order to know Jesus' words and act on them we have one sure and true source, and that is scripture. That is how we know the path to salvation.

1 Peter 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

It is not by the words of mere humans that we are saved. Humans are like smoke in the wind, gone in a moment. We are saved by the eternal word of God, His scripture. It is by relying on scripture we can stay true to God and walk in truth. The Holy Spirit inspired the authors of scripture to write the word of God for us to live by.

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

This verse warns us not to be deceived by the liars and frauds. It places the responsibility for knowing and following the truth on us. And it details some of the snares by which people are deceived. The first is philosophy. There is nothing wrong with philosophy in itself. It is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence using logic and reasoning. 99% of what is called science today is really philosophy. Real science can be tested in one lab, and replicated in a different lab on the other side of the planet. Whereas most of what is called "science" today is reasoning about the nature of the universe purely as a philosophical idea devoid of scientific testing. And that is partly because we currently have no way of testing most of it. For example, the Big Bang Theory is philosophic reasoning that mostly matches observable facts. But we can't test it in a lab, only validate or invalidate it's internal logical consistency. Philosophy is a useful way to figure out some things about God. But it must be checked against scripture. Any philosophy that contradicts scripture must be rejected. Any philosophy that is outside scripture should be viewed with skepticism and caution. Scripture is our anchor and rock.

The second snare is empty deception. More than any other time in human history this is snaring masses of people today. These aren't even good deceptions. They are empty, utterly empty of any evidence that could fool a good Christian. But it fools the weak, ignorant and gullible. Someone says something ridiculous online, or outside the church sanctuary after church, or from the pulpit or stage of the church, and everyone just accepts it with not even an attempt to verify it. For example, a growing number of pastors today declare that Christianity must be positive and any scripture or prophecy that isn't positive and loving must be set aside as not Christ-like. This is just crazy. By that standard Christ wasn't Christ-like when he drove the sellers and money changers out of the temple with a whip. And they must think that Christ was really un-Christ-like when His words were so harsh the multitude left Him. Unfortunately, there are many churches where the people swallow whatever they are presented with no critical thinking or comparison to scripture at all. We can't be like that. Our souls depend on us knowing the truth.

Ephesians 4 explains the purpose of Christ's church is to teach and train us to become more like Christ. We are to become mature Christians, knowledgable of Jesus the Christ.

Ephesians 4:14-15 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.

Unfortunately, there are so-called "churches" and "pastors" that are the ones trying to toss us like the waves of the sea, teaching the doctrines of men instead of the doctrines of God. They use the trickery of men and deceitful scheming. Some aren't even smart enough to know they are doing it, but are themselves pawns in the schemes of the evil one. Either way, pastors like that are not to be trusted or listened to.

Some latch onto the word "love" in those verses as if it proves their false gospel. Leaving someone in their error and not correcting them away from their hell-bound course is the exact opposite of love. The secular culture tells us the lie that love means accepting others even when they are harming themselves. True love at least tries to stop someone from self harm. Leaving someone in sin and error is the same as letting someone play soccer on the Interstate highway. It's leaving them to die.

The way we have to tell the good from the bad is scripture. The Bereans were not deceived like the Corinthians because they checked everything, even the Apostle Paul, against scripture. They eagerly accepted what Paul taught because they found he was teaching the truth in line with scripture. When liars came from Jerusalem the Bereans told them to take a hike because they knew the scripture and knew a counterfeit when they heard it. The Corinthian church didn't check scripture and fell for deception after deception. Before long they fell apart and ceased to be a church at all. I'd rather copy the success story than the failure. This is doubly so when it concerns my eternal soul.

Only scripture is the standard. No human or spirit can contradict scripture and be of God. Scripture is the Holy Spirit inspired word of God. A wise man chooses scripture over any falsehood.