I love how the LORD works!!! If you look at my previous blog entry Prove All Things; Hold Fast That Which Is Good you'll notice it was originally posted on Friday, March 25th 2016. This follow-up on Sunday the 27th was inspired because of a couple of things that happened on Saturday which tie in with Friday's post. In it I spoke of the importance of using the bible to prove whether or not someone's prophetic claims are true or not. I also put the following quote; "Whatever our opinion of the messenger has no bearing on whether what he or she said is true". For example I think Pastor Rick Warren, author of the terrible bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life, is a false prophet. He preaches new age self-centered humanism but calls it Christianity. He also claims Islam's Allah and our God are the same which is ridiculous. We typically think of prophecy as foretelling the future but it's a more than just that. To prophesy simply means to speak on God's behalf things He has revealed to you which is what Warren claims to do. I knew people who thought Warren words were as good as gold just because he made them feel good. Sadly those people didn't care. Isaiah and Paul warned their would be Christians who only want to hear "smooth things" "having itching ears" who "turn away their ears from the truth." The problem isn't just that there are false prophets out there; another problem is there are Christians who seek them out because they refuse to prove all things. So sad.
Isaiah 30:10 [Rebellious people] Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they [lukewarm Christians] will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
We don't want to be found lacking on the day of judgment which is what we are in danger of if we refuse to prove all things. Paul warned people would perish "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
Okay now here's why I said I love how the LORD works; His timing is amazing! No sooner did I blog about using the bible to prove all things, but also made a specific point to say your opinion of the messenger doesn't prove or disprove the truth. I just told you my opinion of Rick Warren's teachings, but just because I don't trust him doesn't mean everything he says is wrong. Case in point Warren preaches Jesus is the Son of God and He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Those things are true and can be backed up with scripture right? Of course. So would it be wise for me to say everything Rick Warren says is wrong because some of it is wrong? Certainly not.
The day after I posted my Prove All Things blog entry I was made aware of a video revealing many proven false prophecies by a women who died early in the 20th century. Her name was Ellen G. White and she was a major player in the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church during its formative decades. She is still highly regarded to this day in some circles and a case could be made that some people even go so far as to worship her.
I attended a handful of SDA churches services in the spring and summer of 2012 but stopped attending when I became convinced the pastor was muzzling his sermons to avoid controversy. However I did attend online services with a different church from September 2012 until March or April 2015. This church had beliefs very similar to the SDA and I shared many of those beliefs. To this day I still share those beliefs and I think doctrinally they were far more solid than any other church I've attended. But as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see through a glass, darkly" only understanding the truth of God and the bible in part.
Anyway that church held Ellen White's writings in regard and so did I. Now keep in mind she wrote dozens of books and I surely didn't read everything. I saw a few things here and there that I wasn't too sure of, but mostly shrugged it off or did some mental gymnastics to validate it. But really most of what I saw didn't bother me and was probably a lot less heretical than what you would find in modern day Christian bookstores. At any rate I didn't focus too much on her writings. I focused on the bible. One thing I did do every Sabbath while part of that church was to get with the church online and we'd read some of her stuff for an hour, but the topics would be stuff like living healthy, why it was spiritually safer to live in the country rather than the sin-soaked big cities, that sort of thing. Now if you typed Ellen White's name in a search engine you could find all kinds of info about her writings and frankly now I realize she said some very heretical things.
My wife also attended online services with that church but only for 2 or 3 months. We weren't married at the time. We left when an ugly spirit of gossip and hostility was revealed to be part of the fabric of the church from some church members in good standing to the lead pastor as well. So be it.
Getting back to the main topic, proving all things biblically means you are able to match your beliefs with the bible. Whether Ellen White or anybody else for that matter is a false prophet, if what that person says matches scripture then it's still true. That's the standard.
In the year since I've left that church I have never once cited Ellen White to defend my beliefs. Not Once. I've used plenty of scripture though and I make a sincere effort to use it correctly in context.
On Saturday night (the day after I posted my previous blog entry) at a service I attended the pastor was talking about the book of Esther. He asked if anybody knew what Mordecai's relationship with Esther was and I blurted out "he was her uncle". Ester 2:7 reveals they were actually cousins (Esther was the daughter of Mordecai's uncle). Now it turns out the belief that he was her uncle is a very common misconception. Try going to Google or Bing and put "Esther's uncle" in the search box; you'll see I'm not the only one who made that mistake. So clearly a lot of people are taught at their churches to believe the same thing.
I was a little embarrassed but keep in mind I've never done a study on Esther and Mordecai's relationship. Really didn't give it a lot of thought. In this case I was guilty of just believing what I was told. I have however done in-depth studies on topics that really captured my interest... and I found out that many things taught at many churches are wrong. On matters of doctrine have you done the same? I still hold to many of the truths I held from my previous church because I did verify them to be true. Ultimately that's the primary thing I want to do with my blog, share my beliefs about doctrine using scripture to back them up. I hope my blog can prove to be profitable spiritually for anyone who spends some time here.
Amen.
Isaiah 30:10 [Rebellious people] Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they [lukewarm Christians] will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
We don't want to be found lacking on the day of judgment which is what we are in danger of if we refuse to prove all things. Paul warned people would perish "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
Okay now here's why I said I love how the LORD works; His timing is amazing! No sooner did I blog about using the bible to prove all things, but also made a specific point to say your opinion of the messenger doesn't prove or disprove the truth. I just told you my opinion of Rick Warren's teachings, but just because I don't trust him doesn't mean everything he says is wrong. Case in point Warren preaches Jesus is the Son of God and He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Those things are true and can be backed up with scripture right? Of course. So would it be wise for me to say everything Rick Warren says is wrong because some of it is wrong? Certainly not.
The day after I posted my Prove All Things blog entry I was made aware of a video revealing many proven false prophecies by a women who died early in the 20th century. Her name was Ellen G. White and she was a major player in the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church during its formative decades. She is still highly regarded to this day in some circles and a case could be made that some people even go so far as to worship her.
I attended a handful of SDA churches services in the spring and summer of 2012 but stopped attending when I became convinced the pastor was muzzling his sermons to avoid controversy. However I did attend online services with a different church from September 2012 until March or April 2015. This church had beliefs very similar to the SDA and I shared many of those beliefs. To this day I still share those beliefs and I think doctrinally they were far more solid than any other church I've attended. But as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see through a glass, darkly" only understanding the truth of God and the bible in part.
Anyway that church held Ellen White's writings in regard and so did I. Now keep in mind she wrote dozens of books and I surely didn't read everything. I saw a few things here and there that I wasn't too sure of, but mostly shrugged it off or did some mental gymnastics to validate it. But really most of what I saw didn't bother me and was probably a lot less heretical than what you would find in modern day Christian bookstores. At any rate I didn't focus too much on her writings. I focused on the bible. One thing I did do every Sabbath while part of that church was to get with the church online and we'd read some of her stuff for an hour, but the topics would be stuff like living healthy, why it was spiritually safer to live in the country rather than the sin-soaked big cities, that sort of thing. Now if you typed Ellen White's name in a search engine you could find all kinds of info about her writings and frankly now I realize she said some very heretical things.
My wife also attended online services with that church but only for 2 or 3 months. We weren't married at the time. We left when an ugly spirit of gossip and hostility was revealed to be part of the fabric of the church from some church members in good standing to the lead pastor as well. So be it.
Getting back to the main topic, proving all things biblically means you are able to match your beliefs with the bible. Whether Ellen White or anybody else for that matter is a false prophet, if what that person says matches scripture then it's still true. That's the standard.
In the year since I've left that church I have never once cited Ellen White to defend my beliefs. Not Once. I've used plenty of scripture though and I make a sincere effort to use it correctly in context.
On Saturday night (the day after I posted my previous blog entry) at a service I attended the pastor was talking about the book of Esther. He asked if anybody knew what Mordecai's relationship with Esther was and I blurted out "he was her uncle". Ester 2:7 reveals they were actually cousins (Esther was the daughter of Mordecai's uncle). Now it turns out the belief that he was her uncle is a very common misconception. Try going to Google or Bing and put "Esther's uncle" in the search box; you'll see I'm not the only one who made that mistake. So clearly a lot of people are taught at their churches to believe the same thing.
I was a little embarrassed but keep in mind I've never done a study on Esther and Mordecai's relationship. Really didn't give it a lot of thought. In this case I was guilty of just believing what I was told. I have however done in-depth studies on topics that really captured my interest... and I found out that many things taught at many churches are wrong. On matters of doctrine have you done the same? I still hold to many of the truths I held from my previous church because I did verify them to be true. Ultimately that's the primary thing I want to do with my blog, share my beliefs about doctrine using scripture to back them up. I hope my blog can prove to be profitable spiritually for anyone who spends some time here.
Amen.
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