Who Can We Trust? Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth! #13

              Here we are back for week seven in our blog "Who Can We Trust? Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth!” We've been discussing who we can and can't trust in mainstream evangelism today. Each week we've looked at two popular evangelicals and labelled them trustworthy or untrustworthy based on their doctrines, convictions, and actions. I acknowledge from the start that I'm not a judge, I am imperfect myself, and I in no way claim the authority to judge a person's salvation. But, there is a practical reality that everyday we make decisions to evaluate risks and then we base our actions upon those evaluations. For example, it's extremely cold outside so to limit the risk of illness I bundle up. I make decisions for my children and make them bundle up whether they want to or not as well because they're not mature enough to make those decisions. In the same way, I must guard myself from being diluded and led astray by heresy, false doctrines, lies, deception, and seducing spirits. With the same love, intent, and motivation that propels me to protect my children in light of their inability to make good decisions here I am in week seven of this blog in my attempt to protect the young in faith who may not be spiritually mature enough to make the right decision. If you can't even entertain the idea that you may be that spiritually immature person then I'm probably talking to you. We all make terrible decisions at times and counsel and critical thinking is beneficial to all. Counsel is in the heart of the wise so says the Word of God! This week is going to be a little different as this will be the only blog entry this week. I want us to reflect and meditate on a simple verse in scripture that speaks volumes concerning what we've been covering here in this blog, who can we trust. 

Let God be true, but every man a liar.

Romans 3:4 

Just sit and repeat that in your head a few times and then let it sink in and marinate. So what does this simple sentence have to do with our topic? How can we trust anyone if every man is a liar? That's exactly what I want us to look at. So far we've covered twelve evangelicals, six that we think are trustworthy and six we believe are untrustworthy but if every man is a liar then how can we trust anyone? It's simple, the trustworthy will ALWAYS speak the Word of God and will not waiver! They won't use it out of context, they won't manipulate it, they won't twist it, and they won't contradict it. They stay in the Word, the whole Word and consistently speak what it says in its context with it's original intent for it's prescibed purpose of transforming, encouraging, rebuking, reproving, and building up the hearer. If someone who declares that they are rightly dividing the Word yet never rebukes the hearer, be concerned. If they always speak rebuke and anger, be concerned. If they always speak prosperity but never speak of suffering or purpose, be concerned! Those we've suggested are trustworthy have shown themselves balanced, consistent, bound to the Word, loving, honest, and unwavering. On the opposite side those we've suggested are untrustworthy have shown themselves to be deceitful, manipulative, unorthodox, selfish, and unwilling to heed counsel or be held accountable. The truth is, God is our only hope and the only one we can truly trust but if the men of God you listen to speak the Word in it's whole, in it's context, and in it's intended purpose then that man is trustworthy. If someone says that a verse has a specific meaning but that meaning is contradicted by another scripture then that can't be the meaning of the original text. All of God's word is cohesive and consistent and so the easiest way to test what someone says about the word is does it give with the scriptures as a whole! Scripture should ALWAYS be used to interpret scripture and the easiest and clearest scripture should be used to interpret the complex more obscure scripture. You as lay person, maybe a even a spiritually young babe in Christ have every tool necessary to discern the truthfulness of someone's claims concerning the Word of God! Every man gets things wrong from time to time but God is forever and perfectly true! He IS truth! I pray that you've been encouraged and helped today, God bless!