06.07 - Is This Important?
6.7 IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Once again we anticipate this question. After all, what’s the big deal? If people want to believe that Jesus is going to come to this earth and establish a kingdom for a thousand years, what can it hurt?
What can any lie hurt? If we have no regard for reality, then it just does not matter. If religion is just some game that we play, and one belief is just as good as another, then it does not matter. If we really don’t believe that the bible is the truth anyway, then it just does not matter. If we think that God does not care, then it just does not matter.
However, if we believe that God is the author of the bible and that He wants us to constrain our teaching to just what he has given us there, then it does matter. If we believe that the word of God is sacred and we dare not pollute it with the teaching of man, then it does matter. If we believe that Jesus is going to judge us by His gospel, then it matters. If we believe that the truth liberates and that falsehood enslaved, then it matters.
If nothing else, it matters because of the attitude toward God’s word which any departure creates. If we can make it up as we go along with regard to Christ’s second coming, then why can’t we make it up as we go along on moral issues? How much of the immorality and disrespect for God’s word in denominational churches has been caused by disrespect of God’s word on the simplest of doctrinal matters? The substitution of fairy tales and fables for reality creates the type of mystical approach to religion that pervades the denominations. The gospel of Christ is not a fairy tale. It is an historical and doctrinal presentation that can be validated by secular history, by the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy, and by the written testimony of honorable and just men who gave their very lives for the truth. It is the pure and perfect word that God wants us to learn and teach. Why waste time diluting the truth with the contrivances and imaginations of men? But if all of this does not prove the point, perhaps 2Jn 1:9-11 can: "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into [your] house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." If you believe this verse you will not teach anything that cannot be definitively proven from God’s word, and you will insist that your teachers give book, chapter and verse for all that they teach.
It does matter that we teach the truth on all subjects to the utter best of the abilities that God has given us. To turn our back on the truth for any reason is to exhibit our dissatisfaction with what God has given to us.