Tag Archives: contradiction

Reading below the surface

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As you have opportunity to read a few books when they hit the market, and Christian magazines, you need to be awake. Not everything is always what it appears on the surface.

Consider this statement from one of the books I read a while back:

[speaking of the man it was written about]…“that he would be enabled to present a balance between the truth of the Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit”.

Can you see anything in this statement worth commenting on? I imagine many see nothing wrong. This statement above embodies a lie, an outright deception, even though written by someone who would claim to be a Christian.

The “Word” referred to here is clearly meant as the Bible. Who wrote the “Word”? The Holy Spirit inspired the writing (2 Peter 1:21 and 2 Tim 3:16).

What is the ministry of the Holy Spirit? “..he will guide you into all truth” (Jn 16:13). But in the next chapter of John we read, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)

How is it, then, that the Holy Spirit could ever be at odds with the Word [written]? …unless the writer’s perceived “ministry of the Holy Spirit” was not really of God; but was a fake, a counterfeit, a deception. The writer, possibly without realising it, is perpetuating what is blasphemy.

This nonsense is typical of the kind of thing many Christians are accepting because it is written by people who claim to be believers. We must always remember what Paul wrote to the Galatians when he said, …if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:9)  People need to see that the gospel Paul preached is the same and only gospel of grace by which anyone may be saved today. Writers like the above have accepted a gospel of grace plus something else. If it’s a gospel plus anything, even what they call “Holy Spirit”, they’re inviting the trouble Paul speaks of in Galatians 1:9. Remember that this is included in what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:4 where he speaks of “…another Jesus, …another spirit, …another gospel”.

Observe for yourself how many people who claim to be “Christians” are constantly living under some kind of curse. Is it because they also have accepted a gospel of grace plus something else? We hear from some folk that they no longer see any need to meet to “remember the Lord” as is clearly outlined in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, or they don’t now believe in a “rapture” – no wonder, if they accept any part of another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel.

“But we mustn’t judge anyone” we get told. Well, God’s Scriptures do! [Actually 1 Corinthians 2:15 and its context is clear when it says: But he that is spiritual judgeth all things.] So we just quote God’s Bible where appropriate. Let God be true but every man a liar. (Rom 3:4) It’s what God says that counts. It’s God’s Word as revealed in the Scriptures that we will all be judged against in a coming day. It is the standard.

It’s just everywhere; issues relating to what people refer to as God’s Word. The closer we get to the end, the more intense the battle for the truth, and, unfortunately, the greater the deception. We stand or fall on the Word of God. Instead of handing out trendy “Footrot Flats” look-a-likes we need to realise we have available in the ‘world language’ of English the no compromise, inerrant, pure Word of God, in the Scriptures, for which people in England, even, of all places, were prepared to give their lives [and be burnt at the stake].

Maybe the real problem lies with the belief of so many, who dare to claim the name of Christ, that their Bibles contain mistakes. [Sadly, very often they’re right. It’s often true – their ‘bibles’ do.] It is a joy to fellowship with believers who believe what their Bibles say and unashamedly, assuredly profess that “every word of God is pure”. How could we ever call God a liar?

Other ‘Christian’ books I’ve read in recent years were interesting but I can’t help wondering what God thinks of some of them. There were biographies and autobiographies that hardly give God a look in. Maybe He didn’t really figure in their experiences. Some were about well known missionaries, no less. An assembly magazine which is meant to inspire believers by its articles came across like a travel brochure.

But the thing that really stands out these days is the quotes. It’s trendy to quote all sorts of people or secular literature. We can read an editorial in a “Christian” magazine with its quotes of what godless people have said but nothing of what God says. Did I see that coming when I stopped our subscription to that magazine nearly two decades ago?

Magazine No 188

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I write with regard to magazine No 188. The Editorial states:

 . . He who was on equality with God, co-equal, co-eternal, “emptied himself” of his glory (Phil. 2:5-7). . .

The above statement seems to present a contradiction with the Scriptures.
How can someone who had equality with God, “empty” Himself of His glory and yet have it recorded by the disciple who was known for being the most physically close to the Lord Jesus: “and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father..” (Jn 1:14)?

 Not only does the quoted verse 14 of John 1 speak of the glory of the man, Christ Jesus, but it states the glory as of the only begotten of the Father which in itself clearly identifies the qualities of that glory.

 In reading the very next chapter of John’s gospel account we get another mention of His glory, observed by men: This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; (Jn 2:11) One would have to ask, “How was He able to manifest glory? Where did He get this glory from?” And especially so, if He had supposedly “emptied” Himself of it.

 Why does Luke 9:32 state: But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.

This was, once again, glory manifested by the Son of God, in human form.

 The editor would have us believe that the Son of God, in human form didn’t have any glory because He had emptied Himself of it. I cannot accept that premise on the basis of what I quoted above. But there is a reason why people accept this insidious heresy which in my mind is tantamount to blasphemy.

 It is very noticeable to those of us whom God has graciously opened the eyes of, that many bible versions based on the Revised Texts of Messrs Westcott and Hort have adopted the words “emptied himself”. The King James Bible translators have kept truth in tact by printing “made himself of no reputation”, which is in complete harmony with sound doctrine that “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16). But why are we surprised; when we consider the associations of these two men and their apparent hatred of sound doctrine? Why would anyone trust their manipulation of the Greek texts when their names can be found listed in the Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, as I found myself directed to in a public library when researching the men in question?

 The harmony of the Scriptures, in comparing Scripture with Scripture, demands that in the course of “being made in the likeness of men” the Son of God veiled His glory. He never ceased being what He eternally had been; neither could He. I reject, totally and utterly, any thought that the Son of God ever changed from being anything but God...manifest in the flesh.