Nena Arias | October 1, 2018
“You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God ….” (Deuteronomy 4:2)“See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.”
(Deuteronomy 12:32)“Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you and prove you a liar.”
(Proverbs 30:6)The message of the Bible which brings us the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most powerful, complete and enduring message ever told, ever preached and ever experienced in all of human history. Its power is unequaled by any philosophy, religion or religious enlightened leader or powerful king or ruler that has ever lived. It has the power to transform from the inside out and it gives us a whole new nature, where we no longer have to be controlled by sinfulness. It is the only knowledge that gives us true lasting purpose and meaning to life here on earth and in the hereafter. There is absolutely no doubt, the “good news” that Jesus Christ brought has tremendous effectiveness in the lives of its hearers – if they believe it.
If this is so, and this message has been with us for thousands of years, why are we not seeing more of its amazing impact in our lives, our culture and in the world especially since over 2 billion people in the world claim to be of the Christian faith? What has happened to the true Gospel? If we no longer see these awesome results in the lives of people, why not? We have never had so many Christian churches, radio, television and internet programming with the ability to communicate its message like we do now, so, why have we lost it from sight in its purity? Is what passes for the message of Christianity in our times not true? If not, what has the true gospel been traded for? Where did it go?
Why are so many people exiting the established churches and where are they going? We know that many of the people sitting in the pews, especially the younger generations, go so far as to stop believing in God while in the church. One of main reasons is because their questions and doubts are not being answered. So, is the Bible not good enough? Why do some church leaders fall? Was the biblical advice they were giving not real? Was their counsel not good enough to apply to their own lives or does it simply not work?
For the most part, modern day Christians treat church groups like a social club. To be accepted, you must dress right, talk right, look right, drive the right car, have the right education and be accomplished in something respectable.
When you visit various Christian churches, the sermons you hear, for the most part, make you wonder why in the world is this person getting paid for getting up there and sounding like he or she hasn’t spent significant time in prayer or studying God’s Word more than the time they have spent playing golf or shopping? The result is the circulation of many falsehoods, warm fuzzy messages, doctrines filled with contradictions and contamination of the purity of God’s Word and the result is the nullification of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The sermons are little crumbs of paraphrased Bible verses, they don’t resemble anything near what good, solid, spiritual food should be. Therefore, the power of the Gospel is absent from too many churches.
Then you have the other side of the pendulum where they only want to focus on the power gifts and not on the right living of seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness. This produces many off-balance Christians who only want to focus on sensationalizing the Gospel, but their lives leave much to be desired in righteous living.
All this produces shallow, ignorant Christians who seriously lack the true knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of the ways of God because God’s Word is not present and respected in good measure in their lives or in the church.
Don’t live dependent on getting God’s Word second hand from pastors or teachers. Read it and study it for yourself so you can compare and confirm what you are hearing at church whether it truly is the Word of God unadulterated. Only then will the power of the Gospel not be nullified in your life.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)
