Nena Arias | August 6, 2018
As far back as I can remember (as a child) I have been exposed to the word of God, the Bible. At the time of this writing, I am 68 years old. At the tender age of 17, I made a firm commitment to make the Word of God my life manual and to follow it and make it the light that would show me God’s path as he has delineated it in that precious book. I did not embrace religion or the guidance of men; I made a firm decision that if God was real, and the same yesterday, today and forever, he would guide me just as he said he would and just as he led many in the Bible who had a personal and unshakeable relationship directly with him and their lives proved this to be so. That has been the case because he is faithful to what he has established in his Word.
When you become abundantly permeated with what the Word of God says, and you are constantly studying it to keep it fresh, renewing your mind to see all things from God’s perspective, as he has established them in writing; his precepts are unchangeable. When you know God’s Word, you know when you are hearing something if it is God-approved or not. It matters not who is saying it or what credentials they may have. No person’s word is above God’s Word, period!
When someone says, they have received a “new” revelation from God, watch out! All that God was ever going to reveal to humans is already written and established in his Word and it is unchangeable. I am very aware that well-intentioned people use that phrase whenever they have finally understood something from God’s Word, in that case it may be an illumination to the revelation that is already in God’s Word, but that is quite different from a brand-new revelation.
What is established, is established. God said in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Revelation 22:18-19 says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” The Scriptures are abundant in teaching us how we should handle God’s Word carefully and accurately.
As we can see, it is a dangerous thing for men to claim God has said something when in reality it is them speaking. This has happened many times throughout time. Depending on how popular people want to make the sayings of men, as opposed to what God says, that is how it will spread. Liars create the illusion of truth. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, this is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi, Joseph Goebbels.
When a person, who is a spiritual authority to some twists God’s words, this practice becomes even more dangerous. Taken out of context, the Bible can be made to say anything. Some who want to discredit the belief in God say the Bible says, “there is no God”. But they do not quote the entire verse that says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1. This is only one example of the many things people use to violate God and his Word.
Lately we have heard Christians, evangelical pastors, Bible teachers and even Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic church, say outlandish things like that God approves the homosexual lifestyle because that is how God made them. Leviticus 18:22 says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” Will you believe the Pope’s or anyone else’s words or God’s Word?
Also, Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is always “inadmissible”; but it was God who established the death penalty. Genesis 9:5-6 says, ‘And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: …. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
Does Pope Francis or any other leader now have more authority than God?
We are living in very dangerous times when spiritual leaders of all kinds interpret God’s Word to say outrageous things to justify their existence, it is up to God-fearing people to search the Holy Scriptures to find out for themselves what the Bible truly means. Ultimately, our spiritual well-being is up to us and our close walk with God.
Never be fooled by those who call themselves reverend, bishop, pastor, evangelists, rabbi or pope, yet distort God’s Word to advance an agenda that is different from God’s.
