There are (and have always been) people who, when they read something in the Bible that disagrees with their own ideas, simply change it. It's nothing new. Southern slaveholders and European colonialists had a theological jamboree, figuring out how to justify their actions from the pulpit. In the 4th century, Constantine put crosses on his army's shields and forced millions of people to become “Christians” — now there's a guy who appreciated irony. People were doing it in 60 A.D. — just read Galatians, or pretty much any of the church epistles.
They are missing out on something wonderful. It is true, that every person who reads the Bible is going to hear things they don't want to hear — or actually, things that they think they don't want to hear — and be asked to change both some of their opinions and some of their conduct. But a person has the faith to accept the Bible as God's Word, unchanging and immutable, receives a compass that will never point the wrong direction. Spiritually, intellectually, and morally, a Bible-based Christian is insulated from existential dilemma.
Thus, aside from the spiritual truth — we don't change God's Word because He is God and we are not — there is a practical reason for not messing with the Scripture. God is the only fixed point in the Universe, and the Bible is the only way to find Him. Changing it is like erasing lines on a road map and drawing in a shorter route. Once we know Him, we are like sailors in a terrible storm who have spotted the light from a lighthouse; they don't sit around debating where the lighthouse actually is. When Christ says I am the way, this is what He means.
And best of all, once we have faith in the immutability of Biblical truth, we realize: Christ promised us eternal life if we believe in Him, and He isn't going to change His mind. We are sealed in our salvation.
In Jesus,
Cap'n Kenny
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Devotion by Mason Barge, Editor, Daily Prayer.
There are (and have always been) people who, when they read something in the Bible that disagrees with their own ideas, simply change it.
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