Acts 17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
It’s important to check the scriptures against the things you hear. Even if it is a friend or a pastor, it’s your responsibility to make sure that you’re not being misguided.
It’s not hard to mislead people who don’t check for themselves.
JWs took their own meaning from the original text and created The New World Translation: a skewed and extremely inaccurate version of the Bible.
Amazingly, even though false on many counts, over 5 million people are current believers in the Jehovah’s Witness Cult.
The religion has had many false prophets as well.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death." You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
All this came about from misinterpretation of the scriptures.
When you read the Bible and you think you know what it means, check other reliable translations, check other parts of the Bible (no contradictions), and ask those that have been consistently right and knowledgeable about the Bible. This could mean a pastor, a teacher, or a friend.
20 20 RULE
Always make sure that when you read a verse or verses that don’t seem to make sense, read twenty verses before and twenty verses after to try to gain understanding. If that doesn’t work, read more.
If you don’t gain the understanding you want, stay undecided until you read across something else in the Bible that sheds more light on the subject. Cross references appear in many good Bibles. Take advantage of it.
It’s important not to let your entire understanding be from other people. You need to read and learn it.
Colossians 1:25-27
I have become its servant(speaking of the church) by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness--the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God has made available to us the mysteries of Christ our savior, but to gain it we must search out the answers.
So, to answer the question, you may trust your pastor's teaching, but only after you know he's trustworthy. To know that, it takes your effort to research the things he talks about. The better you know the Bible, the easier it is to recognize truth from untruth.
1 comment:
Indeed. And how you mentioned the false prophets with the JWs...
When I was being trained in the prophetic (and as we review our training in preperation for Jesus Culture) I was taught that all true prophecy will conform to the scriptures. If a prophecy ever conflicts with the scriptures, then the prophecy is false (which isn't to say that our interpretation of scripture might be wrong).
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