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Authority Of Scripture
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prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and
the faith of Jesus?
When God sends warnings so important that they are symbolized
by holy angels flying through the heavens, He requires each of us to
pay attention. The awful judgments against the worship of the beast
and his image (
Revelation 14:9-11
), should lead all of us to a diligent
study of the prophecies to find out what the mark of the beast is and
how we can avoid receiving it. But the masses of the people turn
away from hearing the truth and turn toward fables and mysticism.
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The apostle Paul declared, looking down to the last days, “The time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.”
2 Timothy
4:3
, KJV. That time is here. Most people do not want Bible truth
because it interferes with the desires of their sinful, world-loving
hearts. Satan then supplies the deceptions that they love.
But God will have a group of people on the earth who main-
tain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard for all doctrines
and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of educated men and
women, the deductions of science, the many conflicting creeds or
decisions of religious organizations, the voice of the majority—none
of these things should be the basis for or against any point of reli-
gious faith. Instead, before accepting any teaching or doctrine, we
should demand a plain “This is what God says” in its support.
Satan is constantly trying to attract attention to humans in the
place of God. He leads people to look to bishops, to pastors, to
professors of theology, as their guides instead of searching the Scrip-
tures to find for themselves how to live and believe.
The influence of the leading religious leaders led the Jewish na-
tion to reject their Redeemer. The spirit that controlled those priests
and rulers is still shown by many who act as if they are extremely
religious. But they refuse to examine the Scriptures concerning the
special truths for this time of earth’s history. Instead, they point
out how many they are, how wealthy, how popular—and scoff at
those who maintain truth because they are few in number, poor, and
unpopular, having a faith that separates them from the world.
Even though the Bible is full of warnings against false teachers,
many people today depend on the clergy to define their spirituality.
Thousands of church members can give no other reason for their
beliefs than that is what they were taught by their religious leaders.