THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER
1 Peter 1:25 And this is the word that was preached to you.
Sakkie Parsons
Someone wrote to me:
“Thank you for sometimes giving us perspective on the errors and distortions that we occasionally hear from our pulpits.”
One of the saddest realities found in many denominations—and one of the reasons I am so thankful that I am not dependent on the approval or disapproval of any denomination—is the following.
I am sharing this with you because yesterday I once again heard something on the radio that deeply disturbed me.
I know there are also pastors who are so dependent on their congregations—because those congregations have been taught incorrectly—and who must also keep their denomination’s viewpoint in mind whenever they stand behind the pulpit, that they are unable to preach the Gospel the way they truly want to.
If they do, they will either lose many of the compulsory tithes from members of their congregation and feel the financial consequences themselves, or, in certain cases, if they preach what we proclaim—teachings that no one has yet been able to prove are unbiblical—they will incur the anger of the denomination’s leaders. And “leaders” is a very fitting description here.
We read:
2 Timothy 3:16–17 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
1 Peter 1:24–25 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. ”And this is the word that was preached to you.
Hebrews 13:8–9 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
2 Timothy 4:3–5 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.
They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.
2 Corinthians 11:13–15 These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.
But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
2 Peter 2:1–2 But there were also false prophets in Israel, (and our Lord made that people live in the wilderness for a long time, until all those who had clung to the falsehoods had died out) just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.
Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.
Last night I listened to a man who is regarded by many as a great theologian, explaining to us how we should read the Bible. But before I tell you what he said, let me first remind you how Jesus tells us to read it.
I prefer to speak of the Word because it is God’s Word to us. However, the man referred to it as the Bible, so for now I will do the same, because it is certainly not wrong to refer to God’s Word as the Bible.
Do you remember what Jesus said about how we should receive His Gospel?
Or, if you prefer, in what context we should read the Gospel?
You will soon understand why I emphasize the word context. But first, let us consider what Jesus Himself said about this. I will mention only two examples, although you know there are many more that could be used.
Matthew 11:25–27 At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!
“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Notice how Jesus confirms—or, if you prefer, underlines—the very truth He prayed about to His Father during His earthly ministry.
Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God (that is, His gospel as He ordained it to be proclaimed) like a child will never enter it.” (And when God says “never,” believe me, it means never—yet they will proclaim all manner of rubbish to make it acceptable to themselves and to those to whom they preach it.)
Mark 10:16 Then he took the children in his arms (just as He does with you and me—His children who proclaim His true gospel as found in His Word)and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them. (How wonderful that is.)
The man I listened to said that we must read the Bible in its proper context.
He said we must study the political situation of the time in which each book was written so that we can understand it in the correct context.
Is that how a child would read the Bible?
He said we must study the culture of the people of that time in order to read the Bible in the correct context.
Is that how a child would read the Bible?
He said we must study the living conditions of those people so that we can understand the Bible in its proper context.
Is that how a child would read the Bible?
He said we must read the Bible in such a way that we can adapt it to our present-day circumstances.
These are just a few examples of what he meant by reading the Bible “in context.”
Then I feel like crying out in disbelief, as anyone who consistently accepted such reasoning would have to do:
How unfair it would have been of God to expect this throughout history from billions upon billions of people, many of whom could not even read or write, if they first had to do all this research before they could understand His Gospel!
I proclaim—and I will always continue to proclaim—that when the fullness of time had come, the first evangelists preached the Word exactly as God intended.
Galatians 4:4–6 But when the right time came,(everything was perfectly in place so that the gospel of Jesus could be proclaimed in its fullness) God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.
God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
Yes, when the fullness of time had come, our loving Lord established His Gospel by making use of everything that was perfectly in place at exactly the right time. He arranged everything concerning His Gospel—for which He paid such an immeasurable price—in the proper context from the very beginning, so that even a little child, with the faith of a child, could read it throughout the centuries and make it his or her own.
I am not saying for one moment that you should not do what the man says. What I am saying is that it is a lie from hell if you claim that this is what you must do in order to live out the Gospel of Jesus correctly. The very things the man told us to do are often used as the reason why certain passages are removed from the Word or why we are told that we no longer need to pay attention to them.
In this regard, let me simply add the following:
Most of the teachings in the Gospel of Jesus that people fiercely oppose by claiming that we no longer have to obey them are those written by Paul. This is no coincidence, because Satan knows that our Lord trusted Paul so completely that He entrusted him with writing the greater part of the New Testament teaching and explaining how we are to understand and live out His Gospel.
Never before in the history of the Christian faith have there been so many distortions, omissions, and additions concerning the Word of God as there are in the days in which we live.
Jesus rightly spoke about these great theologians who make everything so complicated that they sometimes become lost in their own explanations.
Matthew 23:15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!
Fortunately, we as His children know—because that is who we are, His children—that when we read His Word, the Bible, like a child, we have this great and sure confidence in our hearts:
JOHN 1:16-17 From his abundance (when the fullness of time had come)we have all received one gracious blessing after another. (with His gospel that is so simple that a child, when we read it like a child, can understand it)
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
Of course, because we are human, there are sometimes things in the Word that we do not see or understand correctly—but then, I believe that no one who is a true follower of Jesus, who helps me understand the Word better, will say something that even sounds as if he or she wants to remove or change something from the Word simply because we now live in a different time.
As the Word was proclaimed to the early Christians and understood by them, so must I proclaim it today and understand it myself.
I share with you an example of one of the disturbing examples of “reading the Bible in context” as it is being taught—that we must read the Bible:
I once spoke to a man.
He also insisted that we must now read the Bible in the correct context of our modern life circumstances.
Now there was one particular point in the Bible that people who promote same-sex lifestyles could not easily get past, and that is where our Lord said:
GEN 1:27-28 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
His reasoning to get around this was as follows:
“We must read the Bible in context with our life circumstances today. Adam and Eve were the only people, and the earth still had to be filled, but we now live in a different time. The earth is now filled and overpopulated. Same-sex marriages therefore work very well. People can still love one another and find sexual fulfilment, and adopt neglected children and be good parents to them, and raise them into good citizens for society, and even help solve the world’s overpopulation problem. I do not think our Lord minds who marries whom, as long as there is faithful love toward your partner.”
So, what Paul wrote in this regard, among other things, is simply no longer applicable—we now live in a completely different time with different circumstances, and we must read the Bible in context with today’s situation. Along with this man, those who want to justify such views also use many other arguments, but the foundation on which they build is the same as with all other issues: “Times have changed; we now live in different times, and we must adapt the Bible and read it in the correct context.”
In this way, those who remove parts of Scripture simply to accommodate people in their church or denomination have no ground to stand on when others come with different interpretations or demands. Because many of these denominations are doing exactly the same thing, for exactly the same reasons—and who gives them the right to do so, but not others who, for example, want to allow same-sex marriage, the same freedom?
And so we weaken the church of Jesus and make the Bride of Christ powerless.
I cannot act shocked when someone wants to read the Bible “in context,” while I myself am doing exactly the same with something else in the Word that is just as important to me as his “same-sex marriage gospel” is to him.
For example: I cannot tell him, “You cannot read the Bible in that context to make same-sex marriage acceptable,” while I myself may be justifying infant baptism, which is not even mentioned in the Bible.
I am saying that our Lord has placed His precious Word in the correct context, in His omniscience, when the fullness of time had come—and the closer you live to that Word, the better you hear our Lord, and the closer you come to the reality that the Almighty God of heaven and earth truly becomes your Father, and you His child, and He also your Friend, and you His friend.
I must never become so presumptuous as to adjust God’s holy Word to suit myself.
I must study His Word and then adjust myself to His holy Word.
God’s Word is today still as new and fresh to us as it was to the first believers on the Day of Pentecost.
Or as one of my mentors once said to me: “God’s Word is old, but always new.”
For as you and I know for certain: Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and what the first Christians discovered when they arrived in heaven is exactly what I will find when I arrive there.
Exactly the same Lord, the same angels/heavenly beings, and the same heaven.
Greetings,
Sakkie