The Next Chapter - Taking God at His Word, Ch 5

God's Word is Final, Ch 5

DeYoung does a masterful job of contrasting the Thessalonians and the Bereans. The Thessalonians rejected Paul's message because of prejudice and jealousy. The Bereans embraced it because it aligned with the word of God. 

It is a shame that some folks reject the truth over trivial reasons, misconceptions or past hurts. Worse yet, there are those who reject the word because they're either not interested in conforming to it or have deeply ingrained and malformed ideas of what says. 

One of the stumbling blocks the Thessalonians tripped over was their own inconsistency. They complained about Paul causing turmoil, then caused turmoil to resist him, going so far as to walk for over two days to the next town (Berea) to make sure Paul didn't teach there. Many folks are similar, judging others from, a position of their own self-righteousness, being intolerant of people they condemn for being intolerant, getting angry at folks for not having enough compassion and criticizing people for their negativity. 

The Bereans, on the other hand, were diligent to study the Scriptures and eager to allow the Bible to govern their conduct and lifestyles. They kept their Bibles open and evaluated the teaching they heard in light of the Scriptures, not their own predilections. They submitted themselves to the text, not the text to themselves. 

What the Bereans had right was a high view of the Scriptures, ascribing to them the highest authority possible. They did not see human opinion, tradition, science or any other factor as having authority or influence over the Bible. This is a challenging concept for many folks. We all ascribe authority to something or someone, bending all other influences to conform to that authority. For many, that authority is themselves. For many others, it is the environment they live in, creation, the opinion of others, their situations. All things are from God and subject to His authority. This is a necessary adjustment in our perceptions that can take a lifetime to make. In the final analysis, since everything comes from God, everything will be found to be in harmony with Him and His word, even science. 

All efforts to contradict the Bible will ultimately prove futile. The Bible is God's truth. He is truth. His word is truth. That truth may not always line up with our perceptions of the world around us. When it doesn't, it is our perceptions that need to be adjusted, not the Scriptures. 

This is not to say that everything we read in the Bible is easy to understand. We should not shy away from those more difficult passages nor be unwilling to admit some of them do not seem to harmonize well with others. DeYoung quotes J.I. Packer as saying the Bible does not answer all of our questions but is trustworthy to give us all we need to know about life and faith. Some of the things that are unclear are allowed to be so, so as to bring us to a deeper and more humble trust in Him and His word. "It is not for us to stop believing because we lack understanding, but to believe in order that we may understand." says Packer.

DeYoung closes the chapter with this: "They (the Bereans) tested everything against the Scriptures because they dared not accept what Scripture denied or miss what Scripture affirmed."

A fascinating and thought provoking chapter. I've had to struggle, from time to time, with adjusting my personal, and sometimes core, beliefs to what the Scripture says. It's not an easy process. Have you had similar struggles?