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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FERHOODLE (confuse or mix-up) (03/03/16)
One last glimpse of liquid gold sunshine disappearing behind the mountain peaks visible through my living room windows told me it was late afternoon. With a sigh, I rose from my comfortable spot on the couch to answer the phone. It was Dan, an old friend.

“I’m in town,” he explained. “Is it a convenient time for me to drop by?”

Within an hour, he was at the door, bursting to tell us his news. So, I let him in and then my husband Jeff, and I sat, waiting.

“We’re starting a church!” he exclaimed, his eyes lit up with excitement.

“Wonderful,” I answered, glad for him. “Who’s going to lead it?”

“We are,” Dan explained. “There are six of us, three couples.”

“Well, who are you accountable to?” I asked, aware of the pitfalls starting a new ministry can bring.

“Each other,” he answered.

I don’t recall what I asked next, but his answer flabbergasted me. Dan said, “Oh no, we don’t have to stick to the Bible anymore.”

“What?” I asked, stunned.

“We can write Scripture now,” he said, and from that point on I didn’t grasp a word. My mind was reeling after hearing Dan say, “The Bible is no longer our only authority.”

Since then, I’ve immersed myself in an intense period of study and reflection initiated in part by our friend’s admissions. What, I wondered, is happening that would convince a mature God-fearing Christian to chuck out the Bible in favor of supposed “further revelation?”

Emerging now from this period better informed, I realize that my friend Dan is not alone in wanting to “hear” from God, nor the first to be led away from the Bible’s sanctioned truths by this quest.

God wants us to interact with us, but we must do it His way. In response, that God will let us see Who He is obvious, beginning from Genesis straight through the Bible to Revelations. With “that quiet Voice” and in dreams, by both prophecy and visions, God reveals Himself.

For instance, He did so by dreams to Joseph (Genesis 37,41-42) and Job (Job 7:14). With Noah (Genesis 6:13), Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), Isaac (Genesis 26), Moses (Exodus 3:14), and David (1 Samuel 23:10,12), he spoke audibly. In the New Testament Book of Acts, God showed up in a myriad of ways.

However, a good thing can go awry. In the spiritual realm, Satan counterfeits what God does. A number of passages in the Bible warn of spirits that mislead God’s people.

In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, God gives strict instructions about how to both spot and deal with false prophets. In Jeremiah Chapters 23,27, and 29, we find similar warnings. An innocent search for God done outside His dictates can be disastrous.

God warns us in 1 John 4, “…to test the spirits to see if they are from God…” He reminds us to be alert…” that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes…”

He gifts us with the Bible. In Psalm 119:9,11 King David wrote, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your Word…” Finally, in 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul states, “All Scripture is inspired…” Scripture is our compass against which we measure truth, test the spirits, and defeat Satan.

Both Old Testament prophets and New Testament Apostles were given equal authority to write and enforce God’s Words. (2 Peter 3:2, Acts 5:2-4) Nowhere is that authority given to anyone else.

There is much more that could be written about movements in the Body of Christ embracing heresies challenging essential truths of the Bible. However, there is neither time nor space here to cover them all. They, like false prophets, will grow like tares with the wheat until Jesus comes again.

Did you know that according to a recent Barna Study of 2,000 Christians, only twenty percent of church-going Christians regularly read their Bibles? How can this be? Are we as Christians to so easily be duped by Satan and led astray by his so-obvious ploys?

Let's not be ferhoodled like poor Dan. We, as children of the living God need to be like the Berean Jews in Acts 17:11 who searched the Scriptures daily.

As Paul wrote to 2 Timothy 2:15, I encourage you, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth!”
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Pat Small
03/10/16
Interesting, and a lot of references to back up your view. Two paragraphs, beginning with emerging now and the following para. were awkward to the point of not being clear. Proofing would have also shown where you left out a word, and in another place added a word.
Bonnie Bowden 
03/11/16
I also stand firm that God is and should be the only authority of the Bible.
C D Swanson 
03/11/16
Great job!

God bless~