I Only
Read The Bible
By Dr. Ken
Matto
And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore
err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? (Mark
12:24)
Have you ever
run into a Christian who held a wrong interpretation of Scripture and when you
try to explain to them where they need to be corrected, they simply hit you with
another trite Christian saying that “I only read the Bible?”
I was having a discussion on Facebook with someone and the subject was
salvation. I had pointed the person
to one of my studies on the subject of salvation and suggested that he read it.
It makes no sense to retype everything when there is a study which covers
the subject completely and my only purpose was for him to read and see where he
was in error. He was cherry picking
his verses and completely rejected any context.
It is important to know that “isolation of verses will make your case but
will never lead you into truth.” He
refused to look at the study but kept posting isolated verses as if he was
imparting some biblical truth to everyone.
Which things also
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1
Corinthians 2:13) 1
Corinthians 2:13 gives us the formula by which we are to arrive at a true
biblical conclusion. There are some
verses that stand alone and can deliver major truth but even those verses are in
harmony with other verses in the Bible.
As one who has been teaching the Bible for about 35 years, I take very
seriously what I study and post because I have no idea who is reading these
studies and therefore I do not post a study on any subject unless I can back it
up according to the Scriptures. All
one has to do is look at any study I post on my site and you will always see the
Bible as the source. I am not
looking for followers because if I was, I would not teach a gospel so laden with
the Scriptures. Instead, I would
tell people what they want to hear like the media ministries and most churches.
When I say Bible, I am speaking about the King James Bible not one of the
modern counterfeits. I wanted to
post the conversation to show you what normally is found on social media.
Me - Did you read the article?
Him
- No. I'm asking a simple question.
It's a Y or N question. I'm assuming from your responses you folks are NOT
believers in repentance. Am I right?
Him -
As for your material Ken I don't need to
read it. I have a bible. That's senior in authority to your book. I
don't discount your intelligence at all. No doubt you're much smarter than me. I
barely passed 8th grade! LOL. But the bible is our final authority-I'll appeal
to it. Nothing against your works...I simply prefer the KJV.
The man is a hyper-free willer and believes a person
must repent before they can become saved.
In other words, he is preaching the Billy Graham gospel which is a works
gospel. No person can repent of
their sins before salvation for the simple fact is that they have no power to
achieve full repentance. One must
be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and then they will have the power to live a
repentant life. When these free
willers go to the streets and start telling people to repent of their sins, my
question is this, how does a person repent of a lifetime of sinning in 1 minute?
Repentance comes after salvation!
Repentance is a change of mind and how can a person in an unsaved state
change their mind when their mind is still dark with sin.
Repentance is linked with progressive sanctification.
There has to be another power to help them resist sin and that power is
the Holy Spirit who empowers us in our fight against sin.
But ye shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth. (Acts 1:8)
The argument
that many Christians use to fight against the fact that they are wrong in their
understandings and have no desire to correct themselves is their stubbornness in
reading the materials of others.
Now it must be clearly understood that anything which is written about the Bible
is inferior to the Bible itself. No
writing of man can ever be on the same level or authority of the Scriptures.
To show you how ridiculous the statement is “I only Read the Bible” here
are some scenarios which refute that defense mechanism.
Doctor: Take
this medication but read the directions clearly!
Me: Sorry but I
only read the Bible!
Lawyer: Did you
read the contract over?
Me: Sorry but I only read the Bible!
Investment Counselor: Read the prospectus before you
invest!
Me: Sorry but I only read the Bible!
Policeman: Sir didn’t you see that stop sign?
Me: Sorry but I only read the Bible!
Banker: Here is the agreement and the loan terms, read
it carefully before signing!
Me: Sorry but I only read the Bible!
Wife: Did you read our daughter’s essay she wrote for
school?
Me: Sorry but I only read the Bible!
As you can see applying that trite defense mechanism “I
only read the Bible” to all phases of life makes no sense so then why do
Christians outright refuse to read anything spiritual which may help them.
Many forget one major thing and that is that God has placed in the body
of believers teachers, not to lord it over people but to help and guide them
into believing what is true. There
are many false gospels out there and the only way you will know what teacher or
preacher is false is by reading their material and on the other hand the only
way you will know if a teacher or preacher is true, is by reading their
material. One of the major problems
in Christianity is that the majority of Christians are theological slaves to
some type of belief system whether it be free will, pre-trib rapture or whatever
and they totally refuse to think beyond the walls of those systems.
Thinking is missing totally in Christianity today!
Teachers are not only in the body of believers in the New Testament, they
were used also in the Old Testament.
7 Also Jeshua, and Bani, and
Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah,
Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the
law: and the people stood in their place. 8 So they
read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused
them to understand the reading. (Nehemiah
8:7-8)
During the time of Nehemiah when he and the people
finished the wall, they set up a high pulpit for Ezra.
And Ezra the scribe stood upon a
pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood
Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his
right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and
Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and
Meshullam. (Nehemiah 8:4)
Then the people gathered around and heard Ezra reading the law of God to
them. Then we read that there were
thirteen teachers plus the Levites and what were they doing?
They were explaining to the people the law and causing them to understand
it. Coming out of Babylon
after seventy years, there were many who were born there and did not know the
Hebrew language and the priests were there to help the people understand
especially those who were not schooled in Hebrew.
This is a very important verse because it is neglected in modern
Christianity. They read the law and
gave the words distinctly or specifically, then explained the words, and then
commented on it according to the way it was written in Scripture.
In Christianity today, you have churches which use counterfeit Bibles
such as the NIV or ESV which change the words and use Roman Catholic manuscripts
as their source. The words are
changed, the meanings change, and if you give people explanations of wrong words
and meanings, then you have a congregation building their lives on false
teachings. This is why the church
is in such confusion today because they all use modern versions which differ
from each other. So we see that God
utilized teachers who were schooled in the law to help the people understand the
law so they would be obedient to it.
This is also the responsibility of the teacher in the
New Testament, to help others understand the Bible so they grow up in the truth
and not a false teaching whether it be taught by their church or favorite media
minister. The teacher must be a
corrector and that makes it sound like they are arrogant but a true teacher is
not arrogant and just wants the people he comes in contact with to walk in the
truth.
I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy
children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. (2
John 4) John was joyful that
his children were walking in truth because they learned correctly.
And God hath set
some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers,
after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of
tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:28)
God is the one who sets up the teachers in the church and they do not
call themselves. In the days we
live in, it is imperative to know that the Bible teachers you are listening to
is true or false. If they are
false, then run for your spiritual life and if they are true then learn from
them. When I was a young Christian,
I learned from many good teachers and because I heard from good teachers, I was
able to know who the false teachers were.
When one is studying to be an FBI agent, they teach them all about money
and they learn all about the government issued money and by knowing the true
bills, they can then spot a counterfeit.
What I am saying in this study is don’t shut anyone off immediately without giving them a fair hearing. We have all kinds of trite sayings in Christianity which are used as defense mechanisms and all they do is continue to keep us prisoner to our theological system of choice. It has been my experience that those who claim to read the Bible only prove that is not true because what they come up with could never be if they were Bible only. So never hide behind some trite saying believing that you are protecting yourself because you are not. What you are doing is possibly stifling your own Christian growth and perpetuating a theological belief that has held you in captivity for many years.