Blog #1 Troubling Conflict Within the Church

Hi dear readers,

I have sensed God prompting me to start writing a biblically based blog.  I hope to not only grow more in my own knowledge of God's Word and what it means to me but hopefully will help you, my readers, as well.

Something that is propelling this article is the troubling conflict within the church regarding what is inspired by God and what is not.  On one hand, we have those who want to replace the Bible with what they deem is God's new interpretation.  And some even have written books as though Jesus himself is talking to the reader.  Yet others have written fictional stories that demonstrate God's character within the storyline, and yet there are some who believe there is no room for inspired writings; that God has only spoken through the canonized Bible and anything else is trash and/or false teaching. I really appreciate those who engage in apologetics and want to explore how we can decide what is false and what is a true word from God.  I hope we can come to some conclusion as we explore this. So, the two questions for this article are;

1. Can or does God speak outside of the Holy Bible?
2. Is the Bible the "last word".

I'd like to start with this verse from the Bible:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  By this, you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.  And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.  And this is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. ~I John 4:1-6 

I am firmly convinced that there is a standard by which we can measure and in order to test something, there must be a means of comparison.  There needs to be a genuine to see if something is not. 

Here, the writer of I John in the above text is warning believers not to put naive credence to ANY communication through someone, but to TEST it.  Also, the mention of false prophets is brought up to alert the body of Christ that there ARE some who speak in error and have the spirit of Antichrist!  So it is possible that when some talk claiming to speak for God, it is really from the devil himself. How do we know if someone is speaking from the Spirit of God or the spirit of the devil or demon?

As we read further, the writer says one BIG clue is if the speaker claims that Jesus did, in fact, come in the flesh as a man, by this you know the Spirit of God, and the one who denies that Christ came as a man is a false prophet. But is there any other clue?  

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;~II Timothy 3:16

Ahhhhh...I'm seeing something here!  It appears that ALL scripture is the guiding light!  The Word of God is the ruler, the measure by which we compare any other communication!  Keywords for that are reproof and correction; therefore, we can use God's Word the Bible as the final authority! Amen and amen!  But, can people speak for God and not use a word for word quote from the Bible?

In 1st Corinthians 12, Paul the Apostle is teaching the church in Corinth that God has given various gifts to the church.  There is a list, but for the sake of this article, I will mention the communication gift:  verse three says,

 "...I want you to know that no one speaking by the [power and influence of the] Holy Spirit of God can say, 'Jesus be cursed,' and no one can say, 'Jesus is [my] Lord,' except by [the power and influence of] the Holy Spirit...  But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit [the spiritual illumination and the enabling of the Holy Spirit] for the common good. To one is given through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] the message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] the word of knowledge and understanding according to the same spirit; to another...Also, "to another n prophecy,..." Amplified Bible I Cor. 12:3,7,8,10b 

These are called communication gifts because they involve speaking.  A word of wisdom is when someone is being given an awareness of a wise thing to do, to speak that to someone, or a need for spoken discretion.  A word of knowledge is a divinely dropped piece of information not known naturally to help bring understanding or guidance to another.  Sometimes a word of Wisdom and Knowledge can come together. Then there is "prophecy which in the Greek is properly, what is clarified beforehand; prophecy, which involves divinely-empowered forthtelling (asserting the mind of God) or foretelling (prediction)." Biblehub.com 

"All these things [the gifts, the achievements, the abilities, the empowering] are brought about by one and the same [Holy]Spirit, distributing to each one individually just as He chooses." I Cor. 12:11 

So to answer number 1: We see in scripture there are believers who will be given words to speak to someone for the purpose of promoting their spiritual growth, encouragement, and comfort. I Cor. 14:3 See Amplified Version.  

But what is our measuring rod?  When we hear someone speak for God, (which according to the verses in Corinthian 12 can be done by the Holy Spirit's prompting) to what do we compare to test its authenticity? 

So the answer to question number 2: We've just seen it is the Bible, God's written word, the scriptures that is God's final authority by which we can compare and contrast to see of what is spoken or written by others outside the Bible, is good and right, or false.  

Thank God He has given us His Holy Word as the final authority, the last word.  The fact that a word needs to resonate within the person; is that important?  What about articles and books written that have a spiritual flavor but aren't outright from the Biblical Text?  These are some things to address in other blogs to come.

I hope this helps you, dear reader.