How Not to Misquote Scripture

I wrote earlier how naive I was as a new believer and how I craved mentoring. Doubtless pastors dream of having congregants like I was in their churches. In fact, I was so ignorant of the scriptures that I thought, "God helps those who help themselves," was in the Bible. It's actually a saying by Benjamin Franklin.

This is one of many reasons we must study, not just read, God's word.  As Moses said in Deuteronomy 32:2 (BBE), "My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden plants:" We know that his doctrine came from God, not his own mind.

But we also know that Satan is the master of scripture twisting. While trying to tempt Christ, he caught on to the fact that Jesus quoted verses for his answers. So Satan misappropriated Psalms 91:12 (BBE) which says,"In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone."

But Christ was wise enough to come back with a correctly-applied verse. Instead of taking the Devil's dare to throw himself off the temple, he answered in Matthew 4:7 (BBE), "Jesus said to him, Again 'it is in the Writings, You may not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

And as I've pointed out before, knowing the scriptures helps us answer any accusation or question non Christians have. Knowing our Bibles also prevents us from falling for Satan's scripture twisters. As 2 Peter 3:16 (BBE) says of the Apostle Paul's  admonitions,  "And as he said in all his letters, which had to do with these things; in which are some hard sayings, so that, like the rest of the holy Writings, they are twisted by those who are uncertain and without knowledge, to the destruction of their souls."

Satan is always perverting God's sayings. The Pharisees received Christ's harshest condemnation for their lies and hypocrisy, as we see in John 8:44 (BBE). "You are the children of your father the Evil One and it is your pleasure to do his desires. From the first he was a taker of life; and he did not go in the true way because there is no true thing in him. When he says what is false, it is natural to him, for he is false and the father of what is false."

Properly quoting and understanding God's Word is my motivation for writing my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? Unless we use precision to discern and apply the truth, we'll be as misled as the Pharisees and those trapped in Christian cults.

On Saturday, I'll post about the Resurrection. This is no mere fable but the very core of our hope. This too is what Satan attacks and minimizes.

Why We Need a Second Reformation

Five-hundred years ago today, a German monk named Martin Luther inadvertently started a revolution. His 95 thesis statements nailed to a church door began the reformation of Christianity.

For a thousand years, the Word of God was taken out of the hands of ordinary Christians. The church at Rome took over the management of the scriptures, confining it to priests and other professional ministers.

I believe it's time for a second reformation. Because many people don't know how to read the Bible for all it has to offer, they fall into error. Cults twist the scriptures and so do certain sects. As Psalms 56:5 (KJV) laments, "Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil."

And as we read about the Apostle Paul in 2 Peter 3:16 (KJV), "As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."

Also, as we're admonished in 2 Peter 2:1 (KJV), "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."

Heed also the warning in 1 John 4:1 (KJV) which reads, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." This doesn't mean that we should listen to ghosts but that we must discern truth from lies.

Let's not be like the people who Paul wrote to in Galatians 1:6 (KJV).  "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:"

There is no other gospel but the one proclaimed by Jesus and his apostles. Therefore, I'm working on a book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? From the so-called prosperity gospel to seeker-friendly outreaches, many believers are missing the truth of the real gospel and buying into lies. May this second reformation come soon since so many false teachers are impoverishing believers, both monetarily and spiritually.

Was Joseph Smith's Inspired Bible Inspired?

Having shown how bogus the Book of Mormon is, along with other writings by Joseph Smith, some folks might be surprised that this faker also wrote his commentaries in the Bible. He took the King James version and inserted references to his own scriptures as if they too were divine.

Consequently, we can easily understand that this version of the Bible wasn't inspired in the way Joseph Smith meant the term to mean.

God opposes any additions or subtractions to his sacred word. As John wrote in Revelation 22:18 -19 (KJV), "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

Even from the beginning, the single command of God was questioned by people. Genesis 3:1 (KJV) shows how Satan planted doubt in Eve's mind. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"

Furthermore, here's proof that the New Testament writings were true scripture and not mere opinion. Regarding Paul's writings, 2 Peter 3:16 (KJV) explains, "As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."

"Wrest" means twist and that's what Joseph Smith and other false prophets did to God-breathed Bible books. This is why we must study and hold fast to what the Lord has revealed. False prophets and teachers continually rise and draw away followers, teaching them Satan-inspired lies.

I'll deal with this subject in greater detail in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? Because many Christians don't know their Bibles, lying teachers are able to shunt them off the path of righteousness and into the cul-de-sac of error.