By Whose Standard?

My grandfather was a Colonel in the Air Force during World War II. When he was a young man, married, with four children, Major Lee Shanks shared the Gospel with him. When asked if he believed the Bible, my grandfather replied that he believed most of it. "Okay," returned the Major, "let's go through the Bible and tear out the parts that you don't believe."

Although the Major never did actually tear out any pages, and my grandfather never pointed out any parts that he didn't believe, let's look at the concept. Tear pages out of the Bible? Most Christians recoil at the very thought. However, many Christians today claim to believe the Bible, but yet they essentially "throw out" many of its parts. The Bible must be accepted as a whole if it is to be accepted at all. If we exclude parts of it, how do we determine which parts to leave out? We are then relying on our own judgement and reason. Since the fall, man has possessed a sin nature which has seriously affected our reasoning and judgement. We are all sinful, flawed human beings. Why would we trust our own judgement over that of the Creator?

My brother and I were once discussing "ultimate authority" with a student at a liberal, public college. His standard for right and wrong was societal norms and majority rule. However, these are ever-changing and often very indefinite. We must have a standard which is unchanging, and from a Source which is irreproachable. The God and Creator of the universe gave us the Bible to be our absolute standard. God is our ultimate authority. "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning ALL things to be right; and I hate every false way." (Psalm 119:128)

Not only must we accept the Bible in its entirety, but we must also accept it exclusively. We must evaluate everything according to what the Scripture says. Nothing falls outside the domain of the Bible. Compromising it with the conflicting views of men results in a diluted Scripture. Of course, many men, through the power of God, have written wonderful, truthful, helpful things. The way that we know that these things are wonderful, truthful, and helpful, is by comparing them with Scripture. But so often we accept men's views and conform to what is culturally acceptable without considering what God has to say about it. God demands that our allegiance be to Him and Him alone. There is no middle ground; man's ways are opposed to God's ways. Isaiah 55:9 - "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." We cannot expect man's ways to correspond with God's. If we are trying to please both God and men, we cannot expect to please either. We will essentially destroy ourselves, our testimony, and damage our relationship with God. "... Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand" (Matthew 12:25). God must be Lord of our entire being; our allegiance must be to Him alone.

We must be willing to take the Bible exclusively and entirely and apply it to every aspect of our life. Only if we are living according to God's holy Word will we experience the "fulness of joy" spoken of in Psalm 16:11.

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."