Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Qualifying God's Word

As I meditated on God's word today, a question came to my mind about why, in our church's we believe the Bible to be God's inerrant word, and yet we say that certain things have passed away, that God gave some things to the believers in the early church but then has taken or does not use those methods in the church today?

As I began to study this thought I was reminded of certain scriptures, that through the years have been said to only apply to the early Apostles/Disciples I could not find a statement Jesus made that qualified this belief.

Mark 11:23-24
23) For verily I say unto you.That whosoever (meaning any believer) shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt (have unbelief) in his heart, but shall believe ( trust, have faith) that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he sayeth.
24) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray (patition,ask), believe that you recieve, and ye shall have them.

The only qualification found here is in vs25,26 where Jesus said if you harbor a grudge or unforgiveness in your heart that must be taken care of first.

Mark 9:38-40
38) And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.
39) But Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak eveil of me.
40) For he that is not against us is on our part.

Again Jesus did not qualify his statement just to the disciples.

Joel 2:28 -29 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out (spill forth, gush out) my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.

God did not specify only certain individuals but all flesh. But some would say He was speaking to Israel which is true, but if you have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior then you have been ingrafted into the vine John 15 and are partakers or heirs of God joint heirs with Jesus Christ Romans 8:17.
For God is the same yesterday today and forevermore Hebrews 13:8.

In reality if we were to trully believe that parts of the New Testament were just for the early church then all we would need were the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

As for me and my house hold we will believe that Forgiveness, Healing, Deliverance and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit as evidenced in the book of Acts belongs to us, because we belong to God the Father by faith in His son Jesus Christ.

God is no respecter of persons Romans 2:11

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