Who is to Blame?

Much is being made lately about the reality that “good” men study the same information, given by God, and have exactly opposite conclusions. I have some concern about arbitrarily referring to us as “good” in ANY case, because only God is “good” (Matt 19) – and specifically with regard to reacting to information. Usually the scenario offered is extensive: honest, humble, obedient, intelligent, unprejudiced (?), only desiring to please God, etc. With a certainty that only God truly has, some are willing to grant that standing to MOST who engage in such study, and then on that basis look for flaws either in the information being given, our approach to understanding it, or the level of importance we must attach to the conclusions we draw.

To start with (and I hope this is true of ALL of us), let us take the first option off the table. As David said in the 19th Psalm, “the law of the Lord is PERFECT….the testimony of the Lord is SURE….the statutes of the Lord are RIGHT….the commandments of the Lord are PURE….the judgments of the Lord are TRUE and RIGHTEOUS ALTOGETHER…”

There are TWO things we must not forget:

1. We are talking about the “word of GOD”! It is to be treated with special care – 1 Th 2:13; the words are the very ones chosen by God Himself – 2 Sam 23:2; 1 Cor 2:13; we are to live by “every word” – Mt 4:4
2. God’s WORD is a SUFFICIENT word – as it is, it is “complete” to furnish to “every good work” –2 Tim 3:16, 17 --- We are RESTRICTED to IT for ALL our information about God’s mind -- cannot go to the “right or the left” –Deut 5:31-32; “go beyond” it--1 Cor 4:6, nor “add to it or take from it” – Rev 22:18

The word of God is UNTOUCHABLE! It is “holy”. Rom 1:2 Its quality is a reflection of the quality of its Giver! Mishandling even a “jot or a tittle” is something that Jesus Himself would not do! Matt 5:17,18 Our every thought, and every action, must pass its test to gain approval from the Author….

God said EXACTLY what He wanted to say, in words of His own choosing…WHATEVER consequences obtain from human reaction to it are already factored into it and occur by divine design. As He says, “it will accomplish the purpose whereunto I have sent it” – Isa 55:11. (which does NOT mean that everyone who hears it will always be changed for the better.) If some fail to accept it, or reframe it to satisfy their own agenda, God has even promised to help them depart – 2 Th 2:10-12

Greater care should be taken by some in the language they use to define our problems – NONE of those problems come from God, and whatever misunderstandings we humans have do not come from an INADEQUATE or NON – UNDERSTANDABLE message. That is one thing I am going to “assume” that all will agree to – if there are those who do not, there is a need for a more fundamental study about the basic matter of evidences, which is not the purpose of these posts. We can even say that the WORD itself functions as a part of the “sifting” process. Often, with God, the direction toward which the word is designed to take us requires a high degree of humility, selflessness and sincerity to be carried out, and we reveal much about ourselves by the way we respond – Gen 22:12; 1 Cor 11:19

Is our sincerity REAL? Are we totally SUBMISSIVE to the divine Will? These are things our response will, over time, demonstrate – and that is what God intends! -Aubrey C. Belue, Jr., Facebook, 2013

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