Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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The One True Church
Chapter 11 – The Word of God or the Word of Men?
There are three major branches of institutional Christianity. Whether it’s the bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Church, or the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, or the pastor of the smallest nondenominational Protestant Church, all are institutions claiming authority over the word of God.
How is it that they are claiming authority over the word of God? By saying that Jesus did not come again as He said he would. (The Biblical Case of the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact.)
The institutional church has made the same mistake that the ancient nation of Israel made. That mistake was to assume that once God established an institution, He could never change it. Rabbinic Judaism exists because of those 1st-century Jews who rejected the Messiah’s coming. Similarly, institutional Christianity exists because of those 1st-century Christians who rejected the Messiah’s second coming.
Institutional Judaism is built on the premise that their Messiah didn’t come; similarly, institutional Christianity is built on the premise that He didn’t come again.
Just as rabbinic Judaism was foreshadowed by the Sadducees, so institutional Christianity was foreshadowed by the Pharisees. That is why these groups are prominent in the New Testament: to give us light to guide us in the kingdom age.
The church of the New Testament wasn’t an institution – it was a movement.
I will spend the rest of this book demonstrating from the Bible just how these things are so. But the decision you should make now is whether you will act on the truth once you learn it.
Either the word of God will prevail in your heart and mind, or the word of man will. Be like the Thessalonians.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
For the contrast is great between trusting men and trusting the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Jeremiah 17:6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD.
Jeremiah 17:8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.
I don’t want you to believe anything because I say it. I only want you to believe what you see in the Bible with your own eyes. That’s where God says it.
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