Sunday, April 28, 2024

Skipped Verses

It is pretty sad when there is a verse that you would like to learn more about, but when you pick up your favourite "Study" Bible or your favourite commentary and look up that verse . . . there is nothing said about it.

Commentaries should address each and every verse while retaining the immediate context and comparing similar parallel passages found in other books. By doing so, you avoid making two related passages teach two different things. When verses are skipped, you can be sure they did so for one of at least two reasons: (1) the person is ignorant as to what that verse or passage teaches, and so rather than educate themselves about it by studying, they simply ignore it, or (2) the verse or passage contradicts what the person already believes by way of their particular flavour of theology, and so they ignore it so they do not have to admit they are wrong and conform themselves accordingly to God's Word.

Religious individuals adamantly adhere to how they were raised, what they were taught, or what they might currently believe, and refuse to admit they could be wrong, reforming and conforming themselves and their beliefs according to the Word of God rather than the traditions of men. Genuine followers of Jesus are willing to see where they have believed in error and then to correct those errors by conforming themselves and their beliefs according to God's Word. Read Revelation 2:12-17, where the congregation of Pergamum started believing the wrong things. Jesus encouraged them to repent and stick to the Word of God. Just because you attend some organized religious institution does not mean what they teach from the pulpit is biblically accurate or true. With 40,000+ different "Christian" denominations, groups, and sects, how could it be since they each teach something different?

This does not mean that full commentaries (that address each and every verse) are free from errors. But at least they address every verse in the passage. It is rather pointless to write a commentary that avoids addressing every verse, because when people are stumped by a particular verse and go to look it up in your commentary, they will just get more frustrated because they cannot find an answer to the verse they are looking at. Why is it so difficult for certain Christians, especially those in unbiblical leadership positions, to humble themselves and admit, "I don't know"?

Most "Study" Bibles and commentaries are nothing more than vanity, where the author is pursuing personal ambitions by pushing their hidden agendas. Whenever some celebrity preacher's name is attached to a so-called "Study" Bible and/or commentary, you should be extremely wary. Even more so when they skip verses. Among the many of these, the MacArthur "Study" Bible and commentary is guilty of all of this. It is personal vanity that skips verses, pursues personal ambitions, and pushes hidden agendas. It presents its teachings as "biblical" when many of them are anything but.

Beware of any preacher who behaves in such a manner as to imply or infer that teachers of the last 200 years are more intelligent and more spiritual than those of the first three centuries, and that we somehow have it all together (while claiming that the early Christians became corrupt within 50 years). They maintained the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the faith for 300 years. We currently have 40,000+ different denominations, groups, and sects, each of which believes what they teach to be entirely 100% the "Word of God." Anyone who thinks that modern generations are "smarter" than previous generations is ignorant of reality and conflates "technologically advanced" with being "more intelligent." If we are more intelligent, then why can we not accomplish the same things they accomplished without technology? If we know more about Scripture and their time period than they did (the hubris here is astonishing), then why do we have so many different denominations and why do we fight over our "doctrines"?

Unless God's children start pursuing Jesus of their own accord and conforming themselves to His teachings, instead of blindly following what some ignorant preacher in the pulpit has TOLD them to believe, I fear the words of Jesus will find fulfillment: "When the Son of man returns, will He find faith on the Earth?" Read the letters to the 7 congregations in Revelation and seek to fix those things Jesus highlights. These problems exist in the modern "churches" and individual believer's lives. Fix them in your own life, and then follow Jesus alone by being obedient to what He has commanded. You cannot ride the coattails of another, and if the person you are attempting to ride the coattails of is leading you astray from behind the pulpit, then you will be twice the child of Hell as he/she already is. YOU are responsible for your faith and how you conducted yourself in this world and what you believed. If you believe the LIES some preacher has spoon fed you, thinking "He ought to know what he's talking about," you will NOT be able to blame them when you stand before Jesus on Judgment day. Consider Adam and Eve and their excuses. Your false teacher might receive a greater judgment, but you will not get off without being judged yourself. You will be without excuse because Scripture repeatedly commands you to "search the Scriptures" and to "work out your own salvation" and to "study...rightly dividing the word of truth."

Choose this day whom you will serve . . . and then do so!