Historical Heresies Alive And Well In The Church Today - A Multi-Part Message

"... are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3 ESV).

". . . Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" during His earthly ministry (Colossians 2:8-9 ESV).

"…It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself...through the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:19-20 ESV).

CONCLUSION - The Authority of the Bible

The Gospel message found in the Bible defines that a true Disciple of Jesus has accepted what it says about who Jesus is; that they are a sinner in need of forgiveness, and that Jesus died for their sins and rose from the dead, justifying them at the moment of their salvation that is by grace and not by works. There is no way to know who Jesus is, what He believed and taught if there was no Bible. A person comes to an understanding of the Gospel message through revelation given by the Holy Spirit, but there would be no way to verify that revelation if the Bible could not be taken literally at face value (John 14:6).

If there wasn't a definite way to interpret Scripture, then a Disciple of Jesus is without hope regarding biblical understanding, and the fundamentals of the faith could not be truly known as they would become open for anyone's interpretation.

God made certain that the words produced by the human writers He inspired were free from the errors and mistakes characteristic of uninspired writers. The Bible encourages God's people hundreds of times to trust the Scriptures thoroughly, but no text encourages any doubt of, or even slight mistrust in, Scripture. To rely on the inerrancy of every historical detail affirmed in Scripture is to follow the teaching and practice of the biblical authors themselves.

If a Born-Again Christian abandons the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, then it would be impossible to have a standard of truth by which all humans are to live their lives. Scripture cannot be demonstrated to be divinely authoritative if the Bible contained factual errors.

If a person believes the Bible is fallible, then they are forced to accept the inevitable conclusion that, on some occasions, God "breathed" truth, while on others, He "breathed" error (2 Timothy 3:16).

God can inspire a human being to write theological and doctrinal truths, so it is logical also to say that He can simultaneously inspire the same person to write with historical and scientific precision. Any attack upon the trustworthiness of any passage in the Bible is an attack upon Almighty God.

If ALL Scripture is not God-breathed, then it is not "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," and the Born-Again Christian will never be "complete, and equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 2:16-17).