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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Let's
Rediscover The Bible I've
been a serious student of the Bible for more than five decades.
I admit that the more I learn the more questions I have and the
less dogmatic I am. That
being said, the more Biblical truth becomes the conviction whereby I
live, the more I believe that western-world Christianity is so far
removed from the Biblical norm that it fails to realize how far removed
it is. What we think is
Christian, then, is not necessarily Christian.
With this in mind, read 2 Kings 22:8. "The high priest
Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, 'I have found the book of the
law in the LORD's temple,' and he gave the
book to Shaphan, who read it." The
historical context of 2 Kings 22:8 is this.
Judah, the southern two tribes of Israel, was so far removed from the knowledge of
its God that it failed to
realize how far removed it actually was, and that due to its lack of
Biblical knowledge. Thinking
it was religiously correct, Judah
was actually religiously pagan. It
was not until 622 BC when the Book of the Law, Judah's Bible, was discovered in some dusty corner of the temple, as stated
in 2 Kings 22:8. In today's
world, that would be like the church believing it is Christian until it
discovers a long lost copy of the Bible in some damp corner of a church
building basement. Only then
would it begin to realize that it had lost touch with its Lord.
When
the Book of the Law was discovered in the temple, King Josiah attempted
to restore Judah
to its Biblical roots that could now be read in the newly-discovered
Book of the Law. Josiah's
attempt at restorative reform ended iwith his death in 609 BC, which
initiated divine judgment on Judah
that led to its collapse in 586 BC.
Like
Judah, and in general terms, I believe much of western-world
Christianity is so far removed from the Biblical norm that it fails to
realize how far removed it is. Much
of what the Christian world believes is Christian is not Christian.
How we perceive the Biblical concepts of faith and church are two
prime examples of our Biblical illiteracy.
If we get faith wrong as many do, we'll get salvation wrong, and
that has eternal implications. If
we get church wrong as much of church does, we'll fail to be the
covenanted community of Jesus' representatives we are to be, and that
also has eternal consequences. My
advice for what we commonly call Christian and church today is to
rediscover the Bible.
By so doing, we will rediscover the God we claim to serve.
The Biblical norm will become the conviction whereby we live each
day of our lives. We will
escape a similar collapse that
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