When baseball was becoming America’s national pastime there were people who, having studied the rules of the game, knew the answer to any question concerning the sport. After hearing the answer to a question from such an authority, the response from the questioners was “Enough said.” Because the authority on the subject had spoken, there was no further need for discussion. This ideology still works in the secular world where some people are so well versed in the subject that their word is final.

However, in the spiritual world where the Holy Bible is the rule book, man’s definitive statement relative to a subject cannot be accepted as “Enough said.” Unless, that is, that man actually knows the Scriptures. Unfortunately, those who know God’s Spirit-breathed Word are few in number. Recall that Jesus sent only 12 men to preach His gospel throughout the entire world. His commission to them is found in Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in ALL THE WORLD as a witness to ALL NATIONS ….” Initially, the apostle-to-population ratio was millions to one. In truth, that ratio has changed very little. However, according to the Institutional Church, those who know and preach God’s Word number in the hundreds of thousands world-wide. Those who depend on their leaders to tell them God’s Truth number in the billions. The question is: DO THOSE WHO CLAIM TO KNOW GOD’S TRUTH ACTUALLY KNOW IT? And in that the church masses depend totally on their authorities to provide God’s Truth for them, do those masses know His Truth? Or are both groups being deceived by Satan? Let us answer these questions by going to the only Source of spiritual Truth available to mankind–God’s Holy Bible. And let us answer the questions by studying perhaps the most important subject to be found in His Word–the grace-Law situation.

With the subject in mind, I will use another sports analogy that addresses any Biblical subject. I will quote Bobby Knight, the famous basketball coach as he addressed the subject of practice. We have all heard the expression: “Practice makes perfect.” Not so, says Coach Knight. In reality ” … ONLY PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.” Applying those insightful words to the spiritual realm, we find that “practice” (studying God’s Word) produces “perfection” (obedience to God’s Word) ONLY if both the studying and the obedience are in accord with His actual Word–ALL OF IT. The Apostle Paul stated that he preached “THE WHOLE COUNSEL (WORD) OF GOD” (Acts 20:27). Paul left nothing out when discussing God’s Word because he knew that in order to truly know God’s will concerning an issue one must know ALL that He said about the subject. What “everyone knows” to be God’s Truth is usually not His Truth. When everyone is ignorant of the truth, all agreeing is simply the pooling of ignorance. Pooled ignorance does not make the error the Truth.  Reading the Introduction to this website will provide the reader with a short list of “Bible truths” that this website proves to be wrong–dead wrong–time and again.

The problem is that there are few ministers who follow in Paul’s ministerial footsteps. In 99% of the cases, those who “know” God’s Word quote one or two sources concerning a subject and declare “Enough said.” Their parishioners, upon hearing what they want to hear, declare: “Enough heard.” Such is the case involving the grace-Law situation. People have heard their leaders state emphatically what Paul wrote that we are being “saved by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:8) and that we are “not under the Law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Here he is making clear the Biblical fact that one cannot be saved by obeying the Law. I will use a personal experience to explain the grace-Law situation.

I once lived in south Texas and spent much time in Mexico. When I was in Mexico I diligently obeyed the laws that governed that country. However, this did not make me a citizen of Mexico. To become a citizen I would have had to go through a long, exacting process. AFTERWARD I WOULD BE REQUIRED TO OBEY THE SAME LAW I HAD OBEYED BEFORE BECOMING A CITIZEN. If I had petitioned for citizenship, the Mexican Government would have extended to me the grace to do so. However, once a citizen, I would not be exempt from obeying the law of the land. In other words, obeying the nation’s laws would not have made me a citizen of that nation. However, after becoming a citizen, I would have been required to obey the laws of Mexico. It would not have been a grace versus law situation, but rather a grace and law situation. The same holds true in the spiritual realm as this series will prove. L.J.