“Look, boy, I created you, so shut your mouth or I will uncreate you. I made you the most magnificent angel in the heavens and gave you rulership over the earth. And you blew it. Without Me you would not exist, so shut up and listen.” That would have been my response to Satan’s taunt after a 40-day fast. I once fasted 34 days. I remember my mental condition following that ordeal. A measured, respectful response would have been the last thing coming from me at that time. BUT I WOULD HAVE BEEN WRONG. That would have been the old me, the old fleshly man. Instead of a blast of hard, cold reality, this is what Jesus said in response to the devil’s put-down followed by the temptation to take the easy way out. To each verbal slight the Son of God relied:

“IT IS WRITTEN,” followed by a quote from the pen of one of the “holy men of old” who spoke and wrote the verbal jewels found in the Law and the writings of the prophets (2 Pet. 1:21). These are the same writings Jesus would later declare that He had not come to earth to destroy, but rather to fulfill (live to the fullest–Matt. 5:17). “It is written” referred to the Words of the prophets and apostles which would form the foundation upon which Christ’s New Testament Church would be built (Eph. 2:20). “It is written” referred to the Words that God hid in a cave in Israel and preserved for thousands of years. These were the Words by which God seekers would find the way to the Kingdom of God where God and Christ would rule throughout eternity. “It is written” refers to those divinely-inspired Words that have been used to teach mankind since Creation Week and will continue to do so until the end of the age (2 Cor. 10:11).

Jesus Christ–the Son of God, the Creator of the universe to whom God had given “all power in heaven and earth” (Mat. 28:18)–could have put His enemy in his place with one statement, or even a thought. However, He refrained from doing either of those things. Instead He simply said: “IT IS WRITTEN,” then repeated what had been received from God and recorded by those “holy men of old” the Apostle Peter wrote about. The Word “written” relative to Biblical content is recorded approximately 280 times in the Holy Scriptures. If only mankind believed and obeyed that which was written under the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

However, such is not the case within professing Christendom. Readers will recall what I wrote a couple of days ago about a world-famous pastor of a huge church system who said for all the world to hear: “The way to get to heaven is to obey CHURCH DOCTRINE.” Notice that he did not uplift the WORD OF ALMIGHTY GOD as THE SOURCE OF GODLY TRUTH. Rather, he extolled man’s interpretation/ wishful thinking/ best guess ABOUT God’s Holy Word. SUCH MUSINGS ABOUT GOD’S WORD form what is known as CHURCH DOCTRINE. As the expression “church doctrine” proclaims, such are the various doctrines of the various churches. They are not God’s doctrines found only in the Holy Bible. God’s true church has ONE AND ONLY ONE doctrine. It is called The Holy Bible. Knowing that man would alter His Word to suit his personal desires, God inspired Peter to remind us that the Holy Scriptures are of “no private (personal or group) interpretation” (2 Pet. 1:20).

To exhibit the power of Satan over the doctrines of church people, only hours ago I was talking to a woman about the Book of Romans and how the church has totally missed what the Apostle Paul said to the Rome Church about God’s Law, specifically regarding the 7th Day Sabbath. I quoted a Scripture relative to the fourth commandment which commands that the Lord’s Sabbath be observed. I quoted First John 3:4 which states: “TO TRANSGRESS THE LAW IS SIN; FOR SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW.” To which the woman replied: “Well, that’s not how I read it.” She spoke the universal mantra of professing Christendom. Religious man sees what he wants to see in the Scriptures. He calls good evil and evil good. He has made himself the arbiter of church truth.

So what does man do after replacing God as the determiner of Truth as did Adam and Eve? He formulates his own interpretation of God’s perfect Word and gathers around himself a group of like-minded people. They then declare themselves a church and take upon themselves the task of spreading their brand of “truth” throughout the world. The religious world identifies its contending, contradicting, conflicting groups as “denominations” which God views as “abominations” because of their self-serving, Satan-inspired definitions of truth. Each denomination has its own set of “truths.”

Question: How many of man’s problems (wars, diseases, so-called “natural disasters” such as floods, droughts, fires, famines, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.) could have been avoided if man had simply learned what was written in God’s Holy Word, believed it and obeyed it? Answer: all of them. For proof carefully read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Note the difference between the first 13 and 14 verses of those respective chapters, then read the remainder of those chapters. Notice that the cause of God’s attitude and actions relative to the people is THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES. His blessings and cursings are totally dependent on the people’s reaction to His Law, Sabbaths, statutes, commandments, etc. The Lord could not have made the reasons for His actions toward mankind any more clear in those chapters as well as in numerous other passages in His Holy Scriptures. He simply says: “OBEY ME AND I WILL BLESS YOU; DISOBEY ME AND I WILL CURSE YOU.”

The Lord is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” He said: “I am the Lord, I do not change.” What He promised the Israelites of old He promises their spiritual descendants–His true church–today. His Word is His bond. May we all turn off the t.v., radio, computer, and hand-held reality box that people stare into for hours each day. May we retire to a quiet place with God’s Holy Word and search out its soul-saving message and let the world around us do what the world will do. Let us be peculiar–rejected by that world, including the worldly church. Let us walk God’s way to His soon-coming kingdom while the world around us rushes headlong toward hell. Let us walk the walk of Jesus Christ so as to sit with Him on His throne in the Kingdom of God one day. Let us prioritize our time and energy while focusing on those things that have eternal significance. We are here for only a short time. Let us sacrifice that time to the One Who will determine where we spend eternity. LET US SERVE GOD AND NOT SELF, NOT SATAN AND NOT SOCIETY. LET US BE DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERS. LET US DO WHAT GOD COMMANDS US TO DO IN SECOND CORINTHIANS 6:14-71. LET US BE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD.

MAY WE LIVE AS DID JESUS OF NAZARETH. MAY WE FACE EACH SITUATION AND CIRCUMSTANCE IN OUR DAILY LIVES BY DETERMINING WHAT IS WRITTEN IN THE HOLY BIBLE, THEN BELIEVE IT AND OBEY IT. L.J.