The title of this series reflects the most often asked question I hear.  Why, people want to know, are there so many confusing contradictions in the Book Jesus called God’s “Truth” (Jn. 17:17)?  How can Truth be contradictory?  Why is God’s Word so confusing?  A good explanation of why there is much confusion and seeming contradiction relative to the Bible is brought out in Proverbs 18:17: “The first to speak is believed to be right, until another states his case.”  This is especially poignant to me because I am the “another” who, when I state my (Biblical) case, always find myself contradicting what “We all know” to be  “Bible truth because that’s what we’ve always been taught.”  The confusion and contradiction arises when people hear coming from the pulpit that which is different from what God declares in His Holy Bible.  “Knowing” that what the preacher says is right, God’s Word must be wrong because it contradicts what people “know” to be the truth.  Invariably, pulpit pontifications overrule Biblical proclamations, which shows just how much power Satan has over the church.  He has convinced his parishioners that when the words of his ministers contradicts the Bible, God is at fault, that it is the Lord who creates the confusion.  Note the question in the title: “Why is the BIBLE so confusing?”  Consensus holds that it is God who is confused.  And what is more amazing is that they believe that this confused God has saved them.

Invariably, when I state my (Biblical) case I am met with what I call the “Stephen Syndrome.”  This refers to the response of Jewish religious leaders when Stephen reminded them of what God had written to, for and about them (Acts 7) in “the Law and the prophets” which the Apostle Paul stated was the foundation of his ministry (Acts 24:14).  Paul’s modern day descendants continue in that tradition.  The early apostles preached and taught out of the Old Testament.  The New Testament would not come into existence until after the apostles had passed from the scene.  John was left alive to compile the letters written by the apostles into one Book–the New Testament.  John codified the gospels and epistles into book form between 90 and 100 A.D.  As I have stated before, the two testaments should not be separated.  There should be only one Book and it should be called God’s Law and Testament.  Read 2 Peter 1:21 and Ephesians 2:20 for proof.  Note that the writings of the Old and New Testament authors are of equal importance relative to the New Testament Church.

The confusion and contradictions faced by church people who are forced to examine God’s Word is caused by the fact that most of the “truths” taught by the Catholic/Protestant religious system are not Bible Truths.  They are perversions of God’s gospel (Gal. 1:6-9).  Having once preached the wrong, and having learned the right, I understand their confusion.  Those who taught me taught me what they themselves had been taught.  Those who taught them taught them what they themselves had been taught.  The cycle has been repeated for centuries.  As a result, generations of false prophets have spread false teachings to billions of unsuspecting souls.  It all began with itching ears and the demand for self-serving “truths.”  We can trace this tendency back to the Garden of Eden where the Serpent (Satan) scratched Adam and Eve’s itching ears.  His scratch immediately became “truth” because it gave them the power to determine right and wrong.  Upon hearing Satan’s “truth,” embraced it, walked to the tree, partook of its fruit, and spiritually died.  Man has been hearing Satan’s “truth” ever since.  Adolf Hitler noted that if a lie is repeated often enough it becomes “truth.” This fact has produced such “truths” as those listed in the Introduction to this website.

Repetition creates truth.  What is repeated generation after generation is assumed to be “truth.”  After all, anything believed by so many for so long must be true.  We have been taught not to question our church leaders because they supposedly hear from God–to question them is to question God.  This in spite of the fact that God commands us to “test the spirits” of our spiritual leaders (1 Jn. 4:1), which man refuses to do.  This error, combined with man’s laziness relative to the Bible, creates a perfect recipe for deception by history’s most successful deceiver–Satan.  For this reason religious man has given him carte blanc power to create church “truth” which, like Adam and Eve, he embraces without question.  This creates confusion when someone examines God’s Word and realizes that something is amiss.  I believe the reason God allowed me to become so deeply involved in the darkness of church doctrine was so that I can better lead light seekers to His Word.  Having lived in darkness, I knew the way to God’s light.

In this first posting we will be studying the contradictions involved when the “truth” concerning man’s “sin nature” is confronted by God’s command for holiness.  The sin nature group  “know” that Adam miraculously injected his sin gene into the spiritual dna of every human being ever born, rendering the victim powerless to resist the devil’s call to sin.  The confusion comes when I show those in that group that God requires them to OVERCOME SATAN AS DID JESUS CHRIST in order to join Him in the hereafter (Rev. 3:21).  The problem is solved when we compare the two sources of truth.  We all must choose one or the other as our STANDARD OF TRUTH.  Because I have been teaching the Biblical standard on this website for several years, let us compare His standard to the standard used by the Institutional Church (church doctrine).  The question under consideration is: DOES MAN INHERIT SIN FROM ADAM?

During the latter part of the Roman Empire there lived a Catholic bishop in an area of Africa called Hippo.  During his tenure as bishop over that area, young children began dying at an alarming rate.  Church parents, wanting to insure that their babies made it to heaven, demanded that he baptize them.  In order to baptize them the bishop had to come up with a reason why a child, never having sinned, (broken God’s Law) needed to be cleansed of his/her sins.  To solve the problem Augustine concocted a theological doctrine which he called “original sin.”  Adam, he declared, had miraculously inserted his sin gene into the spiritual dna of his and Eve’s descendants.  This act made sinners of all children at the moment of their conception.  Sin, therefore, was not their fault–it was “natural.”  Augustine’s theological principle made no sense even on the carnal level.  But because it made sin permanent–“natural–for all people, and therefore not the fault of the sinner, his ruse quickly became “God’s truth” and was automatically applied to all human beings who had been and ever would be born.  Within a generation Satan’s lie became “God’s truth.”  Soon, only a hell-bound reprobate doubted the God-sent “truth” known as Original Sin.  With one false “Bible truth” Augustine of Hippo created billions of Sinners Saved By Grace.  L.J.