Rob Bells Theorem:"The Church is Superior to the Scripture" - PART-2Why this is Absolutely 100% Incorrect!Under Construction, Please come again soonBackground: Briefest review of Scriptures in PART-1Scripture is Superior to the Church by Origin, Duration, Equation, and Divinity;Refuting Rob Bell's Theorem that Church is superior to Scripture**NOTE of extreme importance: You must understand, we believe the Church with all of our heart, willing to live and die for it as the Body of Jesus Christ; that the Church is of such extreme importance in the world today as to have insufficient words to properly expound it's greatness. However, the Church is not superior to the Word of God, and functions in submission to the Word of God. We are in no way downplaying the significance of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, not even by the tiniest conceivable amount. We are MAGNIFYING God's Word, all that is humanly possible!]
FACT-1: The "Living Church" - the "Church of the Living God" - filled by the Holy Spirit, and led by the Holy Spirit, is God's means of bringing Eternal Salvation to the world! However, this Glorious Church still consists of human beings, finite and fallible: thus there are errors in understanding; The result? We have over 10,000 denominations globally: disputing, debating, dividing and diminishing: (over 40,000 counting smaller ones!) > Each claiming "Absolute Truth"; > Each claiming to "filled and led by the God's Holy Spirit!" > Each claiming their "Bible - or version" is the correct one, > Each claiming their version of the "end-times" is the "correct one" - (pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, no-trib, pre-mill, post-mill, a-mill, secret rapture, no rapture, imminent return of Christ (Jesus-can-come-any-second), and Jesus-can't-come-until-His-Church-obeys-His-last-Commission to "teach all nations all things" - even if it takes another millions years . . . and on and on it goes; [The examples of 'human error' in the Church could fill many volumes!] Jesus Christ recognized this human situation of His Kingdom while on Earth (His parable of the Kingdom of Heaven) - that of tares sowed among the wheat - and He commanded that both grow up together until harvest, that He would "separate truth from error!" INVERSE-FACT-1: Though the "Church of the Living God", filled by the Holy Spirit and led by the Holy Spirit, allows for Human error - thus Paul - Apostle to the Gentiles, rebukes Peter, Apostle top the Circumcision; However, the "Word of the Living God" which Word Jesus said is "spirit and life", and is Truth, has no error, never needs corrected, and is eternal: "FOREVER O LORD, THY WORD is SETTLED IN HEAVEN, and faithful unto all generations!" (Psalm 119.89-90).
[A] The Word of God is that perfect authority to correct and define the Church; [B] The Church is NOT that perfect authority to correct and define the Word of God;
INVERSE-FACT-2: The Church was not in the beginning with God. The Church is not mentioned until Matthew 16 - though Acts 7 makes a reference to "the Church in the wilderness" in the days of Moses - but even this is over 3,000 years after Adam and Eve.
INVERSE-FACT-3: The Church did not come for millions of billions of trillions of infinite eons, of infinite ages, after the Word was established in the beginning by God. In fact, the duration of the Church compared to the duration of the Word of God is not even so much as the tiniest speck of sand, compared to all the sand, on all the sea-shores and deserts of all the Earth - and all of the planets in the thousands of trillions of Solar Systems, of the 400 billion Galaxies, each with approximately 200-400 billion Suns (Stars).
This inherently claims the Word still "IS" God, since God cannot change, and God is the 'Eternal "I-AM" - the Eternal Ever-Present One. Thus if God ever was His Word, He is still His Word, and will always be His Word. Since God - being perfect - cannot change, 'IF' God neither "is" His Word, nor "will always be" His Word Eternally, THEN He never was His Word. However, since He Himself by inspiration and inerrancy, explicitly declares "the Word WAS God from the Beginning, so He 'IS' His Word and so His Word shall FOREVER be. INVERSE-FACT-4: The Church is never "equated with God to be God." Jesus started the Church, Jesus loves the Church, Jesus died for the Church, and Jesus claims the Church is his body, but not that the Church is not God;
INVERSE-FACT-5: The Church is not Divine. The Church is not the "True Divinity of Jesus" any more than your body, arms and limbs are you. EXAMPLE: If you lose all four limbs; and your sight, hearing, and speech, and even your consciousness and must be fed through a tube in the stomach, hooked up to kidney machine and an iron lung on IV's, you are still you - the God-created soul is still there - humanly indefinable. You are MORE than your body! Thus it is with Christ: The Church is His Body, but He is the Head - the brain, the thinking, the knowledge, the understanding, the wisdom, and the "Sum-Total of Truth!" None of these traits of the mind of Christ in totality rest in the believer or the Church; Though we are are being transformed by the renewing of our Minds (Romans 12:1-3), and growing in wisdom, understanding and knowledge and may have some of these as Gifts of the Spirit (I Cor 12): Yet in this life we "See through a glass darkly, and only then, face to face." (I Cor 13). Trinity Teaching: Are We Careless?We talk about the three-in-one, and We understand the important of this equality. A couple of considerations: Consideration-A; Perhaps we would be wiser NOT to "explain" God in such a manner as almost no two people or groups agree, and the often confusing-contradicting definitions cause those in the intellectual category of society to resist a confusing-contradicting definition of anything. We preachers and theologians are used to being able to babble almost any incoherent concept and have it accepted without question because we are almost always "preaching to the choir" - OR teachers students who must agree to get the grade! Truly smart people - and many who so claim are not - (in fact you can often recognize the true genius as their mind seems helpless in rejecting "gobbeldy-gook" psycho-babel so prevalent in every profession) - but the true intellectual would far rather have an "I don't know" answer than a confusing, improper one. When asked to "explain God", the correct, intelligent answer is simple: "God cannot be explained by human beings: period!" If we humans could either explain or understand God, He would no longer be God: He would be one of us! . . . which leads us to the next consideration.
We seriously ask, > When did God become "a person?" > Jesus said "God is Spirit!" (John 4) > God never referred to Himself as a person, rather, God is Light, God is Love/Charity/Justice, God is a "consuming fire", God is eternal, . . . and NONE of these can be said for any person we have ever known of! > Scripture never calls God a person, so where do -"we, the finite, source of 10,000 diverse, disputing denominations - get the authority to lower God to a person? FACT: I am a person, you are a person, Adolph Hitler was a person, Osama bin Ladin is a person. FACT: God is NOT s person, God is Spirit! It may be that the modern practice of lowering God to our level has been caused by Bible teachers, continually teaching that God is a person! Thus society sees God as finite and opinionated, whose word is NOT absolutely true for all people, of all ages and all situations.
God Himself uses the Word "Godhead" - so why shouldn't we? There is God the Spirit (always Holy) God the Father, and God the Son.God is one, but humanly impossible to explain the complexity of God. Here are just a couple things the great minds of the ages from Thomas Jefferson to Voltaire struggled with: > God is immortal, He cannot die. Jesus was also God, yet it is said He literally died on the cross and rose again. So, did God die? > Blasphemy against God the Son or God the Father can be forgiven, but 'Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit never hath forgiveness.' > Jesus appeared in His resurrected body, ate food, etc., and declared 'a Spirit hath not flesh and bone as ye see me have. So does the Holy Ghost have a body? Why does the Holy Ghost not sit on a throne in Heaven as God the Father and Son are seen in the Revelation? > How could Jesus be 100% God and not know what The Father knew, and not know when He would return? > How could Jesus be 100% God and yet be the man, the "Second Adam" as Paul taught in multiple Scriptures, calling Jesus a man, contrasting Him to Adam. > How could Jesus be 100% God, and yet be "tempted in all points like as we are" as Scripture says, and yet be above temptation, as Scripture says "God cannot be tempted!" === Of course Jesus is God, is and was Divine, worthy of Worship, etc.,There have been enough councils and conferences in the last 2,000 years with splits and division and even death - all over one trying to make one group accept "another's definition".Jesus and Paul were far too smart to get into "straining at gnats" while swallowing camels. * * Do you realize neither Jesus or Paul never attempted to explain every detail of these nuances? * * Do you realize Jesus NEVER preached - not even one time - on many of the things most Bible preachers think must be preached continually? * * Truth Shock! "Grace came by Jesus Christ and He was the Fullness of Grace" [FOOTNOTE-1] but Jesus never mentioned the word Grace! * * Truth Shock! Jesus never preached to any crowd on "being Born again!" [Jesus only answered a question for Nicodemus, who came to Him privately, under cover of night, and Jesus explained why Nicodemus was "blind" to understanding who Jesus really was - otherwise, Jesus never mentioned it again!]. * * Truth Shock! Jesus never preached on - or ever mentioned - His virgin Birth to anyone (and neither did Peter, Paul, James or John, etc.) Now these are beautiful teachings and doctrines - and we believe them all. . . QUESTION: but why are we emphasizing what Jesus never mentioned? QUESTION: Shouldn't we be emphasizing what Jesus emphasized?
The word 'Trinity' is not in the Scriptures; The word 'Clergy' is not in the Scriptures; (makes a false "professional dichotomy) The word 'Laity' is not in the Scriptures; (makes for an "I'm just a spectator whose job it is to clap for the professional performer, and pay his keep) The word 'Sacrament' is not in the Scriptures, and there is not scriptural given number of sacraments; The word 'Christmas' is not in the Scriptures; (better called "the Birth of Christ") The phrase 'Good Friday' is not in the Scriptures; (better called "Passover") The word 'Easter' is not in the Scriptures; (better called "Resurrection Day") The phrase 'Worship service' is not in the Scriptures; The phrase 'Praise service' is not in the Scripture; The phrase 'Praise & Worship Leader' is not in the Scripture; The word 'rapture' is not in the Scriptures; (source of great confusion and division") The phrase 'The Antichrist' is not in the Scripture; The words / phrases (pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, no-trib, pre-mill, post-mill, a-mill, secret rapture, no rapture, imminent return of Christ, are not in the Scripture; The phrase 'end-times' is not in the Scripture; The phrase 'the 7 year tribulation' is not in the Scripture; Even the phrase 'the Second Coming' is not in the Scripture; These "man-made" words lead to doctrines and teachings that distract and divide, while detracting from the actual Words of the Lord - the "pure Words" - which help to achieve the unity and oneness of the body we are commanded over and over in Scripture. 'Bible' is not in the Scriptures, (Today we have "Bibles on many secular subjects from shopping to guns - all man-made collections) - however, if we always used the Word of God or the Holy word of God, or the Inspired/Inerrant Word of God every time we made a reference, perhaps today, there would be a higher regard for God's Absolute Word of Truth! Elevation of God's wordWe speak of God as a "Trinity" . . . but we ask you to consider the "three-some-ness" of this term (though we love the beauty of this this word). We ask you to consider, and explain to us, how to "separate" the Word of God, from God, when God Himself, declares "The Word to be God!" Please think on this: John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. How, we do ask, does one separate God from His Word, when God says He is His Word? [1] "IF" God is His Word as He declares, and God was from the beginning, John 1.1 "In the beginning was the Word,..."
[2] "IF" God is His Word as He declares, and God is Unchanging and Eternal, "...having been born again, not of corruptible seed but 'Incorruptible', through The Word of God which lives and abides forever...." 1 Peter 1:23 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle [a tiny mark in the original spelling of a word] will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."
Isaiah 55:11 "So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me VOID, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Matthew 5:18 "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fail." Luke 16:17
(a) Paul and John Mark parting ways, (b) Paul and Barnabas parting ways, (c) Peter and Paul disputing at Antioch, and all the fallibilities of the seven churches of the revelation chapters 2 and 3. [4] "IF" God is His Word as He declares, and God is Spirit, as Jesus revealed in John 4; John 6:63 Jesus speaking: "... the WORDS that I speak unto you, they are spirit,..."
John 6:63 "... the WORDS that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Psalm 119:50 "Your word has given me life."
John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord,...thou hast the WORDS of eternal life.
Proverbs 30:5-6 "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar." Psalm 12:6 "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."
Jesus wants His Church to become glorious, mature, and to "grow-up unto a full stature of wisdom, not blown about by every wind of doctrine: however, we are not there yet . . . just on the way! "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." Psalm 119:9-11 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." John 17:16 "The grass withers, the flower fades, but The Word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8
FOOTNOTESFOOTNOTE-GRACE: John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of GRACE and truth. John 1:16 And of his fullness have all we received, and GRACE for GRACE. John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but GRACE and truth came by Jesus Christ.
  
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