Unity and Scripture Alone

In studying the attributes of God, one realization I've had is just how interconnected they all are. You can't speak about God's knowledge without mentioning His power and decree and His other attributes as well. You can't speak about God's immutability without also mentioning His wisdom and His will. This shows the unity of God.

This unity in God's being is also reflected in the life of a Christian as well--especially with regard to who we are to trust and worship. After a person is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they begin a process of sanctification. They begin with earnest desire to live "not only according to some, but according to all the commandments of God." (Heidelberg Catechism Q.114) Here Christians begin to bring all aspects of their life into accordance with the law of God. Indeed they have been predestined to this very thing. This in a dim manner illustrates God's unity as well. Christians are not to be divided in their worship, but they are to solely trust in the Lord.

One of the signs of perilous times ahead is when people are "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy 3:7) This implies that they have never really accepted the scriptures as truth because then they would then have come to the truth. In fact, Paul's council to Timothy after this description of these wicked people is to "...continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:14-15) By rejecting the scriptures, they've also rejected any hope of true unity within themselves or with other Christians for that matter. Scarier still, they no longer worship the God who is.

I find it strange that these people still desire to hold onto the Christian label at all though, but they do. They then parade around as "Christians" who have been enlightened to see that the Bible is really just like any other book: full of man's opinions. And they really do believe this is enlightened. They present it as if they've attained a higher form of knowledge; they pity the poor people still ignorantly believing the Bible is actually completely true. They then pick and choose what is "truth" based on their own arbitrary standard. Some "truths" are to be accepted, some are to be rejected. By ripping ideas out of context or flat out denying other parts, they make it sound like the Bible says something completely opposite of what it really says. Once this cat is out of the bag there is little hope for unity or for truth. I believe these statements of the Bible, and you believe these other statements of the Bible; really we're both just elevating our own ideas and then finding some proof text within scripture that seems to support what we already want to believe.

This is not worshipping the God who is. This is having another God. Deuteronomy 5: 9-10 "you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." I wish these would stop using the name Christian to identify something that is obviously not Christian.