THAT'S JUST YOUR OPINION! (PART 2)
One of the greatest Scriptures which deals with grace and works is found in Paul's second Letter to Timothy. Speaking of God, Paul says: "Who hath saved us, and called us with an Holy calling, NOT ACCORDING TO OUR WORKS, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9). According to these Scriptures Wesley could not have been saved based on his character and conduct. And, according to Spurgeon, he certainly did not have the Faith of Christ for he claimed Wesley's faith was in a false god who cannot save. There is no correlation, whatsoever, between the God of Truth and the lies of false gospels and those who believe them. "...what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (2 Corinthians 6:14,15). And what Scriptural basis is there for man to judge another man saved who does not believe in the Gospel of God?
Those who believe that the true and only Gospel of God has more than one legitimate interpretation are literally saying one of two things: (1) that God has more than one Gospel (no one seems to know, however, how many Gospels He has), and that He will save you as long as your faith is in one of these interpretations; (2) that there is only one Gospel that saves, however, this Gospel comes in many different guises, an assortment of flavors, if you will, to suit everyone's taste. Conversely, God states clearly in His Word that THE Gospel, singular, not Gospels, plural, is His power unto salvation: "For I am not ashamed of THE Gospel of Christ: for IT (the Gospel) is the Power of God unto salvation..." (Romans 1:16 cf. 1:1). The apostle did not write, 'For I am not ashamed of the several legitimate interpretations of what the Gospel of Christ is for they, these gospels, are each, and equally, the powers of God unto salvation'. In saying that the Gospel of God is God's power unto salvation Paul simultaneously ruled out the possibility that ANYTHING ELSE is, or, could be, the Gospel of God. The apostle, in writing to the Philippians spoke of their "...fellowship in the Gospel..." (Philippians 1:5), not gospels. Any gospel is NOT the power of God unto salvation. Several Gospels are NOT THE power of God unto salvation and therefore cannot save. And why would God even need two Gospels, or more, for that matter? If there were two gospels which could rightly be called God's Gospels why didn't God simply make of them one big Gospel? If there were two gospels which could rightly be called God's Gospels they would have at least one doctrine upon which they differed for why would God have two Gospels saying the exact same thing? Therefore you would have inconsistency within God Himself and nothing but confusion as to what His Truth is. Even if the second Gospel contained the very same doctrines as the first but had just one extra doctrine, it would have to add more to what God has done by grace to save His people from their sins. Therefore, it would not only do away for the need of the first but also add to the teaching of salvation by grace. Seeing, however, that no grace can be added to a Gospel which has exhaustively detailed all of what God has done by grace to save His people, no second, third or fourth Gospels are necessary. God's one and only Gospel has encapsulated all that He has done by grace to save all His people from their sins. And so we see that as there is absolutely no need to add to it, so too, there is no need for any more Gospels than His unique and only Gospel. According to the many and varied gospels which professing Christians say are all perfectly acceptable to God, any inconsistency would indicate a God subject to variability. But how can this be when the Scriptures make it quite clear that with God there is "...no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17 cf. Hebrews 13:8; 1 John 1:5). God, Who is unchangeable, has only one Gospel AND IT IS HIS ONE AND ONLY 'INTERPRETATION' OF IT WHICH MAKES IT HIS UNCHANGEABLE GOSPEL: His ONLY power unto salvation! As God is, so is His Gospel. As with prophecy, the Gospel of God is not of any private interpretation (explanation) ( see 2 Peter 1:20,21). The Gospel of God is not flexible, it was not designed in order to make it conformable to, nor include, people's opinions, but is totally as inflexible as the Truth that Jesus Christ is Almighty God. He is not merely a good man, as some people say, nor just a prophet, but Almighty God Himself. So too, God's Gospel is what He says it is. It does not change, it does not morph into what people believe it is. Like the Ten Commandments, which were inscribed in stone so that there would never be any doubt or speculation as to what they could be, the doctrines of God's Gospel are inscribed in the stone tablet of Grace and written upon the hearts of all God's elect. It is unchangeable and rock solid! To give credence to any man's mere opinion of what the Gospel is, is one of the greatest feats of foolishness man has ever performed. Furthermore, any personal, one's own, interpretation of the Gospel by man can only add to and/or take away from God's Gospel seeing that, "...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14 cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18). Natural, or unregenerate man, cannot receive the Spirit of Truth for they do not know Him, and therefore do not recognize Him as God. Those who resist or reject the truth can never be satisfied with God's true Gospel. They do not know the Truth because they remain in ignorance of it. "...the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:17). A man cannot receive the Spirit of God without the hearing of Faith. "...Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of Faith?" (Galatians 3:2). The Christian knows the Spirit of Truth, they do recognize Him, they do know His Truth and are the only ones who are not in ignorance of it. To rightly claim to understand the Gospel of God and believe it one must believe IT and not that which one believes IT to be.
Many so-called 'Christian' church 'leaders', who know that the command of Jesus to all Christians, all His people, is to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), claim that no one actually knows what that Gospel is. How then can anyone preach about Who God is and how He saves, Who His Son is and what His Son has done in the salvation of His people, if no one knows what the Gospel of salvation is? And, if no one knows what God's Gospel is and, therefore, cannot preach it, how in turn, can anyone believe it? And, if no one can believe the True Gospel how can anyone be saved? The doctrines of the Gospel of the Grace of God are indispensable to salvation. The doctrines of grace are essential doctrines indigenous to the Gospel of God. They are nowhere to be found but in the 'land' of the Gospel. One so-called pastor wrote to me saying, 'To know what the Gospel is, that would be something'. Yes, it is my friend. To know and believe God's Gospel is quite something to say the least: IT IS SALVATION! It is to know Him and to trust what He has done to save His people from their sins. "...this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only True God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3 cf. Jeremiah 9:23,24). God does not save anyone without His Gospel. Salvation is what God's Gospel is all about: how God by His Grace saves His people from their sins. It is the Good News that all His people know and in which all His people trust. Those who believe the unadulterated Gospel of God is lost, say that the best anyone can now have is an imperfect interpretation of what the Gospel of God is because, after all, we are all imperfect sinners and we can only ever understand imperfectly. According to this rule all anyone has, or can have, is an imperfect gospel which cannot rightly be referred to as God's Gospel, and as a consequence none can say with any authority that they are believers in the Gospel of God and therefore saved. So are we to believe that a man's salvation is based not on believing the Truth of God, for no one knows what it is, but by believing what we think is God's Truth despite the fact that others claiming to be saved describe it as untruth? God's Gospel is the Gospel of Truth. An imperfect gospel is not God's Gospel for it contains a mixture of truth and error, of God's Truth and man's misconception of God's Truth, or what he imagines God's Truth to be. That is, a hybrid gospel, a conglomeration of God's Word and man's lies, of God's grace and man's works. Such thinking has reduced God to having no power at all to save for if no one can know what that Gospel of God is, no one can believe in God's Salvation Plan. If there is no true Gospel of salvation then there is no true power to save.
The carnal mindset has concluded that God, whilst ensuring that none of His Words shall ever pass away (Matthew 24:35), something which 99.9% of professing christians believe, has in spite of His promise allowed part of His Word, His Gospel doctrines no less that deal with the grace of God in the salvation of His people, to pass away so much so that all, even His own people, are left with is some vague and tenuous consensus of what is true and what is not true concerning God's salvation plan. That even with the gift of Faith a Christian can only believe in merely a variety of confusing and contradictory private interpretations of the most important doctrines regarding mankind. All this has given me cause to ponder the possibility that it is in the best interests for at least some 'Christian church leaders' to actually encourage people to believe in the ambiguity of the Gospel. For reasons of religiopolitical expedience, in an apparent attempt to avoid controversy and to keep the peace, or perhaps to court a widening popularity, these hirelings blur the very Truth Itself when they insist no one knows what the Gospel of God is and therefore leave the matter open to everyone's personal interpretation. Thus, True Gospel preaching has been replaced with man's opinions as to what it is. Far too many people are offended by the Truth, and so, modifications have been made in order to accommodate the offendees. The Gospel is not preached in service to God and for His glory but has been altered so as to please men. A climate has been established which, rather than teaching truth, makes truth a subjective issue which, consequently, caters to error rather than exposing it. This certainly paves the way for people of widely differing views of what the Gospel is, be they Arminian or Calvinist, cohabiting the same 'churches' with 'pastors' and denominations ever hungry for growing congregations. Be that as it may, the Gospel of God is not something which is ambiguous or unidentifiable. On the contrary, that God has only one Gospel, one set of doctrines which deal with the salvation of His people, reveals the rock solid fact that there are no variables involved, no changing elements at all, in the Gospel of God. It is unique, it is specific and it must be believed. Only the true and eternal doctrines of the Gospel of grace are indicative of Divine Authorship. The Gospel is not subject to change, nor is it open to interpretation, but remains constant, consistent, certain and unalterable in its proclamation of the Truth of God for the Gospel is the Word of God. What you believe the Gospel of God is, has eternal consequences. When it comes to what the Gospel of God is generalities just won't cut it. The Gospel of God is not something which is without specificity especially in light of Scripture which tells the Christian to preach THE Gospel and to believe THE Gospel of God and no other. THIS DIRECTIVE CLEARLY REVEALS THE UNIQUENESS OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD AND ITS ETERNAL STATE OF UNCHANGEABLENESS. The command to preach and believe God's Gospel and no other is the surest evidence that God has only one Gospel and that this eternal Gospel is clearly distinguishable from all false gospels. To believe the Gospel of God is to trust in the unambiguous and exceptionally distinct doctrines of His Salvation Plan and no other. How can a man be saved if his trust is not in God's salvation plan? If he trusts in some other plan revealed by the doctrines of some other gospel. How can a man be saved from drowning at sea if he does not trust in, and grab hold of, the lifesaver that has been thrown to him? A song is not a cacophony of sound, but rather a precise configuration with distinct notes, melody lines, lyrics and well structured chord patterns. It is these elements which give a song its uniqueness and its individual characteristic. So too, the Gospel of God is not some constantly changing indistinct sound, but a well structured and constant Truth revealing Document. One song cannot be described by the lyrics and nuances of another nor is a particular song, especially its lyrics, be whatever the listener believes it to be. A particular song does not change every time you hear it, but remains the same. So too, the Gospel of God is a unique and distinct sound - The sound of Truth.
These last days may with certainty be described as the age of views and opinions. They number in the hundreds of millions perhaps even billions. It seems that everyone has a view about one thing or another. And, never has there been so many forums such as Internet Web Sites, Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets through which to express, or to come into contact with, those opinions. Many think this is right while others are just as convinced that is right. In the current climate, replete with an overwhelming amount of information available at the click of a computer mouse, it would seem that the truth of just about anything is being slowly eroded even to the point of it not being that relevant because of the tide of people's opinions constantly washing in. Because there are so many varying opinions out there that all claim to be the truth, and with increased access to all this via the Internet, many have reached the point of information overload and apparently given up on their 'search for truth'. Not coincidentally, many teenagers, who are among the most prolific users of the Internet, in particular those aged between 15-17, have ceased to believe in the very existence of truth. Others have become docile, and, in some cases, unquestioningly submissive to what they have been told the truth is and what they have become familiarly comfortable in believing. It would appear there is something that has risen above truth in these last days. That there is something which has superseded even truth in the minds of men. Subjectivity! Subjectivity always places the emphasis on what a man thinks rather than on what the truth is. The question is no longer 'What is Truth', but, 'What do you think the truth is?' What matters now, what is becoming increasingly important in the minds of many, is a person's personal opinion. Man is become so puffed up that even when faced with undeniable truth he still values an opinion despite its glaring denial of that truth. Opinions, according to the world, must at all costs, in this ever so delicate and increasingly politically correct climate, be respected. The accuracy of one's opinion is not what's important. Nor does it matter whether we agree with another's view or whether we believe it to be right or wrong. We must never judge, contradict or criticize but always respect and consider another's view, especially when it comes to religion. Failure to do so will label you closed-minded and bigoted, unloving and insensitive. Some will even be ostracized. It's not that people are against judging, for people judge others, especially in their private thoughts, in a myriad of ways every day of their lives from their physical features to the clothes they wear, from the car they drive to the house they live in. To judge in a positive light is the only accepted form of judging another particularly when in the company of others. It is only negative judging, be it fact-based or not, that is frowned upon particularly in the religious world. Ironically, the only time judging in a negative light meets with the religious world's approval is when one judges a person who claims that another person's beliefs are false and the person who believes them as lost. Such a person immediately draws criticism from all corners and is accused of being judgemental and unloving. These people, who pride themselves on their tolerance of error in those who believe differently to them who claim to be Christian, reveal their capacity for tolerance to be quite limited for they are utterly, and hypocritically, intolerant of those who genuinely are Christians who bring with them the Gospel of God. It seems that the only thing these tolerant ones have no tolerance for is Truth. Apart from dying for one's enemies, what greater act of love could there be than when a true Gospel believer, motivated by and revealing his love for God and His Truth and his subsequent intolerance of lies being spoken in the name of God, lovingly exposes the error which a person believes and gently, caringly points them in the right direction? If a child believes something incorrectly would you call it love to leave the child in his ignorance, to go on believing a lie? How could tolerance of his error possibly be of any benefit to the child? Tolerance has its place in life, society etc., but a wilful tolerance of slanderous lies concerning God's Word is nothing less than an evil intolerance of God's Truth! Would it not be edifying to the child if one were to gently point out his errors and correct him. Would not this be loving the child? So too, isn't it more loving to correct someone in doctrinal matters, in particular the Gospel, than to apathetically leave them in their ignorance, in their error, and think it a loving act? Love, the Scriptures say, "Rejoiceth not in iniquity (injustice), but rejoiceth in (with) the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6). What greater injustice is there than a person believing or preaching error as truth when it comes to Who God is, what God has done and for whom He has done it? Love is intolerant of false gospels for it only rejoices in Truth, with the true and only, error-free, Gospel of God (see 1 Corinthians 13:6). According to God's Word, God is intolerant of all those who believe not His Gospel. This intolerance is seen particularly in those Scriptures such as Mark 16:16 which says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." God's intolerance is based on His Holiness and Justice. Man's warped idea of love which, at all costs, places people first, prevents the Truth of God from having the pre-eminence in their lives. Loving our fellow man, being tolerant etc., IS NOT the pre-eminent love! The pre-eminent love is loving God with all your being. Loving God is loving His Truth, His true Gospel and His true Son Who is Truth! To Love God is to declare His Gospel to every creature and not to conceal it. Being tolerant, avoiding the issue, of a person's believing a false gospel IS NOT LOVE!! It in no way qualifies as an act of godly love but is rather a display of apathy, an actual suppression of love, in disguise. For those who pride themselves on their tolerance of the error in others, and yet who claim to believe the Gospel of God, their silence toward error can only be interpreted as a muted form of approval. Still, the world goes on thinking he might be right, she might be right and they might be right and that this is the closest anyone can come to knowing what the Truth of God is. The wise man today is not considered to be the one who has the Truth but rather the one who potentially may have it. For reasons we shall explain later, the world is quick to lend an ear, and pays far more homage, to those who do not know the truth and who are engaged in endless streams of speculation as to what it might be whilst maintaining a strange and stubborn aversion to the Truth of God and those who believe it. In the world's eyes it is the one who says 'I am searching for truth', who does not have a clue as to what it is, rather than the one who justly claims to have it, that is considered wise. The latter is deemed a fool.
Opinions, be they right or wrong, have almost become sacrosanct. I've even heard the ridiculous statement after one person expressed their view on a matter, 'That's just my opinion. It's not right or wrong. It's just my opinion'. No doubt as quizzical a statement as you are ever likely to hear. One fails to even begin to try and comprehend what all that nonsense is supposed to mean, or of what viable use could it possibly be. They say, 'I'm not saying I'm right, it's just my opinion. This is only what I think'. This begs the question of what value is opinion if it is an erroneous opinion, if it is not right? Moreover, what need is there for opinion when there is Truth? The only ones who seek opinion are those who do not know the truth. Would it not be a more sound venture to go in search for truth rather than busying oneself in forming baseless, valueless opinions of it? It would appear that people are prefacing what they believe with, 'this is only my opinion' so as not to be seen as claiming to know the truth, and in order to not offend anyone who has an opposite view and thus draw criticism. Inwardly, they believe what they say is true, otherwise they surely would not be saying it, but outwardly they hedge their bets, as it were, and say it is only their opinion. Seemingly no one wants to be the one to stand out, to actually say, 'this is not just my opinion, this is the truth', for fear of being ostracized by this ever-increasing popularity-is-a-must, politically correct and social media-obsessed world. Nothing is as popular as popularity. And, never have so many people wanted to be as popular with others as in these last days. Everyone just wants as many 'friends' as they can get. Everyone wants to fit in and belong. Nobody wants to offend anybody, even with what they know to be the truth, for fear of losing popularity and so even the truth has become a victim of everybody's conviction that having a growing number of friends and ever-growing popularity is the number one priority of life.
'He's got his opinion, she's got her opinion and everybody's got their opinions. They're my friends and I respect their views. Let's just have fun and forget about all that stuff. Let's just live and let live'. This is the growing attitude in society especially among the young. A society, I might add, that thinks itself so loving and caring but of which Scripture says, will in the last days, be responsible for perilous times for men shall be lovers of themselves, whose 'love' is borne out of self interest, self absorption and not primarily the needs of others (see 2 Timothy 3:1-5). What I find quite puzzling is how can one respect a person's erroneous view when one knows what the truth is? How can I respect someone's beliefs about God when I know them to be wrong? There is simply no erroneous statement concerning the Gospel of God, or anyone that promotes it, which a believer in the Truth of God can respect! It is what is being said that is the issue and not the person saying it. The growing trend of not wanting to offend anyone has taken giant leaps into the world of professing christendom. Walk into just about any 'church' nowadays and no matter what you believe you will be welcomed as a Christian, and anything you believe that is not believed by the majority there is simply not spoken about. "Let's talk about what we do agree on, or the weather perhaps'. After all, everyone has their own personal opinion of what the Gospel of God is, and, if 'church' leaders are right in saying nobody knows what the Gospel of God actually is, who are we to judge the opinions of others. It's just a very small step from there into madness such as, 'Let's not discount anything seeing that not knowing what the Gospel of God is actually validates everyone's opinion of what it could be. 'In fact, let's begin inviting people of other faiths to our church services, after all we are all part of God's family no matter what we believe. Let's come together, not over Truth, not over the true God, but despite our ignorance of the Truth and our differences of opinions of exactly Who God is.' Day in day out, week in and week out man is simply re-writing the truth about almost everything. Let's major on the things we have in common and avoid those things over which we disagree. Let's not discount the possibility of any one being right about any part of what the Gospel might be. Despite all this one thing remains an objective fact in this increasingly subjective world: The Gospel of God is not subjective. It is not conditional upon what a man thinks it to be because it is what God has already said it is. (see 2 Peter 1:20; 2 Timothy 3:16; Job 32:8). Nor is God's Gospel a relative thing, for it is absolute Truth. The Gospel of God, the Word of God is not something which awaits an individual's existential experience with it to make it true and real. Man's unwillingness to accept the entire Word of God including His Gospel as absolute Truth comes from his sinful nature which dictates man as judge over what Truth is, Who God is, etc., and a stubborn refusal to accept God's Authority. "If we do not believe or accept that the entire Bible is God-given, then what is the basis of its Authority? If we decide what is true, then God’s Word has no authority at all. We are the Authority." Where does man get his authority to judge what is true in God's Word and what is not? The undermining of God's Word, in particular God's Gospel, is a war that continues on all fronts by Satan and his lying spirits and the sinful, corrupt nature of man. The Gospel is God's Good News. The Gospel is God's TRUE News about His Son the Lord Jesus Christ: Who He is, what He has done and for whom He has done it. Every false gospel brings with it false news about a nonexistent god. The Gospel of God is a Proclamation. The preaching of the Gospel of God is the declaration of a definitive set of Doctrines which are to be believed and not some indefinable thing left to the discretion of each individual. The apostle Paul said: "...I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ" (Romans 15:19). "The apostle "preached fully" and completely, every part and branch of the Gospel, kept back nothing of it, but faithfully declared the whole; and so fulfilled it, as the word may be rendered, and his ministry; or he filled the Gospel, the net of the Gospel, which he spread in every place; or rather he diffused the knowledge of it everywhere; he filled all places with it wherever he came..." One cannot diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel by teaching error, a false gospel, in the true Gospel's place. Likewise one cannot believe the Gospel of God if one has not heard, or has rejected, the knowledge of It. Paul the apostle immersed himself in, "the defense and confirmation of the Gospel..." and, "...I am set for the defense of the Gospel" (Philippians 1:7,17 cf. 1 Corinthians 1:6). Does any of this sound like the Gospel is something which is unknowable, that it is some indeterminate thing which cannot be grasped, let alone defended and established. The Gospel of God is God's Message of Salvation made up of the doctrines which deal with God's grace in the salvation of His people. The Gospel of God is not something which requires the opinions and interpretations of man to define its doctrines for God has already done that. Just like the headline on a newspaper's front page is not written so as to invite your subjective opinion of what it is saying for its declaration is self-evident. The Gospel of God, too, has not been left to the guesswork, the opinions, of mere men for this would directly contradict the clarity with which Scripture speaks concerning the saved as being in the Light, knowing God and abiding in His doctrines by the acknowledgement of His Truth.
There are many things on this earth concerning which we do not have concrete evidence one way or the other where there is much room for legitimate debate and conjecture. Things like what is the best way to play a certain sport, or the best method of acting or how best to arrange flowers, and, of course, you can argue over political points of view all day long. All these are subjective things. What works for one may not necessarily work for another and so everyone forms their own, often experience-based, opinions. Everyone has their own view as to what works best. Hotly contested debates are the lifeline of certain types of television and talk back radio programs. Hosts of such programs often reach out to the viewer in search of their opinion, 'Tell us what you think', etc. Conclusions are seldom ever reached. For all their talk and alleged sapience solutions are rarely ever arrived at. The important thing is 'You've had your say' on another 'interesting' show. As I look around, I sometimes feel that people treat life as just one big TV show with none of the 'guests' wanting to say anything that might lose them favor with the audience. While the 'hosts' are just as reluctant to say what they know to be true for fear of falling ratings. When opinion takes centre stage some people feel compelled to offer their own view, whether they are cognizant of the subject matter or not, because everyone thinks they are right. In some cases people who have the courage to voice their opinions on just about anything are lauded and turned into celebrities. In many instances people celebrate their differences never realising that one person's opposing opinion cancels out the possibility of the other's being truth. On the one hand people are taught to celebrate their differences but on the other they are encouraged to ignore the differences and come together over what they share in common. At one time offering one's opinion was a statement clothed in genuine humility. 'In my humble opinion' has now become a puffed up declaration: 'It's what I think therefore you must respect what I think is right'. But if I must respect what you think is right then, in order for my respect to be authentic, I must simultaneously admit that what I think may not be right. And if you must respect what I think is right then you must simultaneously admit that what you think may not be right, either. So at best all either one of us has is something that may be right but may just as equally be wrong. Something that may be right or wrong but that no one has the knowledge or the courage to say is right or wrong! Subsequently, no one would have any right to walk about with any certainty over that which they believe. Man is shut up within a prism of opinion.
There are many things in the natural world, mathematical sphere and of course science where once strongly held to views and opinions have forever been silenced by what all now agree is simply cold, hard unchallengeable fact. There are rules and laws of Mathematics, Physics and Science. These are not subject to debate, conjecture, your opinion or my opinion. Only a fool would argue with unchangeable and incontestable truths such as 2 + 2 equals 4, that the world is round and that what goes up must come down. And so it is established that not everything is subject to our view, what we consider to be truth or error, right or wrong. Still, sadly, this has not stopped many from reducing Scripture, the very Word of God, to something which is subject to man's evaluation, subsequent views and interpretations. And yet for all this the Word of God remains the same and is how the Lord speaks to His people in these last days (see Hebrews 1:1,2). Only the Scriptures "...are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:15,16 cf. Psalms 19:7,8). Many today have given up on finding out what God says His Truth is simply because there are so many differing and diametrically opposing views on the matter.