Getting God’s Mind
God does not think like human beings. If you think you know something about God, think again!
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
This is why the Bible can be difficult for human beings to understand. Don’t get me wrong. There is a great deal in the Bible that is simple to understand, like the Ten Commandments. However, there is a great deal of information in the Bible that is difficult to understand, like the Book of Revelation.
It is the more difficult teachings of the Bible that has split Christianity into hundreds, if not thousands, of sects. However, even the simpler teachings of the Bible have been ‘twisted’ over the centuries, resulting in some outrageous ideas like the rapture (you won’t find the word rapture in the Bible because it ’surfaced’ in the 1800’s through a man named John Darby). The rapture theory teaches Christians that they will escape physical death, but the Bible does not teach this.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
The rapture is in direct opposition to the central teaching of the New Testament: the resurrection of the dead.
“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.”
The rapture is an excellent example of how easy it is to take a few passages of the Bible and come up with a theory that is an interpretation of those few passages. However, private interpretations of the Bible are not permitted according to the Bible itself.
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
In addition, we must take all the writings of the Bible on any subject in order to come to a conclusion on what the Bible is actually saying. This process is called ‘rightly dividing’ the scriptures. Think of a child assembling a toy with building blocks, or working with hundreds of puzzle pieces. The final product depends on the correct assembly of the pieces.
“Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
It takes time to understand the Bible’s concepts, which is the only way a person can get the mind of God.
-Jo
Bible passages: Isaiah 55:8-9, Hebrews 9:27, 1 Corinthians 15:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20, 2 Timothy 2:15
Tags: Bible doctrine, biblical interpretation, culture, Godly thinking, mind of God, rapture, religion, resurrection of the dead, sects of Christianity
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