How Do You Know You Have the Truth in God's Word?
As a Christian, what is the most important thing to you? Is it to prove that what you currently believe is right? Or is it to find out the Truth of God's Word and change your beliefs to what God actually says?
If someone shows you verses that absolutely proves you believe something wrong, will you ignore those verses and continue to believe the way you do, or will you change your beliefs to fit the Word of God?
I believe this is one of the more important things every Christian should ask themselves. Are you willing to change what you believe if it is made clear you have been taught something wrong in the past? Or will you have too much pride to admit you have been wrong about something?
Every single Christian should be willing to change their beliefs to match what God says, no matter how long they have believed something else or who taught them. Your walk with God should be more important than your pride.
The problem is that so many Christians focus on interpretations of verses to decide what they believe. Every denomination was created by people who interpreted verses differently then other denominations teach. Every false teacher who actually believes they are right, believe that way because they have misinterpreted scripture. And lets face the facts here, a large portion of the Bible is subject to interpretation. So how can anyone be certain they are interpreting the Word of God correctly?
Many will say you need to trust the Holy Spirit to guide you. I know this will sound bad but this is a false belief! The reason I am certain of that is because I have seen many debates where both sides insisted they were guided by the Holy Spirit. How can the Holy Spirit possibly guide two different people to two different interpretations of the same verses? Obviously one of them must be listening to their own desires or possibly even a demonic spirit and just thinking they are trusting the Holy Spirit. But if they both believe they are guided by the Holy Spirit, then how can anyone know which one is and which one isn't? If one can actually believe they are guided by the Holy Spirit and actually be guided by an evil spirit or their own desires, how can anyone be sure they are guided by the Holy Spirit and not another spirit? So the truth is that you cant interpret the Word of God just by having faith you are guided by the Holy Spirit because you may not realize you are being guided by a different spirit. You may just be being misled.
So again the question is in front of us. How can anyone be sure? Well there is an answer to this problem. By using intelligence. God gave us a brain for a reason and He wants us to use it. Especially when studying His Word. Because there is actually a very clear and fairly simple way to know if you have the truth or not.
Follow this simple logic....
1) We know for certain that God's Word cannot have any contradictions. Especially to theology and doctrine.
2) The Truth is in the Primary verses. There are two main types of verses. There are verses you need to interpret to understand and there are primary verses. A Primary verse is what I call a verse that can only be interpreted one way. It means exactly what it says and leaves nothing to your imagination. "Jesus Wept." That is a primary verse. A very short and simple one, but a good example. Who wept? Jesus did. What did Jesus do? He wept! You cannot interpret this any other possible way than that "Jesus wept!" If it had said "Jesus cried" then there may be a possible second interpretation. Does it mean Jesus wept, or Jesus yelled out? But it didn't say Jesus cried!, it said Jesus wept!, and that can only be interpreted one way. So that is a primary verse.
Because we know God's Word cannot have any contradictions, we know that a primary verse is the truth! IF a verse can be interpreted more than one way, or you can find actual evidence that says the verse may have been translated wrong, then it is no longer a primary verse and cannot be seen as absolute truth. But if a verse is a Primary verse, then you know it is the truth!
If you study Gods Word and follow these two rules closely, you will be surprised how much easier it is to find the truth of God's Word. Every single doctrine I have studied, I have found to be supported by Primary verses. Except one so far. The debate on whether someone can lose their salvation or not. I have read many verses from both sides of the argument and I have not found one verse I believe is a primary verse supporting either side. Other than that one subject, everything else seems supported by primary verses.
Every single interpreted verse should only be interpreted to support primary verses. If you interpret a verse to contradict a primary verse, you are creating a contradiction in God's Word and so you must be wrong in your interpretation.
When we are looking for the truth of God's Word, and we come across a verse that contradicts what we believe, we should study that verse. Try to find alternate interpretations. Check the other versions of the Bible to see if they translate the words that same. If you cannot prove that verse to not be a primary verse, then you need to accept it as a primary verse and accept you have believed wrong. You should be willing to change your beliefs to fit God's Word, not try to fit God's Word to match your beliefs.
If you truly are looking for the truth, you will always accept the truth that causes no contradictions. You will accept the truth that is supported by the primary verses. Even if you need to change what you believe.
That's how you can know for certain you are finding the truth. Not by trusting your interpretation. Not by meditating on it. Simply by knowing for a certainty that there are no primary verses that contradict it. By knowing the primary verses support it. By using intelligence!
If someone shows you verses that absolutely proves you believe something wrong, will you ignore those verses and continue to believe the way you do, or will you change your beliefs to fit the Word of God?
I believe this is one of the more important things every Christian should ask themselves. Are you willing to change what you believe if it is made clear you have been taught something wrong in the past? Or will you have too much pride to admit you have been wrong about something?
Every single Christian should be willing to change their beliefs to match what God says, no matter how long they have believed something else or who taught them. Your walk with God should be more important than your pride.
The problem is that so many Christians focus on interpretations of verses to decide what they believe. Every denomination was created by people who interpreted verses differently then other denominations teach. Every false teacher who actually believes they are right, believe that way because they have misinterpreted scripture. And lets face the facts here, a large portion of the Bible is subject to interpretation. So how can anyone be certain they are interpreting the Word of God correctly?
Many will say you need to trust the Holy Spirit to guide you. I know this will sound bad but this is a false belief! The reason I am certain of that is because I have seen many debates where both sides insisted they were guided by the Holy Spirit. How can the Holy Spirit possibly guide two different people to two different interpretations of the same verses? Obviously one of them must be listening to their own desires or possibly even a demonic spirit and just thinking they are trusting the Holy Spirit. But if they both believe they are guided by the Holy Spirit, then how can anyone know which one is and which one isn't? If one can actually believe they are guided by the Holy Spirit and actually be guided by an evil spirit or their own desires, how can anyone be sure they are guided by the Holy Spirit and not another spirit? So the truth is that you cant interpret the Word of God just by having faith you are guided by the Holy Spirit because you may not realize you are being guided by a different spirit. You may just be being misled.
So again the question is in front of us. How can anyone be sure? Well there is an answer to this problem. By using intelligence. God gave us a brain for a reason and He wants us to use it. Especially when studying His Word. Because there is actually a very clear and fairly simple way to know if you have the truth or not.
Follow this simple logic....
1) We know for certain that God's Word cannot have any contradictions. Especially to theology and doctrine.
2) The Truth is in the Primary verses. There are two main types of verses. There are verses you need to interpret to understand and there are primary verses. A Primary verse is what I call a verse that can only be interpreted one way. It means exactly what it says and leaves nothing to your imagination. "Jesus Wept." That is a primary verse. A very short and simple one, but a good example. Who wept? Jesus did. What did Jesus do? He wept! You cannot interpret this any other possible way than that "Jesus wept!" If it had said "Jesus cried" then there may be a possible second interpretation. Does it mean Jesus wept, or Jesus yelled out? But it didn't say Jesus cried!, it said Jesus wept!, and that can only be interpreted one way. So that is a primary verse.
Because we know God's Word cannot have any contradictions, we know that a primary verse is the truth! IF a verse can be interpreted more than one way, or you can find actual evidence that says the verse may have been translated wrong, then it is no longer a primary verse and cannot be seen as absolute truth. But if a verse is a Primary verse, then you know it is the truth!
If you study Gods Word and follow these two rules closely, you will be surprised how much easier it is to find the truth of God's Word. Every single doctrine I have studied, I have found to be supported by Primary verses. Except one so far. The debate on whether someone can lose their salvation or not. I have read many verses from both sides of the argument and I have not found one verse I believe is a primary verse supporting either side. Other than that one subject, everything else seems supported by primary verses.
Every single interpreted verse should only be interpreted to support primary verses. If you interpret a verse to contradict a primary verse, you are creating a contradiction in God's Word and so you must be wrong in your interpretation.
When we are looking for the truth of God's Word, and we come across a verse that contradicts what we believe, we should study that verse. Try to find alternate interpretations. Check the other versions of the Bible to see if they translate the words that same. If you cannot prove that verse to not be a primary verse, then you need to accept it as a primary verse and accept you have believed wrong. You should be willing to change your beliefs to fit God's Word, not try to fit God's Word to match your beliefs.
If you truly are looking for the truth, you will always accept the truth that causes no contradictions. You will accept the truth that is supported by the primary verses. Even if you need to change what you believe.
That's how you can know for certain you are finding the truth. Not by trusting your interpretation. Not by meditating on it. Simply by knowing for a certainty that there are no primary verses that contradict it. By knowing the primary verses support it. By using intelligence!
