But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:9)
I was advised by one of my liberal friends this weekend that “Idolizing the Bible only leads to fundamentalism.” He has a horror of fundamentalism: it gets in the way of his love affairs with Darwinism and Big Government. Happily, he reminds me, “we have the Church” (he means his church) to give us teachings that supplement or even replace the Bible.
As you can see by the Bible quote above–oops, there I go again!–Jesus has already addressed this issue.
Imagine what harm it would do to the church, and to the whole Christian community, if we were to cut ourselves loose from the Bible and just rely on the teachings and opinions of sinful, mortal men. Oh, wait, we don’t have to imagine it! In fact, we’ve got a picture of it.
This is how we get a church featuring goddess worship, feminist theology, same-sex parodies of marriage, and general assembly delegates poncing around in animal costumes… among other things.
I once interviewed a high official of the Methodist Church, who came right out and said, “The first thing I learned in seminary was that the Bible is not the word of God!” He was proud of having cut himself loose from the Bible. More fool him.
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. (Psalm 2:1-4)
There will come a time when the Lord stops laughing.
And that will not be a fun time for this world.