Why the writings of men?...part 6, Paul was a heretic

If anyone has read my blog lately they are well aware that I have been stuck on a certain subject for a few weeks now, namely that of the teachings of men. I don't set out to choose my topics, at least I rarely set out to choose them. Once in a while I will write on a subject just for the sake of writing something. I did that when I wrote Daddy's Day. I wanted to write of my appreciation and love of my husband on a day that is set aside, in America, to celebrate dad's. I choose to write on that subject. Generally speaking though I write on subjects that plague my mind, subjects the Lord brings to me.

The teachings of men is one of those subjects, not chosen by me, just stumbled across and now, weeks later, it still plagues my mind. My husband's too. He is stuck on Ephesians four and all the verses that tie into that. At first he was leading me in circles on that topic. He knew what he was thinking, could easily connect verses across Scripture but I was lagging behind.

I am finally starting to catch up to him. Understanding his train of thought. I must admit that he and I went different directions with our thoughts on this subject. While I was thinking along the lines of one thing, thinking of certain verses, he was thinking along a whole different line, thinking of different verses.

We are now, I think, on track together. Both of us having shared our thoughts, having 'bounced Scripture off each other' as my husband puts it, until we are seeing the bigger wider picture that encompasses both of our thoughts.

I may, in time, write about Ephesians 4, pulling my thoughts and my husbands together. It would be a big undertaking. A big writing project. It would be long. It might take multiple posts. I don't know. We will see where the Lord leads on that.

For today I am not going that direction. I'm going a totally different direction. This morning I found myself with quite a bit of down time, with nothing to do but what entertainment my cell phone and my thoughts could provide.

That's a dangerous combination.

After I finished checking my emails, I let my thoughts wander. And where should they go? To the teachings of men. Now is a good time for everyone imagining me tipping my head to one side and pounding on the other side, you know, as if I was trying to get water out of my ear. I'd kind of like to be able to pour the thoughts of the teachings of men out of my head in the same way. I'd like to study something else, learn something else.

But, alas, the teachings of men won't be poured out of my head. So here I sit. Writing. Again. About the teachings of men. What does this make? Installment five? I can't even keep track anymore. My writings are plagued with this subject. My thoughts are plagued with it. My husband's thoughts are plagued with it. Our discussions are plagued with it. It has become almost like an illness that will not turn loose. It passes from one of us to the other. Back and forth. Back and forth. Feeding off each other. Sharing. Growing.

So there I was this morning, stuck in a place where I had nothing to occupy myself except my thoughts and this little computer that fits in the palm of my hand and goes by the title of 'phone'.

I decided to see what I could find online if I looked up heretical authors. Don't do it. Just don't. The results are as crazy and varied as the 'Christian' faith. One set of people thinks writers on this belief are heretics. Another set believes writers on that are heretics. It would almost seem as though all writers are heretics to some extent or another.

I know that lumps me right in there with them. I may not be publishing books, I am not even trying to lead anyone to anything, not trying to teach anyone anything, I am simply writing to share my thoughts with my husband. If anyone else gains anything from that, fine, great, wonderful. If not, that's okay too. My own relatives don't even read my writings. And that does not bother me. I understand completely.

I am, after all, the crazy 'Christian'. The one that makes being a 'Christian' harder than it has to be. The one that's married to another crazy 'Christian'.

Seeing those internet search results, telling of alternate views of who is, and who is not, a heretical author reminded me of one of the comments I got on that supposed 'Reformed' or 'Calvinist' site. I made the statement that anyone claiming a belief in Christ should study the Scriptures until they know them so well that they know what is Truth and what isn't. Then and only then should they read anything written by fallen men. No one. Not a single living person is ever free from the probability of writing in error and one must know the Scriptures well enough to be able to discern those errors.

I then recommended A.W. Pink as a good author for anyone to read. You want to know what response I got?

A warning that he was a heretic because he taught that God does not love all people.

Hmm....

Okay....

My immediate response, spoken verbally, not written, was, 'well, yeah'. I mean, it's right THERE. It's in Scripture. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Romans 9. It's all right there.

So I guess I am a heretic.

And that's where I say I suppose all writers of anything Scriptural must be heretics. And as I write this I wonder if there are those that wouldn't say even the writers of Scripture themselves are heretics. After all, if Pink is a heretic because he believed and taught that God does not love all people then...wouldn't that make Paul a heretic since he was the one that said it?

A few years ago I had a very long, drawn out, lengthy, time consuming conversation with a friend. This friend and I see a lot of Scripture the same but we differ in how we see a lot of it also. Part of the biggest difference between how we see things is in how salvation is applied to man. She believes in free will, I do not.

As this friend and I have discovered that difference makes all the difference. It means we look at everything, including Who controls life on earth differently. It trickles down into the most minute details of Scripture and life.

When we first discovered we differ so much on Scripture we mutually agreed to not discuss Scripture. Rather, she decided she could not discuss it with me and I agreed to go along with her. So we did not discuss Scripture for a very long time. But before we got to that point she informed me that my beliefs are heretical and in the end I said the same about hers.

What had hung in the shadows, silent, spoken only in our own thoughts as our conversation grew longer, was put into words and laid on the table, so to speak, where we both had to stare at the accusation before us.

I have never again discussed those statements with my friend, though they linger in my own thoughts. Guilt for outright accusing her of heresy, understanding why she accused me of it.

And today, as I think of those internet search results I got, results that basically accused every writer of every book bearing a 'Christian' label of heresy, I can understand why it must be so. Every professing 'Christian' of every 'Christian' belief believes themselves to be right in their faith. And if they are right...then all other beliefs must be wrong.

One of the search results was for an article about an online Bible source. This Bible source has some kind of disclaimer on it that claims to want to have nothing on their site that interferes with Scripture. In the article it said that this site links to a store(s) site that sells 'Christian' materials. These materials include books that deny Christ is the atonement for sin, deny hell, and more.

The article named names and pointed fingers, giving sources and quoting texts. I am not going to do that. I have given enough information here that should anyone ever want to know more, a bit of digging should unearth the sites.

The article said the author even questioned the Bible site manager on the books it linked to, essentially offering up things that are against Scripture. The response was that most of the books in question were in the process of being removed. The ones that weren't were published by the publishing house that owned the Bible site, a publishing house that masquerades as 'Christian', earning itself a fond reputation among 'Christians' while it is actually owned by a secular publishing house.

To be honest I could care less who owns any given publishing house, 'Christian' or otherwise. I'm not even all that concerned with who puts out the Bible I hold in my hand. I simply want sound Scripture as close to the original writings of it as I can get while still having it understandable.

Yet...

My very requirement has the ability to interfere with my unconcern of who owns a publishing house. A family is made up of the people that exist within that family. And books are comprised of what the publishing house approves of.

In this case, without digging too deeply into the matter, I think, just my opinion there, not facts, that this publishing house is out for the all-dollar. They sell anything labeled as 'Christian' because they are trying to rake in the money that selling 'Christian' materials gets them.

And so they sell Bibles of trustworthy content and Bibles of heresy. They sell sound Bibles and gender neutral Bibles.

As I think on that my mind goes to: 'Do not be unequally yoked'. How can anyone, person or company, claiming to be 'Christian' sell heresy and Truth? Because it's not Christ they serve but money. They simply go where the money is. In this case there is money to be made on Truth and money to be made on heresy and they could care less who or what it is they are selling so long as the dollars keep coming in.

That is the case for so much of our world today. Scripture warns us that we cannot love both God and money. Our world confirms the truth of that.

And yet I think back to the warning against Pink. He was a heretic in that persons eyes because he taught that God does not love everyone. So truth is heresy. It was heresy in my friends eyes and it is heresy to those that want to believe God loves everyone.

Where did that feel good version of god come from? When did the heresy start? Anyone that can read Romans 9 with opened eyes can clearly see that Paul taught God does not love everyone. That must make Paul a heretic to those that cannot read with opened eyes.

Just this morning I saw a news story, I didn't read it, just saw the picture and read the headline. The headline said something to the effect of Christians need to speak up or Christ will deny them. But it was the picture that drew my attention. It was of a parade with people lining the sides of the road, people of all ages, adults and kids. The picture showed what I assume to be the beginning of the parade with people holding one of those banners, suspended between two poles and carried by two people, that are often seen in parades. The problem with this picture was that banner and the flag waving behind it, being carried by someone else.

The banner was a rainbow, so was the flag. That gave me a good idea of what this parade was all about. The words on the banner could not clearly be seen but the first two words said 'God loves'.

It was a parade of sin. Of that I have no doubt. Unrepentant sinners were parading their sin before all to see, gloating over it, waving it around in colorful, rainbowed glory and it was being applauded by those on the sidelines.

God supposedly loves this outlandish display of sin. He accepts it and loves those glorying in what Christ came to die for. God does not hate the sin. He does not hate the sinner. He is probably supposedly sitting in heaven and cheering them along, waiting with open arms for them to come to him 'just as they are'.

This thought process holds true for every sin that professing 'Christians' wish to embrace. It holds true because god loves everyone.

That must make Scripture heretical too. It must make Paul a heretic. Must make John a heretic. It must even mean Christ was a heretic.