Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

• 1 Corinthians 2:14

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

• Matthew 5:13

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

• Matthew 7:6

“If we present the pearls of God’s revelation to unspiritual people, God says they will trample the pearls under their feet; not trample us under their feet, that would not matter so much, but they will trample the truth of God under their feet. These words are not human words, but the words of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit alone can teach us what they mean. There are some truths that God will not make simple. The only thing God makes plain in the Bible is the way of salvation and sanctification, after that our understanding depends entirely on our walking in the light. Over and over again men water down the word of God to suit those who are not spiritual, and consequently the word of God is trampled under the feet of ‘swine’.”

• Oswald Chambers, Daily Thoughts for Disciples (December 14, from Studies in the Sermon on the Mount)

If the first two Scriptures are familiar and the date in the Oswald Chambers devotional, there were two quotes within that devotion.  I used the first quote last Tuesday.  Since this latest quote came from his study on the Sermon on the Mount, there were two references to trampling in those three chapters of Matthew.

Rev. Chambers mentions that the Word of God being trampled is a serious offense, but hints that it is a mere trifle if we are trampled, as the Matthew 7 reference states.  If we are trampled and killed, we will awaken to see Jesus.  But if the Word is trampled, they are trampling the message that God has sent to us.

How do we trample the word today?  As Rev. Chambers suggests, we ourselves could trample the Word by watering it down to be more palatable for the masses.  But we are not to water down God’s Word.  We are not to make God’s Word like the world, for Christians are not of this world.

I read a book last year by Dave Shiflett, Exodus.  In the book, he speaks of a trend, about twenty years ago, where people were leaving the liberal churches for conservative Christian churches.  His back cover gives the reason.  These people who left the liberal churches figured out what was “wrong” with the conservative churches.  They were the only ones around who believed in God.  If you change God to fit this world, you no longer believe in God.  You believe in a false god of your own creation.

I noticed this “exodus” from the church we had just joined every time the General Assembly met and made yet another idiotic decision.  Our church was very conservative back then, but anyone who had read the Bible and believed it in their heart, packed up and left for the non-denominational evangelical churches (mostly).  When we moved to that church, we had made a vow to each other to stay put rather than continuously move to find “that church.”  That church is the Church Triumphant in Heaven, but the church we joined has become a middle of the road church, where the ten percent who attend adult Sunday school mostly go to Sunday school to reassure themselves that there are other true believers that remain.

It is one thing to change a word in the creeds or in the next translation of the Bible because the usage of that word has changed within society.   Even the New KJV does not have “Thee,” Thou,” and “Believeth”.  When my Dad said prayers at the dinner table or in church, those were the words he would use, and out of habit, I might add “Thy will be done” when praying.  Somehow, it sounds right to me, but the average person on the street would wonder what you were talking about.

But in many churches, they do not require you the believe, whether using the word “believe” or “believeth.”  And while church polity and the Bible being used may still say believe, too many people become voting members of a congregation by memorizing a few things to say.  Get the check boxes filled in and “Heaven awaits.”

Sorry, but salvation is by faith alone.  God knows about those check boxes, but He did not ordain them.

And before you throw out portions of the Bible or the entire book, you might want to read it.

Let us store up God’s Word in our hearts, and share it to let the Light of the World shine through us.

Others might be attracted.  Knowing God can attract others to the flame.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.