Error all around us.

There is a grave danger floating around in our current Christian culture today; now keep in mind that no doctrinal error is new, as the old sage told us, there is nothing new under the sun. The insidious error that I come across often is the separating Jesus from the written word.

Let me provide an example what this looks like in real life. Suppose a person says to you, I have a personal relationship with Jesus. Okay, here we go, since I like to dig down and flesh out terms and particular cultural Christian cliches, I would ask this person what they mean by a person relationship with Jesus. At that point, I would ask them very specific questions about the "Jesus" that they have as their "personal" savior.

I might say, well you know, Jesus said, except people repent they will perish, or I'd tell them Jesus said that a man has to hate his own family before he can become a disciple. There a many other texts that I would share with them, oh, I forget the big one, Jesus said that he was the only way to God.

This then is the usual reply that just shakes me to the core, well, that's your Jesus, I have my own Jesus, and He's love. They usually digress into a diatribe that the Bible cannot be understood or that everyone has their own interpretation, and therefore the Bible is not the only source to tell us about Jesus.

I hope you all can see the grave error whenever we separate Jesus from the written word. The natural outcome is that we have people creating their own Jesus. They mold and shape their Jesus to their own carnal and sinful thoughts and desires. In the end what we have is flat out idolatry.

Christianity is the acknowledgement of the propositional truth claims that the Scriptures make about the person and work of Jesus. The crux of the matter, and the central point of what anyone believes, is what authority do you base your belief on? The Canon of Scripture is the churches final authority for all matters of faith and practice.

The Psalmist exclaimed so very long ago, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:11).  Then we move to the New Testament and the Apostle Paul tells us to let the word of Christ dwell inside of us (Colossians 3:16).