There is an end coming! How and when it comes, none of know. Some think they know, but the one thing that we all can agree on is that there is a day coming soon that Jesus will be coming back for his church. I believe very strongly that this day will be soon than later. Matthew 24:4-5 Jesus says, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” One reason to be a student of the bible is to know when you hear or are being taught false doctrine. A rule that I have always lived by is not to question everything. For example, just because I hear a preacher teach a certain doctrine in church on Sunday does not necessarily mean that it is true. I need to study it out, and see if after my own study of the matter, that I come up with the same conclusion.
Let me take a moment and share a real life story that happen with me. When I was in college, I took a Philosophy class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. To this day, that is the best and my most favorite class that I have ever taken. It is also that hardest class that I have ever taken. My teacher was Dr. Zamious. He was full blooded Greek and on the first day of class he told the class that he hated Christians. I wasn’t exactly sure what I should make of that. I figured that I would keep a low profile and skate through the class. There were about 50 of us in there anyhow.
Well, each day he would always bring the bible up in order to slam it. So after a few days, I started to argue with him about some of the points that he was making. You could say in a way that I became his favorite student. Because from that day on, anytime he would bring up the bible or Christianity, he would always include me, whether I wanted to be included or not. There were two times that I can remember that, as a class, we were discussing, justification and I forget the other topic. It has been many years! Anyhow, those two times, after arguing with him, and quoting scripture to him, God used me to shut him up. He kept fight back at me with other ridiculous notions that he had, but as I kept quoting scripture to him, he had less and less to say until he could not defend his belief anymore. There is no doubt in my mind that that was God. Because there is no way that I could have done that on my own.
There were quite a few other times that he would ask me and a few other ‘liberal’ students to stay after so he and these students could fight with me. God always used me in those times. I can remember in those times of quoting and explaining scripture that I did not even remember ever reading before. My mid-term was a essay that had to be written, and of course you had to chose one of his pre-chosen topics. He only had two having anything to do with God. So I chose the one about the attributes of God. He failed me. There was so much red on that paper that you couldn’t even read it anymore.
I also found out that he was busting on me in his Monday, Wednesday, Friday class. I had a christian friend in that class and she told me that he would come in there and just tear me apart in class. Also, my best friend (Mike) worked for the college in the testing lab, which was under the English department, that Dr. Zamious just happened to be the head of. Mike told me that when he would come in there and talk with his other teacher colleagues, that he would use very explicit words when talking about me. So Mike use to tell me that he would not say anything about being friends with me.
Anyhow, the last day of class finally came, the day that we were to get our final for the year. There were no tests. Just an essay for the mid-term and the rest of our grade was on our discussion in class. So I figured that he was probably going to fail me and if he did, I knew that I was going to contest it. Well, I went in to his office and he told me that I had an 86%, ‘B’. At first I really didn’t know what to say. Dr. Zamious then told me to stick to my believes. He said, I have had a lot of Christians come into my class over the years, and they have all either quit by mid-term or they ended up just going along with what I said. You are the first Christian that I have ever had that didn’t give in at all, but stuck to your believes for the entire time. I admire that!
I then admitted to him that before I cam into his class, I knew what I believed because I was a christian, but I could not tell you why I believed them. Because of you, you made me realized that I need to know why I believe what I believe. Thank you!
So, all of this to say, we need to know not just what we believe, but why we believe it. Don’t just assume what someone is telling you is the gospel. Study it out for yourself. Don’t have the beliefs of someone else, but have you own beliefs. The most important thing is, if it is not in the bible, then it is not truth. For the bible is absolute truth!
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