I often run across people who feel that God has left them because they are facing hardships in their lives. Maybe they hear the prosperity gospel and believe that if you are walking with God and doing His will, He will bless you with health, wealth and a good life. Perhaps they are feeling unloved and see their circumstances as a reflection onto God of how they feel they ‘deserve’ to be treated. Perhaps it is the only explanation for the sorrow and hardships that they have faced in this life. Regardless of the analysis, our search for truth cannot be based on our feelings, our opinions or even on our circumstances.
As a missionary to Nigeria, West Africa, I have had many well-meaning individuals confront me on the fact that we should not be involved in any way in changing a nation’s culture. Of course, they feel that taking the Gospel to a people who have their own beliefs is wrong. But they also make some good points. They cite the playing of drums, and how the first missionaries imported organs from Britain to teach ‘proper’ and ‘godly’ worship. They cite how missionaries taught that piercing your body is evil, and yet today, I would have to look hard and long for an African with less piercing than some Canadians. So, is it true? Should we embrace and leave cultures as they are? What about the Nigerian practise of killing twins because one is evil and one is good, and Satan disguises as an angel of light so you can’t tell which is which? Or the practise in some Ghanaian tribes of the chief having the right to the virginity of all the girls born into his village? Where do we say, ‘this is wrong’ and ‘this is right?’ From where do we get our moral barometer? The Bible.
When culture conflicts with the Bible, it is the culture that has to change, not the Bible. Every single human being believes in a moral law of right and wrong. If you don’t believe me, go to any individual you choose and take their wallet, walk away with it, and when they call you back say, ‘It’s ok. I believe it is ok. It’s my truth.’ Truth is not subjective. There is a universal code of right and wrong.
God implies through the writer of Hebrews that wisdom and discernment come not from the correct answer to a question but through growing in our relationship with Him, and in our knowledge of the Word. “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’sword all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, isnot acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)
If we truly want to know what is right and wrong in any culture, we should be reading and studying our Bible. It is by constant use that we train ourselves to distinguish good from evil. True wisdom is not the correct answer to a question or God miraculously directing our path. True wisdom comes from studying the Word of God, and through its use, being able to know what does and does not line up with it. True wisdom is stepping out, making decisions and knowing that IF we are on the wrong path, God will make that clear to us, too, as we study His Word.
If you desire to grow in truth, and you don’t yet trust that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God, please do some research. Listed below are some good scholarly studies that address why we can trust that God’s Word is accurate and truthful. The cost of being misguided is too great to not pursue our doubts intelligently. Don’t bank your belief in the Bible on what you’ve heard, think or others have said. Take a good hard look at the evidence for yourself. And for those who do believe the Word of God is there to guide us, take steps today to be sure that you are eating solid food and not simply making an opinion known while still drinking milk. Let us take our stand firmly and seriously as we would any important matter.
It starts with daily reading the Word of God.
Our song for today is Thy Word by Amy Grant.