The Infallible Word of God
Ellen White had a high view of the authority and inspiration of Scripture. Though she apparently never used the words "inerrant" or "inerrancy," she repeatedly referred to the Bible as being infallible: The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed, the sole bond of union; all who bow to this Holy Word will be in harmony. Our own views and ideas must not control our efforts. Man is fallible, but God's Word is infallible.—Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 416.
The word of God is infallible; accept it as it reads; look with confidence to God; trust him to qualify you for his service.—Advent Review, Feb. 11, 1896.
Man's word fails; and he who takes the assertions of man as his dependence may well tremble; for he will one day be a shipwrecked vessel. But God's word is infallible, and endures forever. Christ declares, "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." God's word will endure through the ceaseless ages of eternity. God lives and reigns.—Advent Review, Feb. 6, 1900.
Praise God, we have a divine road to heaven. We need not depend upon the conjectures and opinions of men, but upon the infallible decision of the word of God. The word of the infinite God is true, and cannot be distorted to suit men's pleasure, or be turned aside to suit the inclinations of the unsanctified soul. No man can safely judge the word of the Supreme Ruler of the universe.—Signs of the Times, Aug. 21, 1893.
God's Word is full of precious promises and helpful counsel. It is infallible; for God can not err. It has help for every circumstance and condition of life, and God looks on with sadness when His children turn from it to human aid.—Signs of the Times, June 26, 1901.
Then let every man read, study, and search the Scriptures for himself and take nothing as infallible but the Word that you can see for yourself, after much prayer and searching in an humble, teachable spirit.—The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 835.
THE JESUS WAY
It was registration day at a certain college, and the students were filling out theirs enrolment forms. On one form was a place marked “Religion,” where each prospective student noted the name of the religion he professed. A Chinese lad brought his competed forms to the president. Apparently he had some trouble with English, for when he filled out his form he wrote “C-o-n-f-u-s-i-o-n” as his religion rather than Confucianism.More people’s religion is described by the unwitting mistake of that Chinese student than many realize. There are countless millions who are following religions that are really confusion. The world’s religions system is called Babylon in Revelation 17:5. The root meaning of Babylon is “babel”, confusion.” God is calling His people out of this Babylon Revelation 18:4, into the true way of Jesus.
The lord Jesus is not merely one of several different ways to heaven. He is the only way to heaven this truth is all wrapped up in four of His words: “I am the way” John 14:6.
Is Christ is the only right way in religion, there are bound to be confusion and error in every religion that does not conform to His pattern. If all followed the Jesus way in every part of their religion, they would be united in His one right way. The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s pattern of the real truth. In keeping with this, the bible declares that Jesus left us an example that we “should follow his steps” 1 Peter 2:21. The example and teachings of the Lord Jesus constitute the authoritative standard of Christian doctrine and duty.
Consider how this simplifies the problem of finding the right way because there are so many denominations teaching so many discordant theories. But it is not impossible to know which is the right way. Since Jesus is the only right way, all we need to do is to find His way and walk in it.
We shall now look at some of the things Jesus taught, which will be a kind of review of some of the things we have already said.
The way to proceed is open before us. We may start with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for there God has given us a record of Jesus` life. Those writers reveal what Jesus taught and lived with respect to the essentials of His way. (We may go on from there to find Him throughout the Bible.)
Jesus regarded the Scriptures, the Holy Bible, as the Worde of God to man, and the only authoritative rule of belief and practice. He said, “The scripture cannot be broken” John 10:35.
He taught that He alone can save a person. Man cannot save himself by all his good works or by trying to keep the Ten Commandments. Salvation depends on receiving Christ as a personal Saviour, John 3:16, 18, 36; 8:24. Jesus´ blood alone can atone for sin Matt. 26:28.
Christ taught that no one can be a Christian and go to heaven unless he is born again: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” John 3:3. “Except ye be converted …ye neither shall nor enter into the kingdom of heaven” Matt. 18:3. This new birth leads to a transformation of life and character by the re-creative power of God through faith in Him. This new birth takes place when Christ is received into the heart, John 1:12, 13.
Jesus taught that the only way a person can live a victorious life is by abiding in Him, John 15:4-8. this can be experienced only by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. Christ taught that when a person has received this Gift, he will know that he is in Christ, and that Christ is in him John 14:16-20.
Jesus taught that the person who has a continuing experience with Him meets these conditions: a daily crucifixion of self (Luke 9:23); implicit obedience to His commandments (John 14:15,23); daily prayer and partaking of His Word (see Luke 18:1; John 6:56-63); and a constant and complete surrender of the will to follow His will (see Like 14:33).
Jesus taught that obedience to the Ten Commandments is one of the essential conditions for entering heaven. When a wealthy young man asked Him, “What…shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus responded, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” When the man then asked Him which commandments He meant, Christ quoted a few of the Ten Commandments. (Matt. 19:16-19).
In commanding obedience to the Decalogue, Christ did not indicate that anyone could earn his way to heaven by keeping the commandments. Salvation is by grace alone. No one can be justified by the works of the law. Justification is attained only by faith in Jesus Christ (Mark 16:16; John 3:18). But after a person is saved by grace, he will obey the Ten Commandments as God’s standard of righteousness.
Jesus taught that the seventh day of the week is to be kept as the Lord’s holy day. The fact that He upheld the keeping of the Ten Commandments is clear evidence that He endorsed the keeping of the seventh day, which is the subject of one for man” (Mark 2:27).
As the Creator of this world (John 1:10), Christ made the seventh day the Sabbath by resting upon it after He had made the world in six days. Then He sanctified, or set apart, each succeeding seventh day for man to keep holy. (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11).
The keeping of the seventh day of the week is a part of Christ’s original order for man. Nowhere do we have a record of His changing that requirement; therefore, the keeping of that day is one of His steps we are to follow. So long as Christ is the Creator – His position as such is established as a Biblical fact – and only Saviour, so long will the seventh-day Sabbath be the sign of Christ as the Creator-Saviour (see Isa. 66:22,23).
Jesus Christ gave us an example to follow. In Luke 4:16 we learn that it was His practice, or “custom”, to attend the worship service on the seventh day of the week, or Saturday.
Jesus taught by the parable of the tares that the impenitent are not cast into hellfire as soon as they die but will be cast into the lake of fire at the day of judgment at the end of the world (Matt. 13:24-30, 38-42). And after they are punished, according to their evil deeds, they will be totally destroyed, soul and body, Matt. 10:28.
Jesus taught that life after death depends on being resurrected at the last day (John 6:39,40,54). He taught that the righteous do not receive their reward until He comes at His second advent (Matt. 16:27), and that His followers will not be taken to heaven until He comes again (John 14:1-3).
Jesus declared that His followers will know when His second coming is near, by the fulfilment of certain signs (Matt. 24:29-33; 16:1-3).
Jesus endorsed the payment of tithe, the tenth of one’s net income, to support the preaching of the gospel. The Pharisees gave God the value of a tenth of such diminutive herbs as mint, anise, and cumin from their gardens. But they overlooked the more important matters of the Pharisees tithing, Jesus said, “theses ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” Matt. 23:23. Tithing is a part of Jesus way.
It was Christ’s steadfast purpose to obey the will of God in all things – His eating, drinking, dressing, talking, or whatever. And He taught that His followers should obey God in everything. Their religion has a sanctifying influence on every aspect of life (John 15:14; 17:17, 19; Luke 6:46; Matt. 7:21; 12:50).
In view of Jesus´obedience to God´s instruction, it is certain that He refrained from eating he flesh of those animal, fowls, and fish that are unfit for food according to Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. when a person adopts the way of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 10:31 will be the controlling rule of his life: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
Jesus declared that His followers will be separate from the world, and will not follow its sinful ways (John 15:19; 17:15, 16; Luke 14:33). Those who choose the Jesus way will shun sinful practices such as dancing, gambling, and spiritually destructive television.
Jesus Christ taught that Christians should practice certain ordinances to show their love for Him, and for one another. By His example He endorsed the ordinance of baptism by immersion as a sign that the believer has committed his life fully to God (Matt. 3:13-17). He taught that baptism is one of the steps in being saved (Mark 16:15, 16). Many Christians sincerely believe that sprinkling is baptism. But Christian baptism is a burial (Rom. 6:35; Col. 2:12). Sprinkling does not meet God’s pattern for His followers.
Jesus´instructions concerning the ordinances of humility and of the Lord’s Supper are found in John 13:12-15 and Mathew 26:26-28. he washed His disciples´feet, then commanded His followers to do so also: “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). He gave the broken bread as an emblem of His body sacrificed for us, and the wine as an emblem of His blood shed for or sins.
Among the many religions in the world, where do you find a people who follow all these steps in the way of Jesus? All denominations follow some of them, some follow nearly all, but only one group follows all of these steps – that is the Seventh-day Adventist people. This confirms that they represent Christ’s remnant – the last part of His true church. This reveals that Adventists, as the people of the threefold-message movement, are not merely another church or some new church, but a restoration of the original religion of Christ. They are not religious innovators or inventors of strange new doctrines, but the restorers of the ancient Jesus way. They are restoring every neglected truth taught and practiced by the church in the days of the apostles.
If you knew which church Jesus Christ would unite with if He lived in your city, as He lived in Palestine 1900 years ago, would you unite with it? Jesus has not changed. Is it not clear that if He live here today He would take His stand with these people who teach and practice what He taught then?
In the West Point cadet’s prayer there is a sentence that says, “Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never be content with a half truth, when the whole can be won.” O how people need to apply this when confronted with these steps Christ has left for us to follow!
Love makes difficult things easy. Jesus declares that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). When we love Him we find real happiness in doing what He asks us to do.
Jesus expects us to follow His requirements all the way. When He washed the feet of His disciples before He inaugurated the Lord’s Supper, Peter at first refused to have Jesus wash his feet. He said: “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Jesus told him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me” John 13:8. Then Peter quickly agreed to have the Master wash his feet. But note, if Peter had persisted in his refusal, it would have cost him eternal life. We cannot afford to refuse to have Jesus do with us as He wills, or to withhold obedience to any of His biddings. When we love Jesus with all our heart, we will follow Him all the way.
I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO TELL YOU
How do we become “in Christ” so we can become this brand new creation, this brand new person? The answer is that we repent of our sins and we ask Jesus to come live in our heart—in other words, we ask the unlimited, glorified, risen Jesus Christ to come live inside our inner man and His Spirit becomes intimately joined and one with our spirit (John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 6:17). His eternal life brings our dead spirit alive. Asking Jesus to come live in our heart is such a simple act but the consequences are of eternal importance. The risen Jesus lives in us and reveals Himself to us in the most intimate interpersonal way possible.
When we invite Jesus into our heart, He enters our very being through the presence and powerof the Holy Spirit. The act of asking Jesus into our heart is, in and of itself, a very simple action. But this simple act is of lifechanging, awesome, momentous significance because of WHO we are asking to come in.
In our book on GRACE (available free to those who request it from this ministry), we saw that grace is the free gift of the very life of God Himself, which He places inside of us. We also saw that the content of grace is the very inner life of Jesus Christ that God places within us, so that what went on inside of Jesus in terms of His love, faith, and intimacy with the Father is placed inside of us—so we can experience the very inner life that Jesus shared with the Father. We enjoy spiritual intimacy with both Jesus and the Father.
We read about Jesus as the Eternal Word in John 1:4—”In Him [Jesus] was life [zoe] and the life was the light of men.” We later read in 1 John 5:10-12: The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
In other words, God Almighty gives His own eternal life into the hearts of those who believe in His Son Jesus. If we believe in Jesus as the Son of God, we have eternal life and everything eternal or divine life contains. If we don’t believe in Jesus as Son of God, then we simply do not have true, divine, everlasting life in our spirit. The Apostle Peter tells us the exact same thing: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2 Peter 1:2-4)
In the Gospel of John, Chapter 16, we see Jesus on the night before His crucifixion telling His disciples something very important: I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. (John 16:12-14)
What an interesting statement. Jesus said, “I have so much more to tell you.” I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO TELL YOU—but you wouldn’t understand it right now. Only when I send the Holy Spirit after My resurrection will you understand it. Jesus was painfully aware of how limited He was in His ability to communicate to His disciples while He walked on this earth in His human body. In spite of those limitations, He was awesome in what He actually did communicate—but He knew there was so much more, so much more. He had so much inside of Him that He wanted to give to us, but it could only be put in us through the Holy Spirit. We see a HINT of that glory inside of Jesus being revealed before His death and resurrection in the incident known as the TRANSFIGURATION (Luke 9:28-35).
When Jesus went to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John, we read that Jesus began to shine like the sun—the hidden riches of glory within Him began to break through the very pores of His skin and be manifest for a moment. After His death and resurrection, Jesus was glorified and the riches and depths of His inner person was turned loose, and, through the Holy Spirit, the inner heart of Jesus could become intimately invited with the inner heart of anyone inviting Him into their heart. All the riches and power of Jesus’ inner self could be revealed in the most intimate depth to the heart that opens to Him.
In other words, we each can have a closer, more intimate spiritual relationship with Jesus than even two people who have had the best marriage on earth. Some marriages are beautiful and excellent and the man and woman get to know each other as well as any two persons can get to know each other. But even in the best marriage, there is still a point beyond which even the deepest human intimacy cannot go. In our relationship with Jesus, however, there need be absolutely NO barrier to full interpersonal intimacy.
Even in everyday relationships, we may get to know each other well, but we don’t know each other 24 hours a day. With Jesus, it’s different because of His inner perfection. To have His inner perfection abiding in us at all times is our life and our strength.
Some people wish they had been alive when Jesus walked the earth, so they could have seen Him. The truth is, we know Jesus far better NOW through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit than we ever could have known Him when He walked the earth in His limited physical body. We even know Jesus better now than His own Apostles knew Him before His resurrection and the Day of Pentecost.
The life of Jesus within us saves us from the four major consequences of sin. The Greek word for sin is hamartia—it means to miss the bulls-eye or target. Sin is also, first and foremost, the breaking of man’s covenant with God back in Genesis 3. Through Adam, all of us had a covenant with GOD— He gave us life and existence and we, in turn, were to love and serve Him.
The sin of Adam and our own sinful nature is a rejection of God’s love and care. And we suffer consequences.
1) Sin is punished—Sin is a rejection of God and brings separation from God, the Source of spiritual life and all other kinds of life. Romans 3:23 tells us the wages of sin is death. Jesus, on the other hand, gives us the free gift of life—the sharing of God’s own everlasting, eternal life.
2 Sin destroys our ability to love—Every sin is a negation of love. Every sin is a rejection of God who is love. All of our inabilities to love are always the end result of sin—either our own sin or someone else’s sin against us. But Jesus within us restores our ability to love. (Read 1 John 3:14-16.)
3) Sin is slavery—Regardless of the sin, we are trapped by it—it controls us, we lack our freedom. Sin, either one time or a habit, is an evil act that controls our will. In John 8:34-36, Jesus stated that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, but He, Jesus, sets people free indeed, or really free. The power of the risen Christ within us restores our self-control.
4) Sin results in loneliness and anxiety—The first result of the very first sin ever committed by a human, Adam, was broken fellowship and fear. When God came to fellowship with Adam, Adam hid. When God asked Him why He hid, Adam said, “I was afraid.” That broken fellowship was the origin of all loneliness and alienation in the world. The fear was the origin of all anxiety and stress. Jesus, however, restores our fellowship with God and with each other through the cross and He reestablishes peace and security in our heart.
Our spiritual life boils down to a very simple either/or reality. Either Jesus is in our heart and we have eternal life and all that eternal life brings with it—OR, Jesus is not in our heart and we have spiritual death within us and all that spiritual death brings. My personal question to you is:
“What’s In Your Heart?”
THE FOURFOLD MIND OF CHRIST
In Philippians 2;5 the Apostle Paul tells us to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. In Romans 11:34, Paul asks, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” But in 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul answers that question by stating, “but we have the mind of Christ.” What can we learn from scripture about the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ? Can we develop from scripture a psychological profile of Jesus and the inner motivations that inspired His actions?
In the Gospel of Mark 1:14-15, Jesus of Nazareth went around preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand; the Kingdom of God was near. He was calling all people to enter this Kingdom by an act of repentance—the act of turning their lives around and going toward God instead of going away from God.
Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was the realm where God ruled with GODauthority. Mankind, through its own sin and willful rejection of God existed in a realm of suffering and brokenness. Mankind had created its own mess. God, however, because of His love and mercy was offering all people everywhere the opportunity to enter His Kingdom where they would be forgiven, redeemed, restored, healed, liberated, and made whole.
Jesus called to all people to enter this Kingdom of God that was now breaking through into human history through His ministry. Jesus warned that there would be a day of judgment when God the Father would destroy the systems of this world that had brought sin and suffering and He would also judge those who lived by that world system, and then God’s rule would be absolute. Now was the time to turn to God who would bring healing and wholeness. Jesus proclaimed Himself as God the Father’s absolute messenger and also as the agent who would bring this Kingdom into fullness in history (John 14:6). The proclaiming of God’s Kingdom was the driving force in the life and ministry of Jesus.
There’s often a lot of preaching and teaching about the mind of Christ. We are told to have the mind of Christ. As we look at Jesus and we search the scriptures for the mindset of Christ, looking, as it were, for a psychological profile of Jesus, we can, I believe, see four foundational principles that made up Jesus’ mindset. This should be our mindset also.
1) THE ABBA EXPERIENCE of Jesus—In His human consciousness, the first, foremost and overriding experience of Jesus was His constant abiding consciousness of God as His Father. Jesus always used the familiar term “abba” or “daddy” rather than the formal “ab” or “father” when He spoke of God. In fact, Jesus’ body had been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. Throughout all the levels of Jesus’ human psyche, He had a conscious, subconscious and unconscious sense of perfect fellowship with God His Father. In Luke 2:49 we read that at 12 years old, entering puberty and adult consciousness, Jesus told Mary and Joseph in the Temple at Jerusalem that He was about His Father’s business in His Father’s house. God the Father Himself confirmed Jesus’ sonship by actually speaking in an audible voice at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River and later on the Mount of Transfiguration, that Jesus was His beloved Son in whom He was well-pleased. The bedrock of Jesus’ psyche, or mind, was His absolute confidence and trust in the Father and that all He (Jesus) said and did was approved of and commissioned by the Father.
2) THE KENOSIS EXPERIENCE of Jesus—Kenosis is the Greek word meaning “emptying” and has the sense of freely laying aside one’s rightful higher status in order to serve others for their benefit. (Read Philippians 2:5- 9.) Secure in the Father’s love, Jesus could act in human history without any need for ego-reinforcement and He did not need self-validation from any human source, because the love and fellowship of the Father was the absolute validation of His human personality. Jesus’ psychological freedom enabled Him to serve and minister to others and even forgive those who wronged Him and minister in this self-emptying mode with perfection. As a result, both the love of God (agape) and the power of God (dunamis) could flow through Him perfectly. Jesus was intensely aware of His role as the Servant of God prophesied in the Book of Isaiah. His statements in the Gospels about Himself as the Son of Man pointed to His lordship as a lordship of service and love for the Father and for others. Even in the parable of the unworthy servant who does all he is told without expecting a reward (Luke 17:5-10), Jesus is primarily referring to His own example of ministry and service.
3) THE LAW OF SOWING AND REAPING—The third active principle in the mind of Jesus of Nazareth was the constant awareness of the law of sowing and reaping. Every thought, word and action is a seed which produces a harvest. Every thought, word and consequencesthat are greater than the thought, word or action itself. This law was established by God in the act of creation in Genesis. Everything physically reproduces through a seed. This is also true in the spiritual and psychological realms of life. Sowing and reaping is the very essence of creative power in the Kingdom of God. Jesus often preached and taught about the law of sowing and reaping. The Apostle Paul, later in the New Testament, also framed many teachings in the context of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7- 9; 2 Corinthians 9:6-11).
4) THE ALPHA SEED AND THE OMEGA HARVEST—In other words, Jesus was always intensely aware in His mind that every act of His earthly life was a seed that would produce a glorified harvest for eternity. For example, He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey, but He will return to earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords riding a majestic white horse. He called His church a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14); the eternal city of the New Jerusalem is on a high mountain (Revelation 21:10). In His earthly ministry, He ministered to multitudes of sick, hurting, hungry people.
In Revelation 7:9-17, we see a multitude around His throne in heaven, redeemed by His blood, who enjoy eternal blessings and they will never hurt or hunger again. Jesus also told us that our lives have this same importance and that in and through Him we are “alpha seeds” who will have an “omega harvest” - “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth… But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 5:19-21). His Apostles left all to follow Him and their names are on the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). Most important, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous, obedient life as the Alpha Seed so that in the resurrection, His Omega Harvest of eternal perfect righteousness could be imparted to each one of us who accept Him into our heart.
We are told to have “the mind of Christ.” To have the mind of Christ, we must have the Person of Christ. That comes by our saying “Yes” to the decision Jesus originally proclaimed, “Repent and turn to God, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
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