Wednesday In The Wordhath God Said

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Genesis 3:1-3I wonder how often we still twist the Word of God today to try and make it say what we want it to say instead of what it really says. I'm afraid lots more often than we want to realize! In Genesis 3:1-3 Eve and Satan in the form of a serpent were having a conversation. Both of them "said" they were quoting God but in reality, neither one of them were. What God actually said is found in Genesis 2:16-17..."And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest ther thou shalt surely die." Satan claimed that God said Adam and Eve could not eat fruit from any of the trees. Eve claimed God said they could eat from all but one and that if they did eat the fruit...or even touch the tree...they would die. It's so very easy to get things mixed up even when we are trying to keep them straight! Ever play the "gossip game"? That's where you have one person whisper a statement to the next person then that person does the same and so on down the line. The person at the end of the line says what he heard. It's never ever the same as what the first person said! I used to have my 1st through 3rd grade Sunday school classes play it whenever I wanted to show them the importance of the written word. If something is written down, then you can go back to it if you forget. If you are relying only on talk then it can often times be unreliable. That's why we should be so very thankful that we have the Bible...God's written Word! But are there still many people reading the Word of God? And if so, is His Word being misquoted or twisted? According to many sources that I read or hear the answer to my last question would be yes. Let's just look at a few of the Ten Commandments. Hath God said, "Thou shalt not kill"? (Ex.20:13) Yes He did. Then should not abortion be wrong? And yet there are some who would argue that abortion is an exception to the rule. Hath God said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery"? (Ex. 20:14) Yes He did. And yet a large percent of our adult population does not see anything wrong with living together before they are married. Some couples even think they have God's blessing on such a union. Not so. Hath God said, "Thou shalt not steal"? (Ex. 20:15)Yes He did. But some would say that it's no big deal. Sort of a "take from the rich-give to the poor Robin Hood philosophy" that is beginning to be popular.Maybe you're saying, "I have never killed anyone and I have never committed adultery so I'm doing all right!" O.K. Let's move on to the New Testament. Matthew 5:21-22 and 27-28 will address this. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council:but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."...."Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt no commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." How often do we blot these verses out of our minds? Is that not akin to changing the Word of God?I know I'm guilty of not wanting to stand accountable for obeying all the do's and don'ts of the Bible. Sometimes I just want to be disobedient and self-willed. And sometimes I am. And always when that happens I wish I had not been! Just as I'm very sure that Eve often wished that she had not listened to Satan the serpent!"God hath said" so many important things in Scripture and we need to be reading and learning all we can while we can. Search the Word and find out for yourself what is true and what is a lie of Satan.God bless you!Marilyn

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Inclusiva Scriptura

NEOLOGISMS FOR NEOEVANGELICALS

INCLUSIVA SCRIPTURA [in-kloo'-siv-uh] [skriptr' uh]

[inclusiva: c.1600, from M.L. inclusivus, from L. inclus-, pp. stem of includere (see include); equivalent to Latin inclus (us) (see incluse) + -ivus -ive] [Scriptura: 1250-1300; Middle English and Latin scriptura writing. See script, -ure]

* Belief in an open canon, as opposed to a closed canon, as the word of God. The canonical biblical text plus anything else. See Plura Scriptura.
* Disbelief in, disavowal, disregard, discounting, disparagement of, and deconstruction of the Bible on the one hand, while on the other, investing alternative "sacred texts, inspired" stories and/or personal revelations with divine authority.
* Supplementing the Bible with "sacred" writings considered to be of equal or superior spiritual value to the Holy Bible. Genres of writings invested with divine authority include: apocryphal, pseudepigraphical and Gnostic writings; ancient mythologies, folklore and legends; astrological and zodiacal imagery; science fiction (UFOs, alien visitations, etc.); magical and alchemical writings; psychological (Jungian), anthropological, sociological and philosophical writings; scientific and pseudo-scientific theories; the writings of various mystics; oracles and ghost stories of spiritualism; the Mayan calendar; Masonic lore; inspirational literature; modern speculative writings including fairy tales, poetry and fiction, and other quasi-spiritual sources.
* For reason of making the Bible culturally relevant, revising, altering, adding to and deleting from the biblical text by incorporating new language and terminology into new translations thus redefining and confusing the plain meaning of Holy Scripture. See Nebula Scriptura.
* A belief in the evolution of human spirituality necessitating that the biblical text (Truth) must also change by incorporating evolving human discoveries of "spirituality."
* Downgrading the supremacy of the canonical-biblical text in all matters that pertain to life and godliness (1 Peter 1:3), while deriving spiritual inspiration from alternative sources of "spirituality."
* Downgrading the necessity of obedience to the canonical-biblical text (1 Pet. 4:17), while investing with divine authority other sources of spirituality and novelly applying their ideas to the Christian faith.
* Belief in open and inclusive rule of faith which sends the understanding of the traditional canon into chaos. The canon in chaos.
* The development of new doctrines, theories and practices based upon the teachings of extra-canonical sources.

SYNONYMS: Open Scripture; Inclusive Canonicity.

COGNATE INFLUENCES: New Revelations, Syncretic Faith, Experiences in the Occult.

EXAMPLES:

"EXTRA-BIBLICAL REVELATION. Some object to the notion that God communicates directly with us, supposing that everything that God wanted to reveal He revealed in the Bible. This cannot be true, however, because there is nothing in the Bible that says it has 66 books. It actually took God a couple of hundred years to reveal to the church which writings should be included in the Bible and which should not. That is extra-biblical revelation. Even so, Catholics and Protestants still disagree on the number. Beyond that, I believe that prayer is two way, we speak to God and expect Him to speak with us. We can hear God's voice. He also reveals new things to prophets as we have seen. The one major rule governing any new revelation from God is that it cannot contradict what has already been written in the Bible. It may supplement it, however."(C. Peter Wagner, letter dated August 19, 2011)

"DEAD RELIGION"All religions, at one point or another in their evolution tried to proclaim their single, inerrant consistency. All religions even the most liberal, were tempted by the reactionary impulse to freeze faith in place. Because as jesus teaches, it's easy to be threatened by the reality of the complicated, messy, syncretic, God-bearing truth that becomes incarnate among us and makes things new. We'd rather have a dead religion than a living God."(Sarah Miles, "Jesus Freak. MINemergent: A Daily Communique," The Emergent Village, February, 2, 2012)

Adapted from www.dictionary.com

NOTE: This post is authored by several members of the Discernment Research Group, including Pastor Larry DeBruyn and Sarah Leslie, along with Pastor Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries. This is part of a joint project to develop a descriptive vocabulary for the new doctrines, practices and heresies of the emerging evangelical church.This post is also HERE.

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