Sunday, March 28, 2010

What's the Standard?

"What we believe determines how we live. Men who sincerely believed that what they were doing was right have perpetrated many of the most hideous crimes against humanity. Again, the recent events in France serve as a clear example of this fact. Almost all people believe they are living good and moral lives. Yet the measure their lives against some subjective criteria without realizing that vice is often the product of ignorance or error. Such people often lack the ability to distinguish right from wrong or truth from error.

This is one reason why the diligent study of the Bible is so important. It is here that God has given us the instruction we need to be able to tell right from wrong and truth from error. Without understanding its principles and precepts, we become victims of our own subjectivity. How profitable is subjectivity if our conscience has been seared, our heart hardened, and our mind blinded to all moral distinctions?

An authentic faith requires an honesty of mind, the consistent use of the means of knowledge and instructions, the humility that fosters a desire to be instructed, and unprejudiced conclusion about what this inquiry reveals. If we approach the study of the Bible this way, God fulfills His promises. If we seek and keep on seeking, we will find; if we ask and keep on asking, we will receive; if we knock and keep on knocking, the door to truth will be opened. How can we refuse an offer like this?

Yet such opportunity is accompanied by responsibility. If we have settled for cultural Christianity and remained ignorant or unresponsive to authentic faith, what kind of justification will we be able to give to God?"
-William Wilberforce in his incredible book Real Christianity

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