Thoughtful and sincere people have disagreements with each other. This is true in every walk of life and religion/the church is no exception. Honest people can read the Bible and come away with two opposing opinions about what was said. Does that mean that they were both right? No. Were they both wrong? Maybe. The problem is likely that they are using very different standards/measures of authority. I want to use this space in the bulletin to talk about the very important topic of Biblical Authority.

     First of all, we need authority in the home, school, business, or the nation. Weights and measurements are established by some sort of authority. If we are going to have any kind of order in our lives, we must have some authority by which we do things. For example, if you went to the butcher and asked for a pound of beef, you would be quite upset if the butcher decided to give you half a pound instead and even more so if he charged you for two pounds. If you agreed to buy something for $50, and when you tried to pay for it, the seller demanded $100, claiming $50 and $100 were all the same, you would think he had lost his mind. In other words, we depend on some sort of authority for practically everything we do. We just cannot get by without some kind of authority in our lives!

     From a biblical standpoint, we learn that one of the worse times in the history of Israel was when God's people had no respect for His standard of authority. In Judges 21:25, the scriptures say, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Incidentally, could this be the reason for all the division in the religious world today? Could it be that all the denominations are simply doing what is right in their own eyes? This is extremely unfortunate because the Bible says that Christians ought to "all speak the same thing" and "to be of the same mind and the same opinion" (I Corinthians 1:10 ff), and that we should all walk by the same rule (Philippians 3:16).

   In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says that many would be rejected at the judgment because of iniquity or lawlessness. In 2 John 9-11, the apostle says: "Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that bids him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." In other words, walking outside the rules that the Lord has set up for us will send us to hell! This is consistent with what we know about God's dealing with man in the Old Testament. God rejected Cain's offering and killed Nadab and Abihu because their offerings were outside of His authority (Gen 4 and Lev 10).

     Next week we hope to share some basic principles that might help us all learn to establish biblical authority so we can be of the same mind and opinion on biblical issues.

Bro. Eli