Do You Know "Enough" Bible?

by Charles E. Murray

A little girl, being asked by a priest to attend religious instruction, refused, saying it was against her father's wishes. The priest said she should obey him, not her father. "Oh, Sir! We are taught in the Bible to 'Honor thy father and thy mother,'" she replied. "But you are to call me 'Father'," was his answer, to which she replied, "No, for the scriptures say, 'Call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father, which is in heaven.'"

The priest was not anxious to lose a religious discussion to one so young and he said, "You have no business reading the Bible." "Then why did Jesus tell me to 'Search the scriptures?'" she asked. He replied by saying, "But that is only to the clergy. You understand that a little child cannot know the scriptures." "Then why," she asked, "did Paul write to Timothy, 'From a little child thou hast known the Holy scriptures'?"

Surely there was some way to get the best of this young upstart. The priest said, "Timothy was being trained to be a bishop and he was taught by the church authorities." "No sir," said the little girl. "He was taught by his mother and grandmother. At least that's what Paul wrote."

The priest turned away and someone said they heard him mumbling, "She knew enough Bible to poison a whole parish."

I recently copied this little story from an Internet E-mail that someone sent to me. There are several very good lessons to be learned from this.

First, the Word of God, the scripture, is the "poison" with which error can be destroyed. Jesus prayed to the Father, "Sanctify them in truth, Thy word is truth." (John 17:17) Truth is the only thing that will make men free from error and sin (John 8:32). The problem is, however, that many people do not study the Bible to know the truth revealed therein. Many people blindly follow what men teach without putting their doctrines to the test. John taught that we are not to believe every spirit, "but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (I John 4:1)

Do you know why many people call a priest "Father?" It is because they do not know that the Bible forbids our calling any man on earth by the religious title of "Father." Do you know why men believe that they cannot understand the scriptures but must depend upon the "clergy" to explain the Bible? They do not know that the Bible teaches that we are to "Search the scriptures" and we are to "Study" the Bible in order to "rightly divide the word."

Do you know why many people believe that all a person has to do to be saved is to "Accept Christ as a personal savior?" It is because they have never read the scripture that says "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16), or "Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins." (Acts 22:16)

Do you know why many believe that once a person is saved they can never be lost? It is because they have listened to a preacher rather than studying passages like Hebrews 4:1, which says, "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering into His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to come short of it." Or maybe they are unaware that the Bible says, "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." (Hebrews 3:12)

Why do so many people use instruments of music in worship assemblies? It is because they are unaware that only singing is authorized in the New Testament (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).

Why do so many baptize their babies? They are unaware that the Bible teaches that only believers can be baptized (Acts 8: 36,37). They also do not know that scriptural baptism is spoken of as a "burial" (Romans 6: 3-7). People baptize their young children because they are told to do so by a false teacher. They have never read what the Bible says in James chapter one: "But each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." (verses 14,15) Those who believe that babies are born guilty of sin have probably never read what God said through Ezekiel the prophet: "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him." (Ezekiel 18: 20).

Do you know why so many people think that it doesn't make any difference what you believe as long as you are sincere? It is because they have listened to men and not God. They are not aware that the Bible teaches that God is coming in flaming fire to take "vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thessalonians 1: 8, 9)

Do you know why many believe that just as long as you believe in Christ and confess Him as Lord, you are saved? It is because they do not know what Jesus said: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

Why do people tell you that it doesn't matter which church you join? It is because they are ignorant of the fact that we do not "join" the "church of our choice," but the saved are "added to the church by the Lord." (Acts 2:47) In fact, many people are unaware that there is only one church mentioned in the New Testament (Ephesians 1:22, 23; Ephesians 4:4-6).

Many do not know that the name of their denomination is not found in the New Testament, but that one of the terms used for the church that honors Christ is "the churches of Christ" (Romans 16:16).

This list could go on and on. Many people believe what they do because they have never stopped to consider if what they believe is found in the word of God! Many people, believing that they cannot understand the Bible, rely only upon man's interpretation. They do not know that the Bible says, "know this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation." (2 Peter 1:20)

Friend, the little fictitious story that began this study, teaches a very important lesson. We must know what God's Word teaches. We do not have the option of believing anything we want to. We do not have the choice of churches to join. We do not have the privilege of worshiping God anyway we choose. We do not have a choice of how we are going to be saved. We must obey God! Our obedience must be to the truth, as Peter expressed it, "since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth…" (I Peter 1:22) We cannot call men "father" and bestow upon them oreligious titles such as "reverend." The Bible forbids this.

Most religious error is believed because people just don't know any differently. They have not taken the time to put the doctrine to the test. They have simply relied upon the judgment and understanding of men to tell them what God wants. This is dangerous. Not all religious teachers teach the truth. There have always been false prophets and false teachers. In both the Old and the New Testaments, God warns about those who corrupt his word with false doctrines. Paul issued this warning: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:6,7)

We need more people like the little girl in our story, who "knows enough Bible to poison" the error that exists today in the religious world.

Friend, what about you? Have you been deceived by religious error because you do not have a good knowledge of the Scriptures? In the day of judgment, when we all stand before God to give an account of our lives, do you know who is going to be responsible for what we believed? That's right. We are! Each individual will be judged as an individual. It may be true that the person who taught us error will be judged for that, but the sobering truth is that each one of us will be held accountable for what we believed and practiced religiously.

The salvation of your soul depends upon what you believe. Test the teachers; test the doctrine; test what you believe by the word of God. If your mind has been "poisoned" with religious error, the antidote is the word of God. Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation." (Romans 1:16)

Have you obeyed the gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 1:22; Matthew 7:21)? If not, do so while you have opportunity. You must: Believe that Jesus is the son of God (Hebrews 11:6); Repent of past sins (Luke 13:3, 5); Confess that you believe Jesus Christ is the son of God (Acts 8:37); Be buried in baptism for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16).