The Plumb Line

    I am sure you will want to follow this new series I am starting up. I am planning to look at some doctrinal basics. I will be sharing my story with you as I do so. I just don't see how a person can talk about doctrine and not share some of his story.

     As I have said, I started out life as a baptized Roman Catholic. I had no choice in the matter. I was born into a Catholic family, my father being the Roman Catholic and my mother having to sign  a piece of paper stating that I was going to be raised as a Roman Catholic.

     Upon baptism, a sprinkling as a baby, I was washed away of my guilt I had inherited from Adam. God thus was free to pour out grace to me.From that moment I was on my own to keep myself sinless, my soul scrubbed from the stain I still carried , and if I sinned, which all do and will, I had the Catholic Church to fall back on. They would give me an education and the way to obtain this grace.

      But that is not found in the Bible.

      So the first doctrine I want to look at is the Bible. What is it? Is it trustworthy and how can we know? What makes it different than other books?
       First off, the 66 books are God's communication. Francis Schafffer has said that God is not silent. It is supernatural in origin. God, the Holy Spirit, moved on the people He used to write it, and made sure that what they wrote had no error. God breathed out the Scripture. Holy Men of God wrote down what they heard. True. He wants to communicate. He communicated through people who wrote it down and preserved
      It is the instruction book on life and how to have a personal and everlasting relationship with the Creator God.
     As a book it has endured for thousands of years. Yet as you read it it seems so up to date. It can be applied to things today. It doesn't seem dated. Archeology has found proof for many cities mentioned in the Bible that people in the past have said didn't exist. New discoveries are  proving facts that were under dispute years ago. The prophecies of the Bible came true. Well, there are still some that need to be fulfilled. But all the prophicies pertaining to the coming Messiah, the first time, as the suffering servant, came true. And the Jewish people are still here. The Bible said they would be.
      The Bible also convicts people of sin and shows the way of pardon. It is not through belonging to the right church or being baptized as a baby. That viewpoint is held by the Roman Catholic church: Not the Bible.
      Arthur Pink summerized in his book The Divine Inspirartion of The Bible : "The Bible is the book to live by and the book to die by. Therefore read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy."
      I will be looking at Bible reading in another post.
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