Authorities

I believe in authorities. We should follow them without question. My authorities are The Bible, and Jesus Himself. The writers of the Bible wrote it in the power of the Holy Spirit. These are my authorities.

What about interpretations and interpretors? To me, they are not authorities. They are all suspect. They can be useful, but the final guide to truth is the Bible itself.

I just watched a program about a horrible airplane disaster. It happened because there was a conflict of instructions to the pilots. The lone flight controller, acting with faulty equipment, gave one set of instructions; the on-board instruments gave opposite ones. The pilot followed the controller instead of his instruments and all aboard died. In looking at the mentality of the Russian pilots, one analyst said that he had a mind set to obey human authority, and ignore the proper actions given by his instruments.

I thought of the church and of my father. He was a believer in authorities over the plain Word of God. In this instance, I am like my rebellious mother. She felt that things around her were wrong, as I do. She often went against the flow. Each day proves that she was right.

Test your authorities. If you take a commonly held belief, and look it up, you can listen to the "authorities" disagree. Faulty translations and erronius teachers abound.

The solution is to seek God's word in its pure form. Check out every mention of a word or doctrine in the Bible. It is very rewarding. While religious controllers argue and give conflicting advice, your perfect instrument will never let you down.