Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (Colossians 2:6-8, NASB)

Rejecting Sola Scriptura For The New Traditions Of Men

Here’s Colossians 2:8 once again from the King James Version — Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Now let’s look at what Jesus Himself had to say to the religious leaders of His Own day:

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! (Mark 7:6-9)

Can you see these are almost identical words to those we read in Colossians 2:8? But let’s stop and think here for a minute. Isaiah originally spoke these words quoted by Jesus here in Mark 7 to the people of his own time, did he not? Then it becomes obvious that this kind of “junk worship” was also going on in Isaiah’s time as well. Let me share something that you may wish to take to the Lord in prayer. I find it interesting to look at how Scripture shows us Adam and Eve are in the Garden with God in the beginning.

So, for instance, they would have initially known exactly what God’s triune nature is like; they were able to be in His presence prior to the fall. However, by only the sixth chapter of Genesis we read — And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth (v.7). A Being of pure Love is so grieved with mankind that He is going to destroy them. But this Truth doesn’t fit very well with the wishful musings in the new traditions of men. And it doesn’t because these traditions, like their mush god of love itself, are fantasy—i.e. myth.

In fact, it’s actually the rotten fruit of the seeker sensitive man-centered evangelical preaching, about which, men like A.W. Tozer began trying to warn the Body of Christ even by the late 1940’s. And it may also be the beginning of the final fulfillment of the absolute truth of this prophesy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 — For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

And since I have no desire to be found among these spiritual “knuckleheads,” then I am constrained to speak the Truth in love as I point these things out to you. You see, I must speak in the love I have been given for my God Who saved me—as does every true doulos of Christ—regardless of how any human beings perceive it. That, we must leave to the LORD God Almighty Himself; because the pastor-teacher’s job is spelled out very clearly in Holy Scripture, just one verse prior to those we just looked at above from 2 Timothy — Preach the Word.

The word “preach” in the original Greek there is keryxon, from keryx; and literally means to announce, to proclaim, as a herald. So we have the image here of the old “Town Criers” going through the city proclaiming their messages. And Dr. Ralph Earle is absolutely correct in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary when he says — “The preacher is not to air his own opinions but to proclaim God’s eternal, authoritative Word of truth.” Since this is a classic commentary set, it’s not as if evangelical preachers have lacked this information; and James 3:1 shows they will be held accountable for it.

As I have shared before, when he was asked why it was that he quotes Scripture copiously when he preaches and doesn’t give more of his own opinions Dr. John MacArthur gave a great answer. And no, I don’t agree with everything MacArthur teaches, but he is a great expositor of the Word whose reply is dead-on-target: “God’s opinion is my opinion.” In our day of tepid and timid tolerance, where the rejection of Sola Scriptura has led to accelerating apostasy—even within mainstream evangelicalism—may it be so among us that we loudly proclaim God’s opinion, the Word, as our own.

See also:

MEANINGLESS OFFERINGS AND CHRIST’S RETURN

ARE YOU WILLING TO TELL THE TRUTH?

NO-CONTROVERSY FOR THE NEW DOWNGRADE

THE COMING DIVISION WITHIN THE IDOL OF EVANGELICALISM

EVANGELICALISM HIGHJACKED BY CLOSET THEOLOGICAL LIBERALS

HAS GOD ABANDONED EVANGELICALISM?

FOR EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY OUT GOES THE BIBLE AND IN COMES “QUEER CHRISTIANS”