THE WORD OF GOD VS TRADITIONS OF MAN

Wayne D. Leeper

Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:  “This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.  In vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  Jesus, Mark 7:6-7

    We look at all the problems facing our world today and often ask the question, “What has happened to bring about all the problems that we face as individuals and as a nation.  I believe Jesus gave the answer almost two thousand years age when instructing the Pharisees and scribes concerning their teachings.

    This attitude was brought home to me a few days ago in an internet discussion with a adherent of the Catholic faith.  He told me that reading the Bible was like looking into she sun.  If one tries to do it they will be blinded.  The only way to understand the Bible, according to him, was to have it explained to you be a scholar who had studied it.  Therefore, according to him, a persons beliefs and understanding of the Bible must come from another person and not the individual them self.

    Lets follow this reasoning to its ultimate conclusion.  If “reading the Bible” blinds a person just as looking into the sun does, then the “scholar” who looks at the Bible must of necessity be blinded by it.  That being the case, why is one who is blinded to the truths of scripture be leading another in understanding those truths.  This is indeed a case of the blind leading the blind. 

    Unfortunately, too many people, Catholic and Protestant, basic subscribe to this belief.  All too often we listen to the priest, rabbi, or preacher to tell us what the Bible says.  This in itself would be bad enough but we go even farther in ignoring their admonition in favor of setting our own standard of morals and conduct.  We, in effect, become a god unto ourselves.

    Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, recently stated that Democrats are going to have to start talking more about moral and family values.  What he, along with his followers, fail to understand is that moral and family values are not something to be talked about, but something to be lived.  

    The main problem with America, and the world is that we have become a people who have deserted the Bible based faith of our founders and have replaced it with a moral code of our own choosing.  In the name of diversity and tolerance we have accepted abortion, gay rights, pornography, false religions and every other immoral concept that has been devised in the heart of man.  We say, “To each his own,” and go merrily on our way then wonder why our nation and world is in the condition that it is in.

    The fact of the matter is that there is a God who oversees the affairs of men and nations.  This was true of Israel of the Old Testament and it true of the nations of the world today.  As a Bible oriented, moral and family value respecting nation we have become the greatest nation on the face of the earth.  This was also true of Old Testament Israel.  But like Israel, we have forsaken the commandments of God in favor of the traditions of man.  Is there any reason that we should not expect the same fate that befell Israel when they deserted the teachings of God.

    It is time that America woke up and turned back to the faith and values that have made us great and condemn the immoral practices being legally practiced  in our nation today.  If we choose to live as heathens we cannot expect the blessings of the God of righteousness.