Why do Christians believe what they believe? It’s because they believe Jesus Christ and what He said in the Holy Bible, right?
Look into it! Have the courage to blow the dust off your Bible. You will find that Christians believe many things that are the opposite of what the Bible says!
The word Christian implies a follower of Christ. Yet Christians are following traditions and customs—practices that are very different from those Jesus Christ followed.
Don’t believe me. Don’t believe traditional Christians. Believe the only reliable source of information regarding Jesus Christ and His teachings: the Holy Bible.
Scripture is given by the inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16). Teachings, traditions and customs have no authority compared to the Word of God. The Bible was divinely inspired through 40 authors over the course of roughly 1,500 years with a single, consistent, beautiful message.
This is the most important book there is, and God gave it to us as an instruction manual. Yet even those who say they believe the Bible don’t read much of it! They don’t know it, don’t believe it, and don’t obey it.
Jesus Christ Himself warned against this. In Luke 6:46, He asked many of His supposed followers, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
John 8:31-32 record, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
The New Testament, including the words of Christ Himself, repeatedly warns against not only false religion but false Christianity specifically—people who claim to follow Christ but who do not follow the Bible (e.g. Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24; Luke 21:8; 2 Corinthians 11:13; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1; Revelation 16:13). There are not many true prophets, but rather many false prophets.
But here is Christ’s promise to you: “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6:47-48).
Those who don’t hear and do are building on sand! (verse 49). Their faith might look good, but they are deceiving themselves (James 1:22). False Christians are guilty of worshiping a false Christ and interpreting the Bible to match their beliefs, rather than the other way around.
You need to get into the Bible! Put the Bible to the test. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 challenges you, “Prove all things …”! 2 Timothy 2:15 urges you to work at it: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Acts 17 describes true Christians as those who “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (verse 11).
How to be a Christian is not up to you. It is defined by God’s commands in the Bible. You must look into the Bible. You must search the Scriptures daily. Study the Bible every day.
How do you go about that? How can you make this a principle you live by? The most important thing is to start today. “Blow the dust off your Bible,” as Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, and begin to read it—each day.
Christ said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). You can only live by these words of God if you read them, study them and understand them.
Work at it! Take on that workman-like attitude, dig into the Bible, search the Scriptures, and you will be amazed at the truths they open up to you. You will be stunned by how many “Christian” teachings and traditions conflict with what you read. There is an avalanche of information about Jesus, but if it’s not based on Scripture, it is futile.
Mr. Armstrong emphasized that the Bible is hard to understand. In fact, you cannot understand it on your own! It’s like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, with the related pieces scattered “here a little and there a little” (Isaiah 28:10; see also Daniel 12:9-10; Proverbs 25:2; Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7-14; Matthew 13:10-11; John 16:12).
To understand the Bible, you need to approach it with an attitude willing to be reproved, corrected and instructed (2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12).
And you need God’s help! Like Jesus explaining His parables specifically to His disciples but not to everyone else, God can and must help you understand His Word.
The Holy Bible is the Word of God. Humble yourself. Open your Bible. Read it. Study it. Work at it. Search it. Believe what you find there—over what any man or any church or any tradition says. Begin your habit of daily Bible study today.