Plain Scripture

Some issues do not need to be reasoned out—provided we believe what God has said. They are dealt with by plain Scripture. Consider well the following:

·      No Christian should put himself in a position where he is under the influence of alcohol: “let us walk becomingly; not in rioting and drunkenness … And be not drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit” (Rom. 13: 13; Eph. 5: 18).

·      Christians must avoid association with Roman Catholicism and similar idolatrous systems: “Wherefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10: 14).

·      Vegetarianism is in direct conflict with God’s Word: “But the Spirit speaks expressly, that in latter times some shall apostatise from the faith … [bidding] to abstain from meats, which God has created for receiving with thanksgiving for them who are faithful and know the truth. For every creature of God [is] good, and nothing [is] to be rejected, being received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4: 1, 3, 4).

·      One–man ministry was not practised by the first Christians: “Now there were in Antioch, in the assembly which was [there], prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting …” (Acts 13: 1, 2).

·      The death penalty is a legitimate tool of human government in NT teaching: “But if thou practisest evil, fear; for it bears not the sword in vain; for it is God’s minister, an avenger for wrath to him that does evil” (Rom. 13: 4).

·      The woman is not to usurp the place of the man ‘in church’:  “Let [your] women be silent in the assemblies, for it is not permitted to them to speak; but to be in subjection, as the law also says … for it is a shame for a woman to speak in assembly … I do not suffer a woman to teach nor to exercise authority over man, but to be in quietness” (1 Cor. 14: 34, 35; 1 Tim. 2: 12).

·      Every Christian is a priest, and has direct access into the presence of God: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the [holy of] holies by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh … To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Heb. 10: 19, 20; Rev. 1: 5, 6).

·      There is no such thing as ‘Christian’ divorce: “Every one who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery; and every one that marries one put away from a husband commits adultery” (Luke 16: 18).

·      It is impossible to believe what the Bible says about man and what evolution says about man: “And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1: 27).

·      Homosexuality is not a life–style choice but a sin: “in like manner the males also, leaving the natural use of the female, were inflamed in their lust towards one another; males with males working shame, and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was fit” (Rom. 1: 27, my emphasis).

There ought to be no argument about these things. Indeed, the very fact that Christians feel the need to debate them is evidence, not of faith, but unbelief. These are perilous times!