"How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?’ But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie? The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them?"
Jeremiah 8:8-9
Way back in Jeremiah’s time, more than 600 BC, there were people who claimed to know the will of God better than His own revelation of Himself in Scripture. They wanted to be “wise above what is written,” and when confronted with their contradiction of God’s Word, their reply was, “Oh, you can’t trust that! The scribes have changed it. There are copyist’s errors in it. We have figured out what it really should say. We know better than the actual text of the Bible.”
Today that attitude toward Scripture has become very common. We shroud it in scientific terms and call it “Redactionism” and the “Historical-Critical method.“ This approach begins with the assumption that the Bible has been changed over the centuries by the copyists or scribes, so that the modern text doesn’t actually say what Jesus said, or what Paul or Moses or Isaiah said, but with our superior knowledge of what God’s real intent was, we can figure it out and re-establish the true meaning. This approach to the Bible is being taught in many seminaries. It produces pastors who are ready to accept the false teachings of their denominational headquarters even though they clearly contradict what the Bible says. They have been taught that the wise experts know what the Bible was supposed to say (but of course no one else will be able to figure it out, especially if they just read the Bible). There are two problems with this: First of all it isn’t true. The Bible hasn’t been changed. And second, it turns me, the supposed expert, into the judge of Scripture instead of letting the Bible judge me. If the Bible disagrees with what I think it should say we will assume that I’m right and the Bible is wrong. That’s not the way it works! God's Word in the mouth of Jeremiah replies: The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the Word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them? If we set ourselves up as wiser than God, we will be put to shame. If we reject God’s Word, with what wisdom are we left? Lord God, forgive us for even considering the possibility that we know better than Your Holy, infallible, inspired Word. Deliver us from blasphemous, self-righteous and rebellious attitudes. Deliver us from false teachers and feed us on the “pure milk of your Word.” Give us hearts that draw near to You in humility, repentance, and faith so that you can instruct us out of your Word. Forgive, renew, and restore us in Jesus’ name, Amen. Pastor Dan Giles
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