One of Satan’s oldest and most convincing arguments against God’s truth is “all these people can’t be wrong!” It is an argument he has employed down through the ages. He has not abandoned it, because it is so effective with many. “Billy Graham can’t be in error,” many argue. “Look at how marvelously God used this much respected minister for decades, drawing hundreds of thousands into the church through his ministry.” So the argument goes. It never dawns on such minds that a similar argument could be made for many popes! Look at the charismatic John Paul II. He touched millions of lives, was adored and respected around the world. Surely he was divinely anointed of God and a modern-day spokesman for God and the truth. Yet Billy Graham’s Baptist doctrine and Pope John Paul’s Roman Catholic doctrine differed widely in what was actually God’s “truth.”
A well-meaning, honest-hearted, clean-cut, seminary trained minister surely cannot be in error in what he teaches, can he? Well, if all such “ministers” were in absolute agreement with one another in what they teach and see as Bible truth that argument might hold some water. But they aren’t. You have Baptist ministers, Methodist ministers, Episcopalian ministers, Pentecostal ministers, etc., etc., etc., all differing widely with one another as to what the scriptures teach.
“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets (the preachers) that steal my words, every one from his neighbor” (See Jeremiah 23:29-30). God speaks the truth through one of His legitimate spokesmen only to have some self-appointed teacher of the Word woefully ignorant of what God’s Word actually says come along and dispute and oppose God’s truth. “Behold, I am against the prophets (preachers), saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, ‘He (God) saith” (verse 31), claiming that God gave them their message or that God is speaking through them.
God is going to hold each of us individually responsible for what we accepted as truth. There is a judgment of believers that lies ahead of us all. We will give account to the One who knows us best. He just might hand us a Bible and say, “Show me why you believed as you did. Show me why you held firmly to your religious practices.” How would you fare?
Remember, with God ALL things are possible. Time holds no limitations for God. He is able to judge billions of individuals one at a time, examining every moment of our lives and do so at a point when time is no more. We will not be judged for our sins. Jesus Christ took care of that. We WILL give account for all else – and, brother, that’s going to cover a lot of territory.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley