James 3:2 Challenge
Something I used to believe was how right the church was in all regards. We knew how things worked and that was it. the Bible is authoritative and that was it! Well, I did not realize it was not the Bible, but the people teaching the Bible who had overwhelming confidence in their own interpretation.
This point in my journey caused me to change how I read the Bible, but more importantly, I realized everything we have been taught had to be scrutinized. Just because the Bible had been around for a long time did not translate to good understanding. The Tower of Babel would have been successful if we understood everything.
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Jesus built His church and told us just how He would do it (Matt 16:18). Jesus renamed Simon and called him Peter, like a rock. This Petrus is the rock upon which the church will be built. In the next verse Jesus said He is giving the keys to loose those in heaven and earth, but then four verses later Jesus would label Peter satan.
If Peter, or the rock, would be the foundation on which the church is built, it would mean the attributes Jesus gave to this individual must be the attributes that built the church. He is hard-headed, like Ezekiel foretold (Ezekiel 3:9) and he is accusatory. If this person is given the keys to loose things it means the kind of person he is would not be naturally inclined to turn the key or there would be no need for a lock. It would remain opened at all times.
Because of this, the church must have been built on misplaced confidence leading to false accusations which self-incriminate otherwise the person holding the keys and building the church could not be the same person.
Fast forward a bit and we see talk of the apostasy (2 These 2:3). This must happen before the lawless person and son of destruction can come back. It is actually really interesting because Leviticus 27:28 tells us anyone devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord. For this person to come and destroy, the apostasy must happen first. If this is the case, there must be an awakening and move away from the church before someone will be able to shine a light on it and allow Christ to return.
Unwinding the ball of yarn leads us to the idea that organized religion divides us to the point that all will fall, like Jesus said He came to divide and a divided house will fall (Luke 12:51, Luke 11:17). Jesus also told us to be a disciple, one must hate his family members, which means that house must fall to be rebuilt.
Have you ever wondered why the Apostle Paul told us he was both a preacher and an Apostle? He even said he was serious and was not lying, as though we think of that as being strange (1 Tim 2:7). Well, it would be. Apostles came to divide while preachers come to share support, strength, and renewal. Paul provides both, but is not clear about things, according to 1 Corinthians 1:17. The purpose of the church was to bring everyone low, especially the righteous.
It seems the hard-headed pride of humankind will keep us from accepting someone else’s perspective. We want to be the winners, like 2 Tim 2:5 says we must compete like an athlete to win the prize. Unfortunately, we do not understand the competition very well. Jesus does and He brings us low but raises us all up to be together in the end. Our foreheads like flint keep us from turning our heads, or we would be saved, like Isaiah 6:9-11 says. All the cities will be destroyed, which leads us back to the son of destruction being most holy to God.
