“For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible.” – Matthew 24:24
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” – Acts 17:11
The Thessalonians listened with great eagerness to what Paul had to say. But they wanted to know if what they heard was true. In order to find out, they did not only read the Bible, they examined the Scriptures. They did that every day.
The Catholic Church for example teaches that Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, never died and was buried. They are teaching that she literally rose in the body into heaven. They call it the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. But you don’t find that in the Scripture.
That is rather an extreme example. But there are also more subtle teachings going around.
That’s why we must read the Bible. We must examine the Word of the Living God!
“Christ doesn’t want you to choose between pouring your life out for the alleviation of unjust human suffering now and pouring out your life to rescue the perishing from everlasting suffering….I don’t want you to choose between these two. Christ is calling us to pull these together.” – John Piper
