The Bible Can't Be Customized

With the holidays gone and the nights still too long, one often finds time to just sit back and become nostalgic in thought. The twenty-first century is really neat and exciting for a guy who has all but forgotten how to use a slide rule. Being taught how to use cell phone by a pup still wet behind the ears no longer intimidates me because I have lived and seen things the children of today will never experience, and I suppose, like every passing generation, they will have the chance to say the same thing one day in the future. One good thing about the computer is, your grand and great-grand-children can Google what appears to them as whimsical fables of your childhood and find them to be true. A boring winter afternoon could become quite entertaining by looking at the big finned, 8 miles-to-the-gallon, family automobile of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some of the “must have” accessories included things like “fender skirts” and “curb feelers” and “steering knobs.” One could even make his humble Chevy Impala into a Lincoln want-to-be by adding a “Continental Kit” to the rear bumper. We called the “parking brake” an “emergency brake” which might stop the car if it were only going 2 or 3 mph. The greatest characteristic of the brake was the loud zipper sound it made when the handled was pulled applying the brake. The accelerator pedal was affectionately referred to as the “foot feed” and there was a time when youngsters waited at the road for dad to get home from work just to ride on the “running board” up the driveway to the house. “Store-bought” used to be a bragging right. A store-bought dress or a bag of store-bought candy always demanded attention and the discovery of new friends. “Coast-to-coast” and “Route 66” once held all sorts of exciting possibilities and they mean nothing today. Now we take the term “world-wide” for granted with real-time connectivity at our fingertips. On a smaller scale, “wall-to-wall” was once a magical term in our homes. In the ‘50s everyone covered their hardwood floors with wall-to-wall carpeting. Today everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure. It’s hard to imagine “pregnant” was too graphic a word so we heard about stork visits and “being in the family way” or simply “expecting.” “Divorce” was whispered and “unmentionables” weren’t mentioned. The “picture show” became the “movies” and the ruination of all of us. The little glass bead top “percolator” became Mr. Coffee – How dull! Our cars had “DynaFlow” transmissions and “Electrolux” vacuum cleaners sophisticated our everyday life. What a day it was when the 1963 Admiral “SpectraVision” color TV was introduced. By the way, if you want me to come for an evening meal, invite me to supper, not dinner – that’s at noon.

[2 Peter 2] Peter wrote this letter to the churches in 66 A.D. Christians at this time were now not in danger of persecution but were in danger of being confused by false teachers. As I see it today, not much has changed. It behooves every Christian to read this chapter very carefully and especially if you are a teacher. In 1 Peter 4:11, Peter warns “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” Those teaching must follow the living Word of God (Hebrews 4:12) given to us through the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). If teachers deviate from the Word, they are not of God and blaspheme against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:30-37). The Bible cannot be changed by man to fit the world. It comes from the Creator our God.