Biblical or Unbiblical?

Whether we like it or not, we are here on Earth to give glory to God, to study and preach His words using the bible and worship Him. What dominates these days is materialism. We must be very careful in distinguishing what is our need from unnecessary ones.

(a.) Standard Living

When the knowledge of men boomed, many of its consequences drove men away from living that complies with the ideal living the bible is endorsing. Today, many aspire to become rich but did not the bible tell us that rich men would have hard time in entering God’s kingdom? Therefore, aspiring to become a rich one does not comply with the standards set the bible for those who will going to inherit God’s kingdom. Material richness is given to mankind solely by the Earth but Jesus clearly uttered to us that we must depart from all the things that belong to the Earth. These words are the words do not want to hear by people who are engaged with the Earthly systems prevalent today. The original standards of living set by the bible is manipulated and changed by the people with unreasonable words. Once I believed this quote: If you were born poor, that is not your fault. But if you died being poor, that is your fault. This quote is straightforwardly opposing the words cited formerly. The times I do not yet know the truths stated in the bible, I always keep that very seriously in my life. But when a friend approached me and told me everything about the bible, it was the time when I started changing my views about life. That quote is invented by mere human who is obviously drifted by the materialism of the world because that motto propels us to think about accumulating money with great amount. If a person does not know the bible, he would take it as an inspiration. He would even believe that we must really become rich or enthusiastically struggle to become rich for the reason that it is our fault if we died poor. But again, Jesus the Messiah tells us that poor people will be blessed at the end. So would you believe to Jesus that being poor is not the thing that would keep you unblessed at the end? Or you would believe to that saying created by man with the influence of materialism? This gives us the concrete context that people had set another standards of living and disregarded what the bible is stating. That motto sarcastically accuses people (who are behind the entire society) the ones who did not persevere during their childhood. If you then valued that quote then you too are throwing accusations against them. Did you know that every time Jesus talks about poor people, He sees them luckier than rich men? But they are contradictorily evaluated by the said motto. Very opposing!

(b). Worshipping God

I can hardly ponder that millions of people scattered around the globe use figurines like Sto. Ñinos, statue of Mary, Jesus nailed on the literal cross, figures of saints, and many more. Most of the Christian claimants use these kind of religious paraphernalia throughout their life. They are used to kneel toward these items, asking guidance, and shortly pray. Believers believe to the power of their priests’ holy water sprinkled on the items. After presenting them to a certain priest, owners highly gain confidence that those items were really a “blessing” from God through the words spoken by the presiding man. I am sorry for being redundant guys about this issue. The bible does not tell humans about this “holy water.” You cannot find anywhere in the bible saying ‘a water which is holy.’ Another thing, priests know that using images or figurines in worshipping God is not biblical. Okay, you can read the story about Moses’ followers worshipping an idol but not because you can find it there (in the bible) then you are going to practice it. No! God hates people who use figurines in worshipping Him. God does not like idol to be worshipped by men (Exodus 20.4).

Q: But how come these millions of people do this ungodly thing? Putting too much devotion to man-made crafted figurines?

The answer is very simple. They do this against-God practice because they do not know what is inside the bible, they do not read bible. They imitate what their leaders are doing.

Q: Does that mean their leaders also do ungodly practice?

Precisely yes! Religious leaders that do not accord with the real bible teachings are called false prophets, the bible itself is telling us about these false prophets. Figurine users are happily presenting publicly their known devotion incorporated by their items unaware of the truths about true worship. It is important to read and study the bible because bible is our manual in operating our life. God gave us this book (the bible) to making out life more functional. As what I have told you in the opening paragraph of this article: We are here on Earth to give glory to God (this is our real purpose why we live on this planet) and not to do what we wanted to. Everything we do other than studying/preaching His words and worshipping Him is not what He envisions.