(Psalm 119:160) “The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.”
The words of God are different than our words. They are truth. They are not just true, but they are truth. Something can be true and still not be truth. I can say, “I am hungry,” and it may be true, but after I eat I am no longer hungry. That is the difference between true and truth. A truth is something that is unchangeable and it is true in every circumstance, in every situation.
Something that stands out to me in this verse is the phrase “the entirety of Your Word is truth.” I a, sure we have all heard someone take a verse from the Bible out of its context to try to teach some point of doctrine. When you notice someone doing that, be very careful.
(2 Pet 3:15b-16) “..our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
Here we are warned about this very thing. When we rightly divide the Word, we consult the whole counsel of God’s Word, not just a verse here and there. When we make a regular practice of studying the Bible, we begin to learn about the nature, the will and the ways of God. Many times people take an Old Testament verse and use it without looking at it in the light of the revelation found in the New Testament.
When I hear a new teaching, the first thing I judge it by is the way it depicts the nature of God. Then I compare it to the whole counsel of scripture verses I know about the subject.
For instance, there is a common teaching that there was another earth before God created Adam and Eve in the Garden. In this supposed Pre-Adamic creation they say there was a war where the angels of God fought with the forces of Satan and he was cast out of Heaven and the earth was destroyed by a previous flood, which destroyed the dinosaurs and made all the fossils.
This teaching does not pass the test of truth when it is held up to the entirety of God’s Word. The Bible is very clear that dead came as a result of the sin of Adam. To teach there was death before Adam was created is blasphemy. Also, it tells us in the Bible that “anointed cherub who covers” was in Eden, the Garden of God and was perfect in all his ways, until iniquity was found in him and he became Satan, the adversary.
In Ezekiel 28 it says of , ““You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you.”
This is a perfect example of using the entirety of God’s Word when determining if a new teaching stands the test of truth. The devil clearly fell sometime after Adam was created. (I will go into much more detail about where Satan came from, when he fell, what is his future and what is our position concerning him in another article.)
