Articles
The Beginning Standard
The Beginning Standard
Recently, Adam preached about the dangers of liberalism: adding to or taking away from God’s Word. Here’s a good way to measure whether we’ve added or subtracted from Scripture. Ask, “Is this what was taught in the beginning?” The apostle John wrote, “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” (1 John 2:24). John was combating an early form of gnosticism which taught that Jesus was just a spirit being, but never came in the flesh. In 1 John 1:1, he refuted it with the proper standard: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands.” From the beginning, Jesus was in the flesh so that the apostles could see, hear, and touch Him! To John, any teaching different from what was true in the beginning was false.
Why? 1) What’s from the beginning is from God. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Everything from the beginning originates from God. His teaching originates from His wisdom, which was with Him in the beginning. In Proverbs 8:22a, Wisdom says, “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way.” Then in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God,” and God sent that Word/Wisdom into the world in the flesh of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). Any teaching different than what God, Jesus, and the inspired apostles and prophets taught in the beginning originates from man and is false. 2) What’s from the beginning is uncorrupted. If you find a stream in the mountains, it’s best to trace it to the source. The closer to the source, the purer the water. The further downstream, the more chances the water has picked up pollutants. Likewise, the closer we get to God’s original teaching in the beginning, the purer it is. The further away we get from God’s truth, the more our lives are poisoned. Romans 1:20-32 illustrates this well.
Why don’t we use mechanical musical instruments in worship? Not taught from the beginning. Why don’t we have car washes or pumpkin patches to raise money from non-Christians? Not taught from the beginning. Why don’t we funnel money through middle man organizations or sponsoring churches to help us do our work? Not taught from the beginning. Why don’t we appoint women preachers, support homosexual marriage, put a coffee shop in the church building, take the Lord’s Supper once a year, teach once saved always saved, premillennialism, or that baptism isn’t necessary for salvation? Because those things weren’t taught from the beginning, and if we practice them, we won’t abide in the Son or the Father (1 John 2:24).
