I was teaching a group of bible students sometimes ago, a doctrinal issue came up in the class and everyone began to air their views. During that discussion, some persons compared what obtains in a particular church with theirs.
They affirmed their belief to be right and biblical but gave an exception to what obtains in another church. One of my students said, "Maybe that's God's instruction to their senior Pastor". Now, I find that disturbing because I don't know how God, the perfect one, will have two opinions or standard on the same issue.
How possible is it for God to say something different from what is written in His word? Does God exempt some of His children from certain commands? Does location/ country change the interpretation of certain scriptures? How come certain dogmas are enforced in certain places but when the same preachers move across the sea, they change the standard?
If you're a curious christian like me who desire to get things right, you should be asking these questions. Can God have two standard or opinion on an issue?
One of the bane of modern day Christianity is the common cliché "God spoke to me". In itself, it is not bad because fathers must speak to sons. A relationship without that "speaking" is null and void. However, when what is heard is not in line with accurate scriptural interpretation, it is not God.
*Some have built doctrines on encounters that cannot be found in scriptures while others built strong church praxis on misinterpreted scriptures*.
The most unfortunate thing is when result is used as a yardstick for measuring the rightness of a thing. In the middle east, shamans also perform miracles and get results.
*Dearest, God doesn't have double standards. The mischief of man is the reason God is presented as a man with double standards.*
Whatever the scripture does not mean to Paul and the early church cannot take on a different meaning in our generation. That will be a distortion.
The Psalmist says, *"Your word, O LORD, is everlasting; IT IS FIRMLY FIXED in the heavens*", Psalms 119:89(BSB). His word doesn't change with location, circumstances, culture and customs. We need to resist voices( humans&spirits) that tells us things are not firmly fixed in the heavens.
There's an end time hellish agenda to relegate scriptures and the truth it teaches for lies of demons under the guise of "supernatural encounters". Don't surrender to opinions and teachings that are not in line with accurate understanding of scriptures.
*God hates to be misquoted and misunderstood just as we hate it to*.
Treasure the word more than any other thing and seek to know the truth it teaches accurately. God has no double standard.