Let them that have ears that hear, hear.

Well, I was going to stop with the above. But for you Bible believers who actually read the text on these pages and are still here, I can’t give you a stone rather than bread. So consider what God did in Jeremiah chapter 35:

He had Jeremiah, in a formal setting, offer Jonadab’s descendants wine to drink. They politely refused, and explained that their father had commanded them to live by several rules, including never drink wine and always live in tents rather than houses, and they would continue to obey him. God was so impressed He blessed them.

You and I are thinking, “Why was God impressed? After all, Jonadab’s offspring may have been obediently submissive to their father’s commandments…but they were still apostates like the rest of Judah!” And that is true, so why, in verses 18 and 19, did God bless them?!

Well, the usual modern theological sermons say God rewarded them because at least they didn’t drink evil wine…and we should avoid evil wine, too! Why, then, does modern theology not say God was impressed because they avoided evil wine and lived in tents…and we should live in tents, too?

It is apparent that either theology has missed the point or it has decided to do that which is right in its own eyes (which is worse than worshipping false gods) by emphasizing the part about wine…but completely ignoring the part about tents!

God blessed Jonadab’s descendants, not because they were doctrinally correct, but because they were a rarity in Judah because they didn’t rise up and be carnal by deciding on their own to ignore Jonadab’s commandment.

We see – by taking God at His word literally – that He is in Jer 35 consistent with what He said above in Jer 16: He hates it when His people rise up and become their own authorities/heads by living according to what they honestly think is right and good (the knowledge of the tree of good and evil). In fact, that carnal independence of thinking on your own rather than doing what you’re literally told is so bad that:

1)    God is less offended by worshippers of false gods because at least they’re continuing to be submissive members rather than independent heads.

2)   God is so offended when His people become uppity independent-thinking heads who live in accordance with what they think is good, that He’ll even bless doctrinally-incorrect people who die to Self by remaining obediently-submissive to some authority – even if that authority isn’t Him.

God wants to be our sole authority in all matters of faith and practice. That means we are supposed to be obedient members who do what He says in His holy word by treating Him as our sole Head. That is living by faith, and it glorifies and exalts God.

Theology says God’s word does not exist (as He defines it – inspired and inerrant) in any book or manuscript on earth. It is therefore up to us to study many, many books in order to “correct” the Bible. But because theology has never been able to figure out and agree about what God “really” said or meant, the best it has been able to do over the last 150 years is produce uninspired error-filled Bible “versions” that, whenever they say something we don’t like, cause us to constantly select one of the various other definitions listed in Greek dictionaries – a definition that, because it has already been carefully considered by many scholars and translators, will never end up in a Bible version…which is why it isn’t there now! The bottom line of theology is: Nobody really knows what our Head/God says; therefore we must rise from submissive members who humbly, obediently, and faithfully do what He says, and become heads who live by what we decide. That is theology, and it glorifies and exalts man.

In the Bible the issue is authority – do what you’re told.

In theology the issue is right and wrong – and we have to figure it out by worshipping at the foot of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Conclusion: According to the Biblical doctrine of authority, and because God hates it when we become heads by thinking we can decide good and evil, let’s see how God will react at Judgment if He in fact has not preserved His inspired, inerrant word – and therefore all we have is fallible “versions”:

God will tell the Bible believer that He failed to preserve His word. Therefore the “version” the believer lived by was not the literal word of God. However, God is impressed with the believer because He is looking for servants who will do what He says by remaining obedient members of His body – and a body can have but one Head, and God is that Head. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

God will admit to the theologian that he was correct because God really did fail to preserve His word. However, God will be angered that this theologian thought he was supposed to consult the tree of theology’s knowledge of good and evil in order that he might come up with the truth that God failed to preserve. He is displeased because He does not want servants rising up and becoming heads who think they have the prerogative to judge whether or not what God says is right or wrong. “If Abraham were a theologian rather than a Bible believer who went by what I literally said”, God would say, “he would have decided killing his boy, Isaac, as a sacrifice was immoral and wrong…and consulted his favorite dictionary to see if he could figure out what I meant to say – but didn’t. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity by trying to turn my Body into a multi-headed beast!”