by M. Thurston

“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”—Proverbs 30:5

It is an established fact that the majority of America’s founding fathers were Christians. In fact, out of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, fifty-three were Christians. A notable exception was Thomas Jefferson. He was a deist, believing that while God exists and created us, He has little to nothing to do with His creation now. What did he do in response to Christianity? He created his own gospel.

Taking a razor, Jefferson took his Bible and cut out everything in the four gospels that he agreed with and compiled his own “Bible.” Since he did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, he left out all of Jesus’ miracles, including His miraculous birth. The “gospel” ends with Jesus’ burial. The resurrection was completely left out.

Isn’t that just like America today? Our culture encourages people to pick and choose what they like in the Bible and discard whatever they don’t like. The parts of the Bible like love, peace, and Heaven are generally left in, but the parts that sound “intolerant” or might make someone uncomfortable are cut out. Creation? If it doesn’t quite fit with someone’s own views it is often taken out or is bent to fit with the theory of Darwinian evolution. Homosexuality? The verses relating to that are promptly removed as well. What is left is what Jefferson was left with: a watered down fuzzy-feel-good way of life that is regarded not as truth, but as good moral teachings.

Second Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is God-breathed.” The word “all” is so important. Either the entire Bible is true, or none of it is true. No compromise can exist. We need to believe everything in God’s word. And not only that, but we must also obey everything in the Bible. Picking and choosing a few nice sounding parts to obey isn’t Christianity… it’s just living a life that sounds moral to us.

This is yet another reason why Bible study is so important. Every day people are boldly or slyly claiming what is in the Bible, what is outdated, what isn’t scientific, etc. The best way to combat this is to study the entire Bible so that we can understand why everything is true… and point out to others that it is truth and why.