1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

that it was not just the Word of God being
used, but that Paul was actually teaching
the truth as set forth in that Word. It is
vital that you follow this same noble example
of the Beroeans. Why so? Because
there is the possibility that the one who
may speak to you from the Bible will twist
the Scriptures, applying them in such a
way as to propagate false ideas.
An outstanding example, to show that
what a person says cannot always be accepted
merely because he quotes from the
Bible, is found in the account in Matthew
chapter four. There it says: "Then the
Devil took lJesus] along into the holy city,
and he stationed him upon the battlement
of the temple and said to him: 'If you are
a son of God, hurl yourself down; for it is
written [in the Bible at Psalm 91:11, 12],
"He will give his angels a charge concerning
you, and they will carry you on their
hands, that you may at no time strike your
foot against a stone.'" "-Matt. 4:5, 6.
Now, what did Jesus dowhenSatan quoted
the scripture from Psalm 91:11, 12 and
tried to induce Jesus to commit suicide by
hurling himself from the battlement of the
temple? Did he reason: 'Well, that is the
Word of God and so it is proper that I
should pay attention to what Satan says
and follow this teaching'? By no means!
He realized that the Devil's knowing and
quoting the Scriptures did not make his
teaching right. Scriptures can he misused,
and Jesus showed that this is what Satan
was doing when he answered: "Again it is
written, 'You must not put Jehovah your
God to the test.' "-Matt. 4:7.
Therefore, it should not surprise us that
even today there are false teachers who,
like Satan the Devil, twist the Scriptures.
"Satan himself keeps transforming himself
into an angel of light," the apostle Paul
observed, and "it is therefore nothing great
if his ministers also keep transforming
themselves into ministers of righteous-
6
ness." And the apostle Peter noted that in
the inspired Greek Scriptures there "are
some things hard to understand, which
the untaught and unsteady are twisting, as
they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to
their own destruction." Yes, the penalty
for those who misapply and twist the Scriptures
is death.-2 Cor. 11:13-15; 2 Pet.
3:16.
Due to the terrible consequences of misusing
the Scriptures, there is every need
to be alert and to test to make sure that
what you are being taught is the truth of
God's Word. The apostle John impresses
this responsibility upon truth seekers in
his warning: "Beloved ones, do not believe
every inspired expression, but test the inspired
expressions to see \vhether they
originate with God, because many false
prophets h:lVe gone forth into the world."
-1 John 4:1.
Not All Religion Is Good
So it is apparent that one's being
brought up in a particular religion and
reading the Bible regularly does not in
itself make his \vorship pleasing to God.
Many in the first century belonged to Judaism,
and Scripture reading was their
habit. The apostle Paul noted that, in the
synagogues, the Bible was "read aloud
every Sabbath." And on one occasion Jesus
Christ told some Jews: "You are searching
the Scriptures, because you think that by
means of them you will have everlasting
life." Yet, despite their regular Bible reading,
those Jews opposed the ministry of
Jesus and the apostles and fought fiercely
to stop them from preaching Scriptural
truths to the peopJe.-Acts 13:27; John
5:39.
But why did those Bible-reading Jews
oppose the truth? Why were their beliefs
out of harmony with God and his Son?
Jesus explained when he said to them:
"You have made the word of God invalid
AWAKE!