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Hello, and welcome to another teaching by 119 Ministries.
Our ministry teaches that the whole Bible is still true and directly applicable in our lives.
If you would like to know more on what we believe and teach, please visit us at testeverything.net.
We hope that you enjoy studying and testing the following teaching.
Acts 1711.
Now the Bereans were a more noble character than the Thessalonians,
for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Have you ever wondered just what exactly the scriptures were that the Bereans examined to compare Paul's teachings to?
The only scriptures they had was the Old Testament, also known as the Tanakh, that being the Torah,
also known as the first five books of Moses, and the prophets and the writings, thus the Tanakh.
So then, everything Paul said had to be in 100% agreement to the Old Testament, including the law, such as Deuteronomy 13.4.
It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere.
Keep his commands and obey him.
Serve him and hold fast to him.
Otherwise, they would have considered him a false prophet, as this is what Deuteronomy 13 is all about.
So the Bereans proved to us that Paul had to preach in agreement to the law of God, as mentioned in Acts 17.
We also know that Paul lived in accordance to the law of God.
Acts 21.
Take these men, join in their purification rites, and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved.
Then, everybody will know that there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.
So then, Paul lived the law, and he taught the law.
Now, consider the words of Peter concerning the writings of Paul.
2 Peter 3.
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction.
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard, so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men, and fall from your secure position.
So then, does your pastor interpret Paul's teachings as opposing the law of God, even though the Bereans proved he was in agreement with it?
If so, your pastor is making Paul out to be a hypocrite by implying that Paul was saying, do as I say, and not as I do.
We can't forget that Paul told the church in Corinth, those who were born as Gentiles, to follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
It is clear, as the Bereans show in Acts 17, that Paul taught the law of God, and we know that he lived it, as mentioned in Acts 24.
Thus, anyone who takes Paul's writings and interprets them as opposing God's law, they have become those who Peter warned us of.
And we need to heed this warning, or we will find ourselves sharing their same fate, and falling from our secure position.
On one hand, they say they preach God's word, little knowing that on the other, they oppose it.
So they take Paul's words and have twisted them to oppose the eternal word of God, to conform them to their own liking, and not in accordance to God's word.
So, which do you follow? The word that is eternal, or the words that are twisted?
We hope you've enjoyed this study. Remember, continue to test everything. Shalom.
