Faith: Foundation, Not Innovation

         
2 Timothy 3:16

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,..."

        It is sad to note that when 
people do not regard the Scriptures as having the final and ultimate authority over life and practice, naturally, if some biblical principles do not fit their preferred lifestyles they would modify the Scriptures. This is exactly what prompted the Roman Catholic Church to bend the Bible to fit their needs instead of adjusting their lives to what the Bible says. Because the Word of God is not foundational in their lives, innovation comes easy.

            Roman Catholic Doctrines like transubstantiation, infant
 baptism and existence of purgatory are the results of putting tradition over the Bible. Even if the Bible is clear in contradicting the doctrine or practice they still insist on being on the right, until they reached the point of declaring the pope as infallible. They would rather say that the Bible is inerrant and inconsistent than admit that their church leaders are humans and are bound to err.

            So, it all comes down to how a person views the Scriptures. 
If I put God’s word in equal or lower authority with tradition and opinion, it has no power to transform me and my pride. If I regard its principles as something that I can easily modify, then it has no power to change me and my ways. So the first crucial thing to do when handling God’s word is seeing it as the ultimate authority in my life and making sure that I structure my life according to its pattern and not the other way around.