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Centerview Tidings

The Centerview Tidings is a publication of the church that is given out to the members weekly and is mailed out to subscribers monthly.  It includes various articles about the work of the church and reports on the work of the Centerview Congregation as well as includes a Kid's Page.

Each week's main article will be available here online, but if you would like to subscribe to the full edition of the Centerview Tidings, please email George Hutto at georgehutto@earthlink.net

Previous Articles
Salvation eBay Style?

This Week's Article
"The Scripture Cannot Be Broken”

John 10:35-36

	This principle is one to be remembered. Jesus said that scripture
cannot be broken. The ramifications are that the word of God is
absolute, immutable, unchangeable, and unarguable. 

	From the first, if one is to accept that Jesus actually spoke these
words, he must agree that the scripture was received as from Heaven.
Jesus said to the apostles that their binding and loosing would be
from Heaven. (Mt. 16:19; 18:18) Now, if one begins to rationalize that
perhaps the writers of scripture embellished what the Lord actually
said, he is left with a broken scripture to begin with. However, Jesus
said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means
pass away.” (Mt. 24:35) One is left with two options: either he must
accept that the scripture is the actual living word of God (Heb.
1:1-2; 4:12), or he must take the Bible as the fallable work of
fallable men.

	Second, if the scripture cannot be broken, then prophecies from God’s
word will come to pass. Paul the apostle speaks of God’s power over
time in Romans 4 in his discussion of the promise to Abraham: “God,
who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist
as though they did ….” (vs 17) The prophets were vindicated by the
nation of Israel, the virgin birth, by the miracles of the Lord, and
by the resurrection. The most pertinent meaning of scriptural prophecy
for us, however, is those prophecies yet to be fulfilled. Christ is
coming back in the clouds to judge us. And we will be judged by our
works, according to “the things which were written in the books.”
(Rev. 20:12: John 12:48) And the scripture cannot be broken.

	Third, scriptural truths must be acknowledged and heeded when
studying doctrine on any subject. The elements of obedience,
compliance, and submission are still effective in God’s governance of
man, and the agent of command is God’s word. Christ said, “Teach them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded....” Peter wrote,
“That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior....” (II Pet. 3:2) When some of the Jews were trying to
bind circumcision upon Christians, the apostles wrote that they had
given “no such commandment.” (Acts 15:24) Doing things “scripturally”
is just as important today as it was back in those early days. Can we
show a “thus saith the Lord” for the things which we teach and
practice? For those who fear violating God’s word, the scripture
cannot be broken. 

	Fourth, a proper and biblical approach to interpreting the scriptures
necessary to “handling aright” or “rightly dividing” the scriptures.
(II Tim. 2:15) Peter said that those who “wrest” or “twist” the
scriptures do so “to their own destruction.” (II Pet. 3:16) Some still
keep the ten commandments. Some still claim to do miracles. Some look
for an earthly king when Christ returns. Some twist the worship into
entertainment. Some twist the nature of conversion and the means of
becoming a Christian. Some skew the nature of the church, the work of
the church, etc. In all these, the scripture cannot be broken by those
who have hope in Christ Jesus. 

	Further, some folks have the wrong approach to prophecies. They delve
into dark sayings and scriptural imagery from hard passages first,
without first grasping those simpler passages. For instance, they try
to make Peter’s plain statements concerning Christ’s return (II Pet.
3) conform to passages which they think teach that Christ will someday
return as a worldly king. To not violate the scripture, we must begin
with the plain and obvious truths and work our way through the more
difficult.

	Jesus said that the scripture cannot be broken. If the very Son of
God said so, and suffered on the cross to not violate the scripture
(Mt. 26:54), so should we conform carefully to the teachings of 
God’s
word.

George Hutto