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Only God is without flaw. Only God never makes mistakes. Only God is supremely, totally, completely, and always trustworthy. And God is the only one in whom it is safe to place our trust.
Angelic perfection failed in heaven. One-third of the angels rebelled. Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and Paul tells us that even if an angel from heaven came with another gospel, we should not believe it (Galatians 1:8). We must not place our trust in angels. Angels can rebel. Angels can deceive. Angels are fallible.
Human perfection failed in Eden. Adam and Eve believed lies and rebelled against God. They infected themselves with fear and selfishness, and the entire human species is dying of this terminal sin condition. All our righteousness is nothing but symptoms of the sickness of sin (Isaiah 64:6). We are fallible. We must not place our faith, our trust, in other sinful humans.
It is dangerous to trust people, pastors, teachers, relatives, doctors, and politicians. People, even those led and inspired of God, can make mistakes. People, even when working for God, can make mistakes.
- Moses made a mistake when he struck the rock (Numbers 20:11, 12).
- Elijah made a mistake when he ran away and “prayed that he might die” (1 Kings 19:3, 4 NIV84).
- Paul made a mistake when he ignored God’s warning and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4, 10, 11).
- Peter made a mistake in giving in to pressure from legalists and had to be corrected by Paul (Galatians 2:14).
These great heroes of God made mistakes, but God did not cast them away. They did not lose salvation, for their salvation did not come from their performance; it was a gift from God. The Creator was not only using them to advance the plan of salvation, but God’s plan was being worked out in them! They, like us, were also sinners saved by grace through their living faith in God. They had all come to trust God; they all desired to honor God, but they were fallible. Despite their goal to live for God, they still suffered from the sin condition that needed overcoming. They were all finite beings with human foibles, weakness, fatigue, and emotions, and they all made mistakes. They were not rebelling against God; they were simply wrong in those specific moments because they were fallible.
We must not place our trust in other human beings. We must trust only in Jesus. This is why each person must individually know the truth for themselves. We must each know the Scripture for ourselves. We must each know God and Jesus Christ for ourselves. We must each know for ourselves the duty God would have for us. We must each build a living faith upon the solid rock of truth found only in our infallible God as He has revealed Himself to us in His three threads of evidence: Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), science and nature (Romans 1:20), and our personal experiences with God (Psalm 34:8; John 20:27).
The truth about God, understood and experienced for ourselves, must be the foundation for our individual living faith. Every person must be fully persuaded in their own mind (Romans 14:5), and each person must grow up from newborns in Christ, from children who look to the teacher to tell them the right answer, to mature Christians who have developed by practice the ability to discern the right from the wrong (Hebrews 5:14).
There is danger when we believe based on what others have studied and what others have concluded. There is danger in trusting someone because they have a degree in theology or medicine, or because they hold a particular office, whether in the church or in government. And that danger is following another person into error—even if that person is sincere. It is the danger of failing to develop one’s God-given ability to reason, think, discern, and know the truth because it is the truth. It is the danger in, without thinking, following someone into confusion and error. How many Christians today would be able to stand up to the apostle Peter if he came to their church, to tell him that he is wrong? Only God is infallible.
There is also danger in trusting the crowd, of going along with the majority, whether the majority of the world or the majority of the church.
The world was wrong in Noah’s day.
The world was wrong in Moses’ day.
The “church” and its leaders were wrong in Jesus’ day.
The “church” and its leaders were wrong in the Dark Ages.
As we approach the final moments before Jesus returns, the Bible warns us of terrible times, troublesome times, distressing times. Our fears will be inflamed and our worst anxieties aroused. Everything that we have built our safety upon will be threatened. And it is when our earthly securities are removed, when every single earthly support is stripped away—when our bank account is empty, our home is taken, our liberty destroyed, our family members abandon us, our friends betray us, our church rejects us, and we feel all alone—that we will either be standing upon the solid rock, Jesus Christ, or collapsing into ruin and despair.
Only those who have developed a personal, living faith in Jesus, who know God for themselves, who trust their lives, fortunes, families, and futures to our infallible Creator God, will be found standing firm. All those who have trusted in other humans—in dynamic speakers, in church leaders, in politicians—will, sadly, discover that they have placed their trust in the fallible.
Only God is infallible! Trust only in Him!
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