by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Nobody has all <\/b>the answers to every question of the Bible, but get specific; some are right, and some are wrong on certain topics. For example, unbelieving Jews are not wrong about everything, but they are wrong about Jesus. Among those who claim to believe in Jesus, some were right, and some were wrong about whether circumcision was essential (Galatians 5:1-4). While some today believe in “faith only,” those who believe “not by faith only” (James 2:14-24) are correct on that issue. They agree with God’s word, and the faith-only view does not.<\/p>\n
The Calvinist has faith but believes we have no free will and are doing and believing what God makes us do and believe. The faith-only believer thinks it doesn’t matter what else we do and believe as long as we have some faith in a Jesus. If what we believe and do matters, we must discuss it. We can and should do that because we love and care about each other’s souls.\u00a0If it truly does not matter, then a Mormon who says he believes in Jesus\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>the Book of Mormon is as safe as a person who does not, and a Muslim who believes Jesus is a prophet is as safe as a person who believes Jesus is more than a prophet. They all say they believe in Jesus at some level. If it truly does not matter what we believe about Jesus, then the homosexual or trans believer in Jesus is just as safe as the person who believes I Corinthians 6:8-10 denounces it.<\/p>\n But if it does matter what we believe and practice, then we have to “test all <\/b>things<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 5:21) and “search the scriptures daily whether these things are so<\/em>” (Acts 17:11), because some beliefs are not so, and endanger the souls we care about. Paul was worried about the beliefs of the brethren of Galatia and said, “I am afraid for you<\/em>” (Galatians 4:11). The inspired apostle knew what we believe does matter. We either agree with the inspired apostle, or we don’t. But it matters to God and should matter to us! This should move us to be diligent and careful and be willing to test even what we think we know because if people sincerely believe error and Paul was afraid for them, then we might be unsuspectingly in a dangerous tradition that was not sufficiently tested by the scriptures handled aright. We must love our souls and others enough to keep testing all things by the scriptures.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Nobody has all the answers to every question of the Bible, but get specific; some are right, and some are wrong on certain topics. For example, unbelieving Jews are not wrong about everything, but they are wrong about Jesus. Among those who claim to believe in Jesus, some were right, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-81573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-authority"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":84508,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-facts-in-faith-only\/","url_meta":{"origin":81573,"position":0},"title":"How Many Facts in \u201cFaith Only\u201d?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Those brethren who now teach that salvation is at the moment of faith before repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins (they say that is \"faith plus works\") never seem to get around to telling us what all is included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91566,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/half-of-americans-no-longer-see-traditional-sins-as-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":81573,"position":1},"title":"Half of Americans no longer see traditional sins as wrong","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: Chris Eyte, \"Half of Americans no longer view most traditional sins as wrong, Barna study finds,\"\u00a0Christian Daily International, 23 October 2025. \"... most Americans now say that they only consider half of 12 specific behaviors presented to them and traditionally considered sinful, as actually sinful.\" \"Some behaviors, such as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59760,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/some-unsaved-believers\/","url_meta":{"origin":81573,"position":2},"title":"Some Unsaved Believers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Erin Percell The creed book of one popular denomination says, \"that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.\" But is it true? Does the Bible say that if one believes on Jesus, it makes no difference what else he believes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14591,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-importance-of-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":81573,"position":3},"title":"The Importance of Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein via\u00a0The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, August 26, 2007 This past week, I noticed that the sign in front of the Presbyterian Church in Rogersville said, \"Love God. Love others. The rest is doctrine.\" The message was plain. Loving God and loving others\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":81573,"position":4},"title":"Believe!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson \"Believe\" is the main keyword of the Gospel of John. From the 12th chapter of John, let's see what we can learn about what it means to believe: Many believed (John 12:10-11). A large number of those who witnessed Lazarus' resurrection came to believe in Jesus (John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44896,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-believe-something-is-wrong-and-i-still-do-it-does-it-make-it-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":81573,"position":5},"title":"If I believe something is wrong, and I still do it, does it make it a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it true that if I believe something is wrong, and I still do it, it makes it a sin? Answer: If we take your statement at face value, we run into a problem. It would mean that men define what is sinful. First, let us understand that sin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}