Las Vegas, Nevada Church
Affiliated with the Intercontinental Church of God and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Obsession with Biblical Twigs       MP3 

What is a biblical twig?

For the purposes of this notebook discussion, a biblical twig is any subject from the Bible that ultimately has no direct bearing on one's Salvation.  This especially is problematical when the church member is seemingly obsessed with the subject.  This obsession can take at least two forms:

1) His obsession with wishing to study the subject to the neglect of important Salvation Process issues.
2) His obsession with retaining his conclusion or belief on the subject despite ample proof to the contrary.

Both obsessions are serious, but the second one has been known to cause division in the flock and even the formation of new churches founded on this or any number of similar twigs. 

The key word to this discussion is not necessarily the specific Bible subject, but with the phrase  "obsession with."

Some examples of the subjects:

1) Prophecy  As Mr. Armstrong has stated a number of times, understanding of prophecy is NOT required for Salvation.  Yet I find people sending me all manner of speculation on just who the two witnesses are, the next pope, when certain events will take place or what they feel is the "real" Mark of the Beast.

Note:  There is nothing necessarily wrong with biblical speculation.  I love doing this from time to time and we see it often in church fellowship or even in a sermon.  It is the obsession with the speculation that is negative and often fruitless.

2) Miscellaneous Subjects:

a) Did Adam have a navel?
b) Was Adam 18 or 30 years of age when God created him?
c) Do angels have sexual relations?
d) Will Satan be ultimately destroyed?
e) Is the book of life a real book in heaven?

f) Bible codes.
g) Duality in the Bible
i) What will we do in the Kingdom?

h) How many angels exist?

Anyone looking at this list can easily see there are no Salvation-related topics here.  Let me take the example from the list to show how being obsessed with it is rather fruitless.  I will use the question asking if there is a book of life a real book in heaven.  First, I can tell you that the book of life is actually the Holy Bible.  The Bible is the mind of God and Christ and we are to immerse ourselves in it and to live by every word of God.  I discuss in a two-part sermon how our immersing ourselves into the Word of God transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ.  You can read and hear this sermon on the Sermons page of this site [Glory to Glory, Part I and Part II].  Now let us set aside, for a moment, our teaching that the book of life is the Bible and entertain the idea some have that it is a physical book somewhere in heaven.

Let us speculate:  is it a simple bound book with plain paper where names are written in ink?  Maybe it is a advanced version of a palm-pilot sitting on the right armrest of the throne of God.  Could it be some sort of computer database which is printed out every Passover and given to Christ at the right-hand of God.  Could it possibly be that God writes the names on stone tables using His finger.  I could go on and on with such speculation, but the point is this:  Who cares?  Assuming one is rejecting the truth that the Bible is the book of life, one has no way to prove that this book exists in any one of the above forms.  The point is, I couldn't care less in what form this supposed book exists.  What I do care about is that my name appears in it.  To insure this, I must focus on the Salvation Process.

In my discussion of prophecy with countless people making inquiries about it; I rhetorically offer them the definitive book on Prophecy which lists every future event, its date, time, specifications, the names of everyone involved and how it is carried out.  I then ask if such a book with all its perfect and complete knowledge can insure the Kingdom of God for its owner?  I have yet to receive an affirmative answer. So why all the obsession and desire to have this information?  Why is it important to some to have a definite and specific belief about one of these subjects and to have others believe as they do?
 

My encouragement here is to enjoy prophetic speculation and these miscellaneous subjects in balance, but never allow them to put you in a position of neglecting the all-important elements of the Salvation Process.  Never allow your belief regarding non-salvation subjects to become an obsession that flies in the face of church doctrines, teachings and beliefs.

Listen to this sound bite from Mr. Armstrong:  Is Your Bible An Idol?

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Las Vegas, Nevada Church of God - part of The Intercontinental Church of God and The Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association - Tyler, Texas