Step 4: View the battlefield accurately

Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools - Romans 1:22

Might these words to the Romans ring true yet again? Today, humanity takes pride in the vast knowledge we've gained over the last few centuries. While it is a beautiful gift to better understand the world while growing in the knowledge granted by our Creator, have we since omitted the Creator from our knowledge?

Without a doubt, the world and our understanding of it have drastically changed since the final letters of the Bible were penned. Both the authors of the Bible and those who first read its letters viewed the world very differently than we do today. Concurrently, our enemy has been working diligently to twist the Scriptures and strip the Church of her spiritual authority. Given our changed understanding of the world and any number of the false traditions now present in our society, how might we be impaired from understanding the Scriptures as originally written?

No earthly church denomination is perfect. Critical to growing in victory is admitting that everything we know and were taught may not be accurate. If we are unwilling to look inward and admit where we may be wrong, our growth will be stunted.

A recommended start is wiping our slate clean (if only temporarily) and reading the Bible from a clear point of view. Examine the context in which it was written. What is the Bible teaching, and do our current worldviews, traditions, teachings, and reasonings match? By examining our traditions cleanly against Scripture, the Lord will reveal which are accurate and dissolve those that are twisted.

but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good - 1 Thessalonians 5:21