Letter: Men may not come to God’s Word and of themselves decide what they may set aside as unimportant

In response to Mr James Hardy’s assertion ‘it is inevitably far better to follow the witness of the Reformation and let the Bible speak for itself’ (‘Are issues like hats in church a dangerous distraction from allowing the Bible to speak for itself?’), in response to my letter indicating that it was the teaching of Holy Scripture that ladies wear a head covering when in engaged in worshipping the Lord, that was the very point I was seeking to make.

He seems to have missed that.

Men may not come to God’s Word and of themselves decide what they may set aside as unimportant. That is to question the wisdom and purpose of God.

The true Christian embraces without question Paul’s statement: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

The Lord Jesus stated that: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 5:18-19.

Yes, there are commandments that are of less importance than others but all commandments are set forth for us to obey for our good.

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope,” Romans 15:4.

I challenged Dr Coulter’s thesis on the basis that we cannot advance the cause of God by setting aside as silly, commandments of God which have become ‘unfashionable’ with church goers! The defence of ‘all scripture’ and a true and trustworthy translation of them, can never be ‘dangerous’ as Mr Hardy suggests.

After all, the Saviour by the mere tense of a word showed the truth of the resurrection and then indicated His deity was declared by the use of a phrase in the Old Testament, as Matthew 22:31-34, 42-46 indicate.

It is man setting himself up as the arbitrator of what commandments of God may and may not be obeyed that is dangerous!

Rev Ivan Foster, Kilskeery