Bible Basics

We Must Be Taught

Jesus gave the apostles the great commission saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15, 16). The apostle Paul says, “Preach the word!” (2 Tim. 4:2). Why are these commandments to teach and preach the word of God given? No one today has access to divine truth through any personal or direct interview with deity. God does not speak to man today through visions, or dreams, or by some direct or miraculous manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There was a time when God did communicate with man directly, but those days have long since ceased (1 Cor. 13:8-10). God’s word has been revealed in its completeness (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) and recorded so that all mankind can understand it (Eph. 3:3-6). That word, the gospel of Christ, is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16), for when it is received that word saves (James 1:21). But “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). The seed of the kingdom of heaven must be sown into the hearts of men (Luke 8:11). But the lost will only be exposed to the saving message of the Scriptures as they are taught by other men.

                                                                                                               -- Clark Dugger

Bible Basics