Answer # 85

The Bible records an example of a man who sought to find God on his own and failed. Notice it in Acts 8:26-40.

Philip, a deacon in the New Testament Church, met an Ethiopian man of great authority. Sitting in his chariot on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, the Ethiopian was reading in his Bible the prophecies of Isaiah.

Philip asked him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" (verse 30).

The Ethiopian replied simply, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" (verse 31).

Here was an educated man of responsibilities and accomplishments, the treasurer of the queen's wealth. But he realized that unless a minister helped him, he could not understand God's Word. Verse 35 shows that Philip gave him the instruction he sought: "Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him."

You can on your own understand some of your own Bible, but the Bible itself reveals that God has sent teachers like Philip to make the whole truth plain.

Notice what Paul wrote in Romans 10:13-15: "For `whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, unless they are sent?"

Here is the key to understanding your Bible. First, you must determine who the ministers are that God Almighty has sent. Listen with an open mind to those who are God's faithful and true servants, willing to believe what you are taught out of your own Bible. As verse 17 says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."