Before retiring at the end of 1998, at the ripe old age of 42, I was an auditor and analyst in the aerospace industry. A successful auditor requires a well developed nose for error. Admittedly, we’re a suspicious lot, but hopefully not to the point of paranoia. A good analyst is all about the facts and data. So I suppose it was only natural that my suspicions together with my need for fact-based truth, would compel me to sit down with a large stack of church bulletins spanning several years of worship services, to inventory and analyze the many scriptures that were read before the sermon. My “gut” strongly suspected us pew-warmers weren’t getting the whole story and so I set out to confirm my suspicions.

It was quickly obvious that the same scriptures were read year after year in the weeks preceding Passover, Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, while entire books and chapters of scripture were never read at all. The first time I attempted such an investigation back in the early 1980’s, I discovered that the pastor read just 10 verses of scripture on average, before giving his sermon. A few minutes of number crunching demonstrated it would take almost 60 years to preach through the Bible at that rate, assuming no scriptures were ever repeated. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking; “how anal” and I don’t deny that. It’s just one of those things us analyst and auditor types do for fun when we’re not digging through the freezer to sort TV dinners in order of the “best used by” date. Suffice it to say, the exercise showed me IF I wanted to know what was in the Bible, I would have to read it myself.

Among the scriptures I’ve never heard preached, much less read from the pulpit, are some real doozies that lurk like unexploded mines beyond the safe and shallow harbors of institutionalized churchianity. Such scriptures strike fear into the heart’s of ministers and when asked about them, prompt such dismissive replies as “it doesn’t mean what it says”, or “that was for a different time” or “well will you look at that, I’m late for parish bingo!” In my view, there is no more telling scripture about the games churches play than the universal avoidance of 1 John 2:27. It reads:

Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, YOU DO NOT NEED ANYONE TO TEACH YOU. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.

The implications of 1 John 2:27 are staggering. If church-goers ever got a hold of that one, what would become of church services, the focus of which is the pastor’s sermon? Or how about Bible studies? Can you imagine a body of believers taught by the Spirit and in unity with one another and Christ?

What to me is eye-opening about that particular scripture, is the way in which it contrasts the teaching of the Holy Spirit and men as the difference between teaching truth and falsehood. When the Lord first called me out of man’s traditional church to follow Him and Him alone, the Holy Spirit specifically told me “do not read books”. I didn’t ask the Holy Spirit “why”; I simply understood that it had to do with avoiding the yeast of men.

Not long before that I had read a series of books about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which seemed to line up with the scriptures, that is until I read a few sections wherein the author wrote about his views of churches that were not affiliated with those over which he presided. Helpful as the books seemed to be, they were a mixture of truth and the author’s biases which left me with a “sick-in-the-gut” feeling that I’ve come to associate with the gift of discernment. That “sick in the gut” feeling is simply the Lord’s way of saying “bad bread”. Sermons almost always leave me with that same feeling when scripture is twisted to guilt the congregation into “serving mother church.”

The sad truth is, man’s traditional church is built upon falsehoods and it is sustained through their perpetuation. Some falsehoods are the deliberate twisting of the word, some are monkey see monkey do where teachers cop the teachings of other teachers without proving them. Still others are lies by omission, such as never reading or teaching from scriptures that if known, would set men free. First John 2:27 is just one such example.

Lies by omission are the basis for Martin Luther’s reformation. A catholic, all his life he heard the message of salvation through works. When Luther explored the scriptures for himself, he read salvation is by grace alone. He and all believers of that age, were held captive by the churches lies of omission.

The ONLY way to get the Truth, which by the way is the very person of Jesus Christ (John 14:6), is to get Him and His Word through the Holy Spirit, our teacher, and the one whom Jesus says will ONLY speak what He hears.

As it says in John 14:26:

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

With regard to men who covet the disciples of Christ for themselves and tie them up with heavy loads to keep them in bondage, I’ll leave it for you to decide who is speaking through them. This is what scripture has to say about the difference between Christ through the Holy Spirit our teacher, and men:

The festival was nearly half over when Jesus went to the Temple and began teaching. The Jewish authorities were greatly surprised and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never been to school?” Jesus answered, “What I teach is not my own teaching, but it comes from God, who sent me. Whoever is willing to do what God wants will know whether what I teach comes from God or whether I speak on my own authority. Those who speak on their own authority are trying to gain glory for themselves. But he who wants glory for the one who sent him is honest, and there is nothing false in him. (John 7:14-18 GNB)

As for me, I grew tired of that “sick in the gut” feeling every Sunday and left man’s traditional church for good. It is the Holy Spirit I want to teach me and my wife and who keeps us in unity with the Lord and one another. Only the teaching of the Holy Spirit is always and in every way, truthful.

Certainly I have met a few pastors who have a good heart and love the Lord, whose message is consistently ‘give your life to Christ and follow Him’. One such man led me to Christ as a boy; another married my wife and I. Men like that labor to make Christ visible within a religious system that often seems hell-bent on obscuring Christ. Sadly, it’s been my experience that such men are few and far between. Most that I have encountered preach and teach to maintain the status-quo, or to appease the big donors and manage the church accordingly. Others were good men whose congregations forbade them to speak of the Holy Spirit, or preach a message of action or repentance. Truth is sacrificed for false peace or profit; God is sacrificed for the rule of man or mammon.

Truth, like the sharp double-edged sword that it is, will separate us from falsehood and the men who keep the children of God in bondage. The ONLY way to get truth consistently, is to make the Holy Spirit our exclusive teacher.

Again it says in 1 John 2:27:

Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, YOU DO NOT NEED ANYONE TO TEACH YOU. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.