Here you are and here I am.  You don't know me.  You don't know if I'm giving you one word of truth here at the Clarion Call.  For all you know every Bible reference I'm giving was something I made up.  Maybe I even took the scriptures and changed the words.

Those of you who are familiar with your Bibles will know that you will recognize a scripture as being true or not.  However, how will you know that the study itself is true?  How will you know that the interpretation of what it means is true?  How do you know that the doctrines taught at your church are true?  How do you know that anyone is speaking the truth?

~~~~ THIS IS IMPORTANT! ~~~~
THIS IS HOW TO DETERMINE THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER!

Don't believe anything you read here at the Clarion Call.  Don't believe anything you hear at church.  Don't believe anything you hear coming out of any human's mouth!

"What?!?"

I mean it!  I'm not joking and I'm not being facetious.  In order for you to learn the truth of any spiritual matter you need to do something that will be very hard to do. You must not apply any of the things you already believe about God and the things of God to what you hear or read. 

If you believe the Bible is true:

If something you hear doesn't line up with the Bible then there could be one of two reasons:
1. The Bible is true and the other thing is not.
2. Your understanding of that part of the Bible is unclear, wrong, or twisted.

Allow God to teach you what He wants you to know.  You need to be continuously asking God, "Is this what You want me to believe?"  If God doesn't confirm things about Him, about His Kingdom, about the meaning of the scriptures, and about His ways to you then you shouldn't believe them. Every single thing needs confirmation from Him before you can hold on to it as truth!

Will He confirm things? Will He take the time to make sure you understand and that you know the truth? He is God. He wants you to understand the Bible.  He created you and knew you before you were born.  You are going to have to trust Him (not preachers, teachers, or books).

According to the following scripture He will:
1Jo 2:27, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

Make sure you don't believe something just because it makes sense, it is logical, it fits in with what you've already been taught, or for any other reason other than God has confirmed it!  (Again, I repeat, this applies to the scriptures in the Bible.  Let God teach you what they mean.  There are wrong interpretations out there.  That is one reason there are so many denominations.)

Be particularly wary of drawing conclusions using only a single verse in the Bible.  God doesn't hold things back from us and doesn't make things unclear in the Bible. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, has confirmations throughout. Many of those confirmations are not crystal clear until you allow the Holy Spirit to integrate them with what you have already read.

Oh, yes, that brings up the third, and very important, point: keep in mind that if you aren't reading your Bible for yourself then you are a fool to believe anything you hear someone else teach you about what is in it. (Sorry. Maybe fool is a harsh word, but I'm afraid it is applicable in this instance.)

Just so you know, I'm constantly in prayer over the things that are contained here at the Clarion Call. I never want to place even one word here that God hasn't OK'd! However, I am a human being and do make mistakes. I have the gift of teaching, but that only means that God is the teacher and I am just one of the "teacher" vessels through which He pours things.

I'm not responsible for you and your beliefs.  You are responsible for determining the truth of all matters.  Your beliefs are between you and God.  I won't be there when you meet Jesus face to face.  I won't be able to help you when He asks you why you held on to false teachings.  You won't be able to point to someone and say, "It's their fault."

I can almost picture all of us in heaven trying to point to someone else.  We are taking our finger and trying to point and accuse someone else and our hand automatically turns so our finger points back at ourselves.

(OK, so I'm not so good at 3D graphics!)

There are no excuses and we cannot shift the blame.  We are each responsible for what we believe and for applying effort to find the truth.  God wants you to have the truth and will help you obtain it.

If you aren't sure if the Bible is true:

Just get on your knees and pray.  See where that leads.  I'm going to guess it will lead you to your Bible.

I heard from someone who made fun of what was said here because they didn't believe in God.  After all, if you don't believe in God, how can you believe what's in the Bible?

Here's how to apply "this is how to determine the truth of the matter" to whether or not there is a God:

Examine where you got your opinion that there was no God.  It's foolish to have an opinion that you haven't proved to be true.  Did you get black and white proof of the matter?

If you have your proof and are satisfied that you have come to the right conclusion then there is one more thing you need to do.

Ask God to reveal Himself.  Empty your mind of your opinions while you give Him a chance to prove Himself.  You have to give this part a fair chance.  It's up to you.

If you believe there is no God you'd better be right!