The Book that gives hope. (Why I’m not a charismatic theologian)

“The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” Where do you go to find joy? Where do you go to find happiness? Where do you go to find relief from sorrow, relief from depression, relief from anxiety? Where do you go? The Psalmist says, the voice of God says, “Go to the Word.”

 We’re not left without principles for life. People say, “Doctrine doesn’t matter.” Oh it matters. What does it mean to have a Bible and not understand its principles? You don’t want to wander around in a fog of human opinion. You have a true Word to follow.

And what is the product of this if you go on the right path? Rejoicing the heart. True joy, true joy. My joy comes from what I know to be true about God and His purposes. John writes, 1 John 1:4, “I write these things unto you that your joy may be full.”

I don’t need voices from heaven. I don’t need miracles. I don’t need to talk to angels. I don’t need supernatural experiences, neither do you. We don’t need visions. I don’t need to have some kind of vision to boost up my faltering faith. I know from the Word of God what is true, I know the path of truth in which I walk and in that path of truth I find my heart rejoices. Depression, anxiety, fear, doubt comes from not knowing, not believing, not trusting the truth revealed in Scripture.

(John MacArthur, “God’s own defense of scripture”)

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