23.04 Dr. Vern Charette - The Sufficiency of the Scriptures to Separate

Indigenous Faith

In today's devotional study, Dr. Vern Charette further develops his thoughts on the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures. In previous episodes, he spoke of the Authority of God's Word over every human culture with its universal, absolute truth. He also presented some powerful insights on the sufficiency of the Scriptures to save, to sanctify, and now, to separate. But separate from what? Well, there's several things one can pull out of his deep teaching, including the ability of the Scriptures to separate itself from the false teaching that has been afflicting the church of God all throughout history. In a very strong word to today's ministers of the gospel, brother Vern admonishes us to, as the text says in 2 Timothy 4, Preach the Word! Why? Because of the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures! Such a simple yet profound concept, right? The challenge is, today, there are many congregants who are uncomfortable having the preacher preach on sin. Why not bring out the positive, like some popular preachers who are on TV do?! The problem with positivity preaching is it avoids other parts of doctrine such as God's wrath, judgement, and man's culpability to the sin we are comfortable living with in our lives. And in a way that is clear and unambiguous, he reminds us all that false teaching only leads to compromise, syncretism, and animism. We trust you as a listener will be able to see how brother Vern's strong embracing of a high view of Scripture, and being led where the text of the Word takes us, helps set the stage for Craig Smith's more 'granular' and specialized unpacking of God's Word as it relates to Indigenous cultures, traditions, and practices. There's great harmony between brother Vern and brother Craig as far as their convictions to the authority of the Scripture in their lives, which leads them to maintain a 'text driven' teaching, preaching and analysis of the 'other gospels' that are being promoted all across Indigenous North America and beyond. Let the Word of God alone be what we pursue, follow, and apply in our individual lives, so that we can live biblically healthy lives in the context of our Indigenous cultures and communities!