I was listening to Jon Townsend this morning, the preacher for the Atwood Church of Christ in Atwood, Tennessee and was inspired by some things he said. You can visit their Ustream page by going to the following link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6276631.
You know, I always took that number for granted. I knew that it was five miles to go home from Milan. That equated to about five minutes. It felt good to know that I was close. How dare anyone mess with the idea in my mind of five miles to Atwood.
As I was listening to Jon Townsend, the present preacher for the Atwood congregation, I was shocked to find out that what I had "known for a fact" all of my childhood was a lie. Jon was using his GPS to travel home during a much longer trip. Of course he knew how to get from Milan to Atwood, but he still had the GPS turned on, and it was telling him how far away he was from home. As he passed the "five miles" sign he noticed that the GPS (which is much more accurate) was listing something different. He discovered that it's not five miles from that sign to Atwood, it's really 4.6 miles!
It's the old mathematical principle of "rounding up" that is on display here. You probably remember from your elementary school math class what it means to "round up". A number like 9.6 can be "rounded up" 10, or 1,637 can be rounded up to 2,000. The number that comes from this method qualifies as an estimate, not an exact representation.
Now there are a number of ways of looking at the situation with our road sign. The bottom line, though, is that there is roughly an 8% difference in the distance between what that sign says and the reality of things. Someone who actually does travel the listed 5 miles instead of the 4.6 is going to go too far! They'll run right out of town, and believe you me; Atwood is small enough to do that. That sign is rounded up, and we understand what it means in a navigational sense. But if that distance is taken too literally, someone will "miss the mark" of going to Atwood. This is especially true if someone is trying to go somewhere that they have never been before, and are extremely dependent upon distances. Can someone be 92% right in their action and 8% wrong and still get where they are trying to go? No, they simply can't.
Jesus said what John records in chapter 14 and verse 6 of his gospel: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There Jesus plainly states that HE is the way, and that the only way to get to God is through Him. In other words, it's HIS way or the highway. Our way has nothing to do with the matter. It's all up to how Jesus wants things to be done.
There are a lot of people today putting up religious signposts that are "rounded up". They make all kinds of unauthorized additions to worship, they bind loads on men's backs that are difficult for them to bear, or they are simply crossing the bounds set by Christ himself. We read the following words, though, that we ought to deeply ponder. In 2 John 9 the NKJV translates it this way:
"Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son."
I personally like the way this verse is rendered in the English Standard Version for the purposes of this article (similar to the ASV):
"Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son."
The NASB renders the first part of that verse as "anyone who goes too far", which is interesting in this context. All of these renderings have something in common: a boundary. At least as far as doctrine is concerned, there are certain things that we can do outside of the boundary which Christ has set.
Now before you think that these things only apply to the "red letter words" in your Bible, ponder the meaning of John 16:14, where Jesus says that when the Holy Spirit comes he will "take what is mine and declare it to you". Paul writes to Timothy that "all scripture is given by the inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16), that "it is profitable for doctrine" (3:17), and that he personally wrote as things were revealed to him (Ephesians 3:3). Peter has a couple things to write about it, too. In 2 Peter 1:20-21 he affirms that scripture is not open to private interpretation since it didn't come to man that way, it came through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Later on (in 3:15-16) he would essentially confirm that even the things Paul wrote qualified as… scripture. The things these men wrote were directions, guidance, and boundaries set by Jesus Christ himself.
If we cross those boundaries, John plainly states that we do not have God. Likewise, one can infer that we don't have the Son, Jesus, either. If we don't have God or Jesus, and Jesus is the only way to the Father to begin with, how could we ever expect to make it to heaven by crossing the lines he set for doctrine? It would be foolish to expect such things. Still, people continue on, every single day, in this mis-guided, "rounding-up" direction.
The distance from Milan to Atwood hasn't changed since I left, and neither has God's Word changed since it was written down. I also always could have found a way to the truth of the distance between the two towns, but I never cared to dig deeper. If you haven't, will you likewise be content to follow those religious road signs, or are you willing to dig deeper as well?
The honest truth seeker needs to beware of those who would preach the "rounding up" religion (Matthew 7:14). After all, sin can be defined as "missing the mark". Now the question is, are you rounding off the numbers in your spiritual life, and thus, missing the target? There's only one way to get home (John 14:6) and I pray that you find it, if you need to, before it is too late.
~Daniel Howell
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