Who's side are you on anyway?!?

It seems that a lot of people are wanting to take sides recently. In my life I have felt that some people think I'm on one side or another. I'm really not, at least when it comes to particular human sides. I have been listening to and reading a lot of different people recently. As a person I like most of the stuff I read, probably because I generally stick to reading people that I connect with on a theological level. But I do read stuff that I disagree with. As I analyze why I tend to agree and love to read some and why I disagree and tend to not love reading others I think it comes down to something very simple. The way they handle scripture.

Now some of you may be thinking, "Well James, you just like reading or accept the writing of people you happen to agree with and how they interpret scripture." Well you may be right. As a matter of fact you are probably incredibly right. But I made a promise to myself many years ago that if the Bible said something, that something was true, whether I like what it says or not. The Bible is clearer than many give it credit for. The problem most people have is that it says something they don't want to hear. And so they "interpret" the Bible differently, or try to anyway. Basically, I want the Bible to say to me just exactly what IT wants to say to me.

Here are a few examples so you get what I mean:

I believe that baptism should be done by immersion because the Greek word used for baptism is translated as immerse.

I believe Jesus was and is God, because He claimed to be.

I believe God predestined people to be His and I also believe we have the option to repent or not to repent. I don't understand how that works together but I also don't pretend to have the mind of God.

I believe that God created the world.

I believe that gossip, lying, murder, homosexuality, stealing, coveting, adultery, and obviously many other things are sins because they Bible says they are.

I believe we all sin and we all need forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins and he calls us to holiness, not sin.

I could list about 482 more things or more.

What I am trying to say, with this whole post, is that I am not on any man's side. I am on God's side. If someone is trying to take a swipe at Scripture, God's Words, and change what the Bible is plainly saying, you may think that I'm not on their side, but in all actuality I am just standing squarely on the side of what the Bible says. If I quote someone that I agree with it's not because I am on their side, it's because I am on the side of what the Bible says. Believe it or not there are men and women out there that look at what the Bible says, believe what it says is true, and then live according to what says.