{"id":4236,"date":"2025-08-24T21:39:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T01:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=4236"},"modified":"2025-08-24T21:39:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T01:39:53","slug":"everyone-is-wrong-about-something-including-me-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/?p=4236","title":{"rendered":"Everyone is wrong about something–including me! Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

 <\/p>\n

Some individuals, some groups, seem to have fallen into the error of claiming for themselves superior experience or superior knowledge.<\/p>\n

I encountered possible instances of what I call \u201cexperience centered Christianity\u201d among some of the students who attended the Bible Discussion Club I was asked by the school administration to sponsor. These students came from charismatic churches or congregations as well as non-trinitarian Apostolic churches, as I recall. A little later, students from the \u201cJesus People\u201d movement seemed to me to fit this category.<\/p>\n

Instances of individuals and groups, churches and denominations, which seem to fit the second category, claim to possess superior knowledge. They claim to possess exclusive knowledge of the truth which no other group or church or denomination has. Students who attended the Bible Discussion Club included those from the Christian Bible Student\u2019s Association, the forerunners or precursors of the Watchtower Society of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.<\/p>\n

I never made the attempt to \u201cconvert\u201d any of the students in the Bible Discussion Club to a different church or denomination. One of my eleventh grade Early American Literature (English 6) students attended the Bible Discussion Club for a short while. One day she stopped me in the hall to explain why she stopped attending. She said she was disappointed that I never had an \u201caltar call\u201d at the conclusion of a meeting to invite students to come forward to receive Christ. I explained that I was aware of many students who did accept Christ as a result of the Bible discussions. They told me later in private conversations with me.<\/p>\n

I did answer their Bible questions and we had many delightful discussions. Students invited me to visit their church or group and I accepted their invitations.<\/p>\n

When preparing my book, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/em>, I was impressed by what is stated in Isaiah 65:5,<\/p>\n

Isa 65:5<\/strong>\u00a0 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are<\/em> a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.\u00a0(KJV)<\/p>\n

Isa 65:5<\/strong>\u00a0 And then they say to others, ‘Keep away from us; we are too holy for you to touch!’ I cannot stand people like that\u2014my anger against them is like a fire that never goes out. (GNB, Good News Bible)<\/p>\n

I placed the following note for the key words \u201cI am holier than thou\u201d:<\/p>\n

I am holier than thou<\/strong>. Those caught up in false doctrine and false cults often possess a superiority complex because of their supposed superior experience or knowledge. The fundamental error of the first is that of being “experience centered” instead of “Bible centered” or “Christ centered,” and leads to instability, with repeated spiritual “ups and downs.” The fundamental error of the latter is that of Gnosticism\u2014the claim to exclusive or superior spiritual knowledge or authority (+Pro 4:18 note. *Mat 23:13; *Mat 23:15; +Mat 24:45, +*Luk 11:52; +Luk 12:42; 1Co 8:2, Gal 6:3, Eph 4:14, Php 3:15; 1Ti 6:3, 4, *2Ti 3:6; *2Ti 3:7, Tit 1:11, 2Pe 2:14). Such distortions are the mark of the false, not the true, and can have no place in the genuine believer (Psa 138:6, Pro 8:13, *Mrk 12:34, *Php 2:3, *3Jn 1:9, 10, 11). The remedy for the “experienced centered” error is to become Bible and Christ centered (+*Jhn 5:39); the remedy for Gnosticism is to adopt the Bible as the exclusive spiritual authority (+*Isa 8:20 note), and separate entirely from the literature, fellowship and influence of false teachers (+**Psa 119:63; +**Pro 19:27, +**Mrk 4:24; 2Jn 1:9, 10, 11; +*Jud 1:3). Deut 9:4, Job 9:20; Job 35:2, Pro 12:15; Pro 20:6; Pro 30:12, Ezk 16:56, Mat 6:5, Luk 6:22; Luk 6:37; Luk 15:29; Luk 18:9; Luk 18:11, +*Jhn 7:49; Jhn 9:34; Jhn 16:2, Act 10:28; Act 11:2, 3, Rom 3:9; +*Rom 12:3, 2Co 10:12, Gal 2:12, +*Php 2:3, Jas 1:27; Jas 2:3.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Some individuals, some groups, seem to have fallen into the error of claiming for themselves superior experience or superior knowledge. I encountered possible instances of what I call \u201cexperience centered Christianity\u201d among some of the students who attended the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3905,160,885],"tags":[6516,6515,6514],"class_list":["post-4236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics-christian","category-doctrinal-discussions","category-false-religions","tag-caution-against-claims-to-superior-experience-or-knowledge","tag-isaiah-655","tag-why-everyone-is-wrong-about-something-including-me-part-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realbiblestudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}