Food for Thought

Yesterday, I opened a box of books that I had long forgotten. I happened upon a book I had purchased a few years ago, called “The Trouble with Christians, The Trouble with Jews” written by Zola Levitt, who was a Messianic Jew (Jewish Christian). Zola Levitt passed away last year, but his ministry is headed by Dr. Jeffery Seif. http://www.levitt.com/

I found Zola Levitt to be a source of amazing insight as a Jewish believer. His life’s story was a compelling one. Through his ministry, I was able to “pull” the Old Testament and the New Testament together. He also had amazing insight into the condition of modern Christianity. I will quote segments from his book mentioned above.


“The trouble with Christians is that they do not really study the Bible, and thus they do not know the genuine principles of Christianity. Those called Christians have widely divergent views of Scripture, and they seldom arrive at those views by their own study. They are much more likely to take some pastor’s or teacher’s word for what the Scripture says than to read it for themselves, even in the more evangelical churches.”

“In modern Christianity, with its proliferation of Bibles in a wide choice of translations, there is no reason for congregants to simply take the word of preachers. It is not that a preacher is necessarily mistaken, but simply that he is given a power never anticipated for him. Apparently, the more compelling the preacher, the more truthful his teachings seem, so that we have a situation which ordinary men simply invent doctrine, even though there already is an unimpeachable source:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. II Tim. 3:16

Obviously, without consultation of the original source there would be no reliable way of making any two churches consistent in doctrine. That is almost the situation we find in Christendom today. Not only are there literally thousands of churches within any given denominations, but the churches within any given denomination are, more or less, dissimilar and even in opposition to one another.”

“In omitting true verse-by-verse Bible study, the churches not only diverge on doctrine but finally, on the nature of God Himself, seemingly remanufacturing Jehovah, Jesus and the Holy Spirit for the needs of the given community.”
(Zola Levitt Ministries, Inc. 1996)

Are you grounded in the Word? Do you study the Bible verse-by-verse? Are you holding your pastor accountable for what he preaches? This is my “food for thought” for today.