There Is Just One Way
We would like to take a moment to welcome you to Finding The Gate. As our Lord and Savior told his disciples in Matthew 7:14 "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The purpose of this website is to serve as an aide to those who are earnestly looking for the gate, with a desire to walk the narrow way that leads to eternal life with God. The world of ‘Christendom’ is highly divided with many groups claiming they are the ones with the knowledge to get you to heaven. Pure simple New Testament Christianity has been overtaken by traditions of men and the inspired word of God has been replaced with the unbiblical ideas of men. They claim to know the way. They claim to be able to get you through the gate. Not so. Only God’s word can get you there.
The denominations of the world teach a wide variety of contradictory doctrines, and yet all claim they teach what the bible teaches. More often than not if you quote a verse of scripture to them that clearly contradicts what they teach, their response will either be ‘that’s your interpretation,’ or ‘that’s not what it means,’ or ‘you can’t understand what the bible means without the Holy Spirit leading you." They will pull out cherry picked verses that on the surface seem to strongly support what they are telling you, but will refuse to listen to other verses that show they aren’t interpreting their cherry picked passages correctly. Understanding the bible is a matter not just of reading a verse, but also considering it in context. The context is sometimes found strictly within the surrounding passage, but often times proper biblical interpretation relies on also considering the remote context, that is, what else the bible has to say elsewhere that applies to the topic under consideration.
‘Pastors,’ will tell you that you are wrong when you bring up a passage because they don’t agree with it. Some believe that you can understand scripture, but only the verse they want to look at applies. Others go so far as to teach that only a special class of people blessed by God with a special ability for discernment can read and understand the scripture. Ask yourself, why would God give us his Word in written form if we cannot understand it? If men have to have some miraculous gift from God to understand his word then why give it to us at all? The apostles were told by Christ in Matthew 10:19, "But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak." The apostles, guided by the Holy Spirit, didn’t need the written word. Why then do ‘pastors’ today need the written word? Because nobody today has inspiration from God. We have to read his word and understand it to have the knowledge God would have us to know.
We can know for certain that we can understand the scripture. Luke wrote in Acts 17:11 about the Bereans, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." If we cannot understand the scripture, then the Bereans likewise could not have understood the scripture to verify the teachings they were receiving.
God inspired 40+ men across multiple continents, in multiple languages, over thousands of years to write down his word as he was ready to reveal it. They wrote primarily in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek, with the latter being the language of the New Testament writings. Koine Greek was the everyday common man’s language of the day. The New Testament was written for the common man. Anyone who tells you that the scripture cannot be understood is telling you that God is either incapable of communicating with man in a way we can understand, or is uncaring enough about his creation to make his word impossible to understand. Neither option corresponds with the all knowing and loving God of the bible.
Religion cannot be pleasing to God unless it is on his terms, not ours. God is the only source of truth and morality. There is no such thing as your truth and my truth. There is only truth and error. Salvation is a matter of knowing the truth from the lies, and submitting ourselves to the truth God has revealed through his inspired Word.
Our greatest hope for this website is that it can help you weed out the lies and find the truth God has given to us, whereby we may be saved. Jesus said in John 8:32, "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Do you want to know the truth, and be free from slavery to sin? Then spend time not only with the articles prepared here, but reading and studying the bible on your own, because yes, you can understand it.