Several years ago, my interest was piqued by a discussion on Chicago’s WGN Radio about a conference of several top European and American theologians and scientists who were convening in Strasbourg, France to talk about the future of Christianity. On a lark, and in spite of the costly registration fee, I decided to go. I had 48 hours to get there. After calming my wife’s concerns, I caught a plane and arrived on time.
One of the lectures by Dr. Werner Gitt, author of In the Beginning was Information, was especially inspiring. Gitt’s central point was that “Information, which is a fundamental entity, (is) on equal footing with matter and energy.” Simply put, we cannot fulfill the will of God without the truth—the right information. All things within the will of God require information that originates from God. As Jesus expressed in his prayer for the apostles, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Right information, as Gitt points out, is what makes a spider a “versatile genius, a chemist who can synthesize silk employing a computer controlled manufacturing process, and then use the silk for spinning.” This is possible only because of the information. The spider processes the creative information given for a fixed purpose, within the spider’s kingdom.
This principle has amazing application! We preach the apostle’s doctrine because it is God’s will to create a spiritual person, one who is newly born, redeemed and transformed. And it is God’s word, or as the Apostle describes it, “that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17). Such doctrine, or truth, gives us the specific information needed to accomplish this spiritual transformation. The rejecting of this information is a serious matter. Anything short of obedience to the command given to us in Acts 2:38 is misinformation, and will not accomplish God’s intended purpose as it pertains to the creation of a “spiritual man.”
The born-again man is God’s fixed purpose, and is accomplished by information and obedience to commandments that are from God. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). The question tendered by the hearers of the Apostle Peter’s message was appropriate. “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). In other words, give us the right information. The apostles had no permission or authority to interject personal opinions.
True Apostolics have not merely taken on religious tradition, they do not casually address religious doctrine, or heedlessly enter religious discourse. True Apostolics have received spiritual revelation through the Spirit and that changes everything! We have died out to the world, and we cannot walk with those who are not in spiritual agreement. A group of ministers recently faced a situation where their peers began to state that Acts 2:38 is not essential to the new birth. They walked away from their association with these men because they were no longer working with the same information. If they could so casually dismiss what actually happened and what was actually said in the first assembly of the disciples after the ascension of Christ, then how could they be in agreement over who we are and who we ought to be? Acts 2:38 has a fixed purpose; obedience to that one verse defines the greatest force in Christianity today: Pentecostalism. (May be verified by many sources).
Without the Bible everything would be unknown. But, we were given the word of God; it is not some unknown entity, and we are subject to its authority. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The word is the basis for our spiritual information—the right information matters. This is why the translation battle, the battle for the language of the Bible is so important. We cannot in our own hubris begin to enfeeble the information source by opening it up for selective interpretation, allowing just any translation or elucidation to be as valid as another.
If we receive Colossians 1:16: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by him and for him,” then we must acknowledge that all things are purposeful and planned. Thus the right information, the word of the Creator, is essential.
The word of God is our foundation. It is the source of our hope. Bible preachers are word preachers, and the will and purposes of God are executed through the declaration of God’s word when anointed of the Holy Spirit. Such preaching sparks a flame of transforming revelation within the heart of men. This holy information, even if not always fully understood by human intellect, is yet understood through the Holy Spirit—therefore, we can say as the Apostle Paul, “Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).
