“The Most Honest Man in Town”
In 1852 a certain man under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit boarded a coach to a certain town with a mission in mind. Upon arrival, he asked the postmaster to direct him to the most honest man in town. Why you ask? Because he knew that a truly honest heart would be open to receive God’s Word, even if it challenged his own long-held opinions. And he hoped that after he had embraced it he would then be compelled to share it with others. The postmaster confidently directed him to the house of the man everyone considered to be the most honest man in town and sure enough, his hopes were confirmed, and because of this one honest man, the lives of an entire town were changed.
When was the last time you studied your lifelong beliefs from the Bible? When was the last time you fact-checked your beliefs in the Bible? Yes, of course, as a Christian, Bible reading is or should be a part of your daily life, but when was the last time you truly studied it and challenged your beliefs by it? Do you study it for yourself or do you rely on others – your pastor or church perhaps – to read and interpret it for you?
” There is so much more we would like to say about this. But you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand. You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead you need someone to teach you again the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life, and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, those who by constant use have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong ” – truth and error.
(Hebrews 5:11-40)
“The Most Honest Man in Town” challenge is to do the following…
“ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. ” 2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)
“ And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. “ 1 John 2:28 (NKJV)
“ I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? ” Luke 18:8 (NIV)
Our Mission
We at the “Most Honest Man in Town” want to awaken alertness to the Biblical truths that have been forgotten or put aside in favor of tradition. The Bible is clear: “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3 (NIV)
Some people say, “We just need to love God and we’ll sort out the details of our different beliefs when we get to Heaven”. The danger in that kind of thinking is this:
“For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (God’s own people).” (Matt. 24:24)
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. (2 Peter 2:1)
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Col. 2:8)
The only way to not be deceived by false doctrine is to know our Bibles. As God tells us, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:20)
Our mission is to challenge people to study God’s Word for themselves – to “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” and to be “ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you” (2 Tim. 2:15, I Pet. 3:15).