Deuteronomy 12:13,14
“Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.”
In part of of Worshiping Him in Spirit and truth, we learned that it was through Jesus, His example and according to biblical ways that we are to follow and worship Him. The Deuteronomy passage says not to enter cultic places. We aren’t to have cultic beliefs.
People begin to error when they believe in Jesus, but altar His attributes. It comes down to misunderstanding the trinity and nature of Jesus. While the word trinity isn’t in the bible, it’s description is. That is that there is one God made up of three persons. Matthew 3: 16-17 shows them as three persons. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
There are plenty of passages in which deity is ascribed to the father. Here is a passage in which godhood is given to the Holy Spirit. Acts 5:3-4 has Peter telling someone that he has lied to the Holy Spirit. He reiterates the offense and says that the person lied to God. He interchanges the name and the title. There are other passages, but that’s a start.
In John 10:33 the pharisees tell Jesus that they are seeking to kill Him because He is claiming to be God. If Jesus thought that they were wrong, He would have corrected them. Another passage is John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then in John 1:14 it says the “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. There are plenty of other passages.
Some faiths have Jesus in their scriptures, but He’s not God. This is their error. While many denominations have slightly different beliefs, they aren’t on major topics. One church may emphasize baptism a particular way while another does it differently. Those are minor issues. The nature of Jesus isn’t negotiable. We must align our beliefs with the bible.
Lord, help us to worship You in spirit and in truth. Help us to yield our beliefs to the bible.