Compasses fascinate me. I loved camping and hiking and learned the basics of pointing the compass in the right direction to find my way home. When I started flying I learned a lot more about compasses. I learned that you couldn't always trust the compass to tell you the truth.

Flying around Thunder Bay Ontario the compass is accurate. Come out to Vancouver and it would be twenty-one degrees in error. At Inuvik the error is thirty-eight degrees. Without a chart showing those deviations, you could get lost, run out of gas and crash land. Compasses point to the magnetic North Pole not the true North.

Why don't we vote on the direction of the North pole? Five billion people could point South, and say it was North, but five billion people would be wrong.  The popular opinion today is that truth is relative. What's true for me may not be true for you. If I feel adultery is OK, then its not wrong.

Richard Holloway, the Episcopalian Bishop of Edinburgh picks and chooses what he feels is truth in the Bible. This year he told the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement that the Bible should be seen as flawed and fallible.

He said: "We have recently abandoned the text's (Bible's) tyranny over women as we abandoned its justification of slavery and soon will abandon its ignorant misunderstanding of homosexuality."  Bishop Holloway believes we can vote on truth.

Holloway is wrong on three counts when he says that the Bible is not a trustworthy chart to guide us through life. Bible truth elevated women to equality with men, freed slaves and is not ignorant of the perversion of homosexuality.

The Bible is an accurate compass that guides us on life's journey. Bishop Holloway thinks that he can create his own compass. Thus he rips the pages out of the Bible that he doesn't agree with.

Re-writing God's road map for living is a risky undertaking. I can illustrate this by an imaginary flight from Vancouver to Castlegar. A weather system covers the entire Southern portion of the province so our entire flight will be in the clouds.

When we leave Vancouver, Air Traffic Control (ATC) clears us to the Castlegar Beacon via Green one airway at 11,000 feet. I have a chart that gives me all the information I need to fly the airway. When I'm fifty miles from the Castlegar Beacon I decide that I'll bend the rules and slip down to 8000 feet to save time and fuel.  My chart shows 11,000 feet until we cross the Castlegar beacon. But I rationalize my rule bending by saying, "Obviously these rules are made for the big jets, not little Cessans."

When was the last time you said, "Rules are for others, not me, I feel its safe to do it my way. Remember popular wisdom says, if you feel something is right that makes it right, right? If I don't like what the Bible says, I ignore it and do my own thing. If I feel 8,000 feet is safe then it must be safe.

I look up from my charts and through the clouds 200 feet in front of me is the South ridge of Airy Mountain.  Its closing on me at the rate of 300 feet per second. The next sounds I hear are the bells of Heaven and St. Peter is with me. I ask him, "St. Peter, what happened to me?"

Peter responds, "You flew into the South ridge of Airy Mountain." I respond, "Why didn't it show it on the chart?" "Well Eugene why clutter the chart with reasons and explanations?  The chart explicitly stated that you were to fly at 11,000 feet.  There will always be people who choose to disobey God's Word. They are ticked off at God because He doesn't always give the reasons for the rules and regulations on His charts.

"God! Why do you say that I shouldn't, lie, steal or commit adultery?" God answers, "The safe way to go through life is to follow the chart that I have preserved for you. Maintain the designated safe altitudes and you'll avoid fatal crashes."

Then Peter says, "Eugene, everyday thousands of people knock on the pearly white gates. They say words like: ‘We FELT it was safe to commit adultery; we believed in safe sex; we didn't feel it was necessary to believe in Jesus; we didn't feel that we could trust the Bible.''"

This generation must learn they cannot trust the compass of feeling. Feelings are risky substitute for the truth. They are like a compass without a chart to make the right corrections.

A strong commitment to the Bible as the infallible Word of God is one of the foundations we are building. Our faithfulness to God's Word will cause generations of people to learn, obey and teach others to learn and obey the truth of God's Word.

I wonder who Bishop Holloway thinks he is to judge what in the Bible is flawed and fallible? Who is he to say that his wisdom is superior to the collective wisdom of thousands of years? Who is he to say that the Bible has an ignorant misunderstanding of homosexuality?

Has he not read that when man needed a partner, a companion, a helpmate, God didn't make a second man to be with Adam. God gave Adam the precious, exquisite gift of a woman. Next to eternal life, a woman is a man's most precious gift.

I don't know how much truth there is in all the theories about what influences people to make  homosexuals choices. I know that God's chart for the road of life says NO to homosexual acts. Just like it says NO to adultery, fornication, pre-marital sex, stealing, jealousy and envy just to name a few other sins God passionately hates.

I also know that God loves and values the homosexual just as much as he loves Eugene Harder, Billy Graham, Madonna, Bill Clinton or Mother Teresa. It made me sick when I read about the homosexual who was murdered in Colorado because of his homosexuality. I cringed when I saw pictures in Time magazine of religious protestors holding signs that read, "God hates fags." Those signs are a gross misrepresentation of the breadth of God's love. The Bible declares that God passionately loves homosexuals but hates homosexual practice.

God weeps when we ignore His chart and follow the compass of feelings like his people did 3,200 years ago. "For in those days Israel had no king, so everyone did whatever he wanted to-- whatever seemed right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6 TLB)

Through Solomon God says, "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice." (Proverbs 12:15 NIV) It's the nature of humans to reject God's truth and establish our own truth because we don't want to be accountable to God.  We want to be our own God and follow the compass of our feelings. Then according to the wise man, "We can justify our every deed, but God looks at our motives." (Proverbs 21:2 TLB)

For thousands of years people have been rejecting God's word and voting on the truth. Solomon said, "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." (Proverbs 30:12 KJV) Solomon spells out the result of following the compass of feelings. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."  (Proverbs 16:25 NIV)

Early one morning I flew from the Pitt Meadows airport in thick fog. A month later I received a phone call from a person in the safety and enforcement branch of Transport Canada. He said, "Mr. Harder we have a report that you left the Pitt Meadows airport when the visibility was under the legal limits, is that true.

I replied, "Yes that is true." "Mr. Harder, we want you to come to our office for a visit." "That won't be necessary, just tell me what the fine is and I'll pay it." "No, you must come in so we can talk with you."

At our meeting the inspector told me the following, "We wanted to talk to you because the pilots who get killed are usually the ones who FEEL the rules are made for others.  They FEEL that they are wiser than the rules. Mr. Harder, those pilots have an attitude problem with the law. You're here so that we can determine how rebellious your attitude is."

At one time or another all of us have had an attitude problem with the truth of God's word. Our rebellious nature causes us to have a strong aversion to accountability to God. Consequently our foundations will not stand the test of time, they will crumble.

My appeal is that daily we deal with their rebellious spirit. Daily we need to reject our temptation to trust our feelings over God's written word. Our daily commitment to the truth of God's Word the Bible will, "Rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."  (Isaiah 58:12 NIV)

The wonderful result of those strong foundations is that, "A people not yet created may praise the LORD."  (Psalm 102:18 NIV) That's our whole reason for living, to praise God and enjoy Him forever.

Other messages about the truth of God's Word the Bible:

The Medical Accuracy of the Bible
The Bible's uniqueness is an evidence it is God's inspired infallible Word
How The Bible Has Shaped The Western World

TLC  Discussion Questions:

1. Share some examples of absolute truth in the material world
2. Why have you chosen the Bible as your infallible guide?
3. What do each of the following scriptures tell you about the Bible? 2Timothy 3:16-17; 2Peter 1:19-21; Matthew 4:4 ;  26:56; Mark 12:24 ; Romans 15:4 ; Proverbs 30:5 ,6; Psalm 12:6 ; Matthew 5:17 ,18; 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ; 1 Peter 1:23 ; Hebrews 4:12
4. Why do people reject the truth of God's Word? Judges 17:6 ; Proverbs 12:15 ; 21:2; 30:12; 16:25
5. What is the difference between subjective and objective truth?
6. What has this lesson taught you about the fulfillment of Isaiah 58:12 ?