We have many standards for various functions and for different levels of importance. You don't use your home's thermometer or temperature to cook with. This shows the need for different standards. Also, the more standards one uses with equal authority, the more room for loopholes. This brings error or deception. Let's use America's tax laws as an example. The more laws we have, the more loopholes there are to abuse the system for those who are rebellious. How about a sporting event? If every spectator and player was a referee, there would be mass arguments. At work, the decisions are made by the boss, it's the boss's ideal that must be followed for the employee to continue employment. 

What lays before us is the following thoughts. If there is a God, there must be some way to reach Him, because there are so many belief systems claiming the pathway to Him. Many of these claim to be the highest or exclusive truth. Some would say that sincerity in any of these belief systems is enough. Let me quote from another of my web pages: 

One may say that they are sincere, and that God will accept them because they are sincere. Was Hitler sincere? I think he was (but it didn't save him, if he was saved at all). You see, our own understanding of right and wrong may be different. Is God's standard going to change from one person to the next, because of sincerity? Let me quote Proverbs 14:12: MKJV

"There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death."

Many people believe that sincerity or heart felt belief is enough. Many also believe that there are no absolute truths. If that were true, I challenge anyone to believe that they can walk through a solid brick wall through sincere belief. I will accept examples of others if you cannot do it yourself. Or what if I wanted to call my friend on the phone, and his number was 111-1111, and I refused to use that number and wanted to choose my own number to dial and still reach him? No matter how sincere I was, nor how strong my belief system it would not work. 

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Is the statement "There are no absolutes" an absolute? Is the speaker absolutely sure there are no absolutes?

And here's another quote from another page of mine:

But I ask you, does the father who commands his child to stay off the busy street, wish and desire the vehicles to be there, to run over stray children? No! His obedience is commanded because of certain laws put into effect. For order to exist there must be laws. Example, without the law of gravity we would not be here. Is God therefore limited by gravity? No, he created it to bring order. Order without law would be an empty creation. And that is what existed before God created. Therefore He made laws so His creation would exist in harmony. Well, some say would ask; couldn't God create a universe where we can choose to walk without consequence? Then each man would be a god, and he would have his own standards, and each person would need create his own universe, because my laws would counter act against yours. And each would then need to be completely alone. And so God in His universe was alone and created man to be with Him. And to exist in harmony and love, man must accept the laws of physics and that of the spirit to abide there. 

In light of these basic understandings, in the endeavor to discover the truth about God, we must find His standard. If in fact He is real, as many different belief systems claim, even the natural sciences point towards, there must be a true path to Him. 

 Links to evidences & scientific arguments

Since natural order requires natural laws, therefore spiritual order must also have laws. We must find these spiritual laws, to guide us into the truth and to measure all spiritual "truths" and teachings to see which are true and which are not. If God is real, and we feel the need to pursue Him, then He, Himself must be drawing us to Him. Therefore, He being wiser than us, knows that the truth must be preserved to lead us to Him, and if He indeed is the true God, He would have the power to preserve it. It is evident that this law is the standard we need to find. 

What I am trying to say is that if God is real, then He must have a method in finding Him and a method to judge whether the teachings or other methods we find will lead to Him or are false. Let's examine various methods in finding God. 

The pursuit of those who want truth should find this standard. There are many claims made to what this standard is. I cannot list them all. But I will list the major ones, and will sort these to find the One which is the highest and true. 

Can prayer be considered the highest standard of finding the truth? No, because many belief systems pray, but the end is often different between the various systems. It is believed by many that there are demons or evil spirits. These spirits can answer prayer, even if the prayer is genuine. These spirits can deceive the one praying that they think it is the true God, or one of His servants. The Bible itself say's: 

Matthew 24: MKJV
24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders; so much so that, if it were possible, they would deceive even the elect.

So we can conclude that prayer is not the highest standard to measure truth. I am not saying that one should not pray, but that the answer to prayer is not to be trusted unless it aligns itself with the true God, and the standard He has, which we are now trying to find.

How about a spirit? If one has been visited by a spirit or multiple spirits, or even thousands of visitations; can they be used as the highest standard of truth? No, just like above. There are false spirits that can lie. Look at how many belief systems claim to have visits by a spirit or spirits, yet these belief systems and the supposed spirits themselves have had different roads to God. Let me quote from the Bible and then from one of my pages:

2 Corinthians 11:14: And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Galatians 1: NKJV
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

From one of my pages:

Galatians 4:8 says these gods, by nature, are not real. In 1 Cor 8:4-6 (MKJV) we begin to understand a little more:

4 ... we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God except one.
5 For though there are those who are called gods, whether in Heaven or in earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
6 but there is to us only one God...

and: 

Deut 32: MKJV
16 They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods ; with abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new ones newly come up, whom your fathers did not fear.

1 Cor 10:20-21 (MKJV) sums up this point well:

20 But I say that the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not desire that you should have fellowship with demons.
21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of a table of demons.

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So saying, we can conclude that spirits are not trust worthy alone to be the true standard. Yet some spirits could be of the true God, therefore all spirits should be tested by another standard, the one we seek.

A quick note, we can use the above conclusion about a visitation by one claiming to be God as well, or Christ, or any supposed voice claiming such. God, Himself, must be subject to His own standards. So that false gods can be judged to see if they are the True God. This then, would also make Him good. Because, He would therefore not change.

Numbers 23: MKJV
19 God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?

Ecclesiastes 3: MKJV
14 I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it...

Matthew 19: MKJV
17 And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God...

What about a prophet, prophecy, or multiples of these? As stated with prayer, the different belief systems have opposing prophecy and opposing standpoints of their prophets. The Bible also has been already quoted above stating that there are false prophets. So although there must be true prophets and true prophecy, even these cannot be the highest standard.

Some would say that we can use feelings to measure truth. In the natural world, we can see infants and youth led astray by feelings. Adults and teenagers make wrong choices for mates based upon feelings. This is what the Bible say's about feelings:

Hebrews 5: MKJV
13 For everyone partaking of milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, even those who because of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

What the Bible is showing us is, that only those who are mature can use their senses to know what is good and evil. A person cannot use his senses or emotions to judge if something is from God until they are mature and have already discovered the highest method or standard to find God. So we can conclude that the senses are not the highest standard.

How about a book? One claiming to be inspired by God Himself. This book would need to meet certain requirements. I'll start by reminding you what was said in the beginning of this page. The true God would be drawing us to Him, He would be aware of the spiritual laws, in fact powerful enough to communicate this standard to us, and to preserve it, as well as create the laws themselves. So if there was a book from God, this book in some form must have been in existence in most, if not all of man's history. Because if it was from God, He would have the power to have it so. What am I leading to? I am sure you have already guessed. I have used it already. I have quoted from it. It's the Bible. No other ancient texts have as many existing ancient manuscripts. It is the most sold, most read book ever. The Bible is actually a collection of many books. It is divided into 2 parts the Old and New Testament. Obviously the New Testament did not exist before Jesus. But Jesus Himself claims to be the Word of God, Himself (read the gospel of John chapter one). Jesus fulfilled many of the Old Testament prophecies. It is historically proven that Jesus was real, it is historically proven that the Old Testament existed years before Him. Therefore it is evidenced by Old Testament prophecy that Jesus is who He claims to be.

 Historical Evidence for the LIFE, DEATH, and RESURRECTION of JESUS
 Ancient Evidence for Jesus from Non-Christian Sources
 an exact prediction of the date of Christ's entry into Jerusalem
 Daniel’s Prophecy Came True When Yeshua Entered Jerusalem - Yeshua is how some people translate the name of Jesus 

What about the Book of Mormon or other supposed inspired books? What is the source of these books? These must be measured by the standard of God. A book can be inspired by a demon in the disguise of an angel or Christ. Of which is discussed above. Remember Paul's warning:

Galatians 1: NKJV
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

All revelations, visions, and visitations must be measured. It should be measured by the Bible. What about measuring the Bible? Yes! Jesus declared Himself that His teachings can be confirmed. You can find three methods of testing scripture at the following link:

 The Word of God

Let me also say that any other book must equal to the authority of the bible if it claims equal truth. The book of mormon does not have the hundreds or thousands of ancient manuscripts like the Bible does. If it were so. Let it be seen, then indeed that book could be true, or any other that had the historical evidence that the Bible has. Using a COUPLE of historical evidences with a COUPLE of archaeological digs does NOT equate to the VOLUMES of manuscripts and archaeological finds the Bible has. Don't be fooled folks, we are talking about YOUR ETERNITY.

One last standard that I will discuss here, is one method that some people claim as equal to the Bible or even higher: tradition. Here is what Jesus said about traditions of religious people: 

Mark 7: Geneva Bible
13 Making the word of God of none authority, by your tradition which ye have ordained: and ye do many such like things. 

What He is saying is, that traditions nullify the Word of God. Traditions will water down the Bible, make it less potent. Jesus turned water into wine, and some religious people want to take God's Word and water it down to zero potency. Paul spoke of these folks when he said:

2 Timothy 3:5: Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Traditions can be okay with balance, but don't let any tradition become a standard. If you find a method to reach God which is based upon tradition but is not scriptural you cannot trust it's from God. I go into greater detail why tradition cannot be the greatest method of finding God, nor even a reliable source:

 What authority and security does the church possess?

Unless the tradition is Biblical, do not follow it for any dogmatic absolute doctrine. If it is biblical, then do not become legalistic. The following is a Biblical example of tradition. In some churches women are required to wear a head covering, yet the very texts about head coverings say's this:

1 Cor:11:16: But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

We live not by law but in liberty in Christ. Be careful though, don't let your liberty (or legalism) cause you or someone else to fall. If you want to learn more about traditions versus the Bible click on the link below:

 Click here to learn about Catholic doctrine

For part 2 on this subject: "The Protected & Inspired Word of God", we ask: does God protect the Word of God from error? What translations are best? Click on the link below: 

 The Protected & Inspired Word of God
 

May God Bless you, in the pursuit of Him! 
 

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Links of interest:

I go into greater detail about the authority of the Bible here:

 The Word of God

I discuss Bible translations and which ones are most reliable here: 

 The Protected & Inspired Word of God 

In the following page I discuss how to interpret scripture:

 How to understand the Bible

I also go into further detail on who Jesus is here:

 The Truth about Jesus and God

I have other links to sites which show the evidences of Old Testament prophecy and natural sciences here:

 Links to Evidences & Scientific Arguments

If you are persuaded that the Bible is God's true highest standard and want to know about salvation and eternal life then go here:

 The Gospel of of Salvation