Knowing the Scriptures and the power of God

“Jesus replied, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?’” Mark 12:24
In Mark 12 we read about a time when the Sadducees came to Jesus with a hypothetical situation, to test Him. They told a story about a man who married a woman and then died. According to Jewish law, the man’s brother was supposed to marry her, which he did, but then he also died. This happened to the next brother and the next, until seven brothers had been married to her and all died. Their next question was, “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” (Mark 12:23). They were not asking this genuinely. You see, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, nor in spirits, angels, demons, and so forth. They were trying to use this example to demonstrate (in their eyes) the foolishness of the idea of a resurrection.
But Jesus turned it around, saying, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” If they had simply studied the Bible, they would know that the resurrection is a fact. Paul addressed a similar error that had infiltrated the church at Corinth: “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:12-14). God demonstrated His power to create life out of nothing; He certainly has the power to bring about resurrection.
However, Jesus’ words can be applied even more generally. We have all kinds of strange doctrines floating around, which, when you boil them down, only demonstrates ignorance of the Scriptures on the part of the person saying it, and a lack of faith in God’s power. Take for example praying to Mary: nowhere in Scripture are we encouraged to do this; rather, we encounter the opposite (Luke 11:27-28, Rev. 19:10, etc.). Prayer is to be directed to God alone. He doesn’t need help from Mary, or anyone else, to give credence to our prayers. Another example is the ‘prosperity gospel’, that if you are rich and successful it means you’re on God’s good side, and if you’re not, then you’ve done something to fall out of favour. But in the Scriptures we see the opposite: many godly men and women suffered, through no fault of their own (see Heb. 11:35-40, and consider Joseph, Daniel, Job – even Jesus suffered!). Suffering actually brings us closer to God and causes our faith to be strengthened (James 1:2-4).
There are many more examples we could discuss, but the conclusion is this: we can keep our lives free from doctrinal error by simply knowing the Bible, and understanding the extent of the power of God.