Test all things; hold fast that which is good. – 1Th 5:21
These are the last days, and the amount of varied doctrines being bandied about as “Truth” is staggering and overwhelming. Heresy, however, is not an invention of the 21st century. Right from the very start of the church the Apostles had had to deal with false doctrine creeping in among unsuspecting believers and corrupting them. The contents of the books of Galatians and Hebrews (legalism), Colossians and 1 John (Gnosticism), 1&2 Thessalonians (false Eschatology), and Jude (antinomianism) are mostly reactions to different shades of false doctrines that were being taught to the recipients.
Today, however, no thanks to the unprecedented access to information through the internet and Social Media, the rate at which error is being propagated is phenomenal. Recently, I tried googling for a certain biblical phrase to get its exact verse and a curious entry in the search results caught my attention. On clicking it, I found myself in not just one aberrant website but a whole ecosystem of interlinking “Christian” websites and ministries spouting some really weird doctrines about Christianity, the church, Jesus, etc.
Dangerously, not every deviant doctrine comes across as the spoutings of some hallucinating conspiracy-theorist crackpot. Some doctrines actually appear sensible and rational – orthodox even. (For example, the site I mentioned was heavy on the divinity of Jesus and was really on all-out war on those who were trying to subvert His teachings; what could be wrong about that, right?).
Beloved, we cannot always rely on the “inward witness” to tell us when a doctrine is amiss, especially because such a witness can be corrupted by our previous prejudices and upbringing. When it comes to proving “all things” like Paul enjoins in 1Th 5:21, we’re going to need some hard, objective canon or rule to test it by. And that rule for us is the Bible, the written word of God.
Sadly, not many Christians today are familiar with scripture. They may know quotable quotes like “Psalm 23” and Paul’s chapter on Love (1Cor 13). But they can’t actually say they understand the overall MESSAGE of the Bible. And that ignorance, forms the lacuna through which the enemy slips in doubt and confusion about the Faith which was once delivered unto us, (Jd 1:3).
You will not fall to the deception of these last days in Jesus name.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN