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You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay tuned. Now—
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call, here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and TA, I’ve been a believer for quite a while and I think I’m fairly knowledgeable about the Bible. Anyhow, I used to think you two were out-of-bounds when it came to being critical of so many well-known Christian leaders, but now I am beginning to be as concerned as I thought you were, and I’m asking for your help. How should I deal with Christian writers and preachers that I have learned much from, but now see errors in certain things they teach. Should I drop them from my list of biblically edifying teachers if they endorse psychology, or Calvinism, or Replacement Theology, or Old Earth Creation, or other beliefs I think are wrong?
Dave:
Well, first of all, he has a moral responsibility to at least communicate with these people, communicate his concerns and to see what their reaction is, maybe he can help them. Secondly, I think he has—he or she, whoever this was, has a moral duty before God. He or she probably knows some other people who are enamored with these teachers and who could be led astray. So you need to help those people as well. I think you need to bring some correction to these people, give them a chance. It doesn’t mean that they will pay attention to you, but at least you point out their error.
Tom:
Dave, you’ve probably heard people say, well, what you do is you learn how to separate the meat from the bones, okay. It’s like fish, you know, you spit out the bones and you keep the meat. Can you say that with, let’s say a teacher who in certain areas you thought was really good, this content, this information is terrific, but I don’t buy that.
Dave:
Well, Tom, generally, it’s a little worse than meat and bones, it corrupts the meat, the bones aren’t just something you can pull out, generally, because everything is inter-related. I don’t know, we would have to ask specifics, but I think you still have a moral duty to try to bring correction to this person.
Tom:
Yeah, well, you fish a lot and so do I, Dave, and some fish have mercury, so whether they have bones and meat, sometimes the mercury can do you in. I agree with you. I think discernment, there are certainly teachers out there that I don’t agree 100% with, and I’m edified by much of their teaching but I just reject, particularly—now this person mentioned psychology. We have seen so many preachers and teachers have just missed the boat on this. They don’t recognize how detrimental a promotion of psychology or pastors who refer their sheep, basically, out to so-called Christian psychologists and psychotherapists or secular psychiatrists, what I’m talking about is licensed practitioners, which is dead wrong, absolutely dead wrong.
Dave:
Well, we did a whole series on that, I guess, Tom, for anyone that is interested could get it, could receive it.
Tom:
Well, we have a book coming out, hopefully early next year on Psychology and the Church . But still, I can be blessed by their teaching in some areas, but in other ways I just either avoid it or reject it.
Dave:
Well, Tom, I can’t think of an example, but you’re being very generous now, I think, of someone who is really into Christian psychology, who then has anything to offer that I would be blessed by it, because I don’t know, there may be some out there, it would seem reasonable that there should be. Psychology shouldn’t pervade everything they teach, but generally it does, that’s the tragedy. This becomes the lens through which they now look at Scripture. This becomes the guide for Christian living, and they pretty much get it all from there. And by the way, as we point out in that book, Tom, who brought Christian psychology into the church? Norman Vincent Peale, and most people listening, I think, I hope, would know what a horrible heretic he was. And he is the one that brought it into the church, and by the way, for decades the entire evangelical church stood against it, stood against it, refused, but Peale persisted.
Tom:
Yeah, and his theology was primarily Religious Science, Mind Science, and so on, but he’s accepted as a Christian by people who are just not discerning. Dave, I’m talking to you but I’m really talking to our audience and our listeners, the name of the program is, Search the Scriptures Daily. If the apostle Paul, if Luke commends these Jews in the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea for checking out the apostle Paul, how much more than should we check out teachers who become favorites of ours, or preachers, Christian leaders.
Dave:
Well, that’s the point, we are measuring them against the Bible. They search the scriptures daily to see whether what Paul taught was true.
Tom:
And we want people to do the same with us, right?
Dave:
Absolutely! So now, back to the question, we find someone whose teaching has really edified us, but they’ve got other things that are dead wrong. What do we do? We can’t mix them, of course, we can’t set that aside, pick out the bones and so forth. No, we have to confront them, but we have to be very, very careful that we don’t get trapped in this sort of thing ourselves. I just think of the words of Paul to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4: “Preach the Word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” So, Tom, that’s the obligation lay upon us by Scripture and that’s what we will do, as God gives us the strength and the insight to do it.
