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SPIRITUAL SWORDSMANSHIP
or
Defending Yourself against False Doctrines
THE PROBLEM
. It is obvious from Scripture that every Christian is expected to
be able to fight back and defeat false teachings, no matter whether
they are being proclaimed by an obvious cult, or by a brother who has
fallen into error. Practically speaking, though, the average
Christian often feels outmatched in verse-to-verse combat and looks
for help from people he considers to be authorities.
. There is a great deal of very good, helpful material available,
but it usually has a problem or two that makes it difficult to use,
especially if it is a situation that the believer has never been in
before. This material will often give the reader tremendous insight,
but ordinarily, requires him to research, memorize, study and practice
it before he can use it effectively. It will also give him
information about only ONE group or teaching, without giving him a
general tool that can be used in all situations. The average
Christian doesn't have the time or interest to pursue this avenue, or
to become well informed about ALL the errant doctrines being put out.
As a result, he becomes discouraged, and gives up on EVER successfully
refuting false doctrine.
. This writer is convinced that each and every Christian, no matter
how long he has been a Christian or how knowledgeable he is about
spiritual things has the means at hand to defeat any and all false
teaching. All it requires is a knowledge of your weapon, how to use
it, and what pitfalls to avoid.
YOUR PRINCIPAL WEAPON
. Nearly every person who is teaching false doctrine seeks to
undermine the trustworthiness of the Bible. (A good sign the person
IS teaching false doctrine!) After running into a wall of disbelief,
you may be tempted to dispense with the Bible in favor of other
material, in the hopes that you may convince him of the error of his
way. DON'T, unless you are VERY familiar with the other material, and
can use it WELL! Even then, your primary weapon should STILL be the
Bible.
. This may seem obvious, but it is e exactly at THIS point that
many Christian "defenders of the Faith" get lost and confused. Much
of the material available puts this Book, the Holy Bible, which is our
real basis for power and authority, into an almost secondary position,
and will rely upon other sources for most of their arguments.
. If your friend - the one who is seeking to give you "another
gospel" - distrusts the accuracy of the Bible, it makes NO difference
in its being YOUR principal weapon. A sword remains a sword, even if
the opponent doesn't think it is a reliable weapon. The Word of God
remains the Word of God, "...living and active; sharper than any
double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing the soul and
spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
heart" (Hebrews 4:12), even if your friend disbelieves it.
. This is true even if your friend is a self-avowed atheist, or
part of a non-Christian religion - although some of what follows won't
apply - STICK TO THE BIBLE!!! No other material has a divine
guarantee of total effectiveness that the Bible has! The other
materials can be used, if you desire, to further establish the fallacy
of your friends claims, but your most reliable weapon in fighting
error is the Holy Bible. Even if he INSISTS upon disregarding the
Bible, and going elsewhere to find truth, DON'T DO IT! If he gets
upset, ask him what he is afraid of finding in the Bible.
EFFECTIVE DOCTRINAL DUELING
. Like the sword it compares itself to, the Bible can be used to
either attack or defend. To carry the parallel even further, it takes
a fair amount of practice and experience to use a sword - or the Bible
- effectively on the offense. As you grow and mature in your Walk
with the Lord Jesus, your ability to use His Word will grow with you.
But many of those who are approached by these "false apostles" (and
sometimes led astray by them) haven't had the time to become familiar,
much less skilled, in using the Bible.
. When a soldier is being trained to fight, he is usually taught
how to defend himself LONG before he is taught how to attack. There
is every reason to expect this to be appropriate for our spiritual
battles, as well. When talking with a person from any organization
(or teaching) that is false, but wants to present itself or himself as
"Christian," sooner or later, there will be an attempt to use a
passage from the Bible to support or defend a doctrine that may be in
conflict with the Truth of Scripture.
. When ANYONE - even someone who is honestly seeking to teach the
True Word of God - uses the Bible to teach or illustrate a concept
unfamiliar to you (particularly when it is in conflict with what you
have been taught before!), STOP THE CONVERSATION RIGHT THERE!!! Get
out a Bible, turn to he passage just used, and read it - out loud, if
possible, and include the entire paragraph in which it is found. A
teacher of Truth probably won't mind, and a false teacher may or may
not - their response at this point won't tell you much. If they
object, just inform them that you want to find out if their use of the
passage agrees with the author's intention, and continue examining the
section! Under NO circumstances should your discussion continue until
you have checked the passage to see if your friend and the author
agree. Do this in EACH INSTANCE! The friend may be A-OK in some
cases just to get you to believe that he knows what he is talking
about, but then divert into the "real" false teachings after having
obtained your confidence.
BASIC INTERPRETIVE THRUST
. The easiest way to determine the AUTHOR'S intent in a passage is
to ask a series of simple questions - WHO?, WHEN?, WHERE?, HOW?,
WHAT?, WHY?, and even SO WHAT? (These are sometimes referred to as
the "journalism" questions). In order to answer the questions, you
will need to examine MORE than just the passage quoted, but will find
the answers in the context of the entire Book. After doing that, see
if either your interpretation or his interpretation, should they be
different, is closest to agreement with the Bible. God NEVER
contradicts himself! A good help would be to follow the cross-
references that are often in the margins of the Bible.
. A false teaching will ALWAYS differ from the original purpose of
the author; so you can spot - and refute - false teachings quite
easily and effectively by using this simple method. It may sound like
more work than you'd like to go through, and may even seem to be rude,
at times, but it is a workable means to keep from being fooled by
false teachings and deceiving spirits. It may be much easier to
simply believe what someone tells you, particularly if they sound
authoritative and have a positive, glowing personality, but Satan and
his demonic forces prey upon those who blindly follow - see II
Corinthians 11:3,4,13-15.
. The Bible commands each of us to TEST ALL THINGS and to TEST
EVERYONE to make CERTAIN that their teaching is truthful, and with
your eternal destiny at stake, you cannot afford to be lazy - CAN YOU?
. "BUT THAT'S JUST YOUR INTERPRETATION." Should the interpretation
you receive differ from the teacher - as they will if your friend is a
false teacher - then the teacher may attempt to disregard your
interpretation and dismiss it because it is a variation, based upon
your "pre-suppositions." This allows him to retain his interpretation
as an acceptable interpretation, even more correct option, which
ignores the fact that HIS interpretation is based upon HIS pre-
suppositions!
. Essentially he is correct in his assertion that this is merely a
matter of interpretation, and you can (and perhaps SHOULD) agree with
him about this point - But point out the interpretative method that
you used (the "journalism" questions) is designed to help you
understand what the Author really meant by what he said. Then ask him
what HIS interpretative method (the method HE used to determine the
meaning of the passage) is or was, and what he is trying to determine
by using that method.
. Sometimes, he will insist that it is the same one you use - then
ask to see the steps that he took to reach his conclusions. But,
usually, the significance of the real difference in means and purpose
of interpreting Scriptures won't sink in until it has been repeated
several times, which means you should, at this point, invite him to
continue in his efforts to show the Biblical basis of his teaching.
Each and every time - even when it gets a bit tough to do - he uses
the Bible, go through the exact same procedure, asking the questions
and explaining your purpose.
. Sooner or later (if his teaching is false) he will begin to
realize that HIS method is to see in the passage what he WANTS to see
(often because someone else told HIM that it was there!), and his sole
purpose is to support the teaching. He has taken his belief to the
text to be supported, rather than going to the text to learn what IT
HAS to teach. Once that realization is made, it is usually a simple
matter to go on and teach the Gospel message that the Bible really
teaches.
. There are a few "traps" you need to watch out for:
1. THE RETRANSLATION TRAP
. A false teaching or system that claims to be "Christian" often
uses the EXACT same words you would hear being used in a true,
Biblically sound Christian gathering. There is a subtle danger here.
In nearly every case, these special words and phrases mean something
different to the false teacher or follower than they do to you. They
have been re-interpreted, usually without your friend even being aware
of it. They now mean something very different and foreign to the
meaning that you attach to them.
. There are a couple of things you need to remember and do anytime
you are dealing with someone that you suspect is teaching heresy.
. First is to avoid using those special meaning words of
Christianity that are so familiar to you, such as "saved","Born-
Again","Savior","Son of God","Gospel" and many others. Try to use
phrases that DEFINE these terms, or other words that means the same
thing that are not used in the cliche' manner that these are.
. Secondly, be certain that you both understand what each of you
mean when these terms ARE used when you are speaking about spiritual
matters of any kind. Make certain that you define what YOU mean when
YOU say "Christ dies for my sins" or anything else in a spiritual
sense. Ask HIM what "Jesus is THE Christ" REALLY means to him - get
him to clearly and totally define it - or any other term you both may
be using. This may take a bit of doing, but keep at it until you are
positive that you both understand each other. If there is any
complaint, just tell your friend that with eternity "hanging" on the
very meaning of these terms, you are required to be absolutely certain
that you both understand what the other means by what he says.
2. THE "SKIPPING ROCKS" TRAP
. One thing that often happens in a discussion on religion is that
one or all parties involved will jump from one subject to another,
never staying on any one point long enough to be thorough in
investigating the Truth it may contain. One or all will keep jumping
from the original Scripture under discussion to others, scattered
throughout the Bible, intending to support or clarify what is thought
to be taught in the first passage considered. Both are to be avoided.
. Be polite, but refuse to budge from the original text until it
has been COMPLETELY examined, using the questions we have noted
before. Only AFTER that is done should you allow the discussion to
proceed to other passages for confirmation or refutation, but keep
referring back to the original text that is "being justified".
. All the data you need to refute a misuse of Scripture can be
found right in the immediate context - you don't need to go elsewhere
to do that, and the impact of refuting a false interpretation from the
passage, itself, is much greater than it is going to some other text.
All you need is the immediate context, nothing more, except to VERIFY
an interpretation!
3. THE BIBLE BASH TRAP
. This is very similar to the "skipping rocks" trap above, except
it is a trap that YOU are much more likely to fall into than your
"errant" friend might be. As soon as you hear a teaching that is
obviously contrary to the Truth of Scripture, you may be tempted to
begin immediately to quote other Bible passages to disprove it. At
this point, your friend starts quoting passages just as
enthusiastically, proving HIS point of view (and seemingly disproving
yours).
. Neither of you is really listening to the other - you're just
"spouting" Scriptures with no REAL reference to one another. Nothing
is accomplished, except that, perhaps, some heat is generated, but
little LIGHT. Stick to the original passage - it will get and keep
your friend's attention, as you are giving evidence that you are
seriously listening to him. If you want to confirm the true
interpretation, THEN and ONLY THEN, go on to other passages. But as
before, all the material you really need has been provided by God to
be at your fingertips, in the full context of the verses quoted -
there is little need to go elsewhere.
A PRACTICE RUN
. One of the most common errors is to teach that something besides
Faith, alone, is needed for salvation in many of its facets. Usually
this takes the form of a faith PLUS some personal effort. (A "work"
to be added to what God has TOTALLY provided in Christ Jesus)
. The favorite passage to support this "works" theory is James
2:14-26 - "..faith without works is dead.." - and therefore, some sort
of personal "work", which is usually "gladly spelled out in detail" by
your friend, is needed to REALLY get into God's favor. Although you
could probably quote a good dozen verses to discredit that concept,
for the time being, lets stick with the letter of James - particularly
to the immediate context of James 2:14-26 - and ask an "expanded" form
of the "journalism" questions we have mentioned already.
. Get out your Bible, some paper and pen, and then answer the
questions, looking at ALL of James, but ONLY JAMES! Ready? - Then
start "rightly dividing the Word of Truth"!