ANSWERING A HERETIC

Anita and I just spent a contentious couple of days at a liberal mainline church camp, where the main speaker, a seasoned pastor, confessed that he believed that all will be saved.

This is a very serious heresy. It makes the Christian faith irrelevant. Just think of it - If all are going to heaven, why evangelize, why study the Bible, why pray, forgive, be obedient, or do anything else Jesus requires?

What makes this worse is that the pastor defends his beliefs with the Bible. As a result, some will wrongly conclude that it’s all just a matter of interpretation. Besides, if you claim that your interpretation is correct and the pastor’s is unbiblical, you will be accused of “arrogance” and “lacking humility.”

How would you answer these charges? First of all, humility does not argue against having certainty and assurance. Instead, the Bible claims that certainty and assurance are vital gifts of the Lord. Paul therefore prayed:

• that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)

The full assurance of understanding represents riches. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with having a confidence about what the Scriptures are teaching.

Also, confidence regarding our relationship with our Savior is key:

• Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19-23)

Instead, humility is merely a matter of the knowledge of our own depravity and our Savior’s all sufficiency. It’s not a denial that we have confidence about our interpretation of the Scriptures.

Now we are ready to return to the charge that Scripture is just a matter of our own personal and subjective interpretations, and therefore, citing Scripture proves nothing.

While our interpretations might be mistaken, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t one correct interpretation. This is why Paul counseled Timothy to study so that he would derive the right interpretation:

• Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. (2 Timothy 2:15-16)

This means that some interpretations are not only wrong, but they are also destructive. Consequently, we are warned:

• Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace [given through Biblical teachings], not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. (Hebrews 13:9)

While right interpretations can build us up, “strange teachings” can tear us down. This is why we are counseled to meditate on the Word:

• Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalms 1:1-3)

Having a right understanding of the Scriptures is to be profoundly blessed. How then are we to respond to this errant pastor? First of all, he is a seasoned professional who must first be understood. What are his arguments? What Scriptural evidence does he use to support them? Is he interpreting the evidence correctly?

This requires us to do some work to weigh the evidence and to even inquire of some respected elders.