The Power of Truth to Shape or Deform

I had a visit today from a man claiming to be “God’s divine messenger” and the “man with the measuring rod” (Rev 11:1) to call the church back to a sacrificial life. His application of what it meant to follow Jesus was very narrow—the total surrender of all of one’s goods with no provision for your children, no offerings to the church, and no savings. I told him that I was committed to a sacrificial lifestyle but that it included providing for my children (I referenced 1 Tim.5:8), giving to my church (I referenced 1 Cor.16:2) and saving (I referenced Prov. 13:11) rather than indebting myself to everyone. Sadly, he refused to take into consideration the broad teachings of Scripture because he only accepted the Gospels as authentic. Somewhere in his background he had been taught that the Old Testament and all the apostolic writings were false and filled with error. “Paul was the greatest heretic the church has ever seen,” he told me. He went on to tell me that salvation was by works rather than the grace of God, and the second coming of Christ was a lie. He was angered when I informed him that according to his words, if he had no use for the grace of God in salvation, that he was not a true Christian, but a false teacher. He ended the conversation and walked off.

This strange episode reminded me of the power of truth and lies to either shape or deform a person’s destiny. Discussions about biblical inerrancy are far from “mere academic questions”. The conclusions that one arrives at regarding the nature of Scripture affect our whole lives, including our understanding of how we manage our money, the means of salvation, and our eschatological hope. It was a good reminder to me of the need to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). These are truly words from God we need to pay attention to.