Plato says that there can be no greater sin than misleading a fellow creature into a false belief. Yet an intelligent student of God’s Word can make it more difficult for persons to commit this greater sin. Is not the saint exhorted not to be carried about by every wind of teaching, by the slight of men, with a view to the systematizing of the deception (Ephesians 4:11-14)?
Revival of thought is essential for us in our time. We should not accept what the past has to offer without thinking it through; neither should we reject all that has been thought out by others in the past and start afresh on each subject by ourselves. In the present we may borrow from the past with a view to the future; but let us think it all through before we make it our own and pass it on. Let each of us develop an intense love of sifting evidence, and the ability to withstand being swept into thoughtless agreement with superior persons when they talk theology at us. Weigh everything!
The love of truth should not be the faintest of the passions in us. We are accountable to God if we are spinelessly acquiescent followers of leaders who seek to imbue us with the utterly untenable idea that they alone are the sole and final court of appeals in matters of interpretation, and that those who differ should recant or resign. A Christian’s love for his theology or his favorite volumes should not exceed his love for God’s Word itself. Let us believe God! Only along this path does maturity lie.
Frank Neil Pohorlak
