Articles
Discerning Minds Needed
When Jesus stood before him and he had opportunity to ask Him anything he wanted, Pilate first asked Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” to which Jesus asked, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” Pilate then replied, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” It is then Jesus answered the original question, saying, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate then asked again, “Are You a king then?” and Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” To that, Pilate concluded his questioning by asking without awaiting the answer: “What is truth?” (John 18:33-38) Though Pilate did not wait for the answer, we can only speculate if he was actually wanting to know, or if this was merely rhetorical. Though he didn’t await the reply, the answer is one we should all be interested in knowing! What is truth?
Truth should be of utmost importance in spiritual matters, especially, but in all matters, actually. In spiritual matters, it will mean the difference between believing and following the way that leads to heaven, or being deceived into thinking we are going to heaven when, in reality, we are headed the opposite direction. Remember the word of God is truth (John 17:17; Psa. 119:160), everything God speaks is truth (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18), and our spiritual adversary “is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). Remember, too, that the one who speaks only lies sometimes “transforms himself into an angel of light” and “his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14, 15).
Warnings are plenty in the New Testament about those who will come to us, purporting to be of God or claiming to speak His word when, in reality, they are neither of God nor speaking His word. John warned the early disciples, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1), and Peter warned the early disciples “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies” and they would cause many to “follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed” (2 Pet. 2:1, 2). Just because someone claims to be of God or claims to be speaking truth does not mean they should not be challenged.
A prime example of this is the apostle Paul himself. When he came to Berea, he “went into the synagogue of the Jews” (Acts 17:10) and began preaching Christ “as his custom was” (Acts 17:2), but those in Berea did not merely take Paul at his word; though he was an apostle — chosen by Jesus personally to go preach the gospel to the Gentiles — and though he was imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit to speak perfectly the will of God, those in Berea “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Now, friends and brethren, if they would do that to an apostle, what should we be doing today to anyone who claims to be of God, or speaking God’s word?
And let us note that when the Bereans sought to know if those things were so, we may rightly conclude they were wanting to know if what Paul spoke was truth, for they “searched the Scriptures.” [Let us be reminded once again that the word of God is truth, cf. John 17:17.] They did not take a vote on the matter to see what the majority thought about what Paul said; they didn’t take a poll to see what people felt about his words; they “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” So must we, if it is truth we seek.
Now, of course, you will hear from some religious leaders that you should leave the Scripture searching and explaining to them because we can’t understand it. I beg to differ, and because of exactly what we find the Bereans doing. The Bereans searched the Scriptures; they did not seek the counsel of religious scholars, and did not seek the advice of men who were trained in the regional divinity schools and who held degrees in religious studies. The common people searched the Scriptures, and by doing so, were able to determine “whether these things were so”; in other words, if it was truth or not.
This is not a special case, either. When Paul wrote to the brethren in Ephesus [those who were already Christians], he reminded them of the gospel message he had preached to them — what was once identified as “the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men” (Eph. 3:4), but what he wrote to them, he noted, “when you read, you may understand.” Note well that the Holy Spirit-inspired apostle Paul said these brethren could understand what they read! They did not need to seek counsel from religious scholars, or wait for it to be ‘properly interpreted’ by someone who had a degree in religious studies from the nearby University of Thyatira.
A little side note here, of importance on this point: From an article ‘Illiteracy in the Land of Israel in the first centuries’ (S. Fishbane, S. Schoenfeld and A. Goldschlaeger, ‘Essays in the Social Scientific Study of Judaism and Jewish Society,’ II, New York: Ktav, 1992, pp. 46-61.), they noted, ‘rabbinic sources support evidence that the literacy rate was less than 3%.’ Now, if such was the case in the first century, and yet Paul said — by Divine inspiration, no less — that when they read his words, they could understand it, then why would we (1) doubt that statement, and (2) assert that we who live in a much more literate society today, cannot understand these same words?
The fact is, though, even when individuals are not told that Scriptures are too difficult to understand, many believe that. Why is that? Quite often, the problem is one of approach. Consider this important point, noted by Paul in his letter to the brethren at Corinth. To them, he wrote, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). In other words, a man of the world who is trying to understand the spiritual writings of God will have great difficulty understanding it because of how he approaches a study of those writings. Trying to understand the Scriptures by using human wisdom and human reasoning will make it seem like it is a bunch of foolishness and confusing language. It won’t be until one approaches it properly [with a spiritually-focused mindset] that any understanding can be achieved.
Right now, there is a lot of confusion out there as to what the truth actually is, and this is magnified by the numerous individuals who are offering their ‘interpretation’ and who claim to be the ‘experts.’ Just as we are seeing with the coronavirus information being disseminated, we are left wondering who is actually speaking the truth, if anyone at all! Right now, we need more discerning minds, willing to search! — Steven Harper
