Discerning the Truth
Click here to read this issue
“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you
do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Pet
1:19)
The line between truth and error
seems to obscure with time, but only because human understanding changes over
time. Post-modernism seeks to
demolish the very foundation of knowledge—the recognition that absolute truth
exists—and is thus incompatible with theistic belief and the self-revelation of
God.
When faith in any of the sixty-six
books of the Bible is undermined, man cannot arrive at an accurate
understanding of God. Even though God is revealed in physical creation (Rom
1:20), without the Holy Scriptures, no one can be “wise for salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15). Historically, deviant sects like
the Montanists denied the Old Testament as inspired, while the New Testament,
especially Pauline writings, was rejected by Judaistic Christians and certain
Gnostics. In recent times, Bart Ehrman, an American New Testament scholar and
author of “Misquoting Jesus,” refreshes some of the ancient objections to the
New Testament and continues with his own disparagement.
In his second epistle, Peter
defended the inspired nature of the New Testament, still in the process of
writing and compilation, linking it to the inspiration of the Old Testament:
because Old Testament Scriptures are inspired, they must never be interpreted
according to personal whim but in light of the revelation given to the apostles
through Christ. Hence, New Testament teachings are not “cunningly devised
fables” but “prophetic word confirmed” (2 Pet 1:16–21). In the same spirit,
Peter vindicated his fellow apostle Paul at the end of the epistle, placing
Pauline writings on the same level of inspiration as “the rest of the
Scriptures” (2 Pet 3:15–16). Paul’s teachings were not new inventions, but
truth received from the Lord (1 Cor 11:23).
Speaking of the truth that we have
received, a theme writer emphasizes the inseparability between God and His
word—because God Himself is the truth—leading to the logical conclusion that
truth is eternal and unchanging. The progressive nature of revelation (Heb
1:1–2) cannot be seen as change in truth as we transition from the Old to the
New Testament, for God and His word are immutable (Heb 6:13–18). Another
contributor to the theme warns that false prophets will arise within the true
church, who will first misrepresent our traditional beliefs, then attack the
twisted version thus presented, paving the way to subvert what we truly teach.
These are matters that concern every member of the church. Doctrines regarding
the Holy Spirit, inspiration and finality of the Bible, and the unchanging
nature of truth are but some of the things currently under attack.
Satan’s old trick of causing
disharmony and the nature of Satan himself as a fallen creature are examined in
the exhortation section. While the
first article posits that love is indispensable in ensuring harmony, it
observes that the love between Adam and Eve was broken as a result of
disobedience to God’s word and that fellowship amongst workers is based on
commonality of faith. The second article, on the fall of Satan, affirms the
absoluteness of God, expounding on the meaning of the tetragrammaton—YHWH—that
God is the only self-existing Being. The age-old issue of theodicy—reconciling
the justice and mercy of the Almighty with the existence of evil—cannot be
resolved by appealing to the idea of a self-existing devil.