SPIT OUT THE BONES!
Just recently, my 17 year old son confided in me that he was a bit frustrated by an avalanche of unsolicited advice coming at him on various subjects concerning his young life. Knowing the content of some of the advice, I just encouraged him to, “eat the meat and spit out the bones”; one of my favorite analogies of the importance of being a discriminating consumer of knowledge, information, opinions, well-meaning guidance, and especially spiritual wisdom. This concept was epitomized in the Bible when the citizens of Berea were commended for being, “…more noble (or fair-minded, as the old King James says), than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (KJV Acts 17:11)” This verse beautifully frames the discussion concerning the significant role that discernment and critical thinking should play in the life of Christians, who are often rightly or wrongly condemned as being either; negative-thinkers, closed-minded, and plagued by a wide assortment of isms and phobias or; foolishly ignorant, undiscerning, unperceptive, and biblically ill-informed.
Some Christians, in the past and even in our day, can be accurately described as having their critical thinking helmets strapped on a bit too tightly or of being so open-minded that their spiritual brains are leaking out. But looking at that verse again, we can see the need to strike a perfect balance between having a ready mind to receive information, but then a diligence to search God’s word in order to prove or disprove the veracity of what is being said; rejecting the false and accepting the true, “eating the meat and spitting out the bones”. Often, our zeal for defending God’s word, while certainly commendable, can be placed in the category of what the apostle Paul called, “…a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (NKJV Rom 10:2)”
In one sense, our concerns about the ever-creeping scourge of liberal theology and it's blasphemous so-called, ‘higher criticism’ of Scripture is absolutely valid! They seek to condition us to form a judgment about the Bible itself, and to reevaluate whether or not we should hold to traditional Christian doctrines, in the face of pseudo-scientific theories, that were developed by men who, not only reject the validity of the Bible, but in many cases, hated the Bible and fought to ensure its destruction. To this threat, we must be cautiously perceptive and steadfastly vigilant. However, we must also develop a strategy for thinking critically about the attacks of higher criticism, and the methods and underlying principles of liberal theology that support it; learning how to counter their offensives in an academic environment, in the media onslaught against Christianity, and in other areas of our life and ministry as well. As Peter said, “…sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. (1Peter 3:15)”
As we sojourn through the wilderness of this life, we are bound to have significant amounts of disagreement with others in regard to spiritual and theological matters. On occasion, there may come a time for us to reevaluate our doctrinal distinctives and spiritual presuppositions; understanding that the overly familiar and well-known positions held by our own denominations, may not completely line up with Scripture as well as others do, and we will need to alter our course a bit. More often however, we must be prepared to decode the constantly evolving doctrines of demons of; neo-orthodoxy, liberal theology, and outright heresy, which seek to erode the authority of the Bible, in favor of the morays of a corrupt society.
Our own inability to respond graciously and effectively to these concepts being introduced into the Church, can bring shame and discredit to the name of Christ, and to the truth of God’s word that we profess. Therefore, it is imperative that we acquire some tools which allow us to gain appropriate insights from various theological perspectives, that we don’t necessarily agree with, while rejecting false and deceptive teachings that cannot be substantiated by Scripture. Sometimes, there is a need to absolutely, “throw the baby out with the bath water”, but at other times, we need only to be aware of portions of the message as being somewhat questionable or unsubstantiated. One of these tools comes in the form of the awareness that one must have of their own predisposed biases and perceptions of how things should be done. I don’t feel that it is appropriate to say that we must leave them at the door, forget that we have them, or “just be open-minded”; this does not seem to be a biblical approach at all, but we must be aware that we do have prejudices that could cloud our judgment, and be willing to minimize them temporarily, so that our discernment about the subject in question can be fairly evaluated.
Along those same lines, having a keen awareness of the possibility that prejudicial motivations, antagonistic to sound Christian doctrine, may have been involved in the research and writing of the message in question, is also a form of critical thinking and it must not be excluded from the equation. Why was this written? Who is speaking? What denominational background may be influencing their perspective? We are consistently warned in Scripture to beware of false doctrines parading themselves as the truth and that there will be, “…false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness…” (2 Cor 11:13-16) What other forms of critical thinking could be more pure and balanced than that? The goal should not be to merely gain some positive insights from a work that may have little redeeming value, but rather, to discern the truth from lies, recognizing that Satan is the father of lies, and if a theological doctrine begins to show evidence of this, it should be an indication to us that he’s involved in some way.
It has occurred to me that, in the biblical scholarship community, holding opinions on core Christian beliefs that are diametrically opposed to scriptural evidence, is a completely acceptable position to take. We are encouraged to study the works of people who are reported to have a belief in certain tenants of the faith, but they rejected the sinful nature of man, the death and resurrection of Christ to atone for the sins of man, and the deity of Christ Himself, who alone can save man. The Apostle John would say of them, “…no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:21-23). I say these things because, in my calling as a pastor, I believe that having this type of awareness is the only approach that can be taken to ensure that I’m able to gain appropriate insights from a text, or a teaching, whether I agree with it or not.
Ensuring that our own assumptions and biases don’t cloud our judgment concerning a given message or teaching, taking these stringent parameters into consideration, is not an easy task to be sure. However, I want to give you three guidelines that I have learned, to illustrate how this may be accomplished:
1) Check for confirmation: What are my assumptions and biases in the light of eternity? They are nothing. Indeed, they are less than nothing! So also are the assumptions, biases, and even “scientific” research findings of virtually anyone on this planet; past, present, or future. I may read their books, accept their findings, and even pick up the mantle of their wisdom and begin teaching it myself, but if it doesn’t jive with the teachings of God’s word; it’s wrong, and so am I for believing it and teaching it! “In a good decision process, other alternatives are fully evaluated in an objective and fact-based way… (Kahneman 31)”, and there is only one alternative in this case; the Bible.
2) Jettison false assumptions (Klien): One must be willing to admit when they are wrong, and this requires humility and honesty. We must be honest with our assumptions, believing that there are some that will remain valid regardless of changing circumstances, but that others are dead weights that we’ve just been dragging around with us, that trap us into wrong-minded thinking, and unfruitfulness. Once these false assumptions have been reproved, we must be willing to discard them.
3) Deliberate (Stone): This is an alternative term for just saying, “Think about it!” Too often, Christians live in a bubble of barely knowing what they think they know; when they really need to dig into their faith more, and discover the deeper truths of God’s word for their lives. This requires us to actually think, and not fall back on our assumptions and biases every time. God gave us brains to use for thinking, and that is what we must do when challenged by new information. Deliberate, think about it, use your critical thinking skills and figure it out. The Bereans were credited with excelling at this, and so must we.
By Pastor Glen Mustian
Works Cited:
NKJV New King James Version. Holy Bible. Thomas Nelson. Nashville, TN: 2000. Print.
Kahneman. On Making Smart Decisions. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. 2013. Print.
Klein, Gary. Seeing What Others Don’t. New York, NY: Public Affairs. 2013. Print.
Stone. How To Think Theologically. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. 2013. Print.
