Tag: truth

IS TRUTH “OBJECTIVE” OR “SUBJECTIVE”?


Neal Pollard

“You folks believe baptism is essential, but we believe we are saved when we accept Jesus in our hearts by faith.” “Why does the church of Christ think it is wrong to use a piano?”  “You must not like women.  You sure don’t let them use all their ‘gifts’ in your worship and leadership.”  These are just three random examples of statements of perception made by our friends and family concerning “our beliefs.”

How would you answer these?  Even within the Lord’s church, more than one answer is often offered.  Sadly, too often the heat of emotion eclipses the light of scripture in these matters.  How is truth determined?  Is it man’s right to decide what truth is “for him”?  Can I have my truth and you have your own, different truths, and we both are right?  Please understand that I am not speaking of matters of judgment, opinion, matters that must be determined by principles of scripture, scruples, and conscience.  Take the three examples mentioned-baptism, church music, and the role of women.  Are these matters that must be decided by mere human judgment, opinions, and conscience?  Or can we “know the truth” on these things (cf. John 8:32)?

All of this ultimately boils down to our attitude and approach to God’s Word.  Do we accept it at face value and glean from it what it has already said, or do we infuse (insert) into it our predetermined values and desires?  Consider the three examples.

Baptism is connected to salvation in the gospels (Mk. 16:16), the history book of the New Testament (Acts 2:38; 22:16; etc.), and the epistles (Rom. 6:1-6; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:21; etc.).  Why would we deny it?  Do we really hope to make scripture fit our view by trying to make Bible verses conflict with each other (cf. John 3:16; Acts 16:31)?  If the Bible repeatedly says baptism is necessary for salvation, isn’t that a truth objective and universal?  If not, why not?

Singing is specifically commanded in major worship passages like Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19.  We have no doubt that God wants us to sing.  Now, some say that it is a matter of preference whether you sing with or without instrumental accompaniment.  I find it interesting that a New Testament writer teaching a New Testament principle makes his point with an example from the first covenant.  In Hebrews 7:14, the penman writes, “For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.”  Moses did not forbid a man of Judah from serving as a priest.  God simply specified that the tribe of Levi was to be the priestly tribe.  Was priesthood selection a matter of personal preference?  Absolutely not (see 1 Kings 12)!  

Women’s role in the church is discussed in the midst of an epistle the thesis of which is that the church may know how to conduct herself (1 Tim. 3:15).  Part of that conduct regards women’s role in the church (1 Tim. 2:9-15).  The Christian woman is not to teach or have authority over the man (2:11-12).  The reason is not tied to Greek culture, but way back to original design at the beginning of the world (2:13-14).  When some push for an “expanded” role for women, are they letting cultural pressure of heavenly desire drive them?

Certainly, we cannot be callous or altogether dispassionate in studying or discussing these matters.  But, without recognizing a sovereign, divine standard of truth, what are we doing with Scripture?  Whether meaning to or not, we are subjugating God’s stated will to our subjective, ever-shifting will.  John 12:48 reminds us that the latter will ultimately be irrelevant.

GOD HATES SHORTS!



Neal Pollard

 You may be thinking that the title is presumptuous, opinionated, and even out of line.  Let me disclaim what follows by asserting that God does not hate all shorts.  He does, however, hate the following types of shorts.

But not these. 🙂



GOD HATES SHORTCUTS.  At least, He hates humanly devised shortcuts for which He has given no authorization.  Man has devised shortcuts to salvation that cut out divine commands.  He has made shortcuts in ethics and morality to justify and rationalize behavior God condemns.  We should examine such “shortcuts” carefully to make sure they are not detours off of the narrow way.

GOD HATES SHORTCHANGES.  In Malachi 3:8-10, God condemns His people for “robbing Him” in their giving.  They did not give with appropriate gratitude and generosity.  Those who fail to put Him first (cf. Matt. 6:33) are shortchanging God of the time, talents, resources, and service He deserves.  

GOD HATES SHORTSIGHTEDNESS.  When we make decisions based on instant gratification or immediate benefits without giving thought to longterm implications, we often make a mess of our lives.  This is true of church plans, the person we choose to marry, unbiblical changes to the church and teaching to attract the unchurched, and the like.  Certainly, one can be too deliberate and methodical to the point of lethargy and apathy.  Yet, neither is it proper to leap before adequately looking.

GOD HATES SHORTCOMINGS.  God’s hatred for sin is so great that He sent Christ to the cross as payment for it.  Sin is falling short of God’s mark.  The sobering thing is that all of us come short of God’s glory as the result of our sin (Rom. 3:23).  The great news is that while God hates shortcomings, He deeply loves shortcomers.  That’s also why He sent Jesus to die for us.

God hates these shorts, but He has provided an alternative regarding all of them.  By full and trusting obedience, we avoid shortcuts.  By recognizing our debt and feeling heartfelt gratitude to God for paying it, we avoid shortchanging Him.  By growing in wisdom and Christlikeness, we avoid shortsightedness.  By walking in the light as children of God, we avoid the eternal ramifications of our shortcomings.  That’s because God loves us!

Heaven Really IS For Real

Neal Pollard
While so many in religion and even the media latch onto sensational tales of traveling to the “other side” and coming back with stories about heaven (they do not ordinarily wind up going the other direction), these individuals often claim (necessarily without proof) to have seen or heard things from God, Christ, and other heavenly inhabitants. Sadly, much of what they claim to have experienced is at odds with or even contradicts what God communicated to us through His Word. Despite the high-drama and mystical tales, these undoubtedly sincere folks are right about something incredibly important. Heaven IS for real!

The Bible describes it (Rev. 21-22). Jesus is preparing it (John 14:1-4). The Father lives there (Mat. 5:16; etc.). Those who travel the “narrow road” (Mat. 7:13-14) and are faithful unto death (Rev. 2:10) are going to be allowed to dwell there forever (cf. Ps. 23:6; Mat. 25:46; 1 Th. 4:13ff). The Bible communicates that it is a place reserved for those who believe and obey the will of God (2 Th. 1:5ff). It is not for those who refuse to submit to His authority (Gal. 5:19-21; etc.).

Heaven is described as a place where treasure is (Luke 18:22). It is described as a place where our citizenship can be (Phi. 3:20). It is a place where our hope can be laid up (Col. 1:5). It is a place where our name can be reserved (Heb. 12:23). It is a place where we can have an inheritance (1 Pe. 1:4). It is a place described as that which will be new (Rev. 21:1).

I suppose it is human nature for us to want to have blanks filled in and details more fully supplied. That’s why claims of going to heaven and back have long captivated people. Perhaps it strikes the chords of our hearts and imagination more than words, howbeit Divine words, on a page. Yet, those words produce living hope to those who are staking everything on the truth of those words (1 Pe. 1:3). They are neither fairy tales nor wisps of wishes. God has given us enough to know, as we measure the claims alongside His providence and answered prayers, that His Word can be trusted. We don’t have the full picture yet, but we know it will be more glorious and joyous than we are able to understand in this body confined by time. Thank God that Heaven really is for real!

Unity In Ukraine

Neal Pollard

My first mission trip was to eastern Ukraine.  Ironically, years before coming to preach at the Bear Valley congregation, I was in attendance with many other American brethren at the first graduation of a Bear Valley Bible Institute extension in the city of Kramatorsk.  Despite mildly corrupt practices at the airport and in some local governments,  Ukraine was a seemingly peaceful country.

If you watch or read the news, you know that tension, violence, and instability is currently a daily occurrence in that nation. At least dozens of protesters were killed by ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and his security forces.  A new cabinet was elected, an interim president named, and asylum was granted to Yanukovych in Russia. Russian president Putin seems inclined to interfere, given that there is pro-Russian sentiment in parts of eastern Ukraine and pro-western sentiment in much of western Ukraine.  Now, there are dark clouds gathering in the Crimean region bordering southeastern Ukraine.  Russia and the European Union seem to be engaged in a tug-of-war over this nation that has tragedy draped like a pall over its storied history.

Despite all the friction and fighting, the citizens continue to speak of their desire that Ukraine remain one nation.  That may prove difficult (some facts gleaned from BBC.com and The Washington Post, Will England and William Booth, 2/27/14).

What a dramatic illustration of the need of unity and the external forces that threaten to undo it.  The Lord’s church has faced the threat of internal and external forces intent on trying to divide and hurt the body of Christ.  The devil has been a constant force to that end.  The early church faced Judaizers, gnosticism, and false teachings about the resurrection, the deity of Christ, and the second coming.  A few centuries was all it took for a new, false church to form.  Ultimately, protestant denominationalism was spawned from it.  Cults, world religions, skepticism, and unbelief challenge us.  So does worldliness and immorality.

We get to choose how we respond, both locally and on the whole.  We can splinter and divide, or we can rally around the supreme authority of Christ.  There will always be pressures seeking to push us apart from one another.  We must have even greater determination to stick together, bound by the banner of the Bible!

SOLA SCRIPTURA?

Neal Pollard

Pythagoras is said to have been the earliest outside of Scripture (Isa. 40:22) to contend that the earth is round. He did not make the earth round with his assertions, but identified what already was.  Sir Isaac Newton certainly did not create gravity, but he is credited for our modern understanding of it.  Likewise, the term “sola scriptura” is not found in scripture (similar to terms like “trinity” and “omniscience”), but it was coined during the “Reformation Movement” as part of Martin Luther’s protests against perceived corruptions of the Catholic Church.  It was a “Latin phrase (literally ‘by Scripture alone’) describing the Protestant theological principle that Scripture is the final norm in all judgments of faith and practice. Church traditions and customs, pronouncements of church officials, civil law or any other purely human source, including human reason, must yield to clear scriptural pronouncements” (Reid, Daniel G., et al.  Dictionary of Christianity in America, 1990: n.p.).  Did the Protestant Reformers, who, incidentally, got unfortunately got so many things wrong, originate that idea?  Because they were wrong on many doctrinal conclusions, does that automatically make the idea of “sola Scriptura” incorrect? It seems to me that at least three questions are in order regarding this subject.

What does “by Scripture alone” mean?

It means that the Bible does not share authority with anyone or anything else.  One author says it meant “’the freedom of Scripture to rule as God’s word in the church, disentangled from papal and ecclesiastical magisterium and tradition.’ It viewed the Word as supreme over tradition and the sacraments” (McArthur, John. Expository Preaching, 1992. Dallas: Word Pub., 47). A creed book, discipline, or annual church conference may vote and decide about what a religious group’s view on a matter should be.  They may even change their view from a previously held, correct view.  Or, a religious group may claim to have received latter day revelation and may produce a book they claim to be co-authoritative with the Bible.  Or, they may say “the church” and “church tradition” is co-authoritative.  The idea of “by Scripture alone” rejects competing or co-authoritative standards.

It does not eliminate the need to “handle aright” or involve hermeneutics (the science of interpretation).  That is a cognitive necessity.  You cannot read even the simplest of instructions or follow the most basic of tasks without employing logic, reason, and deduction.  That is not the same thing as a person, group, or book that claims to rival or co-authorize with Scripture.

What is the alternative?

That question has really already been answered.  The alternative is to suggest that Scripture alone is insufficient or inadequate, that is not the sole authority on matters of truth and right.  Some would even call the idea of following only Scripture as destructive heresy. Yet, the alternative to Scripture alone is Scripture along with something else, whether a man, group, council, church, or governing body.

Why is it so important?

This is the crux of the matter.  Scripture is God-breathed, making one spiritually complete (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  If Scripture is sufficient, what need is there for anything beyond it?  On what basis would we accept anything more or less than or different from the Bible?  How could fallible man be equal to or co-authorize with the perfect law of the Lord?  Let us accept no substitute or rival to the Bible!

The reader is encouraged to consider some excellent thoughts on this subject from here: https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/557-what-is-sola-scriptura

 

THE FAKE SIGNER

mandela-sign-langu_2763133k

Neal Pollard

One of the stories coming out of the much-publicized memorial for Nelson Mandela is of a man who passed himself off as a language interpreter for the deaf.  The unidentified man, who stood beside international dignitaries including the president of the United States, was confirmed to be a charlatan by sign language experts.  His hand motions were meaningless, but his apparent attempt to make a quick buck outraged the deaf all around the world.  Apparently, this is the second time this man has pulled the wool over official’s, um, ears.  Driven by greed and taking advantage of the ignorance of the ones who hire them, people like this man have duped quite a few people.  None of them ever pulled off a hoax of this magnitude, though.

Perhaps words like audacious, covetous, or callous may come to your mind, hearing about this event, but a far greater travesty happens routinely around this nation and around the world.  Men (and women) pass themselves off as experts, but what they allege to be a truthful message is patently false.  Sunday after Sunday, they pass off error as truth.  Because too many do not study their Bibles or think for themselves, they are duped by those they trust.  The greatest tragedy is that the consequences of such dishonesty are infinitely greater in these scenarios.  Souls will be lost and not just the souls of the teachers.  The hearers will have believed a lie (cf. 2 Th. 2:11; 2 Tim. 4:4).  The preachers and teachers will “receive a stricter judgment” (Jas. 3:1) for scratching their itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

The challenge in preaching is for both classes, the speaker and the listener. The speaker must declare only what is right and the listener must hear with discernment (cf. Heb. 5:14).  God will not allow any “fakes” to escape His notice.

THE UTTER INSUFFICIENCY OF THEORIES AND QUESTIONS AS THE “ANSWER”

Neal Pollard

As a teenager I once had a Bible class teacher who found it appealing, as a teaching style, to raise questions but give no answers. Some students thought it was cool to keep things theoretical.  It is interesting that his class never really arrived at absolute truth but stayed hypothetical.  I remember feeling frustrated that he raised doubt and uncertainty for some of my peers who might have entered the classroom sure and certain.  Who knew that his sort of “style” would become more popular here in the post-postmodern and emergent age?

It seems that some want in the realm of theology what no one would want in the worlds of auto mechanic-ing, accounting, real estate or medicine—theories and questions in lieu of ironclad, definitive answers. Yet, the realm of theology deals with something more important than automobiles, money, land, or physical health.  When it comes to God and the Bible, eternity is at stake depending on the answers given and the practice encouraged.

Before we allow some smug, condescending professor, preacher, or pundit to conclude that there are no conclusions or absolutely tout the non-existence of absolute truth, let us humbly ask, “On what basis should we reject the Bible’s authoritative position or exchange it for the point of view of the theorist or inquirer?”  Some religious leaders would like us to join them in “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).  When the Bible contains a significant number of statements clearly defining right and wrong, we should be wary of those who seem intent to put question marks where God put periods and exclamation points.  That is not to say that there are not “some things hard to be understood” (2 Pet. 3:16), but let us be careful not to toss into that category what God has already explained.

CORN DOGS, SAUERKRAUT, AND COTTAGE CHEESE

Neal Pollard

The food items above have one sure thing in common–they are all items I cannot even choke down.  Each of them are undesirable to me for different reasons, but they are all checked off in my gross column.  You may love them all, and if so, in the words of the great philosopher Briscoe Darling, “more power to you.”  I just do not.

Culinary tastes differ.  I enjoy mixing peanut butter and table syrup, using homemade biscuits to sop up this fine, tasty blend, but I realize I may not have a lot of company in that proclivity of mine.  Some things are healthier and more suitable to eat than others, but much of that is simply a matter of taste.

Sadly, there are people who have tried to lean on their human reasoning and experience, determining what they will and will not do and believe based on personal preference and taste.  They do not see Scripture as authoritative.  In our postmodern age, people have tried to make our culture–with its peculiar tastes, desires, and leanings–preeminent over God’s revealed truth.  When this is the case, a society can put sins like abortion, homosexuality, adultery, living together, modern dancing, immodesty, and greed into the palatable and even desirable category.  The same group may put godly traits of character like honesty, courtesy, commitment, conviction, faithfulness, and the like into the distasteful category.

I remember my dad preaching a sermon about “Cafeteria-Style Religion.”  Back in those days, cafeteria-style restaurants were more common and popular.  You walk in the restaurant, walk past meats, vegetables, breads, and desserts, putting only what you wanted on your tray while rejecting the rest.  The spiritual application of that, that people pick and choose what commands of God to obey and what to ignore, is even truer today than it was then.  Today, it is not just doctrinal matters but also moral matters.

We need to remember this.  Scripture itself speaks of a way that seems right to a man that leads to death (Prov. 16:25).  It is not in man to direct his own steops (Jer. 10:23). Paul had been responsible for Christians’ deaths, yet could say in Acts 23:1 that he had lived with a clean conscience before God to that very day.  God has left a complete revelation that has been preserved, despite what agenda-driven skeptics say.  Our task is to swallow that, but to spit out any alternative authority.

COMPLICATING TRUTH

Neal Pollard

A philosopher called the office today and wanted to discuss the function of words in a particular text.  He was absolutely fascinated with syntax, structure, literary devices, and the like, but almost seemed to avoid personal application and rational conclusion like it was the plague.  He seems to represent in an extreme way what is often seen in too many people who approach scripture.  Many seem to come to scripture the way the Athenians approached things, spending “their time in nothing other than telling or hearing some new thing” (Acts 17:21). They seem to prefer esoteric, obscure, multi-layered meanings.  The idea that God in His power is able to communicate to all cultures and all times in a way the common man can understand repulses many of those enamored with philosophy, academia, and intelligentsia.  It cannot be that simple.  Like Gnostics, they believe only an elite few can truly understand the Bible and what is meant overall and in individual Bible books.  Sadly, too many do not understand because they do not study the Bible.  However, those who make the attempt will be rewarded with knowledge and understanding.

Thankfully, God has not reserved His truth for a small academic caste.  In fact, Jesus says how one must become child-like to receive kingdom truth (Mark 10:13).  To Corinth, Paul contrasted the Greek’s fascination with (worldly) wisdom with the seeming foolishness of God’s Word in man’s eyes (1 Cor. 1:22-23).  But, Paul says, “Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:26-27).

Yes, there are some things hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:16).  But, for all of that, whatever ultimately matters for living life here and preparing for eternity there (2 Pet. 1:3) can be understood by the humblest, simplest accountable soul. God is not a snob.  He wants “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).  Remember that Jesus assures us that “you will know the truth” (John 8:32).  Let’s not unnecessarily complicate it!