Truth
On
Tough
Texts
ISSUE 8–
March/2006
Where Has Our
Discernment Gone?
(1)
Ephesians
4:14
The great
Napoleon often told the tale of when he was
visiting a certain province and came upon an old soldier
with one severed arm. On his uniform he displayed the
coveted Legion of Honor. “Where did you lose your arm?”
Napoleon asked. “At Austerlitz, Sire,” came the
soldier’s brisk reply. “And for that you received the
Legion of Honor?” “Yes, Sire. It is but a small token to
pay for the decoration.” Then the emperor said, “You
must be the kind of man who regrets he did not lose both
arms for his country.” “What then would have been my
reward?” asked the one-armed man. “Then,” Napoleon
replied, “I would have awarded you a double Legion of
Honor.” With that the proud, old fighter drew his sword
and immediately cut off his other arm. The story was
circulated for years, until one day someone asked,
“How?”[i]
Ponder further, sometimes
we accept sayings simply because they are pithy, such as
the Earl of Kent’s remark in Shakespeare’s King
Lear, “The stars above us govern our
conditions.”[ii] This is just one of many
references to that day’s common belief in Astrology.
Other times we accept a proverb because it matches our
own philosophy, such as the famous declaration often
attributed to Greenbay Packer coach Vince Lombardi but
actually said by another football coach, Red Sanders, in
1953, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only
thing.”[iii]
People accept such
ideas and uncounted more simply because they lack
discernment, form the Latin discernere,
comprised of dis, “apart,” and
cernere,
“to sift.” As we’ll see in
detail, the Bible constantly, over and over again,
emphasizes this principle, to separate and distinguish
between, in order to see and understand the difference.
But far worse is how the lack of discernment has marched
into the church like a plague of Driver Ants consuming
everything in its path. Lost in the Church today is the
ability to discern, to see the difference between truth
and error. And the few who do dare discern are labeled
“unloving,” “divisive,” and “intolerant.”
So what does Scripture say about
discernment? In this issue of Truth
On Tough Texts (and the next) I would like to
submit my burdened
evaluation.
Characteristics of Spiritual Children
Our text declares:
“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and
fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they
lie in wait to deceive.” While this verse is not a
“Tough Text” because of a grammar problem, historical
uncertainty, controversial issue, or other such matter,
it’s tough for another reason. This is a “Tough Text”
because it’s a verse that is hard to face, a verse that
demands that we “grow up” and
make narrow judgments about doctrine and
practice.
Ephesians
4:14 is probably the most graphic description in
Scripture of the immature, unguided, undiscerning
Christian. As the words henceforth be no more
indicate, the Ephesian believers obviously had
previously been children, so the
first thing Paul says is that this must cease. There are
several characteristics of children that apply to the
spiritually immature
Christian.
First, children
are ignorant. The Greek for children is
nepios, which is
a combination of ne (“not”)
and epos (“word”), so the literal idea is “one
who cannot speak, that is, an infant.” Metaphorically,
it pictures one who is “unlearned, unenlightened,
simple, innocent,”[iv]
and even “foolish”; when the ancient Greek philosophers
wished to dismiss someone who was foolish in his views,
they would use nepios with
biting sarcasm.[v]
Writing to Christians in Greek society, Paul challenged
the Corinthians, “When I was a child, I spake as a
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:
but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (I
Cor. 13:11).
This point is,
indeed, profound. After becoming a father, I often found
myself thinking, “This child ought to know
something, but he doesn’t; we’ve got to teach him
everything.” And children will believe anything.
They’ll believe there is
a Santa Clause because we tell them there is (which
really doesn’t say much for us, does it?). They’ll also
try anything.
They’ll try to see what small objects will fit into an
electrical outlet, they’ll run into the street, they’ll
eat the family dog’s food, and other things we wouldn’t
believe unless we saw them. And that is precisely
Paul’s point. The immature
Christian knows either nothing at all or so little that
he constantly gets himself into trouble.
Second, children
are impulsive; they are tossed to and fro.
This phrase is a single word in the Greek,
kludonizomai, an old
nautical term “meaning to be tossed by the
waves.”[vi] Children have a short
attention span. They bounce from one thing to another.
Babies will be drawn to a moving object one minute and a
shiny one the next. Toddlers will play with a toy one
minute and the box it came in the next. Immature
Christians are the same, bouncing from one opinion to
another, one teaching to another, with no discernment of
which is better or even right. They’ll just grab onto
anything and run with it. This leads to another
characteristic.
Third,
children are impressionable; they are carried
about with every wind of doctrine.
Carried
about is
periphero, which
pictures being carried around in circles, that is, being
directionless, just driven here and there with no
guidance. As Greek expositor John Eadie puts it, “The
billow does not swell and fall on the same spot, but it
is carried about by the wind, driven hither and thither
before it—the sport of the tempest.”[vii]
It’s also significant that the definite article (“the”)
appears before doctrine in the
Greek (tes
didaskalias)—“every
wind of the
doctrine”—showing
that false teachers are very deliberate; they don’t have
a general doctrine, rather a definite, calculated, and
well formulated doctrine to teach. Most cults illustrate
this vividly; as wrong as the doctrine is, it is
nonetheless systemized, organized, and well devised. As
a result, whatever the false teacher’s doctrine is, the
immature, undiscerning Christian is just carried along
by it until the next teaching blows in and carries him
somewhere else. One pastor boldly asserts the habits of
the spiritually immature Christian when he
writes:
There is a flightiness and
instability to their lives . . . They dash in a dither
toward every new religious fad, they seem more excited
about the latest religious book than about the one Great
Book, they rush from seminar to conference, hanging on
to the words of the latest Christian guru, they change
their spiritual and doctrinal mindset as often as they
change their socks. With them, prophecy becomes a hobby,
and spirituality becomes the latest craze.[viii]
How true!
From the days of Bill Gothard’s “Institute in Basic
Youth Conflicts” decades ago, to Bill McCartney’s
“Promise Keepers” more recently, to Rick Warren’s
“Purpose Driven Life” today, it’s been this fad, that
book, and this other movement, one after the other, year
after year. The picture painted by wind is also
graphic. Just as the wind surrounds us when it blows, so all kinds of
teaching surround us. This demands, therefore, that we
discern its direction—we must examine where it comes from, what
it carries,
and where it’s headed.
Another pastor,
theologian, and professor tells of being at a
denominational meeting one day when a pastor rose and
shared his heart about the evil results of
para-ecclesiastical movements. As is frequently true,
parishioners, who often know little of God’s truth, go
to some large popular meeting, learn something new and
exciting, and return to their church and boldly announce
that the pastor is not doing things right. After all,
the popular speaker has a huge following, and the pastor
only a little one. As this writer rightly observes,
“These popular movements violate every principle of
church organization.”[ix] Far worse, however, these tear
down the Local Church and undermine the leadership of
such faithful
shepherds.
Fourth and finally, children are indulgent. If
there is one thing that characterizes a child more than
anything else, it’s that he wants to play, he wants to
be entertained, he wants to have fun, he’s
self-absorbed. And that’s not only true of the immature
Christian today but most of the Church as a whole. The
seeker-sensitive movement has inevitably led to
entertainment as the driving force of Church “ministry.”
This started decades ago with just children and youth
ministries that kept the kids entertained, but now it defines the whole
Church. There is literally every
form of entertainment in the Church today that is found
in the world: all genres of music concerts, dramas,
movies, standup comedy, dances, sports, and even—I’m not
making this up—gambling and strippers.
To raise money, one church
in Surrey, England sponsored “Rodent Roulette,” in which
they put a mouse in a box that has several holes in the
sides of it, put a cup over the mouse, spin the box
around a few times, take bets on which hole the mouse
will use to exit the box, and then release it.
Christianity
Today once reported of an incident that took place
in Richardson, Texas. On one Sunday, Pastor William
Nichols of the First Unitarian Church invited Diana
King, a Unitarian from Fort Worth, to take part in the
service. She did, and when she was through, all that she
was wearing was a G-string. The congregation of 200
adults and children watched in fascinated silence as
Miss King—an exotic dancer at a Dallas nightspot—shed
her clothes in time with recorded music. The pastor said
that the dance fit “very well into our service” and
nobody complained. He also said he didn’t think anyone
was aroused, “but I don’t consider the erotic aspect of
the dance wrong. After all, that’s the way we were
conceived.” Miss King said it was something she wanted
to do for a long time, and she would like to conduct
classes for women church members. She commented, “I
would like to do a sermon using the exotic dance, and
members of the congregation could join me if they
liked.”
At this point, many would
say, “Oh, those are just isolated incidents in liberal
churches.” Really? Consider Glide Memorial Methodist
Church in San Francisco, a church that once preached the
Gospel and was soundly evangelistic. Today it has this
“Call to Worship” in its printed bulletin on Sunday and
recited by the leader: “We are all of us
Christians—Jews, liberals, Bolsheviks, anarchists,
socialists, Communists, Keynesians, Democrats, Civil
Righters, Beatniks, ministers, moderate Republicans,
pacifists, teach-inners, doctors, scientists,
professors, Latin Americans, New Africans, Common
Marketers, even Mao Tse-Tung. Doubtless. From Lyndon
Johnson to Mao Tse-Tung, we are all Christians.” Its
services are performed in the mode of the modern dance.
Participants gyrate suggestively, and the church has
become a haven for dope addicts, homosexuals, and
sexpots.
Or how
about one great New York City church that was originally
built in honor of the great missionary to Burma,
Adoniram Judson? Apostasy has closed in on that church,
and from what goes on there it has no right to be called
a church. They put on a show one Flag Day, a show
supposedly “dedicated to the stars and stripes.” There
were depraved and obscene exhibits defiling the flag,
and according to Max Geldman in the conservative
political publication National Review, there were
exhibits that were “simply unquotable.” The show was so
offensive that the police closed it. On another
occasion, the pews were removed to make room for dancing
and the people sat in circles of folding chairs. The
pulpit had been removed for a presentation of “Winnie
the Pooh” and had not been replaced. The place where the
choir used to be is vacant. On one Sunday a nude couple
danced there during the service.[x]
Yes, I
freely admit that those are extreme examples, but I also submit
that philosophically they are
no different than any church today that resorts to
entertainment in any form. So-called
“ministry” today is built on “giving people what they
want,” “appealing to felt-needs,” and
“user-friendliness.” It is specifically geared to the
flesh and thrives in an atmosphere of spiritual
immaturity.
But Paul is not done
yet!
The Sources
of False Doctrine
Paul adds that such
false doctrine comes in three
ways.
First, by the
sleight of men. Here is a fascinating term. The word
sleight is by far
the best translation of the Greek kubeia, from
kubos (English “cube”) and appears only here in
the New Testament. The Greek literally means “playing
dice” and the translation sleight
graphically pictures the implication of the gambling,
trickery, and fraud that is involved. We can picture
this easily by thinking of how many people throw away
billions of dollars on gambling. In 1946 the gangster
Ben “Bugsy” Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel in Las
Vegas, which was at first a disaster—nobody came to a
hotel/casino in the middle of nowhere. The price tag
that began at two million dollars swelled to six, for
which Siegel was eventually murdered by his associates
because they figured he was skimming money. The casino
turned around, however, and made four million dollars in
its first year, which grew to tens of billions to
the present day, and all of it by kubos. The
house edge in Roulette, for example, is 2.7% for
single zero and 5.26% for double zero. The edge is even
worse for other games: 4.5% for Sportsbook Betting, 3.9%
to 15.2% for various slot machines, and an unbelievable
25% for Keno.
I was also reminded
of the old scam, Three-Card Monte, in which the expert
scam artist lays three cards on the table, one of which
is a queen, shuffles them back and forth, and then asks
you to “find the lady.” You’ll win at first, but when
the bet increases, you’ll lose because of a sleight of
hand trick. The dealer picks up two cards with his right
hand, the upper card between his thumb and his
forefinger and the lower card between his thumb and his
middle finger, with a small gap between both cards.
According to common sense, and is, in fact, what he did
before, the dealer should drop the lower card first, but
this time his forefinger smoothly and slyly ejects the
upper card first, which causes you to lose track of the
queen. This is especially difficult to see if the
dealer’s hand makes a sweeping move from his left side
toward his right side while he drops the cards. The
moral of the story is: you are going to
lose.
That is the
false teacher. By “sleight of mouth” he tricks the
unwary without their even knowing it because they are
gullible and over-confident in their knowledge. Pride
gets the Three Card Monte victim every time; he’s
confident he can follow the Queen, but he can’t because
of the sleight
of hand—the hand is quicker than the eye. Likewise, immature
Christians are over-confident in their supposed
knowledge and are easy prey for false teachers. That is
precisely why Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Miletus
that “grievous wolves [will] enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them” (Acts 20:29-30).
Second, false doctrine comes by cunning
craftiness, which is one word in the Greek,
panourgia, a compound word from two roots,
pan (“all”) and erg (“work”), yielding the
meaning “capable of all work,” or as Aristotle viewed
it, “an unprincipled [capability] to do
anything.”[xi] That is the false teacher. He will do anything, stoop
to any level needed to manipulate error, to make
something look like truth and thereby lead others away
from truth. Paul also uses this word in II Corinthians
2:2, where believers should “[renounce] the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully; but by
manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
The
Jehovah’s Witness, for example, deceitfully alters the
Greek text of John 1:1 to read, “In [the] beginning the
Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a
god.” Where does The New World Translation
get this rendering? Supposedly, it is based on the
“oldest manuscripts,” which can be easily shown to be
patently false. Also, it was translated thusly from the
German by Johannes Greber in 1937, a former Catholic
priest turned spiritist who claimed the translation came
from God’s spirits. Indeed, men
will do anything to make their teaching look like truth
when it is the very opposite.
Third, false
doctrine comes by delusion and deception (they
lie in wait to deceive). The
Greek behind lie
in wait
(methododeia, English “method”) does not appear
in Greek literature prior to the New Testament,[xii]
where it means “to investigate by settled plan” or
“a deliberate planning or system.” [xiii]
There is,
therefore, a settled plan, an elaborate system, a
deliberate scheme behind those who teach false doctrine.
Their desire to is to deceive, Paul
says, which translates plane, “a
wandering out of the right way” and, therefore,
figuratively delusion and error. I Thessalonians 2:10-11
speak of the lost multitude that will believe the
Antichrist, and for that very reason God will “send them
strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” While
that day is not yet here, delusion, error, and seduction
are everywhere.
What is
even more tragic is how many true believers there are
who are gullible and will believe virtually anything and
follow almost anybody. Even with our unequaled
education, freedom, sophistication, access to
God’s Word, Christian books, and a multitude of Bible
translations (which I am convinced is actually part of
the problem), it seems that anybody, no matter
what he teaches, can get a following and even
financial support from not only individual Christians,
but entire Local Churches and even whole denominations,
associations, and fellowships. Like little children,
they are captivated by something
new: a new interpretation, a new idea, a new catchy
phrase or term, a new method of “ministry,” and
countless other things.
What, then, is the
key to discernment? There is only a single principle:
What does
the Word of God say? It doesn’t matter if some new
idea or teaching “sounds good,” but whether or not it’s
right according to Scripture. At the very heart of the
Reformation was Sola
Scriptura (“Scripture Alone”)
that dictates all we believe and practice, not Church
Tradition, human opinion, or anything else. For
centuries Roman Catholicism has been adding its
traditions to Scripture, and even incorporating pagan
practices (and even gods) into its system, but
Evangelicalism is not much better as it also adds men’s
teachings, methods, and ministries to Scripture. How we
need a new Reformation
today!
We’ll prayerfully
continue our exploration next month. May God bless you
as you diligently
discern.
Dr. J. D. Watson
Pastor-Teacher
Grace Bible
Church
*
* *
As
to their question, How can we be assured that this has
sprung from God unless we have recourse to the decrees
of the church?, it is as if
someone asked: Whence will we learn to distinguish light
from darkness, white from black, sweet from bitter?
Indeed, Scripture exhibits fully as clear evidence of
its own truth as white and black things do of their
color, or sweet and bitter things do of their
taste.
John Calvin, Institutes
of the Christian Religion,
I.vii.4
*
*
*
Why are the Scriptures called the rule to direct
us how we may glorify and enjoy God? Because all doctrines which
we are bound to believe must be measured or judged of;
all duties
which we are bound to practice as means in order to the
attainment of this chief end of man, must be squared or
conformed unto this
rule.
Thomas
Vincent, The
Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture, p.
22
*
*
*
Let this be a firm principle: No other word is to
be held as the Word of God, and given place as such in the church, than what
is contained first in the Law and Prophets, then in the
writings of the Apostles; and the only authorized way of
teaching in the church is by the prescription and
standard of the Word.
John Calvin,
Institutes, IV.9.8
*
*
*
Truth seldom goes without a
scratched face. – John Trapp
NOTES
[i]
Cited in Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7,700
Illustrations, (Garland, Texas:
Bible Communications, Inc.,
1996).
[iii] The actual saying
by Vince Lambardi in a 1962 interview was, “Winning
isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” Both cited in
Bartlett’s Familiar Quoations, p. 783.
[iv] Zodhiates, The
Complete Word Study Dictionary, NT, p. 1009-10.
[v] Colin Brown, The
New International Dictionary of New Testament
Theology, Vol. 1, p.
281.
[vi] Kenneth Wuest’s
Word Studies. (John Eadie, A Commentary on the
Greek of Text of Ephesians:
“tossed about as a surge,” p.
315).
[viii] Ray Stedman, Our
Riches in Christ: Ephesians, p.
229.
[ix] Gordon Clark,
Ephesians, p.
141.
[x] Four preceding
illustrations from Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of
7,700 Illustrations.
[xi] Brown, Vol. 1, p.
412.
[xii] Brown, Vol. 3, p.
943.
[xiii] Joseph Thayer’s
Greek/English Lexicon and
Wuest
respectively.
