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Listening to Error
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, CA, USA
Delivery: 2008-09-06 15:01Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2008-09-06 15:01Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-listening.php
Somewhere today, perhaps near, the people of God will gather to listen to error. Think of that, for it is a shocking proposition. I do not say that they will go unwittingly to listen to it; they will go all aware.
Why would they go?
Our Misleading Witness
Let us keep in mind that the truth is something that we do more than something that we hold only intellectually. Hear John:
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth (1 John 1:6).
Claims are one thing, actions another. Notice here that, biblically, truth is something that you do. In another place the counsel came from Jesus, “If any man will do His [God’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself” (John 7:17). If we want to know whether something is true, we must put it to the test; we must act on it and in it.
Be careful here. Our desire for something to be true, or even our declaration that it is true, does not make it so. Elsewhere in Scripture we are challenged to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). There is a place for experience. The danger is in accepting experience in place of Scripture. The Bible is always the acid test.
Still, many fall short and create traps for others when they speak about God’s truth as if authoritatively, but their life denies that same truth. The solemn question must be asked: how many who go to listen to error do so only after entering into doubt because of the profession of one who loudly talked the truth but who did not do the truth? In other words, before you condemn those who go to listen to error, ask yourself the question: has your life been such that it testified to the authenticity of the belief you promoted? Maybe others will go because you or I have been such poor representatives of Jesus’ transformed people.
What Rattles Around in Our Heads
Actually, we listen to error in some measure virtually every day. In a world of sin, the very process of communication has several entrance points for error. In a listening process there will be at least four aspects:
What the presenter meant to say
What the presenter actually said
What the listener actually heard
What the listener intended to hear
The presenter may misspeak and not say well what he intended to say. But even if he perfectly expresses his thoughts, there remains what the listener actually hears. The listener hears from within his own context, his own influences and ideas that he has embraced. Meaning is not put into a container by the speaker and then released from the container unchanged, exactly as intended, by the listener. The listener hears and from his own place creates anew the meaning. By this we do not mean that there is no such thing as objective truth. We only mean that in the process of transmitting ideas from one party to another, there is a great deal of interpretation going on.
Listening is not a passive process but a creative one. In the best case, then, there remains much room for misapprehension of the intended meaning. But even in our fallen world, God has seen fit to instruct His people through the imperfection of spoken and written communication. All the potential for misunderstanding is no excuse for ignoring His revelation or for discarding it as unimportant or as a hopeless plan for communication. The best of us, at our peak performance, will occasionally misspeak. Allowance is made for this. God works through the modes that are available and they serve His purpose.
It is one thing to listen, aware that we may misapprehend the meaning because of imperfection in the communication process. It is another thing to go where error is being pressed home.
What is the Truth?
We already said that truth is more what you do than any mere idea. Having said that, we recognize that in revelation God has revealed to us that which is in fundamental harmony with itself. The same processes of inspiration are in operation, the same Holy Spirit is involved, in Matthew as in Mark as in Luke as in John as in Moses as in Isaiah as in Ezekiel as in Daniel. William MiIler articulated the implication for us: in the Scriptures God has revealed a complete system of truth.
This proposition is foundational. We believe that in His Word God revealed important insights, protected them from significant mutation, and that Scripture is profitable to us for “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). That is, we can know the truth, enough of the truth that our experience can be helped by it, that our lives may come to echo Jesus’ life such that the character of God may be seen also in us as His people. Therefore, whatever the potential for error in communication, so too is the potential for satisfactory communication—so far that lives can testify to a power for good outside of themselves. We can know the truth.
That said, let us consider some reasons why people will go to listen to error. But before we finish we will also remind ourselves that there is no room for us to be overly assured of the correctness of our positions.
Reasons People Listen to Error
Notoriety and Fairness
Some will go to listen because the name of presenter of error holds a place in the history of the church. “I have heard that name before,” they say. And, after all, what is fairer than going to hear someone tell their beliefs first hand? When the meeting is over, you will be able to say, “I heard _____ myself.” And again, there is Proverbs 18:13: “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”
And yet, shall we go to listen to whatever is available to listen to? What about Lucifer himself? Were Lucifer himself coming to town, would you embark on such a plan? You have heard is name before; no name in the universe is as notorious as that of the first rebel. Why not let him present his beliefs first hand? Why not go and listen to him, why not give him a fair hearing? Then you will be able to say, “I went and heard Lucifer myself. I did not want to answer a matter before I had heard it.”
When Eve did this very thing—gave Lucifer a hearing—she was committing a great mistake. If you could scream just one sentence to her across the ages, would you not urge her, “Stop, Eve, don’t listen!” The Bible says that Lucifer was the original liar (John 8:44). Furthermore, Lucifer already has had thousands of years to demonstrate the nature of his philosophy and kingdom. There is plentiful evidence before us in the testimony of history and in our own lives of where his teachings lead. Notoriety of the speaker is not a reason to go and hear error.
When we consider the question of fairness, we see that neither is it a reason. God has been very fair. He has kept Satan alive to this day. Satan is having a fair opportunity to present his plan for the governance of the universe.
But what about a mere man? What about someone who has lived for 70 or even 80 years, who written several books and articles, and lectured and preached uncounted times? While the notoriety of any mere human could never begin to match that of Satan, neither could one say that such a person has been hiding under a rock or that his views have not been carefully articulated by him. If this is true, then do we need to go and hear him present his views yet again? Is that what it takes to be fair to him? No, it is not.
Curiosity
Then there is the problem of simple curiosity. Sometimes people will go to hear error because they are curious. We have a built-in sense of exploration, a thirst for discovery, a relentless sense of curiosity in our humanity. What’s more, God is the one who put it there. How then can we be taken to task for exercising this curiosity?
But we return to Genesis again. For here God placed Adam and Eve and gave them liberty to explore the whole garden. There was just one prohibition placed upon them: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was off-limits. They were free to explore the whole preserve, but this one thing was not permitted. Notice that they could look at the tree, touch the tree, climb the tree, but were not permitted to eat the fruit of the tree (Genesis 2:16, 17).
God did not say that he would never tell them more about the knowledge of good and evil. He was making a simple test, an easy trial. If they should prove willing to trust Him, the time after the conclusion of the test might offer many special opportunities. He who is faithful in the least will be faithful in much (Luke 16:10).
God’s action should not be misunderstood. He did not withhold from them a knowledge of good and evil. On the contrary; He told them what was allowed and what was not. He told them clearly what was His only prohibition. He warned them ahead of time what would be the consequences of disobedience. Their knowledge of good and evil was rudimentary, to be sure, but it was a starting point. But they placed a higher value on what they wanted than what their Maker wanted. Why not, after the tempter’s offer, wait and talk the prohibition over with God? Why not wait that day, just a few hours more, until the cool of the evening when He would come, as He always did? Why not then ask, “God, can we talk to you about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” But Eve refused to wait and Adam refused to wait. No good thing will God withhold from them who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). If Adam and Eve had walked uprightly, obeyed His prohibitions, He would have given them a good thing—a knowledge of good and evil such as would have helped them to themselves especially reflect the good. But God is the Teacher who knows best. If we will give Him our trust, He will guide us.
When it comes to curiosity, as in many other areas, we need to learn how to delay gratification. Emotional self-regulation is the ability to defer responding to impulses in the short term in the service of a longer-term goal. A group of four-year olds were tested by being given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children waited but others did not. When these children entered adolescence, those with the ability to wait were better adjusted, more dependable, and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_control). Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” The gospel makes us new creatures. We can exercise self-control even when we are curious.
Lack of Clarity
Some will listen to error because they have a lack of clarity on concerning what the Bible teaches; they don’t know any better. If one is new to the faith, certainly there is the possibility that he might not yet have had opportunity to really come to an improved understanding of what we as a people believe. However, spiritual truth and error is a matter of eternal life and death; it is more important than eating or drinking and as important as breathing. God gives every person a brain. He gives every person time and opportunity.
Truth is so available:
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart (Proverbs 8:1-5).
There is no shortage of material to study. Seventh-day Adventists publish many studies and books. If you are not equipped with the basics of the faith then you certainly have no business going to hear detailed sidetracks. I am persuaded that some will be lost for the basic reason that they are lazy—too lazy to become informed; too lazy to spend some minimum mental energy learning what God is trying to tell them in His Word.
Seeking the Silver Bullet
Some seem always to be seeking something new. The strong core of Jesus’ Present Truth does not seem to interest them. There is always some new emphasis that is needed for us to understand in order to finish the work. One will say we must begin to keep the feast days, and another will say we need to reject our understanding of the Godhead (Trinity). Paul says,
The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Timothy 4:3, 4).
Notice that their own lusts are the commanding feature of their religion. They will find for themselves teachers who teach a gospel which permits them to remain unconverted while basking in the sheen of supposed religiosity. These teachers turn away the ears of the hearers from the truth. What they teach misleads. Needless to say, no such teaching will produce righteous hearers or even saved ones.
To Appear Open-Minded
Some will go in order to give their friends the impression that they are open-minded. It is not that they are that interested in the topic being presented, but they want to impress their friends. This is a poor motivation for listening to something so dangerous. It is a difference in value systems. It is more about impressions concerning that person than about his being faithful to God. If you go to be seen by men, you already have your reward (Matthew 6:1, 5).
Doubts About Beliefs Already Held
Another reason people will go to hear error is because they may have doubts about beliefs they have already claimed to hold. This could happen in two ways. Either they made their claim in favor of what they thought to be Present Truth prematurely, or they developed doubts later, after having embraced their beliefs. Because they doubt their own beliefs, they seek for something better to take their place.
Here is a place where the pastoral ministry is often at fault. Week after week we preach, and the tendency of the messages presented should be such that we better and better understand and benefit from the truths we stand for as a people. Seventh-day Adventist preaching should confirm our faith and open its vistas. We should become both less doubtful and less narrow—that is, more representative of Jesus. Be this as it may, defects in the Adventist pulpit cannot prevent us from ourselves deepening our investigations.
Some have more or less grown up “in the church.” Some of these remain provincial and do not see the wideness of the world. The convert to Adventism has seen—and rejected—the high imaginations of the world. He sees its bankruptcy. But the person who grew up in the church may have a persistent curiosity about what life is like “on the other side.” He then goes out, is badly bruised and used in the world, and returns with a stronger appreciation for the faith of his fathers. Hopefully. But some never return. They die in the land of Egypt. Never envy anyone their run on the wild side. Instead, thank God for your opportunities in growing up in the church and ask Him to help you be a better representative of Jesus.
But what about doubts? When they lead us to more prayer and more study and more humility, they are good for us. When they become self-serving machines to justify our doing what we want to do but are persuaded it is wrong for us to do, they are destructive.
Doubts may arise because being a distinct, peculiar people is uncomfortable for us. It puts us out of sync with neighbors, people at our workplace, with relatives, and with the society around us in general. If this feeling of being an outsider becomes uncomfortable to us, we may begin to doubt that we are right. How could a tiny church, begun without scholars, in the farm fields of rural New York, be right when the testimony of millions upon millions of others, complete with long lists of doctors of theology and preeminent persons through the centuries says that they are more right, more legitimate, than us? Do we not pale in comparison? Is not our modest little movement as nothing?
Such doubts are poorly based. Many of these other churches, with their long list of notable persons also have long lists of notable crimes and false teachings. Not one of them has “finished the work.” Not one of them has been faithful to God’s law, with the exception of the Seventh-day Baptists. For every doubt one might think of about Adventist belief, there are several doubts to call to mind about the beliefs of others. Far from perfect? Yes, that is a fair description of our church. We are a defective church filled with defective people. And so is every other church. Doubts are good until they become excuses. At that point, your whole experience can collapse into fleshly living. Use your doubts instead as helps to drive you to be more dependent upon Jesus. Clarify to yourself what the Bible teaches. Abandon every error when it becomes clear to you that you are in error. But the converse is true also: embrace every truth when it comes clear to you that it is truth.
Commitment to Wrong Teachings
Some go to hear error because they have made commitments to wrong teachings. The error-teacher seems to them to be a presenter of truth. A long process has reached fruition. Truth once held has been abandoned, replaced by the fungal growth of error. Verities have turned to mists and resolidified into verities again—but now these subtly point away to the wider pathway. Some have become convinced that we are born condemned, or that obedience is legalism, or that the idea of the Investigative Judgment is false. Of course, there are theological consequences which flow forth from such views. Truth that fit together in a harmony is now at odds with itself, and the confused one is determined to rebuild his belief structure and find harmony again.
We should be careful before we embrace a belief as being true. We should study God’s Word prayerfully, carefully. Something’s having been believed for centuries is no argument in its favor. Many beliefs arise in the protection or justification of other beliefs. That is, one error leads to another error, one truth leads to another truth. If there is error in the foundation there will be more further up the stack.
Unresolved Sin Issues
The most terrifying reason that people go to listen to error is the problem of unresolved sin in the life. Some go because they are trapped by the cords of their sins and in error they find that which suits them. After all, although many of us claim to want freedom, we really want bondage. The freedom Christ offers us is so rich, carries with it such responsibility, that we who have been delivered drain quickly back towards the sewers. A place is found for sin in the life. We begin to tell ourselves that in actuality, God does not intend to deliver us from sin.
Hear the psalmist’s warning: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). In the Psalm the author says that God has heard his prayer (vv. 16, 18). But he warns that if we cling to sin, God will not pry our fingers away from it. “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” (Hosea 4:17).
Theological beliefs can become idols. They are served with religious devotion. If the heart is bent, a doctrine can become more important than the worship of God himself. We must all search our hearts for idols. When we find them we must remove them. If we find ourselves more worshipful of a theological system than of God, we need to back up and find how to put God back in first place. It was not a doctrine that was nailed to the cross for us; not a true doctrine of the Sabbath or a false doctrine of forensic justification: it was Jesus. If we ever lose Jesus—the Jesus who hates sin—who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13), then we have lost our way. Then we have unresolved sin issues. Our situation is fatal, and unless we withdraw from error we will certainly justify our continuance in sin only to perish with it at last.
Are All Our Expositions of Scripture Without Error?
One we all respect has said
There is no excuse for any one in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation. We are living in perilous times, and it does not become us to accept everything claimed to be truth without examining it thoroughly; neither can we afford to reject anything that bears the fruits of the Spirit of God; but we should be teachable, meek and lowly of heart (Review and Herald, December 20, 1892).
There is more truth to be revealed, to be understood, to affect the life. Close investigation has its place. Without it, we would never have come into existence as a distinct people. Thorough examination is important; there is never a stopping place. But neither can we afford to reject that which bears the fruits of the spirit of God.
Messages of every order and kind have been urged upon Seventh-day Adventists, to take the place of the truth which, point by point, has been sought out by prayerful study, and testified to by the miracle-working power of the Lord. But the waymarks which have made us what we are, are to be preserved, and they will be preserved, as God has signified through His word and the testimony of His Spirit (Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 2, p. 59).
Heaven designs that we shall increase and increase in understanding, but not reject anything that bears the fruits of God. What we believe has been prayerfully sought out and testified to by the miracle-working power of our Lord. We are not to retreat away from them, but advance with them. Discarding our understanding of the heavenly sanctuary, of the 2300 days, of 1844, is apostasy, not growth.
Other Positive Helps
Because our lives are to be reshaped by truth, we need more of the Word of God in us. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17). Therefore to increase our faith we need more of the Bible in us. But there is more. The more of His Word that we hear, the more of the plants that our heavenly Father has not planted should begin to stand out to us. We will begin to see the false doctrines that have been growing in the garden.
The more of His Word we understand, the better we will understand how to rightly interpret it. We will have a better and better sense of sound approaches. And when we are committed to the principle of permitting Scripture to interpret Scripture, other approaches such as interpretation according to tradition, or by a canon within a canon, or by whatever is the presently popular approach will be overruled by God’s Word itself. We should come to see the superdogmas that rule interpretation and reject them.
But someone will say, look at the long list of famous theologians. Many of them were deeply immersed in Scripture too. Why would it be different for us today? The reason that it should be different for us is that we do not come to the table with hundreds or thousands of years of dogma to protect. Our church is young, less than two centuries. Our platform is Scripture unbent. We have rejected Sunday sacredness, infant baptism, the immaculate conception, original sin, papal supremacy, and 1,000 other doctrines not found in God’s Word. We do not have to invest our energies defending the indefensible. We are Protestants, repairers of the breach, restorers of the path of truth. We are participants in a movement raised up by God Himself to demonstrate the power of the gospel. As such, our business is to listen not to error but to truth.
Listening to error will not be the practice of the last generation. They will be sanctified—made holy—by His truth. They will have no time for teachers of error from 30 years past, no matter how kind, how apparently scholarly and erudite they are. No matter their place in history, their smoothness, if they persist in error they will be left aside to their own devices. Jesus is on the move and His Present Truth is as well. The Light is moving. We must move forward with it. This light is shining today from the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. The atonement is being effected even as we speak. Now is the time for reconsecration—and not the entertainment offered by blind who would lead the blind.
Conclusion
Therefore, we conclude as follows. Our own faulty witness may have led others to doubt the truths we profess. Before we condemn others for going to listen to error, we need to change our behavior so that we never again are satanic decoys in our own right. The listening process is fraught with danger but God still uses it. We can discover and benefit from the truth of the Bible, but truth first is that which we do and only secondarily is it a theory or a system of ideas. The reasons why people listen to error—notoriety, fairness, curiosity, lack of clarity, silver-bullet seeking, to be seen by men, because of doubts, commitments to wrong teachings, or even unresolved sin issues—are poor reasons. And we must never take the position that we have everything figured out. We need to investigate closely. The truth can afford to be fair.
With all this, the miracle-working power of God has testified also that the Seventh-day Adventist movement is of God. Its foundations are sure. The only proper appeal to make at this point, is, instead of going to listen to error, may our Lord help us by drawing us to come more decidedly to listen to truth.
For Further Study
I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness. (Early Writings, pp. 124, 125).
Ideas in the text:
necessity separation from persons and groups daily imbibing new errors
attending their meetings encourages them
our choice is between God-given liberty and the bondage of darkness and error
listening to error without being obliged to go is displeasing to God
There are a small number of occasions where God will send us to meetings where error is being presented and He will keep us
There are meetings where error is forced home by the power of the will
if we go to such meetings even the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness
Another statement of interest:
We shall have Satan and evil men to combat, but we also shall have messengers of light to help us. It is for us to gather upon our pathway all the rays of light, and not listen to error, for if we do we shall be turned away from truth. We have no time to listen to fables. Christ's prayer was, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). We want the truth and we want to give Him all our powers, that when He comes His benediction will rest upon every one of us and we shall receive the reward (Manuscript Releases, vol. 3, p. 98).
Ideas in the text:
the messengers of light are help sent from God
we are to gather all the rays of light
If we listen to error we shall be turned away from the truth
We have no time to listen to fables
truth—not error—sanctifies
we want to give God all our powers. When we listen to error we are giving our energies to Satan GCO
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