"To be an effective warrior in the battle for truth today, several old fashioned, Christlike virtues are absolutely essential: biblical discernment, wisdom, fortitude, determination, endurance, skill in handling Scripture, strong convictions, the ability to speak candidly without waffling, and a willingness to enter a conflict."
~John MacArthur: The Truth War, page 146
If we are to be effective warriors in this battle for truth, there must be Biblical discernment and wisdom. I am going to focus on those two today. Discernment is a difficult line to walk, because on both sides of the line are two equal and opposite fallacies. The first fallacy is legalism, where fear of breaking a law becomes so strong that you end up adding to what was actually said. The other fallacy is antinomianism, the idea that you basically have a free-for-all. The dangers people fall into is that they fear so much of one that they fall into the other. As I am wired to be rule oriented, I recognize my propensity to fall towards the legalistic side of things. But our culture as a whole, both church and secular, has gotten so afraid of legalism that it’s turned to madness. I’ll echo Eric Ludy’s quote on this below. (As I put this together, I noticed that MacArthur and Ludy wrote both these books on defending the truth at the same time).
"Why is it that quite often the only person who gets rebuked, confronted, or called out in metrotheistic Christianity is not the sinner, but the one taking a stand against sin? … On the other hand, one of the greatest revivalists of yesteryear once responded to similar criticism by saying, "If the church were half as afraid of sin as it is of legalism then she would be a perfect and holy bride without spot or wrinkle."
~Eric Ludy: The Bravehearted Gospel, pages 200-201
There is another problem I have to deal with: confusion of these ideas. I can see the danger of confusing proper discernment with legalism. But I find more often that it’s not me confusing the two, it’s the others I’m talking to. But Jesus gave us commands and He drew the lines quite clearly on what we should be doing and how. One of my upcoming studies will be on the commands of the New Testament. There are a LOT of commands that we as Christians are supposed to be following, and yet Jesus said that they are not burdensome. They don’t weigh us down when we submit to Jesus’ yoke. The problem we have is we don’t want to submit to them, and we kick against them. That’s when we run into problems. And in the U.S., our culture is inherently in defiance of sovereign politically authority. It started out good, because we were submitted to a much higher authority (at least morally), but when this country rejected submitting to God’s authority, it’s been pure antinomian anarchy ever since, and we still haven’t hit rock bottom.
We need discernment in the Church and in our culture today. One of the things God hates in His priests and prophets is when they refuse to teach the clean from the unclean, the holy from the unholy. There MUST be discernment in the pulpit. There is so much blending and mixing in the church that hardly anyone recognizes genuine truth anymore. In the Southern Kingdom of Judah, idolatry was so entrenched into the culture that when Hezekiah removed the high places and idol worship shrines (something that hadn’t been done since Jehoshaphat), the people though Hezekiah went apostate against God, when he was the one obeying God. How did that happen? No discernment was being taught or exposed. The priests and prophets weren’t doing their jobs. While they proclaimed their worship and praise of God, they let that which is contrary to Him run amok. There must be discernment and teaching about what is of God and what is not of God.
But doing so takes wisdom. Wisdom is not mere knowledge; it’s also how to use it. Proverbs defines the beginning of wisdom as the fear of the Lord. It also describes the fear of the Lord as the hatred of evil. Those two go side by side: you cannot fear the Lord without hating evil. You cannot love God and love what He hates. This is not a matter of personal preferences like being rivals fans on sports teams. This is about God. If you love children, you cannot support abortion without some serious misinformation or flaw in your thinking. You cannot love your spouse and then have an affair with someone else. When you love and fear God to the point where you love what He loves and hate what He hates, that is just the beginning of wisdom.
One of the spiritual gifts Paul speaks of in Romans is that of teaching. Teachers in the church tend to be focused on definitions, sound doctrine, accuracy, and correction of error. That is my spiritual gifting. Now, everyone is called to do this is some way, but others are more focused on that. Those who are not as focused on truth and sound doctrines MUST listen to the teachers, especially those whose spiritual gifting is showing mercy – they love to give grace and the benefit of the doubt and love on everyone. Yet, that extra gift of love for others can easily lead someone into danger by welcoming that which is not of God into the fold. That said, teachers need the encouragement of those who show mercy to know when and how to apply the tests of sound teachings. We all need each other. While teachers can fall into legalism, those who show mercy can fall into antinomianism. We need each other to walk the line together. There are other spiritual gifts as well, and we need those also, but I emphasize these two because they can easily fall into the two extremes.
When dealing with apologetics and defending our faith, we also need to be aware of the tactics involved in the “game,” both on our side and on the opponent’s side. Paul said we should not be ignorant of the enemy’s devices. We should not be ignorant of the tactics used to discredit the faith. I’ve been at this for a long time and it’s the same playbook, same arguments, and rarely does the wording even shift. And note this: the Bible has every argument an unbeliever can use in categorical form. You don’t have to be afraid of these arguments, because they are all smoke and mirrors. They are deceptions.
Yet, especially in our age of intellectualism, there is something unique that has come across. The enemy has been able to tie his deceptions to something concrete: “modern science.” It is not science, though. They are still deceptions, but now they are no longer merely metaphysical. So be aware – it takes both wisdom and discernment to be able to pull the layers apart and see what is at the core. We must stay alert and be on guard against such things. By studying the truth, we will be able to discern the genuine from the counterfeit. The latter will have many points in common with the former, but the two will always point in different directions. Look at the direction the claim is pointing, and you will know if it is real or not. We must have discernment and wisdom. Next week, we will look at fortitude, determination, and endurance.
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