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*** w60 4/15 228-9 Does the Bible Teach What You Believe? ***
False beliefs, by the clergy’s own admission, abound in Christendom. What popular beliefs crumble under the test for truthfulness?
“PEOPLE will go to any church,” admits a Honolulu clergyman, “without suspicion as to false doctrine.” Thus in this age of deception and falsehood millions of persons are uncritical even when it comes to the vital sphere of religious beliefs; they accept what they hear without investigation, even though doctrines of the various churches conflict with one another.
Yes, and even though the Bible foretold an abundance of false religious beliefs for this time: “There will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories.”—2 Tim. 4:3, 4.
Does the Bible teach what you believe? Many people do not know whether the Bible teaches what they believe, because they are not taught or encouraged to follow the Scriptural rule: “Make sure of all things.” (1 Thess. 5:21) An educator recently pointed out why people are not taught to test their beliefs and why people often accept even implausible doctrines.
Professor Walter Kaufmann of Princeton University, in an address at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, spoke on the moral and intellectual failure of organized religion. Reporting on the educator’s address, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald of February 24, 1959, said:
“Asserting that critical thought is still discouraged, he pointed out that even in the United States today one rarely hears anything of that nature on radio, TV, or mass circulation magazines. Prof. Kaufmann suggested that the desire for social approval prompts the verbal acceptance of religious beliefs in many instances. . . . Affirming that many religious leaders privately concede the implausibility of their doctrines, Prof. Kaufmann denounced hypocrisy which prevents them from stating as much in public. ‘If these leaders said what they really believed,’ he commented, ‘organized religion would crumble, and we would wind up with individual religions.’”
Should the crumbling of what is false be feared? Of course not, for Jesus Christ said: “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Falsehood cannot make one free. But because of the desire for social approval, the desire to please the crowd, people accept many doctrines without testing them for truthfulness.
Because it is easier to go along with the crowd than to explain to the crowd why one cannot go along with it, many persons will believe whatever the crowd believes; but popularity has never proved a reliable means for judging the quality of a belief.
As one writer has put it: “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”
Jesus never accepted a doctrine or belief because the crowd did; Jesus did not found a please-the-crowd religion. The Christian should please God.
FALSE BELIEFS “QUITE BEYOND NUMBERING”
The very fact that clergymen admit privately and sometimes even publicly that many doctrines are implausible and false should make one want to check his beliefs with the Bible.
Some years ago Dr. W. L. Pettingill of the First Baptist Church in New York city said: “Religious teaching that is dished out now is a curse and not a blessing. . . . Most of it is false religion which ignores the teachings of Christ. . . . Ninety-nine per cent of religion in this city should be scrapped because one cannot believe man and God at the same time.”—New York Times, October 10, 1949.
Another clergyman, Dr. Daniel A. Poling, answered a question in the March, 1957, issue of the Christian Herald in the column “Doctor Poling Answers Your Questions.” To a questioner who had heard that there were at least eighty false doctrines in popular religion this clergyman writes: “As to false doctrines there may be 80 or there may be a thousand. I am sure they are quite beyond numbering, but since you know the Lord and have been within His grace all these years, surely you have the witness in your heart day by day. You have everything that is required for your peace of mind now and for your eternal salvation.”
But does Jehovah God talk this way? Does his holy Word, the Bible, whitewash false doctrines, dismiss them as something trivial, as if the Christian is under no responsibility to know whether or not he is believing truth or error? What are we to think of a Christianity with false beliefs “quite beyond numbering”? Said Jesus Christ: “There is not a fine tree producing rotten fruit.” False beliefs are rotten fruit that identify religious organizations according to the rule stated by Jesus: “Each tree is known by its own fruit.”—Luke 6:43, 44
Instead of saying that beliefs do not matter, God’s Word declares: “Keep testing whether you are in the faith, keep proving what you yourselves are.” (2 Cor. 13:5)
There is nothing to fear by making this test, by proving our beliefs by the only standard for judging religious teachings—the Holy Bible.
Indeed, we should fear not to make this test. Christians must not be man-pleasers but God-pleasers.
Using the Scriptures to test doctrines is the course commended in the Bible. When Paul and Silas went to Beroea, they preached to the Jews. How did these Jews respond to this Christian preaching? They “were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with the greatest readiness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
The Beroeans were not being fanatical or unreasonable.
They did not rely on the word of man alone.
The Beroeans made sure of all things. How? By “carefully examining the Scriptures.”
This is the way Christians should test religious beliefs.”
These words were printed more than 41 years ago … do they apply to ALL forms
of organized Christian religions…none excluded???
Most of us know the answer.
Agape, J.C.MacHislopp