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When Truths Collide-Part 5

by William Ryzek  
9/06/2009 / Christian Living

In our last discussion, we looked at the Bible as the final authority in deciding what the truth is when truths collide. Our concern was deciding the truth when Christians are faced with the 'truths' of the world, of secular society and scientism and are forced to take a stand; the concern was apologetic in nature.

Our focus now is polemical because we are attempting to discern and defend the truth within Christianity against heresy (which happens to be an unpopular word these days given religious pluralism) when the Bible, at least in the hands of different religious groups and denominations, presents seemingly conflicting answers to an issue. The question is where do we turn when truths collide amongst Christians all claiming the authority of the Bible to support their views; how do we decide?

One contemporary example is the denial of Christ's deity by some so-called Christian theologians and using scripture, much as Arius did, to bolster their arguments. This is merely a rehash of a heresy put to rest at the council of Nicea and Chalcedon being passed off now as sound Biblical teaching and theology for those with "itching ears", who "will not endure sound doctrine" and would rather "turn to myths" (2 Tim 4:3) than the truth.

In other passages similar to 2 Tim. (i.e. 2 Thess 2:15, 3:6) Paul exhorts his readers to "stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter" because there were false teachers and prophets amongst believers in the earliest years of Christianity attempting to dissuade them from the truth they had received. Along these same lines, Peter states he and others "did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).

Now, the meaning of the terms 'myth' and 'tradition' used by both Paul and Peter are important. The word 'myth' used in scripture refers to a false story, a fable passed off as being true and usually wrapped in mystical, Gnostic meanings and allegories meant to impress audiences. As for the term 'tradition', it has both a negative and positive applications in the Bible. Negatively it refers to the traditions of men and religion being passed off as either divinely sanctioned or used as a substitute for acknowledged divine revelation. In the letters of the Peter and Paul 'tradition' refers to those writings and oral transmissions from the apostles who knew the Lord during His ministry on earth, hence Peter's reference to "eyewitnesses". In other words the traditions were authoritative by virtue of their source (the apostles), the moral example set by the apostles when presenting the gospel and the acceptance of these traditions by local churches throughout the Roman Empire.

When truths collide, a return to the ancient traditions is an effective way to discern what the truth really is. We have, for example, the church Creeds that, when matters of controversy arose, stated concisely the faith of the Christian church no matter its location, language, or history. Interestingly, these creeds were established when truths collided in 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries of Christianity. A paradigmatic example is Arianism I mentioned earlier. Questions concerning the nature of Jesus Christ arose in trying to understand what He did and how He did it through His birth, death and resurrection. In his zeal to protect monotheism from any kind of compromise, Arius argued that Jesus could not be God; Jesus was, therefore, a perfect creation of God. In short, it was this controversy that eventually gave us the Nicene Creed, which states, among other things, that Jesus is equally both God and man.

Now Arius used the scriptures of his day as did his opponents. Depending on how the particular verses were understood, there was support for each position. Those debating this crucial issue resorted to traditions, citing the beliefs and practices of the early 1st century church. The upshot is this: during this momentous colliding of truths reason, experience, the scripture and tradition were used to decide what is really the truth. Eventually, the truth won out, orthodoxy was established and heresy put to rest. However, Arianism, along with Gnosticism, another ancient heretical movement, is still around today and must be recognized and then forcefully resisted.

One final note: Christian truth, which is really the truth about everything from creation to consummation, is established in community, not isolation. No individual or church can claim with a straight face to know every nuance of truth, every application of truth, every instance of truth unless, of course, they are from a cult. The Holy Spirit who inspired the scripture is also present in the Body of Christ and the promise of Jesus is that the Spirit would guide us into all truth. By using our reason, our intuition and experiences with God, the Bible and ancient traditions, we can discern the truth when truths collide in these days of confusion and promulgation of heretical doctrines.

William Ryzek, PhD has been both a pastor and academic for several years. He has published articles in various magazines and newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected]

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