Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Why Study False Ideas?

Episode Date: August 10, 2019

While it’s true that Christians should prioritize their understanding of Scripture and Christian theology, Alan offers four reasons why Christians should add the study of false ideas to their to-do list. Download the mp3...

Maybe we shouldn't study false ideas, right? Maybe we should just read the Bible. I mean, that's in fact a suggestion that has become more popular these days. And it's usually accompanied by the tale about how federal agents learned to spot counterfeit money, not by studying counterfeits, but by studying genuine bills. And likewise, it's argued that we should stop teaching Christians about false ideas like, you know, relativism and homosexuality and Islam. And instead, we should just teach the Bible. Well, while it's true that Christians should prioritize their understanding of Scripture and, of course, of Christian theology,

that doesn't diminish the importance of also studying false ideas, other religions, or threats to the gospel. I think we can and should do both. In fact, I'd argue there are at least four reasons why Christians should add the study of false ideas to their to-do list. Okay, here's the first one. It's an essential skill of being an ambassador for Christ. You see, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, then you are his ambassador. We get this from 2 Corinthians 5.20, which is a verse that we often mention at Stand to Reason. And that means that you represent Jesus 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now, to be an effective ambassador for Christ, you need to be skilled in three areas, knowledge, wisdom, and character.

And so, this first skill, knowledge, necessitates that you know not only the truth, but also the error. For example, when a U.S. political ambassador travels to Iran to do diplomatic work, he must have knowledge not only of U.S. foreign policy, but also of Iranian foreign policy. And being ignorant of Iran's ideas, interests, or other goals while negotiating with them would be dangerous. And in the same way, ambassadors of Christ need to be aware not only of God's plan and message, but also of the false ideas of the world that are raised up against God's plan and message. So that's the first reason. Here's a second. It helps to prevent people from

rejecting the gospel. The great Presbyterian scholar J. Gresham Machen wrote this about false ideas. He said, false ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. End quote. So Machen's sobering warning is clear. Don't let the culture adopt false ideas or else those ideas will prevent people from accepting the gospel because they'll think Christianity is a delusion.

And so, if we care about furthering the gospel, we need to understand false ideas and reduce the rate at which they are accepted by our culture. Now, here's a third reason why we should study false ideas. The Bible commands us to study false ideas, okay? And there's two reasons that are involved in this particular point. First is we need to be aware of false ideas so that we don't ourselves fall prey to them. Now, Paul specifically warns the Colossian believers to, and this is a quote from Colossians 2.8, he says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. You see, if we can't recognize a false idea or philosophy,

then we're at greater risk of being captivated by it. And so, the solution is to inoculate believers against false ideas so they become more resistant to them. Now, the second reason that the Bible commands us to study false ideas is so that we can destroy them. Now, though the language of destruction sounds politically incorrect in our culture, in our world today, that's what scripture says, right? Paul recognizes that our battle is fought, is not fought, I should say, with the weapons of the world, for example, guns and missiles and tanks and airplanes, right? Rather, he says, we fight to demolish strongholds. Okay, well, what strongholds is he referring to? Well, he explains in the verse,

he says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. This is 2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 through 5. And so, part of our mission is to destroy arguments and pretensions that are raised up against God's truth. And of course, we can't know what false ideas to destroy if we can't recognize and understand them. And so, a fourth reason why I believe we should study false ideas is that the Apostle Paul himself modeled studying false ideas. We can tell from Paul's engagements with non-believers that he studied and had knowledge of the false ideas and the religious beliefs of others. For example, when he spoke to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at the meeting of the Areopagus, he explained to them

who this quote-unquote unknown God was that they were referring to on their altar. And so then in Paul's description of the true God, Paul quotes their own Cretan philosopher Epimenides. And here's the quote that's actually in scripture in Acts 17 verse 28. Paul says, for in him we live and move and have our being. So Paul literally quotes this Cretan philosopher Epimenides, and it's included now in Scripture. And then Paul quotes the Stoic philosopher Eratus. This is also Acts 17, 28. Paul says, So, notice that Paul studied these philosophers and their ideas enough to quote them from memory.

And he knew the Athenians trusted these authors, and so he leveraged their commitment to these writings to his advantage, to explain who the true God is that was unknown to them. And so by studying these false ideas that his audience believed in, he was able to craft a more effective and persuasive message. that his audience believed in, he was able to craft a more effective and persuasive message. And so anyway, so having laid out the reasons for studying false ideas, I don't mean to suggest that we should, say, teach five-year-olds relativism or homosexuality or Islam. Right? I mean, the priority would be to immerse them in God's Word and in Christian theology and, of course, the Christian worldview first. After all, the same being that spoke the universe into

existence and wrote the language of DNA into ourselves is the one who authored the words of scripture. So, of course, I'm saying we should make that a priority. But then, in an age-appropriate way, we should begin incorporating false ideas into their curriculum so they understand the error that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And the same approach would be beneficial with new believers. First teach the truth, then focus on the error.