Posted on 03/06/2020 7:51:58 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A Christian apologist laid out three ways Christians can judge whether an idea is “biblical or bogus” in a speech that was part of a student-centered apologetics event in Allen, Texas.
Alan Shlemon, author and speaker with the apologetics group Stand to Reason, gave remarks at the reTHINK Apologetics Student Conference, held last week at Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen.
During his talk last Friday, Shlemon laid out three steps that help guard against false religious ideas.
1) The first step is to “seek to study scripture,” which involved reading the Bible. Shlemon told students that when they “come across an idea or some kind of claim, we need to test it against Scripture.”
2) The second step is to “seek wise counsel,” with Shlemon giving examples of parents, young group leaders, and pastors, among others.
“Chances are, you don’t know the Bible entirely, you don’t have perfect theology, you don’t understand the Christian worldview completely, and guess what? That’s OK. I don’t either. Nobody does,” he explained.
“But what that means is you can and should seek wise counsel. People who might be more biblically mature than you or walked with Jesus longer.”
Shlemon said his counsel was his boss, Stand to Reason founder and President Greg Koukl, who hosts a radio program that invites people to call in and ask spiritual questions.
3) The third and final step in determining the validity of an idea, according to Shlemon, is to “seek the consensus of historic Christianity.”
“What has the Church taught for 2,000 years?” asked Shlemon. “If the idea or the claim that I am considering right now is contradicted by 2,000 years of church history, or it is a completely new idea, then it causes me to become suspicious.”
He gave the example of the LGBT movement and how some churches have argued that the Bible does not actually condemn homosexuality or same-sex marriage.
Shlemon did acknowledge that Christians have been long divided on issues like the nature of the Lord’s Supper and how to properly perform baptisms.
“We have been divided on a whole bunch of things for hundreds if not thousands of years in some cases,” he noted. “But when it comes to the question of marriage and sex, all of the church, Protestant, Catholic, and even the Orthodox traditions, have been unanimous for 2,000 years.”
Shlemon’s comments were part of the Conference’s Friday evening first session, titled “reTHINK Your False Ideas About God.”
In addition to Shlemon, the session also featured Stand to Reason President Koukl and Tim Barnett, pastor at Cedarville Church of Newmarket, Canada.
Barnett focused on the Genesis account of the fall of man, explaining to those gathered that there were three steps the Serpent took in Genesis 3 to get Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.
The three steps of deception, Barnett said, were that “Satan questions what God has said,” “Satan denies what God has said,” and “Satan attacks who God is.”
“The fall of mankind didn’t actually begin when the first pair took their first bite. That is, it didn’t begin with a disobedient deed,” said Barnett. “Rather, it began with an incorrect idea. Specifically, the serpent, the devil, he planted false ideas in the minds of the original pair.”
Barnett went on to argue that these very strategies are still used in modern American culture to tempt Christians to not follow the Bible.
“If we ignore God’s word, we end up cutting ourselves off from truth about God. If we ignore what He said, we cut ourselves off from that truth,” he continued.
“And what happens is we begin to take our cues about God from the culture. … We don’t determine what God is like by looking to the culture.
I’m not Christian but spiritually friendly with Christianity. I think these 3 steps are way too complicated. I have one simple rule to check if an idea or claim is not Christian : how does democrats party view it. If they are for it, it’s not Christian for certain. If they are against it, likely it’s Christian but need further test
3) The third and final step in determining the validity of an idea, according to Shlemon, is to “seek the consensus of historic Christianity.”
>Good point. And that’s why my eschatological belief is “Historic” Premillennialism. None of the ECF (Early Church Fathers) were pretribs, yet they believed Christ’s second coming would inaugurate the millennial kingdom of Rev. 20.
None of the ECF’s were preterists either.
Greg Koukl headed up the apologetics training at my old church in Manhaten Beach. One of the clearest thinking modern philosophers around.
“If we ignore God’s word, we end up cutting ourselves off from truth about God. If we ignore what He said, we cut ourselves off from that truth,” he continued.
We are living in unprecedented times, at least in context of "historic Christianity". What the author warns us about is just one more indicator leading me to believe things are about to get a lot more interesting!
Egads. Two wolves and a sheep decide what's for dinner, and so it is.
The established menu will be changing soon.
It's the wrath of the lamb who has always been the one to end up on the dinner plate.
Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals..
1. Search the Scriptures.
2. Seek wise counsel.
3. PRAY for God’s wisdom to be revealed to you.
Didn’t see praying mentioned anywhere yet many times have I had the Holy Spirit jump in with some clarification that made a difficult issue clear to me. If it’s from Him, it will be confirmed by Scripture and often backed up by wise counsel.
That is a quick and dirty test.
Another one is to see ehat the overall societal reaction is to whatever it is. If society is for it, generally that’s a bad indicator. Because society generally reflects ‘the worlds attitude’ towards things not the biblical view.
ie the world loves abortion, hillary, socialism, 100+ genders, hates the church, hates pro-life anything, hates their own country...
You can apply the same steps to determine if the politics are in accordance with the Constitution or bogus.
1) The first step is to study the Constitution (scripture). When you come across an idea or some kind of claim, you need to test it against the Constitution (scripture).
2) The second step is to seek counsel. Chances are you don’t know the Constitution (Bible) entirely. You may not understand the politics completely, and guess what? That’s OK. I don’t either. Nobody does.
Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to learn how closely connected they are
Read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers.
3) The third and final step in determining the validity of an idea is to seek the consensus of historians. To this end I recommend Hillsdale College’s free online courses on the nation’s founding.
My advice is that it is well to know the Bible and the Constitution; each protects the other and both are in harm’s way.
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