On the topic of religion, you find a lot of “well, that works for you, but this works for me.” Some people (perhaps many?) don’t necessarily think in terms of truth—and may think that religion and truth don’t even belong in the same sentence. Christians too can get caught up in what the late Dr. Jack Cottrell called “I-thinkism,” ignoring or challenging God’s truth with “But I think…” (Solid, p 86). But since the dark side masquerades as light (2 Corinthians 11:14), we’re targets to fall victim to the masquerade, to deception. So it’s important to be able to distinguish true from false.
The following 4 points were gleaned (and expanded on) from Cottrell’s “Course Outline for Demonology” (p 19ff; he taught this course at Cincinnati Christian University, 2015).
Regarding what’s spiritually true:
- Seek the truth. Since believers are spiritual targets, we can’t be passive. Imagine the ineffectiveness of “passive” guards/soldiers/cops—asleep on the job. We must actively seek truth because we know the devil has “schemes” (Ephesians 6:11).
- Know the truth. Truth is the armor of God piece named first (Ephesians 6:14). In John 8:31, 32 Jesus says: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” And where is the truth? In the Word (John 17:17). The armor of God passage identifies the Word as our powerful sword (Ephesians 6:17; see Hebrews 4:12). Remember the oft-used phrase “knowledge is power.”
- Believe the truth. Given #1 and #2—and the serious consequences for the failure to seek and know truth (ex: John 3:16-21)—believing the truth can’t be a fluffy or “blind faith” deal. Our belief must be confident, fact-based.
- Love the truth. Not loving the truth has consequences in the same way as not having belief. “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). The psalmist said, “I love your commands.… I hate every wrong path” (Psalm 119:127-128). And since Jesus is truth (John 14:6), our loving him should equal that we love truth. Dr. C describes what a person would do when he really loves the truth: “Delight in it, and guard it, and wield it boldly and proudly (but not arrogantly).”
Regarding what’s spiritually false
Dr. C said, “One thing worse than no doctrine is false doctrine” (Solid, p 103). On page 17 of Dr. C’s systematic theology book, The Faith Once for All, we find 3 strong warnings about what’s false. (I’ve elaborated here.) The more we’re in line with truth, as outlined above, the more strongly will be our gut reaction against what’s false. After all, false spiritual teaching is demonic. Look up these alarming Scriptures: John 8:44; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 1 Timothy 4:1, 2; Titus 1:9. Now see these 3 points about what’s spiritually false:
- Don’t teach it. We mustn’t teach false concepts to others. Does that happen? Well, 1 Timothy 6:3-5 and 2 Peter 2:1-3 indicate that there are false teachers “among” us. But even if we’re not deliberately promoting what’s false within our local churches, we can naively be promoting the false if we’re not solid on what’s true. Who wants to be the cause of steering someone offtrack?
- Don’t believe it. We have to watch/monitor both our minds and our hearts. Even when we know something in our heads—and aim to stand on that truth—our hearts/feelings/desires can be enticed to take a step away… and then another… This is especially true when the culture is noisy in marketing the dark side.
- Don’t support/encourage it (see 2 John 9-11). Might this include recommending books/speakers whose information is seriously anti-scriptural? We must avoid “every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
People will say either that there’s no such thing as absolute truth or that we can’t know what’s true. But Dr. C explains that there’d be no point in the Bible’s having warnings “unless we are truly able to distinguish between truth and falsehood. It leads us to the reasonable inference that true knowledge of God and true theology are possible.” Proverbs 15:14 says, “The discerning heart seeks knowledge.” Of course, we need to be in the Word to be qualified to distinguish.
Backing up a bit more… The Scripture proofs above won’t be enough for those believers who entertain doubts about the reliability of the Bible. Some just haven’t felt an urgency to bother investigating “Is the Bible really true?”; others are maybe afraid to voice their doubts to church leaders. Complicating matters are “documentaries” with incomplete, misleading, inconsistent, and outright false data. (In one TV episode, I counted numerous provable lies within the first few minutes!) The average person may not know enough to smell a rat when it’s disguised by Hollywood’s special effects.
Look again at those 4 dos and 3 don’ts. Truth matters! And spiritual truth is the most important category to be sure about. If you’ve been a bit wobbly about the Bible’s reliability, which is the starting point, check out some of the evidence resources on the “Recommended” page.
