Stand Firm in the Faith has from the beginning has put the emphasis of the writing, posts, and guest articles in their entirety posted by permission, on the theme of Discernment and Apologetic issues effecting the Church. (Below is only a segment of an article “The Imperative of Discernment” by PFO Quarterly Journal - July - September 2012 Vol. 32 No 3). For the Complete Article - please order from the ministry website: http://www.pfo.org
The Imperative of Discernment
by G. Richard Fisher
The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel was given a mandate from God that he was to pass on to the leaders of the nation:
“And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23).
The leaders were themselves to be discerning, and then teach the people to be discerning. If the nation was going to be God’s nation, its people had to discern.
The Apostle Paul thought discernment was very important. He told the believers in Philippi:
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:9-10).
Approving or disapproving of teachings requires that we discern what is being taught. So Paul prays that all believers might abound in discernment. The word “abound” means to go beyond the ordinary.
Commenting on the phrases “that your love may abound” and “approve the things that are excellent,” Roy Laurin wrote:
“Possessed of such love the Christian would acquire a moral discernment which enables him to judge between right and wrong, truth and error. Where there is real love there is a deep moral sensitiveness. Love provides its own defenses against defection. A fully developed love means the highest development of personality which in turn means maturity. With maturity comes discernment and with discernment these Philippians would ‘remain untainted by error, unstumbling amidst obstacles.”’ (1)
So we see that Christian maturity depends on our exercising discernment. Our physical and spiritual health--and maybe even our lives--depends on it.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF DISCERNMENT
K. Neill Foster wrote:
“A.W. Tozer was fond of saying that the greatest need in the church was for the gift of discernment. And Dr. Tozer spoke from his perspective in the middle of the twentieth century. Were he able to comment on today’s religious confusion, I am sure his tones would be more strident, his concerns still deeper. It is certainly clear to Christian leaders everywhere that confusion is increasing. There seems to be a famine of clear thought and penetrating insight.” (2)
One example is a quote in the Los Angeles Times by Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena:
“Some are unhappy with me because I have gone on record as saying that [Mitt Romney’s church, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is not a cult. …I have studied and taught about cults for many years. I have also spent the last dozen years meeting with Mormons --- scholars and church leaders --- to engage in lengthy theological discussions. …Based on these conversations and my own careful study, I do not believe Mormonism is a cult.” (3)
Other Christian leaders may also wish to sidestep labeling Mormonism a cult because they think it is a “loaded” term. However, if Mormonism with its salvation by works, its heretical views of God, and its extra-biblical books is not a cult, then the word “cult” has lost all meaning. Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, doesn’t agree with those who think the word “cult” needs to be retired.
And Christians have the biblical mandate to expose false teachers and their teaching (Titus 1:11; Ephesians 5:11). Romans 16:17 urges us to have nothing to do with those who would teach contrary to the apostles’ doctrine. Paul, in verse 18, says they do not serve Christ.
DISCERNMENT IS A BIBLE WORD
To many the word “discernment” is an offensive word. However, the writers of Scripture were quite comfortable with it. The Apostle Paul calls it a gift from God in 1 Corinthians 12 and urges its use. The words “discernment” and “discern” are used about 25 times in the New Testament. Other closely associated words such as “judge,” “test,” “try,” and “evaluate” are also used repeatedly.
Discernment is a gift that has fallen on hard times and is rejected and maligned in some circles. In Acts 17:11-12, the Bereans were called noble because they scoured the Scripture to be sure that their teacher Paul was on track. F.F. Bruce, along with the Scriptures, commends the Berean spirit:
“For, with commendable openmindedness, they brought the claims made by Paul to the touchstone of Holy Writ instead of giving way to prejudice. Their procedure, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so’ (RSV), is worthy of imitation by all who have some new form of religious teaching pressed upon their acceptance.” (4)
STICKS AND STONES
Now Bereans are addressed by other names and even threatened with death, disease, and a “Holy Ghost machine gun.” It is not uncommon for PFO to receive phone calls from hostile callers because they have come across a Quarterly Journal article which examines a teacher or author to whom they have expressed an impassioned devotion. We have been “damned to hell” and told to “repent” for our evaluations. Apparently it is permissible for these callers to judge our salvation, but we are not afforded the opportunity to judge the doctrine and practice of their spiritual guides. Author Dave Hunt has often remarked that such people should more properly be angry, not at the one exposing the false teaching, but rather at the false teachers themselves for their lies, deception, and heretical doctrine. Those exercising discernment, and even doing it with great love, are often written off as mean-spirited, judgmental, hard-nosed, and critical.
Gnostic researcher James Robinson, back in the 1970s, coined the term “Heresy Hunters.” In 1993, James Spencer used that phrase for the title of his book that castigated PFO and other discernment ministries for their critiques of Benny Hinn and other Word-Faith proponents. What Robinson and Spencer did not realize is that the cliché was incorrect because heresy need not be hunted; it is out in the open. It is proclaimed from church pulpits, stocked on the shelves of both secular and “Christian” bookstores, and fills the airwaves via “Christian” television and radio.
The very latest term and epithet for those who would want to discern truth is “the critique police.” Nevertheless, the mandate and imperative to judge between good and evil --- Hebrews 5:14 ---still stands! Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is central to discernment. It is, in fact, the “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Our present Church culture reflects the attitudes that were prevalent in Isaiah’s time when people were calling “evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).
Let’s therefore consider and emphasize crucial points about discernment.
THE FACT OF DISCERNMENT
The word “discernment” in all its forms and Greek nuances means to investigate, to look into, to scrutinize, question, examine, or to put on trial. It means to determine the good or bad of a person or thing. The Greek, word Kritikos means to critique, to judge, to evaluate and decide, and even pass judgment. As a judge uses the law as his basis of evaluation, believers use the Word of God as the ultimate court of appeal. It is the Word of God that discerns us. This is why men such as Joel Osteen are appalling and Paul is appealing. When the Corinthians refused to judge sin in their church, the apostle argued, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” (1 Corinthians 6:2). Here we are commanded to discern and judge.
Someone has coined the phrase, “The pathology of sentimentality.” It is a state of mind where we believe that we have to keep everybody happy by agreeing with them on everything. We can’t rock any boat, not even a little, and we cannot disagree with false teaching or try to correct error. Yet Jesus, in Matthew 10:34-36, said:
“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”
At times, truth divides no matter how hard we try to present it with meekness, love, and respect. But there must be a separation between truth and error, light and darkness. “And what communion has light with darkness? … what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 6:14 and 16.
Preaching does not always alleviate or solve problems. There may be times when exposition from the pulpit stirs or creates problems, even when we deeply would like to avoid them or not have it so.
In real life we are constantly discerning things. We discern between a one dollar bill and a ten dollar bill. We discern at the pharmacy and are sure we are not taking the wrong medication. We discern at home and make sure we keep detergents from being mixed with food. If we have young children we are constantly discerning for them what is right and what is wrong. Life could not be lived without constant discernment and choices. We need it no less for spiritual matters.
THE FICTION OF “MANY CHRISTIANITIES”
Some, such as Gnostic champions Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels, would have us believe that we really do not know what to believe because the Church of the first four or five centuries was a swirl of contradictory and competing variations of Christianity. There was, in fact, only one true Christianity and many heresies. However, Ehrman, Pagels, and others like them try to reconstruct early Church history in a totally different way. They argue that those with the most money, power, and clout won out. They maintain that it was the overwhelming power plays of the Orthodox that made the day, not truth. But that is just not so. The early Church, fiercely persecuted by the Romans, had no power, money, or clout --- only grace and truth. The early martyrs had no power, money, or clout --- only God’s Word. Truth prevailed plain and simple. The truth of the Bible won the day. The heresies trying to compete with the truth were thoroughly trounced.
All thoughout the New Testament there is a pattern of orthodox doctrine. It is called the “apostles’ doctrine” in Acts 2:42. Paul often refers to it as “the faith,” as does Jude who said it to be “the faith once delivered.” This pattern of orthodox doctrine was then encapsulated in creeds and held in tact for 2000 years. Read those who succeeded the Apostles. Read the early apologists. True Christianity held the fort, not against competing Christianities, but against competing heresies.
DISCERNMENT BEGINS EARLY
Another sad fact is that discerners often think they have to discern only full-blown error in its grossest forms and overlook or ignore the small detours that can lead to all-out heresy. But we must discern error and false teaching even in its earliest forms and its faint beginnings. People oftentimes do not rush into error; they wander there. Proverbs 4 talks about the very early beginnings of sin and false teaching when it says, “Do not enter the path of the wicked … Avoid it … Turn away from it and pass on” (vv. 14-15). Don’t enter that path; don’t even go there --- don’t even start because of where it ultimately leads. In verse 27 of the same proverb we are told, “Do not turn to the right or the left.” Whenever people tell us that “God told them” rather than “the Scripture says,” red flags should go up all over the place. When we hear of people journaling their inner voices more red flags should fly. And when we hear talk of added books to the Bible, even more red flags need to be raised. In many instances our red flags have been replaced by white ones.
(This is only an excerpt from the PFO article: “The Imperative of Discernment"- by G. Richard Fisher, The Quarterly Journal July-September 2012 , Vol. 32, No. 3). To obtain the full article please contact PFO ministry at their website: http://www.pfo.org or write: P.O. Box 26062, Saint Louis, Missouri 63136-0062
Copyright © 2012 Personal Freedom Outreach/ G. Richard Fisher
(partial) Endnotes:
1. Roy Laurin, Philippians - Where Life Advances. Findlay, Ohio: Dunham Publishing 1954, pp. 31.
2. K. Neil Foster, The Discerning Christian Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1981, pg. 11.
3. Richard J. Mouw, “Mormonism: Not a cult, not a problem,” Op-Ed in Los Angeles Times, Nov. 20, 2011. Document accessed at www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mouw-mormons-20111120,0,699207.story
4. F.F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing 1955, pg 347.