Articles
Discerning the Difference
I had just begun my morning walk when a man in a pickup stopped and asked if I had seen his large black Rottweiler. He said someone had reported a black dog running with a Dalmatian around West Halls nearby. I told him I hadn’t seen it, having just left the house. The fellow drove off, and within less than a minute I spotted a Dalmatian and a large black dog. Not sure what to do, I called the dogs and they came to me.
In a moment the man in the pickup came around the corner. I pointed to the black dog, glad I had found his pet. He said, “Nice try,” and explained that his dog was about twice the size of this one.
Mistaken identity. It happens all the time. Have you ever picked up a suitcase or umbrella, only to discover later it belonged to someone else? Similar, but not quite.
I can’t confirm this, but I heard about a Christian college Bible professor who was pulled over by the police. His “crime”? He had mistaken someone else’s car for his own, and the key just happened to fit!
Often religious error appears remarkably like the truth. It even contains much truth, along with the error. But counterfeit truth is not truth. It is all the more dangerous because it is so much like the truth.
Doctrinal assumptions and unexamined beliefs are potentially fatal to our souls. Satan is so deceptive, and there is such a thing as another gospel—a perversion of the real thing (2 Cor. 11:2-4; Gal. 1:6-9).
The Rottweiler’s owner obviously knew the difference between his dog and any other. Do we know the Scriptures well enough so that we can distinguish truth from any error that just might come along?
