In this and next week’s lessons, we will look at the conflict of truth versus error and what the Christian’s response should be to error. The Jews in the first century tried to blur the distinction between the two by accusing Christ of being from the Devil and using the Devil’s power in the world, Luke 11:15 “But some of them said, By Beelzebub the prince of the demons casteth he out demons. 16 And others, trying him, sought of him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. 19 And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20 But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you”. They realized that if he was from God, the Father, that they must submit to his teachings. Since they rejected him and there by the Father, they tried to associate him with the Devil. As those that spread error, they did as the Devil did from the beginning. Blur the distinctions. Try to establish a rationalization for their refusal to follow God’s teaching. From the beginning the Devil lied and deceived. He poisoned and tainted the truth with error in order to deceive Eve when in Gen. 3 he said vs 4 “Ye shall not surely die” (by adding one word – not) and continued with his “half truth”. Half truths are always all error. They are used to deceive, as Satan successfully did with Eve. Causing both Eve and then Adam to fall for this trickery and be separated from God, through their disobedience (sin). Satan was wrong they did die spiritually and were separated from God and his goodness. In our recent Wednesday evening class on how to establish Biblical authority, we considered several of the principles of logic. One of those; A and ~A (not A) cannot both be true. Satan deceived Eve by convincing her that both death and not death could be true. The Jews were implying that in their accusation against Christ that he was using the Devil to cast out demons, not God’s power, to avoid obedience. Christ pointed the fallacy in their logic. They didn’t like being exposed. Satan is the father of lies: Jn. 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it”. Satin continuously works to blur the difference between truth and error. Christ recognized the conflict and let us all know the source of all truth: Jn. 17:17 “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth”. It is God’s word and only God’s word that has truth for us. Only God’s word provides us the answer to the problem of sin, which Satan introduced to us through Eve. It is only through God’s word that we can find out how we can return to harmony, and peace with God, which comes through obedience. About how to obtain the remission of our sins, which separate us from God and how to maintain that harmony with God. Satan will not stand for that and has always tried to interject his words (error) into God’s word to deceive us, to separate us from God. God uses the contrast between white and black to show us the contrast between truth (purity) and error (sin). The Psalmist desired to be pure in God’s sight when he wrote; Ps. 51:7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow”. Light and darkness are also used to show the contrast between truth and error: Ps. 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” We must follow the light: Jn. 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” and avoid the darkness. Satan is always trying to tint the purity of God’s word with error (think adding a tiny amount of black paint) and turn the white a little gray and claim it is all right. Satan will tell us: It’s close, God won’t mind and this new thing is so much easier, more acceptable. … Go ahead, its OK, – but don’t fall for it! Recently while my wife was away on a trip visiting family I decided to paint a room that she has wanted painted for a while. Now, TV commercials not withstanding, to properly paint a room and have the color come out correctly, one should first apply a primer coat, then two coats of the correct paint (if your paint store tells you anything else change stores!). Since the existing paint was a light color I decided to skip the primer step and bought reasonably good paint and put one coat of paint on the walls (just like a leading home repair store advertises). It did not look right, my wife rightfully did not like it. Even after putting on a second coat, the color was still not right. In my new retirement status, I have a project, get the paint color of that room corrected. This time I will do it the way it should have been done in the first place. Likewise, when we don’t follow God’s instruction book (the Bible) in the way God has directed us, we will get tinted, contaminated Christianity. Something other than the pure white purity of the Gospel. It is amazing how the workers of darkness want to quibble and barter with God. The want to avoid using the primer coat, they argue with the entrance terms God has put on His kingdom. They say: “Just believe, that’s all that is necessary. Baptism is not necessary. It doesn’t matter where you worship, just worship. You can change God’s worship, he won’t care. You don’t have to be so strict in how you live, God knows your heart loves him. People know you love God, don’t worry about your language.” The compromises go on and on and on. Like with Eve, Satan is constantly trying to get us to give up on the purity that we as Christians are to maintain. The purity in doctrine, living, worship, in obedience. There can be no compromise. We as obedient Christians cannot tolerate error. There can be no compromise allowed. When we let in compromise (sin) we must think of Luke 11:17 “…a house divided against a house falleth” we will fall if we allow Christ’s church to be divided. That is to let in error. We are to be diligent in obeying God, in seeking the truth and pointing out error: I Corinthians 14:8 “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” We must be awake and realize that we are in a daily battle with Satan for our souls, for the purity of the Church. Between truth and error there can be no compromise.
