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In a culture that values religious freedom and tolerance, it should be no surprise that truth is under attack more today than at any other time in history, writes Tim Challies, author of the new book “The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.”
“Add to such an accepting culture unparalleled speed of communication and the ability to publish books and other writings quickly and easily, and we can rightly conclude that error is being spread with startling speed and efficiency.”
Christians who are gifted in discernment can be used of God to protect other believers and the local church, he writes.
“Where evangelism is a gift that is offensive in nature, taking the battle to new religions, discernment is a defensive gift that protects the ground that has already been taken.”
He reiterates the contention of John MacArthur that the gift of discernment is especially necessary and especially valuable during those times that Christianity is considered acceptable in society. During a time of persecution, few false teachers arise, Challies writes, since few people are willing to risk their lives for something they believe to be false.
“Those Christians who are gifted with discernment will be able to compare ungodly words, deeds, and appearances with what God has revealed in Scripture and expose the fraudulent leaders and teachers for what they are. They are gifted with unusual ability in separating what is true from what is false and what is right from what is wrong,” he adds.
“Today’s evangelicals are confronted with a multitude of new perspectives, emerging trends, and evangelical fads–all claiming to be more biblical or more effective than the ideas they seek to overthrow,” observed MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., and teacher on the “Grace to You” radio program. MacArthur calls the new release from Crossway a helpful tool for Christians in developing the discipline of discernment.
“The path to most biblical graces is bordered with hazards on both sides of the way,” added Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Don Whitney. “With the subject of this book—discernment–one can fall into the ditch of careless naiveté on the left or wander into the dark woods of a critical spirit on the right.”
Whitney commends Challies for guiding readers through those dangers to offer a thorough, practical, and biblically sound treatment of the subject.
Challies defines discernment as the skill of understanding and applying God’s Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong.
“It is a task in which we attempt to see things as God sees them,” he writes, calling on Christians to understand God through his Word, the Bible, and by applying its wisdom to their lives.
“All the while it is God who gives the motivation, the desire, the ability, and the power to both know and discern.”
The sin of not judging, or not exercising discernment, has caused the breakdown of many formerly godly churches and organizations, Challies concludes.
“To never judge is to open the church to all manner of spiritual evil and deception.”
However, there are two categories in which judgment is sinful and forbidden by God–going beyond what is written and in matters of conscience where Scripture is silent.
“We may judge doctrine and behavior by the objective standards of right and wrong that are given to us in Scripture,” Challies writes. “What we may not do, though, is judge a person’s heart and motives.”
He quotes 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, “Test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” After testing whether something is consistent with Scripture, the choice must be made between abstaining from what is evil and counterfeit, or holding fast to what is genuine and good. He refers to some of the areas that the Bible teaches a need to test, including teaching (Acts 17:11), prophecy (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21), spirits (1 John 4:1), leaders (1 Timothy 3:10), other believers (2 Corinthians 8:22), the times (Luke 12:56), and ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5, 2 Timothy 2:15a, and 1 Corinthians 11:28).
“It is sad to say that the word discernment has negative connotations in the minds of many Christians and non-Christians alike, for those who claim to exhibit discernment are often those who lack love,” the author states. “Somehow the desire to defend the truth seems to overshadow the ability to exhibit love. Truth and love are brought into conflict rather than being equally present.”
To counteract such problems, Challies devotes one chapter to warn of the dangers of discernment.
“Spiritual discernment is a matter of the heart and must be done with a pure heart and for pure motives,” he explains.
First warning to be innocent to what is evil, he puts the focus on knowing what is true in order to be able to identify what is error. He then calls on Christians to avoid the trap of guilt by association, calling it both a spiritual and logical fallacy.
“In a spiritual context it teaches that someone or something must be wrong or false simply because of the people that support it.”
He offers as an example: “Pastor Smith believes that Jesus is not God. Pastor Jones mentioned Pastor Smith’s book in a sermon once. Therefore, Pastor Jones does not believe that Jesus is God. The guilt of Pastor Smith has been applied to Pastor Jones because of some perceived relationship between them.”
He adds: “It is unfair and illogical to suppose that a relationship between two people, whether it is a friendship or merely a mention in a book or sermon, is a blanket endorsement of all a person writes or teaches.”
Rather than comparing the individual’s beliefs to the Word of God, a person who is lazy in practicing discernment judges the person based on the beliefs of another person. “They irrationally associate the guilt of one person’s poor theology onto another.”
The flip side of such a practice is honor by association, an equally illogical method, he contends.
“We can overlook the transgressions of people we like simply because of our respect for them” or “because of the teachers they ally themselves with.” He offers as an example: “Pastor Jones believes the Bible shows that a particular doctrine is wrong. Pastor Mitchell, though, teaches that this doctrine is biblical. He studied under Pastor Harrison, who Pastor Jones regards as a great teacher of the Bible. Therefore Pastor Mitchell must be right and this doctrine must be biblical.”
In this scenario, honor overrules the biblical admonition to test everything, he concludes.
Some doctrine is of greater importance and greater urgency than other doctrine, he writes in calling on Christians to distinguish the critical and the disputable.
He notes Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler’s observation that lowering the status of first-level doctrine to the level of disputable matters is the cause of liberalism, while elevating third-order doctrines to the status of first-order is the cause of fundamentalism.
Discerning Christians will not allow foundational doctrines to be lowered nor elevate matters of lesser importance, Challies adds. (See the June 1, 2007 issue of the TEXAN for a story package on unity and doctrine.)
Witch hunting is another danger inherent in focusing a ministry on seeking out error, Challies writes.
“Focusing our efforts in discernment in seeking out the smallest transgression will lead to spiritual oppression.”
Believing that unity cannot be emphasized at the cost of the gospel, he adds it can also not be forsaken because of the slightest disagreement.
“A person who continually stirs up anger and disagreement is committing an offense that the Lord hates.”
Christians cannot rely upon other people’s discernment, particularly those they do not know, Challies warns next.
“When we go looking to books and the Internet as our primary source of discernment, we risk being unduly influenced by people who are not truly discerning.”
Instead, he writes, the local church is the most natural context for discernment where issues of a particular congregation can be addressed.
“There are many people in the Christian world eager to do anonymously the work of discernment for us.”
Furthermore, those attempting to be discerning risk neatly categorizing people into safe and unsafe or good and bad camps, rejecting anything said by those in the latter. The hard work of exercising discernment must be done if Christians are to mature.
Finally, Challies warns those who are discerning to avoid the sin of pride, the tendency to withdraw from Christian fellowship due to a growing frustration, and failing to operate from a pure heart.
“There are some legitimate reasons for leaving a particular church body, but it is rare that the better alternative is to not join any church at all. Many people who emphasize discernment find themselves increasingly unhappy in their local churches and may soon find themselves hiding away, either participating only grudgingly or attempting to replace church with sermons on CD or downloaded from the internet.”
Anger, a contentious spirit, a critical heart, or a desire to cause disagreement often motivates people to evaluate ministry of others, Challies adds.
“It is wise to examine our hearts and see whether we are being discerning out of good motives or selfish, unbiblical ones.”
The author lays out a careful plan to help any Bible-believing Christian develop a habit of spiritual discernment, beginning with humility that is consistent with Christlike character.
We test doctrine by prayer, instinct, conscience, Scripture, and the consensus of the church. We hold up a teaching to the light of God’s Word and allow him to speak to us through the Bible, revealing what is true and false. We look for points of agreement and points of departure between the teaching we are testing and the truth of the Bible,” Challies explains.
“When a doctrine is false, we flee from it and substitute instead what is good. When a doctrine is true and pure, we cling to it and rejoice in it.”
