BIBLE:
DIFFICULT PASSAGES; CULTS; FALSE TEACHING

If I do not know what a difficult passage means, I can at least know what it does not mean.…

Let us take a homemade illustration. I am trying to identify a piece of fruit I have just pulled from a tree. It is purple in color, egg-shaped, contains one large pit at its center, has a series of sharp spikes growing all over its surface, has the fragrance of a rose and the taste of watermelon. I shake my head and admit I do not know what it is. Immediately an eager-faced helper appears and says, “If you do not know what it is, I can help you. It is a banana. Now that I have given you the light, come and follow me. I know a lot more things just as wonderful as this.”

But I am not so easily fooled. My answer is, “No, my friend, I will not follow you. True, I do not know what this fruit is, but I surely know what it is not. It is not a banana.” That will dispose of my little helper most effectively, especially if I can produce a real banana for comparison.

Now what does all this add up to? Simply this—the fact that I may not be able to explain a passage does not obligate me to accept from another an explanation that is obviously phony. I do not know what it means, but I do know what it does not mean.

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21; 2 Peter 3:14–18; 1 John 4:1

This World: Playground or Battleground?, 108, 109.