A preacher once entered a room and found his wife hard at work on a Bible study.  When he asked her what she was doing she replied that she was trying to prove something from scripture that their denomination did not believe.  A heated discussion ensued on the merits of studying with the aim of trying to prove a contrarian point of view. The wife saw this method as an opportunity to find the best arguments in favor of  “false” doctrines and evaluate them for herself.  The preacher felt that it was dangerous to entertain any notion that was contrary to their official denominational position. He feared that this would make her susceptible to error. She felt that the Holy Spirit was strong enough to guide and protect her. Besides, there was always the chance that what the denomination believed was wrong and the Holy Spirit would lead her into the truth.

While I appreciate the pastor's concern and understand his caution regarding people who have their minds so open that their brains fall out, I fault him for his needless worry.  A common fear plagues Christians in general and some pastors in particular.  It is the fear of being wrong. Ultimately, this fear leads us to believe (in practice, if not in precept) that the Holy Spirit will not lead us into all truth. I once visited the FAQ page on the web site of a fellow believer who encouraged his readers to avoid partisan bickering and in the spirit of Christian love, cross denominational barriers. He had posted a question from a reader who was clearly gripped by fear. The reader asked, “Are you saying that we should fellowship with brothers who are in error?” I loved his reply. The site owner said, “I know of no other kind.”

Confessing Error

 Generally speaking, human beings engage in a rigorous and natural defense of their own beliefs, not so much to explain them as to justify them.  Human nature enjoys the prideful satisfaction of having discovered The Truth.  Knowledge is the way for us to become inflated with our own sense of self-importance and sophistry.  In a sad irony, Christians are more often concerned with being right than being godly and often confuse the former for the latter. It seems that we would rather prove a point than convert a sinner. If this is hard for the reader to accept, consider the amount of time devoted to debating about fine points of doctrine in comparison to the amount of time we spend evangelizing. I have seen Calvinists and Arminians who would rather argue with one another about the nature of redemption than take the message of redemption to a lost sinner. Despite their denials to the contrary, a simple look at where they invest their time and energy reveals where their heart is. It is invested in efforts to make other people “right” or at least to defend the rightness of their beliefs.

Certainly many pastors would find the pain of confessing that they had previously been in error about a long-held belief too great to bear. These same pastors would be the first to admit to being fallible creatures in a general sense, but how often do we actually see them change what they believe or admit publicly to changing a belief?  Can any of us truly say that we have not altered one thing that we believe in the last five, ten or twenty years?  On the other hand, would any of us respect a pastor who made such a claim?  For some reason, pastors seem to think that we will lose respect for them if they ever confess to making an error or describe a time when they were once in error but have since changed their ways. Pastors need to recognize that the alternative to confessing error is to give the impression that they have learned nothing new that has challenged their thinking over the course of their ministry.

Sources of Error

So what error am I trying to point out in this article? What beliefs do I want to alter? Ironically, the error of refusing to admit to error.  No one likes a know-it-all, least of all in matters of religion. In Christ's day, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Lawyers and Herodians, were all rebuked by our Lord. Why? Because they held the truth in error. Certain truths are immutable and foundational; other truths are subordinate. Questions of belief need to focus on "What saith the Lord?" rather than what the denominational statement of faith says. In a stroke of contrarian thinking, we are more likely to find the truth when we admit to error than when we pridefully believe that our doctrinal stance is currently error-free. So let us look at some sources of error and see how we are likely to hold some truth in error.

The first reason we hold truth in error is because we have insufficient scripture to support a belief.   In some cases we deliberately misinterpret or misapply scripture.  For example, many television preachers tout a "health and wealth" gospel based on gross misinterpretations.  Another example is that we may be well meaning and unintentionally state a belief based on our own misreading of the Bible.  Sometimes our beliefs are generated by emotion and we use scripture to support a belief that we already hold rather than letting the scripture dictate our beliefs and generate the emotions afterward.  This approach can be hidden in fear, as mentioned earlier - we are so emotionally vested in a particular belief that we cannot entertain alternative beliefs, including the truth. 

Other times our conclusions are not logical or biblically consistent.  When we conclude that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is inherently evil and universally forbidden we run into a problem trying to justify what Christ turned the water into at the marriage at Cana.  I have even heard the illogical claim that he turned it into nonalcoholic or non-intoxicating wine as if there were such a thing.  In some cases definitions or scripture may not be applicable as in the story of the fool who said that the Bible says, "Judas hanged himself," and it also says "go thou and do likewise," as a biblical command for suicide.  While we may not be guilty of such obvious misapplications, to say that we are totally free of them, especially in the area of eschatology, is profound pride on our part.

Another practice which leaves us open to error is the tendency to repeat an idea expressed by an authority without examining its implications fully.  For example, where are "the council halls of eternity" mentioned in the word of God or where is the phrase "in the center of God's will" defined?  While these metaphors may be useful, they conjure up images which may be erroneous.  Is God's will a target at which we are aiming and only get partial credit if we don't hit it dead center?  Did God make his eternal decrees while sitting on an ivory throne in some pillared gallery at some place in the remote past or were they in fact eternal decrees with no perceptible beginning or end?  Other ideas are found in the illustrations of famous preachers, which are passed on to church members as if they are gospel when their actual application is severely limited by the occasion of its first use.  Preachers should be careful to avoid including phrases or ideas borrowed from others without scrutinizing them through the filtering lens of scripture.

Reducing Error

 In fact, reducing the amount of error in our lives and in the lives of those in our congregations is a part of our ministry.  To accomplish this, we can expose our own errors, confess them, identify why they are errors and offer strategies for overcoming them.  In this way we demonstrate to others what it means to overcome error a little bit at a time.  Error is mostly committed by what we say.  It is often a cherished opinion that lacks appropriate scriptural support.  Our goal should be to continually eliminate these errors as part of our ongoing process of Christian growth.

One of the greatest hindrances to openness is our environment.  Preachers and church members are rarely, if ever, admired or praised for admitting to error.  About the only time we praise them for admitting to error is when they come to agree with us.  To admit to error sparks fears about heresy.  We need to realize that Biblical Truth is a fixed quantity.  There is no new Truth because Jesus identified Himself as the Truth.  The problem is that we fail to distinguish between what is biblically true and our perceptions of what is true.  The Holy Spirit who dwells within us is free from error.  Yet, we are not always open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit as He guides us into truth.  It is impossible for a finite creature such as man to absorb all the infinity of God and completely comprehend his Truth. We are imperfect human beings struggling to yield ourselves to the leadership of the Spirit and the Word.  The question we should ask ourselves is, are we truly based on the Bible and led by the Spirit when we make statements regarding Biblical Truth?  Some feel that a pastor admitting to error will cause the church membership to doubt him and call for his resignation.  Most pastors and teachers who have developed a high degree of self-confidence will readily admit to error because they know that any truth they learn they have received by the Holy Spirit.  It is the insecure who feel that they must never admit to error or they will lose the confidence of people.  Will fellow Christians lose confidence or become cynical if we admit to errors?  Not if we are teachable.  It is the know-it-all who refuses to admit to ever making a mistake that will drive them to cynicism.