What If We're Wrong?

A friend posted an article today about the need for Christians to admit that "we are wrong" about certain things regarding Biblical interpretation. A few years ago I started a book on this very subject. Below is the Introduction from the text. Perhaps I should revisit this project.

Things are not always as they appear. The human brain is an amazing organ. It has the ability to store information and retrieve it in an instant. It controls involuntary functions of the body like heartbeat, breathing, blinking, hormone levels, and many more. The mind is constantly processing information from the five senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell. When information is received it quickly ciphers the data to determine if it is a known impulse (and safe) or unknown (and potentially dangerous). If safe, the body responds positively. If dangerous, it calls on either fight or flight and prepares the body for either one.

There are many ways this process can end poorly. If a police officer mistakes a toy gun for a real weapon an innocent person could be harmed. If a friend mistakes a kind response for something dishonoring it can damage relationships, sometimes irreparably. The difference is how our mind responds to the stimulus.

Optical illusions are phenomena where our mind is tricked into believing something that is not true. Magicians use slight-of-hand to distract our attention away from what is really happening to make it appear “magic.” There are images, such as the one shown here, where the image seen by the beholder is determined by the focus of their attention. One will see a young lady while another will see an old hag. Both are present in the picture. Once you see both you can then mentally swap back and forth between the images with no problem because your mind knows the “truth.”

How does all this apply to our study of scripture? If we hear a teaching on a particular passage of scripture our minds become conditioned for a particular response. As soon as we recognize the passage our minds retrieve the stored translation and inserts it into our conscious thinking. We “understand” the passage because of past experience.

What if we’re wrong? What if the person we heard give the translation of the passage did not know all the facts? Perhaps they are simply repeating what they were taught, and so on. Acts 17:11, speaking of those in Berea, declares, “These were more noble … in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” It is incumbent upon each of us to find the truth and follow it. We cannot simply take what we hear from Bible teachers and preachers to heart and follow it blindly. Remember, these people are human and have to live out the Bible message just like everyone else. Be noble and find out what it means for your self.

One of my favorite songs from the musical group TRUTH is “Living Life Upside Down.” The chorus of the song says,

“What if we’ve fallen to the bottom of a well thinking we’ve risen to the top of a mountain? What if we’re knocking at the gates of hell thinking we’re heaven bound? 

What if we spend our lives thinking of ourselves when we should have been thinking of each other? 

What if we reach up and touch the ground to find we’re living life upside down?”

One of the worst states in which people can find themselves is deceived. The true horror of deception is that you do not know that you are deceived.