Gullibility

You may have noticed that I changed the quote at the top of the blog. The author is a frequent contributor to my fave group, Assoc. for Biblical Research. I found this quote in an article he wrote on their website concerning recent claims made by Robert Cornuke and David Halbrook in their book "In Search of the Lost Mountains of Noah, the Discovery of the Real Mountains of Ararat", in which they contend they can prove Mt. Ararat is really in Iran. http://abr.christiananswers.net/articles/article.html

It turns out that they haven't done their homework with much care, resulting in MAJOR flaws in their conclusions. But that won't stop just about EVERY Christian who buys this book in their local Christian bookstore (having seen it advertised in their favorite monthly Christian magazine) from believing it is gospel truth. Soon they will begin to tell others about it with missionary zeal, without even checking out the efficacy of its conclusions. And other Christians will BELIEVE them without even checking it out! In time, if someone who has a little knowledge in the field happens to point out the inaccuracy of an assertion, they will then defend the book to the point of death, charging the "unbeliever" with persecuting Christians.

If you think that scenario is outrageous... then you haven't been paying attention lately! Something has happened to American Christianity, turning us into The Gullible, who equate every self-named "Christian" book with Scripture itself. Over time, someone who has impressive initials after their name will publicly torpedo the false assertions made in such a book. The National Media will eagerly pick it up as another example of those foolish, silly Christians. That just makes it easier to discount ANYTHING a Christian may present them with in the future... even the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. After all, everyone KNOWS how stupid and uninformed Christians are!

How did we get to be this way? First and foremost, we stopped reading our Bibles as the very Word of God. We can't discern error if we don't even know what the Bible teaches! Why did we stop reading our Bibles seriously? Pick one: Listening to the million and one views on Christian radio & TV instead of reading the Bible, reading books about the Bible and not holding them up to the Truth, letting worldly ideas creep in until you can't tell the difference any more, allowing things other than preaching to become the primacy in our worship services, being distracted with the things of the world to the point we're only playing at Christianity (BUT we know how to TALK Christianese), allowing our doctrine to drive our Biblical interpretation instead of vice versa, being too lazy or too distracted to bother teaching ourselves about the world, culture & time of the Bible (resulting in being unable to catch even obvious errors), being affected by our Post Modern culture to the point we forget there IS Truth... I could go on and on...

The thing that is most disturbing about the particular debacle with this book is that before anyone even criticized it, a friend of the authors preempted possible critics by declaring that any disagreements would be spiteful persecutions by jealous Christians! What kind of an attitude is THAT? That alone sets my "spidey senses" tingling!

Let's start reading more critically. Let's get to know our Bibles so well we can pick up on it when someone makes a false statement. [Do you know most Christians don't even LOOK UP the verses cited in books, never mind their CONTEXT? They just assume the author must be correct!] Let's spend regular, progressive time getting to know a little about the world of the Bible. It IS a lifetime quest, but you've got to START somewhere. (I'd be happy to give you some recommendations to head you down the path! ;)