New or New to You?

New or New to You?
An error that some Christians make is that when they hear something “new” or different taught about the Bible, they immediately jump to conclusions. It is something they have never heard before and therefore it must be wrong. While it is commendable to hold in high regard the right teaching of Scripture, it is not necessarily commendable to simply reject something that has never been heard before. 

An example that is readily available for this would be views on how to understand the book of Revelation. Many Christians do not know that there are 4 main views on how to understand the teaching of Revelation. Indeed, the typical church member has usually only been exposed to one view and held to it. Understanding the book of Revelation has been something that faithful brothers and sisters in Christ have disagreed on throughout history. 

Perhaps, closer to home, is the debate on baptism. The average baptist will stand upon believer’s baptism only and emphatically denounce infant baptism of all types. Yet, if asked to explain why Presbyterians baptize the children of believers, they haven’t the slightest clue but they know that it is wrong. 

Now, this article is not going to settle the debate on how to understand the book of Revelation. Nor is this article here to persuade you of infant baptism. Rather, the point is for us to understand that something “new” might simply just be new to you. This does not mean that we just take every person's words as true because they claim it is biblical. Instead, we ought to be as the believers in Berea (Acts17:11) They listened to Paul and Silas as they proclaimed the Gospel and sought the Scriptures to see if their message was true. Our theology must be that which is derived from Scripture. We do not reject something simply because we do not like it, or have never heard it before. In fact we compare what we have heard to the teaching of Scripture to see if it is true. In so doing we show ourselves to be mature and wise in the faith.