Truth

Is the truth important?

Most people would answer 'yes' but by their actions the answer would be 'no'. A lot of times in Christianity, in order to avoid conflict we don't call people out on false doctrines. I had a prof. at SWBTS who was convinced that everyone on TBN was a legitimate Christian - despite heresies that may be declared by some of those tv preachers. Right now I am reading a biography about Jonathan Edwards - the greatest American theologian, and perhaps the greatest American thinker. It is amazing how much opposition he faced by people who wanted him to maintain the status quo. Edwards was voted out of his church that he pastored because he only wanted Christians to receive communion. He argued that there ought to be visable signs of conversion. Now, Edwards loosely interpreted visable signs. His purpose was to show the community how serious the Lord's Supper is, however, people who didn't claim Christianity believed that it was their right to receive the Lord's Supper. I don't know why people who aren't Christians would want to participate in communion, this baffles me. Yet, knowing that he would lose his position as pastor Edwards maintained his biblical stance in the face of opposition. It saddens me today in the church that truth is not as significant as unity or growth. Unity is only important in so far as God is glorified, the same with growth. God is not glorified through unbiblical unity. Nor is God glorified with false teaching. However, unity in many ways is the easy road to take - just ignore someone's false doctrine or gossip about it. The Bible is explicit, we are to confront others 1 on 1, then if that individual doesn't repent we ought to confront them with 2 or 3. It is hard to confront people, most of us don't like confrontation - myself included. Yet, in order to honor God, we must honor and preserve the truths that He has given and revealed to us.