What We Learned Versus What Is True

So many "fake" news stories have been aired lately that one wonders if any "real" journalists remain. But while more phony claims assault our eyes and ears, we should realize that the concept is not new. Textbooks from which we all have studied also contained false information.

I mentioned in a sermon recently that even in Columbus' day some thought that the world was flat, which may be true since some still insist it is (see the International Flat Earth Society). However, Geoff gave me a book proving the majority of people did not believe that was so. Jeffrey Burton Russell has published his research in a book, Inventing the Flat Earth, that shows why so many of us were taught "that Columbus discovered America and proved that the earth is round, to the astonishment of his contemporaries" (1).

Despite what most of us were taught, the "educated people throughout Europe knew the earth's spherical shape and its approximate circumference" (2). In 1964 C. S. Lewis wrote that in the Middle Ages, the "implications of a spherical earth were fully grasped" (2), but many of us had already been taught otherwise—that Europeans thought that Columbus would "fall off the earth" (3).

This error began to be corrected, but in 1983 Daniel Boorstin wrote a book called The Discoverers, and he titled chapter fourteen, "A Flat Earth Returns" (4). Thus a new generation continued to believe the error. What we observe here is a contradiction between what we have learned and what is true. What shall we do about it? "Well, obviously," some will say, "the only solution is to replace the faulty information with the truth." Agreed. But what people are willing to do with secular information, they are totally unwilling to do with the truths of the Bible.

Errors

Dozens of topics could be mentioned, but let's just consider one error relating to salvation. How many have been sprinkled with water as a child and will then say that they have been baptized? The answer is probably in the millions, right? Does that make the doctrine true? As a comparison, how many generations have been taught that the people thought the earth in Columbus' day was flat? We do not have an actual figure, but suppose it has been 100 years. That would mean that for five generations people have believed something that is untrue.

"So what?" somebody might respond. "What difference does it make one way or the other?" It might matter more than one thinks, but the point is taken. However, in Christianity, being taught that one is saved when it is not true will prove fatal. Jesus said that the truth, not error, would set us free (John 8:31-32).

In evaluating the "flat earth" claim, the only way to discover the truth involved returning to that time period and discovering what was written. Fortunately, documents still exist that show what the people were thinking, and they did not think the earth was flat! Likewise, if one's goal is to comprehend what the Bible teaches about salvation, the New Testament contains the truth of the matter.

So what does it say about baptism? It provides many verses and passages dealing with the subject. For example, in the wilderness John the Baptizer came "preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4). Did John sprinkle infants? No. Nobody in the entire New Testament ever did. We only need to think about what that verse teaches.

First, what sins does an infant have for which to be forgiven? Second, even if he did, by some stretch of the imagination, have some, who would be capable of explaining to an infant, unable to speak a single word, that he had sins to repent of? John aimed his message at adults, and only they, not infants, responded and were baptized.

In the Bible baptism does not refer to sprinkling. John 3:23 states that "John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized." No one needs much water if he is only sprinkling a few drops on someone. John sprinkled neither infants nor adults.

Yet another passage shows that sprinkling is not the same as baptism. In Romans 6:4 Paul wrote: "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." What word did Paul choose to portray baptism? Burial. The apostles did not sprinkle the unsaved; they immersed them. Only a burial represents Jesus dying on the cross and being buried in the tomb. Sprinkling cannot convey that idea.

So, when we go to the Bible as the only source of reliable information that we have, we do not find that either infants or adults were ever sprinkled with water. "But that's what I was taught." Yes, just like you may have been taught a flat earth. We must recognize the conflict in this case. It is a matter of what we learned versus what is true.

"But I have believed that all my life, and millions of others have, too." Yes, that is, unfortunately, the case. In order to see the importance of this kind of situation, we should consider 1 Kings 12:25-33. When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king. The people begged him to ease their tax burden, and the king's older advisors cautioned him to listen to the people, but his younger advisors urged him not to.

The Revolt and the Changes

When Rehoboam spoke harshly to the people, rejecting their request, they rebelled and formed a new kingdom north of Judah, and they made Jeroboam their king (1 Kings 12:1-24). The division was not, in itself, sinful. But Jeroboam began to worry. He reasoned with himself: "Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: If the people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam of Judah" (1 Kings 12:26-27).

The Israelites were to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices three times a year. What could he do? He could build rival altars somewhere else. And he did. He put one in the northern kingdom and one about 15 miles from Jerusalem. Then he told the people: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem" (v. 28). Oh, but he spiced things up by making a golden calf at each altar and then proclaiming that the calf was the God who brought them out of Egypt! One cannot help but notice that "this thing became a sin" (v. 30).

He also made priests "from every class of people, who were not the sons of Levi" (v. 31). God had authorized only the Levites to be priests. No one from any other tribe had authority from God to be a priest. Would it make a difference if someone from Asher, Issachar, or Zebulun did an excellent job as priest? What if the people said, "Some of these non-Levites are better at being priests than the Levites"? Would that make the practice all right? What if some observed, "Well, I don't see anywhere in the Law of Moses where it says a man from the tribe of Reuben can't be a priest"? No, it still boils down to the fact that God never authorized men from the other tribes to be priests; thus it remains a sin.

Jeroboam also made a feast day to compete with one in Israel that God had given. Were Jeroboam's changes wrong the very first day he made them? Yes, God called it a sin. Were those changes wrong a year later? One hundred years later? How much time is needed in order for something sinful to be accepted? The answer is: Time does not purify wickedness. These golden calves were never removed; they remained at Dan and Bethel. Priests from every tribe continued to serve Israel. The feast day remained on a different day and in a different place. For more than two centuries these conditions prevailed.

And then Assyria took them into captivity; and they never returned. Why were they taken captive and removed from their homeland? They actually committed a number of sins, but here is what God said about Jeroboam: They made him king. "Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin" (2 Kings 17:21). More than two centuries and 19 kings later God punished Israel for what Jeroboam had done to them by his introduction of false worship. God never accepts false worship.

What They Learned

But imagine what it was like to live during that time period—say 100 years after Jeroboam made those changes, thus causing the nation to sin. How would someone convince the people that they were in error? Suppose someone from Judah got into a discussion with a fellow Israelite from the northern kingdom and the Israelite asks, "But why do you find fault with us?"

"You worship golden calves; have you never read the second commandment?" "Sure, but this calf represents the power of Jehovah." The person from Judah explains: "It remains a molten image, however, which God Himself condemned. How do you justify having unauthorized priests?" After the discussion has continued for a time, finally the Israelite says, "Look, men from the tribe of Asher have served as priests to our family for four generations. Are you telling me that is wrong? Our sincere forefathers paid homage to God by honoring these golden calves. We have a long history of which we are quite proud. How dare you question our practices?"

The problem here is that what they had been taught and had learned became more important than the truth of the matter. Tradition cannot trump truth. The only proper response to truth is to change one's views so that they harmonize with it. It matters not how many generations have been taught that in the middle ages people believed the earth was flat. Such is not the case, as the evidence shows. Using sprinkling for baptism was never authorized by God. All who want to please God and hope to be with Him in eternity must abide by the truths in His Word—not the traditions they have been taught.

What Else Is There?

The Law of Moses had been given to Israel about 1,500 years prior to the time when Jesus began to teach. During that time period, many traditions had been established. Some of them undermined the Law itself. Jesus told the leaders and upholders of those traditions (as well as those who practiced them): "And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9). They could have responded, "But we have had these traditions for centuries." And the Lord could have replied, "But you are elevating what you have been taught over the truth of the situation." The Samaritans had developed traditions too, and Jesus told the woman at the well that they worshipped they knew not what (John 4:21-24).

All of us must face the fact that, whether in secular history or in religion there can be a discrepancy between what we have been taught and truth. Each of us has the responsibility to be certain that we are, in fact, pleasing God in our worship of Him. How many traditions exist today that were not authorized by Jesus in the New Testament? Several. Any practice begun after the first century is too late. "We've been doing that for 500 years," someone might protest. The only reply is, "Sorry, it must have been authorized for 2,000 years." That is the difference between what we are taught and what is true.