Straw Men and Salvation, Part 3 (Understanding God's Great Salvation #8)

The Bible says in John 6:37: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

Today's quote is from Blaise Pascal. He said: "It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer."

Our topic today is titled "Straw Men and Salvation (Part 3)" from the book, "So Great Salvation: What it Means to Believe in Jesus Christ" by Dr. Charles Ryrie.

The third straw man concerns the antiquity or recency of a teaching. If something was taught by the early church, then it must be true. If a teaching is more recent, then its truthfulness is at least suspect, if not untrue. 

Christians can be carnal, living by and for their fleshly desires. This teaching, however, is said to be new in this century, allegedly making it suspect, if not unbiblical. On the other hand, lordship and lordship-like statements by those who lived earlier in the history of the church must surely indicate that the lordship view is true. 

Sometimes this straw man has a mate. Not only does the antiquity of a view make it truthful but also the number of people who held or hold it makes it true. The more the better to substantiate its truthfulness.

Of course, the smoke screen this straw man and its mate throw up can be easily dispelled. The fact that something was taught in the first century does not make it right (unless taught in the canonical Scriptures), and the fact that something was not taught until the nineteenth or twentieth century does not make it wrong, unless, of course, such teaching is clearly unscriptural. 

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