1 Thess 5:21 (ESV) but test everything; hold fast what is good.
It occurred to me I often say we should test the things we’re told, but I’ve never given some ways to test them.
We can never really know something is true unless we test it, look for justification of why it’s true. When we’re talking about something in Scripture, it’s pretty easy. We look at the passage cited and read the surrounding context. The context will usually reveal what the part in question really means
Bible Questions: If you’ve heard something strange and checking the context doesn’t resolve the issue, look into a few Christian commentaries. I say a few because there are a few odd commentaries floating around as well. We need a generally agreed upon interpretation if possible, but Bible study is a personal activity. It’s God speaking to us. If you’re just reading for yourself, prayer is the way to go first.
Authorities: This is a good one. Sometimes someone with a PhD will come up with a really foolish idea and speak as though it is true. Because he or she has a PhD, we tend to believe what they say. Check other sources, though. Just because a person has an advanced degree doesn’t mean we should believe what they say. Some of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard came from my college professors.
Another issue with authorities is someone with expertise in one area will claim to be an expert in another. So, just because someone has a PhD, don’t consider them an expert unless that degree is in the field their writing about.
Someone with a degree in Cosmology is not a good source of information on evolution, for instance. Usually, if you look at an author’s degrees listed on a book jacket, it’s a dead giveaway if they don’t also tell you what those degrees are in.
Evidence: Evidence of something being true is a little complicated. There are two major theories of truth. The first is the Correspondence Theory. This theory says for something to be true, it has to correspond to reality. You’re reading this on a computer I assume, so a claim that computers do exist should be acceptable since you’re using one to read this. You’re holding a computer, and that’s pretty strong evidence computers exist.
There is a second theory, and this one is where we run into trouble. It’s called the Coherence Theory of truth. It states that something is true if it coheres to something we already believe to be true. This relates mostly to something we hear. If we watch the news each evening and the weatherman says it will rain tomorrow, and it does, and he can do that consistently, then maybe we should accept as true what the weatherman says about the weather. But sometimes the weatherman is wrong. To believe him every time he predicts the weather would be foolish.
Let’s pick someone more reliable than the weatherman such as our pastor. A good pastor will tell us to go home and check out what he’s said to make sure it corresponds with the Bible. What he is doing is saying not to trust it just because what he has said coheres with what you already believe. He wants you to move it up a notch and check it against a much more reliable source, the Bible.
The Bible: Okay, if we use the Bible to support what we believe, then we should check that out as well. The Bible is actually the only religious book that challenges us to examine the truth of what it says. How do we do that? Isn’t it just hearsay from authors from thousands of years ago? In fact it isn’t.
The Two major ways to check if the Bible is true is by both internal evidence and external evidence. These two lines of reasoning should give us plenty of evidence for the Bible as a reliable source.
Why is this important?
Besides the fact the Bible tells us to test things, knowing the truth is a hallmark of the Christian.
Prov. 12:17 (ESV) Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.
The truth is consistent. Falsehood is inconsistent. So, we need to pay close attention to what we hear. If following a false teacher, the inconsistency in their teachings should become obvious. Evolution, for instance, has inconsistencies, so the inconsistencies are a good way to know it is false. Evolution can’t explain consciousness, for instance. Could abstract math arise from amino acids banging into each other over millions of years? No. So, evolution is logically inconsistent and, therefore, incorrect.
We just need to test all things more often rather than accept ideas at face value.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 