Thrown Scabbard: The great Apostle
Peter has warned in the second chapter of his second epistle that false
teachers will try to attack the church from within with what he calls damnable
heresies. I take this to mean that even United Methodist pulpits and councils
will be occupied by wolves. Will you give us some marks of "wolves in sheep’s'
clothing" who may preach as Methodist ministers?
John Wesley:
The first and great mark of one who corrupts the word of God, is, introducing
into it human mixtures; either the errors of others, or the fancies of his own
brain.
TS: Mixing the Bible with human
inventions will require a lot of Scripture-twisting, will it not? How will a
fraud preacher manage this?
JW: When
the imposture was too bare-faced, and the text cited for it appeared too
plainly either to make against it, or to be nothing to the purpose, then
recourse has usually been had to a second method of corrupting it, by mixing it
with false interpretations. And this is done, sometimes by repeating the words
wrong; and sometimes by repeating them right, but putting a wrong sense upon
them.
TS: Putting a wrong sense. That is
-- giving a wrong interpretation to the verses.
What is a sure mark of an interpretation with a wrong sense?
JW: [It
is] one that is either strained and unnatural, or foreign to the writer's
intention in the place from whence they are taken; perhaps contrary either to
his intention in that very place, or to what he says in some other part of his
writings.
TS: A wrong interpretation does not
fit in the surrounding verses, doesn't it?
JW:
[Yes.] Any passage is easily perverted, by being recited singly, without any of
the preceding or following verses. By this means it may often seem to have one
sense, when it will be plain, by observing what goes before and what follows
after, that it really has the direct contrary.
TS: Aside from taking verses out of
context, what else do false teachers tend to do with the Word?
JW:
[Another] sort of those who corrupt the Word of God are those who do so, not by
adding to it, but taking from it; who take either of the spirit or substance of
it away, while they study to prophesy only smooth things, and therefore
palliate and colour what they preach, to reconcile it to the taste of the
hearers.
TS: Oh, eliminating hard-to-swallow
verses such as...
JW: Not
one word must be said of the tribulation and anguish denounced against sinners
in general; much less of the unquenchable fire.
TS: I have often heard it said that
this is love. They just don't want their hearers to be terrorized or hurt. Is
this love?
JW:
[No.] They purpose to do good by the gospel of Christ; but it is to themselves,
not to others. These are the methods of those corrupters of the word, who act
in the sight of men, not of God.
TS: So, who then are the true loving
and faithful ministers?
JW:
[They know that] it is not their own word they preach, but the word of Him that
sent them. They preach it genuine and unmixed. As they do not only profess, but
really believe, that, "if any man add unto the word of God, He will add
unto him all the plagues that are written in it."
TS: Purity of the Word with no
additions! What else?
JW: In
the next place, they are as cautious of taking from, as of adding to, the word
they preach. They must publish, as proper occasions offer, all that is
contained in the oracles of God; whether smooth or otherwise, it matters
nothing, since it is unquestionably true, and useful too.
TS: Purity of the Word with no
subtractions!
JW: [And
also] They speak with plainness and boldness, and are not concerned to palliate
their doctrine, to reconcile it to the tastes of men. They endeavour to set it
always in a true light, whether it be a pleasing one or not. They will not,
they dare not, soften a threatening, so as to prejudice its strength, neither
represent sin in such mild colours as to impair its native blackness.
TS: A marriage of truth and passion,
light and heat, logic on fire! We need more preachers of this frame in the 21st
century, Sir Wesley. We praise Jesus for raising you as one in your own
century.
Reference: On Corrupting the Word of God
Recommended Resources: Wesley and Men Who Followed, Preaching and Preachers.
Recommended Resources: Wesley and Men Who Followed, Preaching and Preachers.
