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with Kathleen Gibson Oct.15-08 How to Evaluate Spiritual Teachings Find your divine path! Discover peace! Talk to angels! Balance your energies! Everyone from the print and film media to interior decorators to health practitioners wants to inform (and sometimes adjust!) your spirit. Add to that the perplexing array of frequently conflicting teachings within the various branches of the Church. Just how ought a thinking person of Christian faith evaluate and respond to this spiritual buffet? 1) Most importantly, recognize the moral/faith and doctrinal ground on which you stand. Test it against the Bible for solidity; study and explore it closely. Our belief system is the lens through which we view the world. Contrary to popular myth, neutral ground is impossible. �Everyone�s gotta stand somewhere!� 2) Two barriers that keep us from correctly discerning false spiritual teachings are 1) a lack of intimate relationship with God (including prayer) and 2) ignorance of scripture and time-tested Christian doctrine. Rather than investing time to correct those problems, we�d sooner let someone else (priest, pastor, church, teacher, author, website etc.) tell us how and what to think. The book of James says that if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask and God will give it. Position yourself where you can hear it. 3) Don�t embrace a new spiritual idea, teaching or practice until you know what (or who) is behind it and how it lines up with orthodox Christian truth. Do some research. Who is presenting this information? What are their qualifications? On what ground do they stand? Have they earned the right to be heard? 4) Remember � no one but God has all truth at all times. Biblical truth, though infallible, must be interpreted by fallible people and worked out in an increasingly complex world where right often looks wrong, and wrong, right. Grasp tightly to unchangeable truth, even when unpopular. Be prepared to be flexible on lesser, debatable issues. (There are plenty!) 5) When you encounter significant, certain error, pray for direction � then follow it. Write that letter, chuck that book, don�t click �forward�, talk to that practitioner � but for God�s sake, do something! Don�t sit on the shelf. People, like fruit, go rotten when they do that � as do the ones nearest them. 6) Don�t become sidetracked from the most vital matters of faith and life. Continually focusing on extemporaneous spiritual issues and pointless arguments ruins relationships and distracts us from living out the simple, earth-changing values Christ taught. 7) When in doubt, leave your questions with God, take a break and concentrate on things you can know for sure; things like worship, family, and friends; the innocence of children and God�s beauty reflected in nature and creativity. No thinking Christian can know all the answers, but every Christian has opportunity to develop intimate relationship with the One who is the answer�God, who understands our spirits best of all. Focus on that, and your choices at today�s �spiritual buffet� will be healthy ones. �2008, Kathleen Gibson Respond Home |
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