Novel Old Truths

Acts 17:19 “They took [Paul] and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?’”.

After posting this last weekend’s message from Dr. Willie Nolte, I ran onto this article that used the same reference ... “new and improved”— advertisers learned long ago that they could use this slogan to appeal to Americans by changing something about a product and marketing it as novel and better. “Old and the same” just does not have the same ring in a hedonistic culture that prizes novelty and the present moment.

Certainly, there is nothing inherently wrong with improving a product if it needs to be improved or with telling people that improvement has occurred. The problem comes when we try to improve something that is already perfect. We are speaking here of the Word of God. In an effort to increase the number of people in the pews or to make Christianity “fresh and exciting,” there has been no end to attempted “improvements” on the gospel. Some have sought to improve the gospel by relegating preaching to a brief, biblically lacking a sermon after a worship service designed mainly for entertainment. Others have tried to improve the gospel by denying its less popular elements such as the reality of God’s wrath (good news of Jesus without the bad news about our sin). Still others have attempted to improve the gospel by replacing it with a political cause or social program.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-19 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Such “improvements” are usually well intentioned, but they are in fact deadly. From the very beginning, the most dangerous threats to God’s people have come not from outside the covenant community but from within. They have come from false prophets—people who profess to serve the Lord but then ignore or alter God’s Word or replace it with a new and different message. We remain faithful to the Lord only by following the “ancient paths”, the truths of God once for all delivered to the saints. Let us not be out to preach and teach novelty to the trendy but only that which is drawn from the sound interpretation of sacred Scripture within the pages of the Holy Bible.

For some people, such as those in today’s passage, these old teachings may sound new because they have never encountered them before. We are not referring to novelty in that sense. Neither are we talking about coming up with new, faithful illustrations to help impress these old truths on other people. What we are talking about are “innovative” doctrines that no one in church history has heard of before. There is a saying that goes: "If it's true, it isn't new and if it's new, it isn't true". If when we are studying we find something new and true, we have more likely found something true that others have taught, and some further study will reveal that others have had the same insights previously. Or, we have found something that is new but false. Being slow to adopt what is novel will help keep us on the right path.

The article concluded that so often we think it takes courage to say something new. In our day, however, the truly courageous stand for what is true, regardless of its age. May we have the courage to proclaim the old truths of God’s Word as the only answer to the problems of this new era.