READING BROADLY
Acts 17:18-21 A group of philosophers took Paul to a
meeting of the Areopagus where Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent
their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. They
said to Paul, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they
mean.”
I love to read. Most any subject can catch my eye. A good
mystery novel, history and even a scientific journal about birds can catch my
interest. When the reading turns to Christian subjects, I read broadly across
the spectrum of authors. I find some authors difficult to read when what they
are saying does not line up with Scripture or with what I have been taught. My
usual tendency is to drop such books and move to something more in line with my
thinking. I have been challenged to take a different approach lately.
Denis Haack writes in
Critique Magazine: “I do want to read
so that my thinking is not merely reinforced but challenged. I want to be
challenged by the best that can be arrayed against what I assume to be true. It
is not always easy and never very comfortable, but then truth is like that:
gritty, real, messy, sharp. If what I believe to be true is convincing only
because I live in the shadows away from the best arguments against it, I can
hardly claim it to be the light. It may be, but it will always seem dim and
untrustworthy, and my claims will always seem to be bravado instead of reality.
Having been made “children of light” (Ephesians 5:8) by God’s grace means we
have nothing to fear from the darkness.”
If we are to counter the misleading philosophies and
untruths in the world concerning religion and absolute truth, we need to know
what we are facing. As your faith grows stronger allow yourself the time to
learn to understand the beliefs of those lost in the darkness of our
contemporary world.
Jericho Road
Ministries Chapel, 2011.
