Is New Always Better?
by Dr. Ken Matto
(Acts 17:21 KJV) (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent
their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
Is new always better? A few days ago I had purchased a new version of Quickverse.
It was Quickverse 7. I had previously used version 4 which was a simple version
and much quicker to access the needed verses. In version 7, you have to go
through so many steps and then insert a CD into the drive and then search it for
the information you want. It was very tedious and confusing. When I had changed
computers I lost my version 4 and replaced it with version 7. Needless to say I
was quite disappointed with it. So I put out a plea for help to find a version 4
somewhere in the vast land of cyberspace. A sister found one as a free download
and I immediately went to that site and downloaded it and burned it on to a CD.
In this case new was not better because normally when something is supposedly
improved, it becomes more complex. Improvement should make it easier to utilize
instead of harder.
In these final days, in the realm of Christianity, we are always coming across
something which seems new. One such teaching is “New Covenant Theology” which
basically postulates that grace did not exist simultaneously with the law in the
Old Testament. This is absolutely ridiculous because anyone who has ever become
saved, was saved through the grace of God and not through the law. Another wacky
end time heresy is Harold Camping’s end of the church age teaching. He claims
that for 2,000 years, no one understood John 21, until he came out with his
teaching, and now John 21 has a meaning. It is quite arrogant to believe that
you are the only in 2,000 years that understands the Bible. Yet, there are
people who follow these self-proclaimed prophets of biblical knowledge. A person
said on PalTalk the other day that if you do not hear the Gospel, you are not
accountable. The Bible says that every human being in the world is accountable
to God for their sins. If there is a village somewhere that does not hear the
Gospel, it means there is no Elect in that village. Yet, I can guarantee that
there would be some type of false religion pervading that village or group.
Another person on PalTalk claims that the written Bible is not the word of God
nor will it ever be. He says only Jesus is the Word of God. Yet, this person too
has a big following because his room is always full.
In our text we read that the Athenians and visitors to Athens had spent time on
Mars Hill just listening to new theories and teachings. In 2,000 years, have we
graduated from that practice? The answer is no and the sorry thing is that many
Christians have adopted the Mars Hill mistake and that is listening and
accepting the new teachings which they hear. It is a good thing that this
practice has only been recent. Can you imagine if Christians down through the
ages had begun to listen to the heresies and then accepted them because they
were new. If you look back in Church History, you will see that the Christians
of by-gone days had enough guts to pronounce the false teachings along with the
teachers of them as heretics. Today the church does not do that nor do the
majority of Christians rebuke the heresies they hear. Instead, they would rather
accept false teachings and teachers under the guise of some politically correct
phony love.
Today with the addition of many new modes of communications, especially the
Internet, it seems Christians have become less and less discerning and feel it
is some badge of honor to be in on the ground floor of some “new” teaching. This
is why Christianity and the churches are in such horrendous condition. God gave
us the Bible, not only for personal enrichment in our Christian lives but He
also gave it to us because it is what we are to preach. There are no new
theologies out there which can explain the Bible better than it has been
explained in the last 2,000 years. We would call it the old fashioned Gospel
because it comes without gospel additives such as tongues, personal theories,
over-justification of verses or teachings, etc.
Every subsequent generation has preached the Gospel to the next generation
because that is how God planned to bring all the Elect in. God cannot and will
not bless the “hermeneutical perversions” of people who use the Bible as proof
texts for their systems. The Bible is to be taught in the manner God has
prescribed it. We are to teach it and its simple truths and God will apply
salvation to His Elect as the true word, without additives, is proclaimed. We
live in such an age of pride that everyone feels they have to be something more
than the other person. The only time we are to bring something new to people, is
a new truth to the person hearing it. If a person who is in the faith for 20 or
30 years brings a Bible teaching, then out of those years of study, something
new will be taught to those who have less time in the faith. Then they will
learn true Bible teachings.
Christians who are intent on always wanting to learn something new are
susceptible to the false teachers. When we continue to study the Bible and
ingest the old truths and maxims in Scripture, then we will have a much more
powerful Christian walk and testimony, and we will have built a large hedge
against falling for false teachings. When people are looking for something new,
Satan will be right there to help them along. I have mentioned only four
perversions which are being taught to Christians. Instead of these teachers
being rebuked and exposed, they are supported by Christians who have chosen to
relegate their Christianity to heretics. If we would stop getting our theology
from the Mars Hill crowd, then we will see a re-stabilizing of Christianity and
maybe once again it would become a force as strong as it was after the
Reformation when it almost drove the Roman Catholic Institution into the ground.
Instead the Mars Hill Crowd is running Christians into the ground and they just
can’t see it. How have the mighty fallen! (4/30/04)