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Paul Warns Against “Tradition” and “Philosophy”, November
26
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8
.
Surrounded by the practices and influences of heathenism, the Colossian
believers were in danger of being drawn away from the simplicity of the gospel,
and Paul, in warning them against this, pointed them to Christ as the only safe
guide.... “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving.” ...
Christ had foretold that deceivers would arise, through whose influence “iniq-
uity” should “abound,” and “the love of many” should “wax cold” (
Matthew 24:12
).
He had warned the disciples that the church would be in more danger from this
evil than from the persecution of her enemies. Again and again Paul warned the
believers against these false teachers. This peril, above all others, they must guard
against; for by receiving false teachers, they would open the door to errors by
which the enemy would dim the spiritual perceptions and shake the confidence of
those newly come to the faith of the gospel.
Christ was the standard by which they were to test the doctrines presented. All
that was not in harmony with His teachings they were to reject. Christ crucified
for sin, Christ risen from the dead, Christ ascended on high—this was the science
of salvation that they were to learn and teach.
The warnings of the Word of God regarding the perils surrounding the Christian
church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles men tried by tradition and
philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by the pleasing sentiments
of higher criticism, evolution, spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy
of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible
is as a lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels of
speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion.
The work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing, is
destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing God’s Word of
power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By spiritualism, multitudes are
taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man
is accountable only to himself.... The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our
great need.—
The Acts of the Apostles, 473-478
.
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