The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-A, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 3." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.
Question
Why is there much division over doctrine among Christian leaders with the same Holy Spirit and the same available knowledge?
Answer
That is a question that perplexed me a few years ago to the point where I struggled and struggled and struggled in my heart with that question. And I kept saying, “How come everybody doesn’t always agree with me?” Because you know, I studied so hard and I’d come out and say, “How can they…?” And then I begin to say, “Well, how come I don’t agree with them? Maybe it’s me.” So I began to sit down and try to figure out why, and I’ll give you why from my own mind and from my own observation. I think there are four basic reasons why there are differences.
1. Number one, theological bias. I think that some of us are victimized because we grow up in a certain theological system and we become indoctrinated by it and we begin to live out its patterns. We’ve spent so much of our time believing it that we wind up defending it, and we’ve spent so much of our time defending it that we could never get rid of it. So, we bring a theological bias from our background into a passage. For example, if I’ve been raised all my entire life to believe that such and such a passage teaches a certain thing and I have wound up defending that because it’s an out-front position—if I’ve spent enough time defending it, I’m not about to give it away.
So, I think we all suffer from a certain amount of theological bias, and I’ll tell you, this comes a lot of ways. You know, one of the worst things is you write a book and once you’ve got it in print, you’ve got to defend it the rest of your life or else you’ve got to say, “I’m wrong, I’m wrong! That book was wrong, I’ve got a new one.” There have been people that have done that. I remember the book that came out on demons, written by Dr. Unger, in which he said that he did not believe that a demon could be inside a Christian. Several years later, he wrote another book (Demons in the World Today) and said, “I was wrong in the first book. I’m right now: it can happen” and he defended it. So, there has to be that. But there is a certain theological bias.
2. The second thing is a lack of careful study. I think all of us are victimized to some degree by our failure to be diligent. There is so much material available; boy, it just—you have to be diligent.
3. The third thing, I think there are differences because of the absence of conclusive information. The reason there are differences is because all of us are dealing with some missing links and we’re trying to fill in the gaps. You see, we can’t know fully the mind of God and we say, “Well, the best way I see it, it’s here and it’s this way” and then the next time you come to that same concept, “it’s this way,” and pretty soon, you’ve built your whole system around that, realizing that at the bottom, it’s just a very good, strong guess at something that could go a couple of ways.
So, I think there’s theological bias, there’s a lack of careful study—and that is a real big reason why people disagree; they just don’t bother to study the Bible—but the third thing is there’s the absence of conclusive information. There’s insufficient revelation.
4. Fourth, tradition. I think some things have always been believed to be a certain way and you just believe they’re that way and when somebody comes along and says something different, everybody goes “Yikes! We’ve always believed the other way!” Tradition.
So, those would be some reasons that you might find for that.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986