People are losing faith in religion; many are leaving their churches. I
think the following quote captures the sentiment of our age:
We know from acquaintance that there is a goodly number of sensible
and intelligent persons, at this day, entirely disgusted with many
things called religious; and that, upon the whole, it is an age of
inquiry.
The funny thing about this quote is that it was written on July 4, 1823
by a man named Alexander Campbell in the introduction to a new
publication called The Christian Baptist. Campbell was frustrated
by all the denominational bickering that was going on in his day. He
called for a re-examining of all varieties of Christian religion and a
return to primitive Christianity.
His solution was to cast aside all the religious cruft that had
accumulated over the years, and turn to the Bible as the source of
truth. He quickly discovered that when you make the pursuit of truth
your primary goal, you must humble yourself and be willing to admit when
you have been wrong about something.
He says it this way:
We have been taught that we are liable to err; we have found ourselves
in many errors; we candidly acknowledge that we have changed our views
on many subjects, and that our views have changed out practice. ... If
it be a humiliating thing to say we have been wrong in our belief and
practice, we must abase ourselves thus far.
His number one rule to follow in the pursuit of truth is worth our
consideration today:
Never to hold any sentiment or proposition as more certain than the
evidence on which it rests; or in other words that our assent to any
proposition should be precisely proportioned to the evidence on which
it rests.
Too often we turn to the Bible to prove what we already know to be true.
I fear that the “evidence” we find may often prove to be too shaky to
support the position that we take. Instead we should open our hearts and
minds and seek the truth. We must prayerfully question everything we
“know” to be true.