I have heard many people say, “Chew the meat and spit out the bones,” when referring to a controversial work. I think this particular philosophy is alright if it is applied to the work of Christian theologians, authors and teachers who diligently pray and search the scriptures, making every effort to present truth. I find it more difficult to apply this reasoning to works that have very little meat and a lot of deceptively tiny bones. Personally I would rather feast on a T-bone steak, some great steamed vegetables, and a ton of fresh fruit. This is a meal that has very few bones that I can see and pick out, and provides me with some real nourishment.

If someone writes a book, article or blog that presents a certain perspective on the nature of God, I would say to people to read everything with great discernment, being sure the Word of God, the Holy Scripture, the Bible is the standard by which we judge every work, and pray that the Holy Spirit will help you. I heard Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church, Seattle, tell a story that really helped me with this. He said he was walking down the hall one day, before he had become a pastor, carrying his Bible in one hand and a book by a Christian author in another. He met a man in the hall who was his mentor and someone for which he had deep respect and trust. Mark asked the man what he thought of the Christian book which Mark was holding up for his friend to see. The man reached for the other hand and grabbed Mark’s Bible. Holding up the Bible he asked, “Have you read this? All of this?”

Mark replied, “Well, not the all of it; not the entire book, no.”

The man returned the Bible to Mark and said, “Read this first, then you can read that.”

Now, there was nothing particularly wrong with that book that Pastor Mark was asking about, in fact it was perfectly OK. The point his mentor was making was that Mark needed to know God’s Word thoroughly first. He needed to have a foundation on which to build his theology. He needed a standard by which to judge other claims of truth. Can we discover spiritual truths outside of the pages of Scripture? I say yes, but with great caution. We must be sure that we test everything in light of Scripture. In doing this, we must also be sure to take the whole counsel of Scripture without imposing any meaning on the text that really isn’t there. Scripture never contradicts itself, but it does interpret itself. We cannot cherry pick the Bible and latch on to verses that can be made to support our thinking or theology. Our theology must be influenced, shaped and informed by the Word of God, not the other way around.

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. - Acts 17:11