Download Discerning Sound Doctrine - Excerpt from talk by Alan Springer

Discerning Sound Doctrine Excerpt from talk by Alan Springer
What is sound doctrine?
Doctrine is sets of teachings or beliefs. Sound is that which is founded in truth. Sound doctrine would be belief or
teachings that are founded in the truth—very simple, no surprises there. In determining sound doctrine we could
ask, What is truth? That is a question that has perplexed mankind for many centuries. Before the first instance in
which that question needed to be brought to mind, no one had ever had to ask it because nothing that wasn’t the
truth had ever been stated or expressed by anyone. Is that possible for us to even fathom? We are so used to
lies and deception and misrepresentation of truth that it’s difficult to comprehend when nothing had ever been
thought or said that wasn’t absolutely the truth.
But there came a point in time when that changed, in the Garden of Eden when Satan, the father of lies, for the
first time in the history of the Universe said something that wasn’t true. Do we realise what a strong test that was
on Mother Eve? She was perfect; she had no experience with anything other than the truth; she hadn’t heard
anything that wasn’t absolutely true. All of a sudden, on the one hand God says Ye shall surely die and on the
other hand Satan says Ye shall not surely die. That was a very difficult situation to be put in, so we should
perhaps look a little more kindly on Eve when we consider those circumstances.
That was the first lie, and ever since then discerning between truth and error has become a more and more
difficult task. It’s unfortunate that Eve chose the lie, the falsehood rather than the truth, in that instance and it’s
ironic why she did that. It was because of her thirst for knowledge, we are told, that she made that mistake. She
permitted her thirst for knowledge to be stronger than her devotion and loyalty to God.
When we think of sound doctrine we think of truth; there’s a tie-in there. We can never permit knowledge or truth
to hold the more important place than God does in our affection. We could permit doctrine to become so
important that it could be the end instead of the means to the end, and it could actually take us away from God
rather than bringing us closer to Him. Eve obtained what she was seeking for—she wanted knowledge and the
tree was called ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. She had knowledge of good and when she ate the
fruit of that tree she got knowledge of evil. She got what she wanted but it wasn’t what she expected, and it was
because of her disobedience that that was the case.
This question, what is truth, has continued to baffle even the learned and is a question raised by educated men.
There’s one such instance recorded in the Bible with Pontius Pilate. He was an educated man, versed in the
learning of the Roman Empire, he was in a very influential position. He was a good man and did much more than
we would ever have expected a worldly man to do to keep Jesus from being crucified. He didn’t know the truth,
he didn’t have the Holy Spirit, so we have to admire him in that respect, but in the instance recorded in John
18(37,38) he gives definite evidence of that fact. He was perplexed.
Jesus was brought before Pilate, who wanted to know what his purpose was and asked, Art thou a king? And
Jesus said, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I
should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Then Pilate said to him, What
is truth? It was a rhetorical question. Pilate in his cynicism believed that there was no answer. He’d seen enough
of the pagan philosophies of his day, mythology and false religion, and he realised that a search for truth was an
almost futile endeavour. He’s never been able to find anything. There was always contradiction in the various
philosophies. And so he asked that question, which continues to be popular in our day. Infidelity, higher criticism,
evolution and various such things