January/February 2003
Common Ground
by Joseph Tkach
A Peanuts cartoon strip pictured Lucy and Linus looking out the window at a heavy downpour. "Boy," said Lucy, "look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?"
"It will never do that," Linus replied confidently. "God promised Noah that it would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow."
"You've taken a great load off my mind," Lucy replied, with a relieved smile.
"Sound theology," Linus opined, "has a way of doing that!"
Sound theology is indeed an effective remedy for a troubled mind. It's an anchor to which we can tie our existence, lest we drift away into error and confusion. Why, then, do some cling so tenaciously to unsound theology?
The longer a person is wrong, the more sure he is that he's right. And never so much as in religion. "We have the truth, and all other churches are compromising the truth." How often have we heard that refrain?
Those ensnared by unsound theology have a neat and tidy picture of how the world is ordered. Any concept that threatens their cherished views triggers an absolute and total defense -- an instant refusal to honestly examine even the possibility of error.
They don't see because they don't wish to see.
Admission of error is not a confession of weakness. It's a sign of great strength! It's the triumphant breaking free from bondage to destructive patterns of thought and behavior.
There's great joy in learning that one has been wrong and coming to new understanding. As Lucy said, it takes a great load off of one's mind.