Too many teachers and not enough truth

Too many preachers and not enough proof

You’ve got to find it; you’ve got to find it yourself

None of these people can give you any help

                     – from the song, “Too Many Teachers” by John Fischer

My wife, Marti, was saved during the dawn of the Jesus Movement through the library of a Christian man she was dating. I say she was saved through his library, because at the time he was playing hooky from his faith, but his library was not. It was a copy of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis she found there that got her started, and later, alone and sensing a visitation of the presence of God through the Holy Spirit in her bed at night, she gave her life to Christ.

As soon as she did, Marti’s immediate desire to grow in the knowledge of God was insatiable. As it turns out the man playing hooky was the son of a Baptist minister, so Marti started attending his father’s church. Monday morning after hearing her first sermon, she invaded his office without an appointment. Dressed in a mini-skirt and go-go boots and flashing her long, butterfly fake eyelashes, she sat down, lit up a cigarette and demanded, “How do I know what you say is true?” (Thoughts of Pilate blowing smoke at Jesus asking, “What is truth?” come to mind.)

The wise pastor came out from behind his desk, sat in a chair next to her, cupped his hand under her cigarette because he didn’t have an ashtray, and gave her an answer she was not expecting, “You don’t.”

What he was saying was: you have to find out for yourself. You have to study the scriptures; you have to gauge what I say by God’s word and the Holy Spirit in you; and you have to come to your own conclusions. This pastor was a wise man. You won’t hear anything like that from most pastors. Their tendency is to want you to have to depend on them for the truth.

And when she asked where she could go to learn how to study God’s word, he sent her to Hal Lindsey’s Light and Power House on the campus of U.C.L.A. and in two weeks, she was sitting in a class behind Larry Norman learning how to use a Bible Concordance and Expository Dictionary to dig into the word of God.

Too many Christians today are going along with the “tribe” — letting others do their thinking for them. Too many are taking someone else’s word for truth. Marti’s question remains essential for everyone. “How do I know what the pastor or the person in charge is saying is true?” You don’t. That’s why you have to find out for yourself.

Hear what is true and be sure what you feel.

– from the song “Look All Around You” by John Fischer