I Was Wrong

by Stephen Bastin

contact writer

It is really a lot easier to figure out that you are wrong than to figure out you are right.  Usually we operate under the illusion that figuring out we are right is easier, but it is not.

The problem with figuring out that I am right is that I am not usually in full possession of the facts.  Operating under the illusion that I know everything, I figure I am right.  Further information is refused because it would show me that I’m wrong.  But I’m not wrong, I am right.  So the “further information” must be wrong.

Confused.  Well, maybe you get the picture.  Admitting that I am wrong opens up some enormous opportunities.  It presents me with the option of now being right when I have made the necessary changes!

Suppose you are in the midst of a fight with your wife (I write from the vantage point of a husband since that is what I am).  Why am I fighting?  Because I am right and she is wrong!  Sound familiar.  The problem is that I am wrong.  It is only a matter of time until this thought will occur.  (If it never occurs to you, better stop and take inventory!)  Then I will have to admit that I am wrong.

The sooner I admit that I am wrong, the sooner the fight will be over.  I can hang on to the bitter end (and it will be bitter) maintaining that I am right.  The problem is that I am wrong.  Does that mean that my wife is right?  No.  It just means that she has the same problem that I have.  No one likes to admit that they are wrong.

The same situation exists in religion.  No one likes to admit that they are wrong in what they believe or in what they are practicing in religion.

It is convenient in our society to just say that everybody is right and it does not matter that people have different beliefs.  There is no right and wrong.  There is no truth and therefore no error.  Everybody can just feel good and go their merry way without worrying about who is right and who is wrong!

Fine!  Chuck Jesus and his teachings in the garbage pail and pretend he never said what the apostles said that he said.  Call yourself a Christian but never bother to check out what the first Christians believed and never check out what they claim came from Jesus.  Then everybody can be “right.”  (That gives a whole new meaning to “right.”)

I have often been wrong in my religious views.  I changed.  It is only a matter of time until someone shows me again that I am wrong.  I hope that I have the courage to admit it again and change again.

I get a lot of responses to the articles that I write for this little paper.  Most of them are complimentary.  (I send it to my friends.)  Some are quite the opposite.

The most common negative comment I get is, “Take my name off your mailing list.”  If their name is on the mailing list I always promptly comply.  Sometimes these comments come from people who receive the paper through a bulk mailing.  In those cases their names are not on our mailing list.  They are on the list that the Post Office provides to bulk mailers.  That is like asking the Post Office to quit sending mail.  We have no control over that.

Seldom does anyone make a serious attempt to show me that I am wrong.  I wish more people would do that instead of just getting mad at what I write.  If I am wrong I want to be the first to know it, not the last.

One lady did not like what we teach because, she says, “We follow Paul.  We don’t follow the other apostles.”  Maybe there is more to it, but she told me that they did not believe in water baptism, just Holy Spirit baptism.  Paul said there was only one baptism.  (It is in Ephesians 4:5 if you want to check.)  Can you be following Paul when you say that there are two?

Not only that, but Luke spent years with Paul.  He went with Paul to Philippi on Paul’s second missionary trip.  He accompanied Paul on his trip as a prisoner to Rome.  Two New Testament books were written by Luke, the gospel that bears his name and Acts.  It is impossible to read these two documents and come away with the conviction that Luke did not believe in water baptism.  So much for that theory.

Another person was upset with me because of a comment concerning homosexuality.  (I always get negative comments when I write about this.)  I would accept practicing homosexuals as righteous people if I could only figure out some way to say that Paul was wrong in Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6 or that what he said is no longer relevant.

In the meantime my views are fixed by scripture.  This is not to say that one cannot be forgiven for homosexual practices.  The requirements for forgiveness are the same no matter what the sin and forgiven people are accepted by the Lord and ought to be accepted by his people as well.

The Bible was not written to show me that I am right.  It was written to show me that I was wrong and that there is a way to change, be forgiven and become right.

Adam and Eve were wrong when they ate the forbidden fruit (not an apple incidentally).  Noah was wrong when he got drunk.  Abraham was wrong when he went to Egypt and lied about his wife.  Moses was wrong when he struck the rock.  Joshua was wrong when he accepted the Gibeonites without checking with God first.  David was wrong when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed.  Solomon was wrong when he married 700 women, many of whom worshipped idols.

Peter was wrong when he denied Jesus and when he withdrew from Gentile Christians.  The Christians in Laodicea were wrong when they became lukewarm Christians.

It is no surprise that I was wrong.  It will be no surprise when I find that I am wrong again.  It should come as no surprise to you when you find that you have been wrong.

The only question is, “What will you do when you discover that you are wrong?”  Will you shoot the messenger or will you repent and change so that you can be right?