A few years ago, I read of a man who was beginning a ministry meant to reach escorts and exotic dancers in Las Vegas. While I admired his zeal, I wondered at his wisdom. He certainly seemed to experience a deep grief for the harsh reality of these women’s lives and an earnest desire to see them come to Christ. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder at the purity of his motives, for I have too often seen Christians be led astray by the very people they are trying to reach.
Not too long ago, there was a trend in which people would see how close they could come to being hit by a train without actually being hit by a train. That’s about as stupid a game as I can imagine. Play stupid games, win stupid games, as the kids say. But researching sin when you are not extremely mature in character or researching heresy when you are not deeply grounded in the faith might be stupider still, for where a train can only ever destroy your body, heresy can destroy your soul.
I am genuinely thankful for Christians who research false teaching so they can help their fellow believers understand and avoid it. I am thankful for experts in Mormonism who help me better understand how to share the gospel with Mormons and experts in Catholicism who help me understand why ecumenism is compromise. I am thankful for those who are committed to helping believers avoid all kinds of insidious errors. Yet I have long since learned this is not a ministry for everyone. Not everyone has the strength of doctrine or the conviction of character to be able to carry out such a ministry and not be led into compromise. Not everyone can walk into darkness without losing their grip on the light.
Further, I have long since observed that there are some who use ministry as a means of justifying their curiosity or research as a means of sanctifying their desire to edge dangerously close to what is evil. A Christian movie reviewer may have the absolute best of motives and want to protect other Christians from seeing what they should not see. Or he may just want to watch filthy movies and use this ministry as his justification. The human heart is nothing if not deceptive and nothing if not creative when it comes to excusing sin. “You go out of curiosity prying into a bad book, and you are making as dangerous an experiment as the man who should take a lighted torch into a gunpowder mill to find out whether there is any danger of its blowing up. He will find out, but the experiment will never be of any advantage to anybody.”
Many of those who tiptoe to the edge of cliffs to peer into chasms end up toppling off and plummeting to their death.
Those who walk with the wise become wise, and those who walk with fools had better know they may end up becoming foolish, for even folly can look attractive through long immersion. Some of those who research people of ignoble character begin to become angry and harsh. Some of those who research heretics become heretics, and some who set out to save addicts become addicts. Every Christian must know himself and deeply interrogate his heart. He must know his temperament, he must know his tendencies, he must know his temptations. A mature Christian comes to have a healthy doubt about his motives and a healthy skepticism about his desires—even desires that may seem noble. He prays earnestly, seeks wise counsel, and commits himself to the local church where he can be seen, known, and, if necessary, confronted in love.
I repeat: I am thankful for Christians who identify the attractions in false religions, cults, or heresies and who teach us how to avoid and confront them. But I repeat this as well: Few can make this their ministry or area of emphasis and remain untainted by evil. Be warned: Many of those who tiptoe to the edge of cliffs to peer into chasms end up toppling off and plummeting to their death.
The quotation is drawn from the sermons of De Witt Talmage.
