March 14: Opposing false beliefs

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

A false belief as we use the term here refers to people whose beliefs were once sound but somehow have been corrupted into a non-biblical system. People in that category abound among us. What shall we do?

• We ought to begin with a reality check (v. 1). Here is what I mean. How sad that God delivered Israel into the hand of Midian for seven years because the Midianites were Israel’s kin, of a sort. Midian was the son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. 25:2). Further, Moses married a daughter of Jethro, a Midinite priest. By the time of Samson, both of these descendants of Abraham were far removed spiritually from Abraham.

A lesson for us is this. Many of the cults were begun by people who once had a connection with a Christian congregation. Some examples are the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. As one writer phrased the issue, the cults represent the unpaid dues of the church, meaning, that any neglected doctrine will provide doctrinal space for someone to build a false system around it.

• To oppose false beliefs, we must adhere without apology to God’s divine standard (vv. 7-10). In their misery, Israel began to call on the name of the Lord (v. 6). This mood of repentance probably lasted seven years (v. 1). God answered in the form of a nameless prophet who laid out their problem before them. He recounted the miraculous time when God freed Israel from Egyptian bondage and eventually gave them the land of Canaan once again with instructions to drive out the idolatrous nations and warned specifically about the gods of the Amorites (v. 10). God also sent the angel of the Lord, a way in which God manifested His Presence in a human form (v. 11). He appeared to Gideon.

• Gideon’s reaction to the encouraging message was one with which we can identify: lame complaints (vv. 12-14). If he had heard the spiritual analysis proclaimed by the unknown prophet, his answer indicated his lack of understanding. He was consumed with finding fault with God. The plight of Israel indicated to him that God was somehow delinquent in not granting miracles as in former times (v. 13).

The angel of the Lord did not bother to point out the error in Gideon’s thinking. Instead, He tried to instill in him a vision of what would happen if he followed God’s will. Gideon tried an excuse. He claimed to be the least member of one of Manasseh’s poorest families. He was not truthful because the family owned a couple of valuable bulls and also employed at least 10 servants (v. 27).

• The angel insisted the time had come in dealing with false beliefs for him to initiate a positive engagement (vv. 25-27). After a striking display of miraculous fire convinced Gideon of God’s presence (vv. 21-22), the young man stepped out in faith. He built an altar to God, naming it the "God of Peace," and sacrificed one of his father’s bulls. He then destroyed the altar of Baal and demolished the surrounding grove, all in the protective covering of darkness (v. 25). At that point, he feared the reaction of his father’s household (v. 27).

• He need not have feared because to his father was granted an inspired explanation (vv. 28-32). As soon as the townspeople arose early in the morning and saw their altar to Baal cast down and the grove destroyed, their inquiry quickly revealed who had caused the destruction: Gideon. The men called on Joash, his father, to produce Gideon so they could kill him. Joash had erected an altar to Baal (v. 25), but he understood the critical point. A god who could not defend himself was not worthy of being worshiped (v. 31).