Investigating the Bible: Truth and consequences

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

There’s a story in Reader’s Digest’s “Life in These United States” of a couple who enjoyed their drive along a Pennsylvania turnpike for its bucolic landscape views. Their favorite was a small farm in the distance with sheep always grazing near the house. On one trip, they decided to exit and examine the farm closer. As they came near the home, they saw a woman exit the front door, pick up the plastic sheep, and move them to a new position. They were lawn ornaments. Knowing what is real and what is fake was an issue in the first churches of the New Testament.

The apostle Paul had stern warnings about false teachers, but first he listed the hallmarks of those who could be trusted: The “… Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:24-26, English Standard Version used throughout).

Paul warned his young pastor, Timothy, that “… in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

The Bible is the litmus test for determining if spiritual messages are lies or if they are true. “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16). Paul later warned Timothy of future challenges. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Paul said that these false teachers “… will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all … .” (2 Timothy 2:9). Time reveals whether spiritual teachers can be trusted. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a guru from India, preached popular messages of spirituality and sexual freedom. In the early 1980’s, he came to the United States. With his wealth from rich donors, Rajneesh and 2,000 followers purchased 6,229 acres of barren land in Wasco County, Oregon, 94 miles south of The Dalles. There they built Ranch Rajneesh, a luxurious spiritual retreat, with lodging, an airport, and a paved road several miles long going nowhere. Rajneesh used the road for his daily recreational drives in one of his 93 Rolls Royces. They took over the nearby town of Antelope, Oregon, changing the name to Rajneesh. In 1984, followers of Rajneesh poisoned more than 700 people in the town of The Dalles by contaminating salad bars with Salmonella bacteria. They attempted to keep enough people from voting in an upcoming election so that their own candidates could be elected. Fortunately, there were no deaths. Those involved were convicted and served time in a federal prison before being deported. Rajneesh was deported in 1985 for immigration violations. He died in 1990.

The town of Antelope reclaimed its name. The buildings of Rajneesh Ranch were vacant for years. In 1999, a Montana businessman, Dennis Washington, bought it and gave the entire property to a Christian youth camp organization, Young Life Ministries. Now it’s Camp Washington, which thrives with 150 year-round residents and hosts camps through the summer. Children enjoy zip-lines, water slides and swimming, with evening meetings and classes teaching the Bible and offering hope.

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).