Are you Naive?

   Imagine you are walking down the street. Then you see an old friend. You start talking and your friend says that he heard that science has proven that aliens are real. You seem to think that is strange. You ask your friend where he heard that. Your friend says he read it on the internet. Well of course you see now that more than likely that story isn't true. 
   Now picture you are in church and your pastor is preaching. He says that in the Bible it says that everyone will go to heaven. All you need to do to get to heaven is be a good person. You are so into the message that you think, "wow I am definitely going to heaven!" 
   If you are a learned student of the Bible you know this isn't true. But, some people would believe it to be true just because it came out of a pastor's mouth. Humans have a tendency to trust certain references over others. That's not always a bad thing but we are told in the Bible there will be false prophets. These people would tell you anything to get you away from the true message of the gospel. They may even try to make a more appealing way to enter the kingdom of God. 

   If you trust whatever any pastor says then you are like Tony Stark, at first. In Iron Man Tony is the CEO of a major corporation. He is talking with his second in command and he is ticked because his second in command went behind his back on a deal. Obadiah (second in command): "Tony, Tony you can't afford to be this naive" Tony: "you know what? I was naive before when they said, here's the line. We don't cross it. This is how we do business."

   Tony is realizing that he cannot always trust what those close to him, or what those he looked up to, say. As Christians it is our job to be detectives. When we hear a message we must ask ourselves a question: "is this biblically sound?" In other words: is this person speaking the truth? 
Tony Stark was beginning to realize that he had to become a detective. A person who he saw like a father betrayed him and lied to him. That made him look into other people and see if they were speaking the truth. He then learned who he could trust.
   We must make sure that we are detectives. We must make sure that whatever we hear is from the word of God. If we realize that someone is not speaking from the Bible we must let that person know. Otherwise that person is laying his foundation on sand instead of the rock. And, to make matters worse, he is helping others build their homes on sand! That could cause many to die. 
   If the person does not listen then it is our job to get others to realize that they need to be detectives. They need to know what is biblically sound. They need to know how to question those in authority, in a respectful way, when they hear something that goes against the word of God. They also need to know how to study the word or God. The way to do that is to be taught to spend time in the word.
   So, do you just trust what those in authority over you say? How can you make sure something is biblically sound? How can you teach others to know what is biblically sound?

   Matthew 7:15, Matthew 24:24, 1 John 4:1-6

   Image found here.