"Did I clean off the table?" he called from that room.
"I think so."
He went on with his work, dishes rattling in the sink, while I bent over my Bible and the workbook I had written for the class. Before long I heard the water gurgling down the drain.
Then he walked through the dining area, just a few feet away, stopped suddenly and said, "No I did NOT wipe off the table."
"Oh," I muttered. "Looked clean to me."
He let out a laugh. "Yep, and it sounded good to me."
If you know both of us well, you know what a ridiculous conversation this was. He is 90% deaf and I am chasing his numbers in the blind department. I would never ask him how something sounded, and he ought to have known better than to ask me how something looked.
Now, think a minute. Who do you approach with Bible questions? Do they know what they are talking about? Do they live what they are talking about? Do they have a vested interest in you believing something a certain way? Are they interested in saving your soul or in telling you what they know you want to hear? Do they even like you very much? Add to this list—I am sure there are more questions you need to be thinking about as you evaluate their answers.
If you want to know what a passage of scripture means, don't go to a man who is so blinded by his own beliefs that he does things you can see with your own eyes are not scriptural.
If you want the truth, don't go to a man who will only hear what he already believes and never question it.
"Consider the source" has real meaning when your soul is at stake, and far worse consequences than a crumby dinner table.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, (John 6:68)
Dene Ward