Finding New Things

The Athenians would have loved the internet.

“For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” – Acts 17:21

The Athenians did not continue listening once they heard it (Acts 17:32). It wasn’t new to them any more. Many Christians are the same way: if they heard it once or even a few times they venture out to find some new teaching.

After the honeymoon of learning to rightly divide, some find it is no longer new and seek to find some new thing just to be fresh. This can be dangerous if the first things are not firmly stablished.

Just because it is new does not mean it is true. For some folks if it sounds like an old teaching, they get turned off immediately. Old things may be true if the old thing is a foundation stone.

To discern new things from wrong things go back and repeat the fundamentals. Buildings are built taller by strengthening the foundation.

If you’ve been learning new things. Go back and remind yourself of the first things, lest you forget their importance and start to cut off the branch you sit on.

If you are leading a Bible study or studying on your own, spend ample time placing the anchor in the preaching of the cross, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible without error every chance you get.

If you do not it will come back to bite you. When your teaching is no longer new, people will drift off into error.

Every year I preach lessons about these same topics. Repetition is necessary to teach that the most important doctrines will not be the new thing they discovered online, it will be the fundamentals of Christianity.

For His glory,

Justin “old things” Johnson