VI. How should we respond when challenged to debate God's Word?
1. We should obey Titus 3:10f: "Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned."
As we have previously observed, we have Scriptural warrant for preaching and defending God's Word. When confronted by a divisive man or heretic, one who rejects the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ, we here have Scriptural warrant for admonishing him regarding his error once or twice. If he should reject our admonitions, "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him" (Proverbs 26:4).
2. We should obey 1 Timothy 6:20f: "Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith."
Those who are here said to have "strayed concerning the faith" are those who indulged in "the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called [by themselves] knowledge". Gospel preachers are to guard the truth. One way to do so is to avoid those who have strayed concerning it.
3. We should obey Titus 3:9: "But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless."
i. We are to "avoid foolish disputes". Sophists during the Dark Ages disputed how many angels could congregate on the head of a pin. Others, having read in Scriptures of "angels' food" in Psalm 78:25, disputed whether or not angels, having eaten such food, afterward defecated. Sophists today dispute whether or not sinners are saved and justified by their own works, whether or not baptism is necessary for salvation, what is the proper name for a church, whether or not God will send people to hell for using musical instruments in a worship service or for eating a meal in a church building. All such disputes are "unprofitable and useless".
ii. We are to "avoid ... genealogies". Sectarians dispute which sect has the best founder and fathers and genealogy, and which sect alone has an unbroken line of succession back to the original church. All such disputes are "unprofitable and useless".
iii. We are to "avoid ... contentions, and strivings about the law". Legalists teach that a man is saved and/or justified and/or sanctified before God by something he does. For some, it is keeping the Law of Moses. For others, it is keeping the law of their prophet or sect. They will have nothing to do with the freedom from law found in Christ. They instead contentiously strive to bring everyone under the bondage of their legal rituals, circumcision, baptism, sabbath keeping, holy days, and so forth. Disputes with them are "unprofitable and useless".
4. We should obey 2 Timothy 2:24-26: "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will."
Religious debaters have disputed the same issues for centuries. Have they resolved their issues? No! Instead, they have generated more strife between their respective parties. Each party departs the debate thinking its side won, and itching for another opportunity to again debate each other.
Gospel preachers, on the other hand, by avoiding quarreling with their opponents, and by being gentle and patient and humble toward them, and by teaching the truth to them, have been the means of multitudes coming to their senses and escaping Satan's snare. So I ask you, "Who has done more for propagating the truth? Gospel preachers or issue debaters?"
5. We should obey 2 Timothy 3:1-5: "... from such people turn away!" It is evidenced that disputants are "such people" because they are among those whom Paul here describes as being "lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power".
False teachers are here described as "having a form of godliness but denying its power". They make a great outward show of their religion, but they deny the power of true godliness. They boast of the saving power of their own supposed free will, not of the sovereign will of God alone (as in Jonah 3:9; John 1:12f). They boast of the saving and justifying merits of their own works, not of the saving and justifying merits of Christ alone (as in Isaiah 53:5, 11). They boast of the saving instrumentality of their own doctrine and sacraments, not of the saving instrumentality of the gospel of Christ (as in Romans 1:16). They boast of their human wisdom, but are devoid of "Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God" (1 Corinthians 1:30). It therefore is no wonder that they are said to be "lovers of themselves, ... boasters, proud, blasphemers, ... haughty". It therefore is no wonder that they are said to be to others "unloving, ... slanderers, ... brutal".
Should we accept their invitations to debate? We cannot if we obey Paul's warning elsewhere to "avoid them". But because of their persistence in issuing their challenges, it is nigh to impossible to completely avoid them. In such cases, we should obey the present exhortation from the apostle: "... from such people turn away!"
6. We should obey 1 Timothy 6:3-5: "... From such withdraw yourself." It is again clear from the context of this admonition that Paul is speaking of disputers of the truth: "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself."
7. We should obey 1 Timothy 1:3f and 2 Timothy 2:14-17: Not only should we refuse to debate with deniers of the truth, but also we should exhort others to do the same. "... charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith." "Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer." We aid the spread of their cancerous heresy when we in debate give to them a forum for propagating it.
8. We should obey 2 John vv.10f: "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds." If we are not to even greet such a person, surely we are not to invite them into our homes and church buildings for the purpose of setting forth their false doctrine and performing their evil deeds.
9. We should obey Matthew 7:6: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." If a man by his willful obstinacy has proven himself to be a dog or swine regarding our gospel, withhold it from him. If he thought his gospel was holy, and that he was obedient to the Lord, he would do the same to us.
10. We should obey Psalm 35:1: Let us learn to pray, "Plead my cause, O LORD, with those who strive with me; fight against those who fight against me." We should preach Christ's gospel to every creature and defend it with our answers, but let Him deal with those who would strive against us in dispute.
Therefore, when challenged to a debate, we follow the example set forth in Nehemiah 6:2-4: "Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, 'Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.' But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, 'I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?' But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner."
Lovers of the truth believe it. They do not argue it. If they enter into a public debate with those who deny the truth, Christ, and the gospel, they are in a forum in which a lie, antichrist, and a false gospel are being propagated. We will not do so!