Mingled With Scripture

What is being taught?  The philosophies of men, mingled with scripture.  So what's so bad about that?  It sounds OK doesn't it?

The Wisdom of Men (From the book, Here We Stand, pages 119-123, by Joseph Fielding McConkie)

The purity of the gospel is lost when scripture is mingled with the philosophies of men. The center of gravity for the Christian world was shifted in the time between the death of the apostles and the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. A church that had been founded on the principle of revelation was now to be founded on philosophical speculation. A form of godliness was preserved, but the power was lost, and the world entered into a period known to us as the Dark Ages.

The loss to mankind has been immeasurable, and even though the gospel has now been restored, it will be generations before its influence will set at naught the influence of those dark days. Isaiah, describing these events, said people would honor the Lord with their mouths but their hearts would be far from him because their reverence for him had been taught them "by the precept of men…"

Pure doctrine must come from a pure source. We have in the missionary experiences of the Apostle Paul a marvelous story illustrating that if a testimony of truth comes from the wrong source it is not acceptable to God.

On the Sabbath day it was the practice of the Saints in Philippi to meet outside the city wall at a place along the river that ran nearby. In one such meeting they were joined by a slave girl who was possessed by "a spirit of divination," which enabled her to tell fortunes and thus make considerable money for her masters.

"The same followed Paul and us [Luke is telling the story], and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17). This sequence repeated itself for many days.

Here was a young woman who was possessed with the spirit of the devil, yet her testimony was true. She repeatedly testified that Paul and Luke were servants of the most high God and that by listening to them the people could learn the principles of salvation.

Why would one possessed with the spirit of the adversary bear such a testimony? In considering these verses the question is frequently asked, Can the devil teach truth? The answer, as the story illustrates, is yes, he can and will teach truth when it suits his purpose.

What he cannot do is teach it by the Spirit of truth. Consider his purpose in this instance.  Jewish law abhorred magical rites and dealings with familiar spirits. Thus, for Paul and his companions to leave the young damsel's testimony unchallenged would have closed the door to proselyting in the Jewish community. By contrast, fortune-telling was popular among the Gentiles. Acceptance of the damsel's testimony would have had the effect in the Gentile community of saying, "Look, the Christian message is not really any different from what we have. When you get down to it, all religion is really the same."

As to those of the household of faith, to accept such a testimony would grant this soothsayer credence among their number and thus give the voice of the adversary place among the Saints.

Because the experience was new to Paul and his companions, they were not immediately certain how they should respond, but eventually they came to realize what action must be taken, and thus Paul commanded the evil spirit to depart (see Acts 16:18).