Broad is the Way

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:” (Matthew 7:13)

It seems that Old Baptists are among the very few Christian groups who believe this statement from the Sermon on the Mount is not intended to teach people how to go to heaven, but is speaking of matters of our temporal well-being as we seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ as disciples. If we take our Lord’s words seriously, it should incline any disciple to a healthy, skepticism where popular movements are concerned. As a result, it is no hyperbole to say “In a wicked world, discipleship is inherently contrary." This observation has a some unavoidable ramifications that we should all consider:

1. Disciples must develop a stomach for resisting popular opinion because the consensus mob that promotes popular opinion as orthodox doctrine tends to be zealous in making converts and aggressive in persecuting "heretics." You are very likely to find yourself in the minority as a disciple of Christ.(Matthew 7:13-14, 27:20-21)

2. Disciples must resist untempered contrarianism because, while it may be a good rule of thumb to suspect the majority is wrong on many matters, this does not establish that they are always wrong. To take the opposite position by default, without rational, biblical examination of a matter, is as surely an act of shutting off one’s God-given, rational mind as blindly following the majority. (I Peter 1:13)

3. Disciples must prove all things before making steps in any direction because the word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path and our only rule of faith and practice. We must hold fast what we find to be good. (I Thessalonians 5:21, Psalm 119:105, II Timothy 3:16-17)

4. Disciples must realize that the stakes are high because the Lord teaches that “life” and “destruction” are dependent upon which road we choose. Whatever one makes of those two terms, it seems unavoidable that one is far preferable to the other, and to the extent that the Lord Jesus Christ did not set forth idle teachings, we do well to seek the former and avoid the latter. (Matthew 7:13-14)

I feel certain that we’ll be given opportunities to prove all things in 2021.

May God grant us wisdom along our narrow path.