HOW DO WE KNOW WHOM TO BELIEVE? by Adriel Sanchez for Core Christianity
Stories bombard us every day. Ads, politicians, cable news shows, bestsellers (both fiction and non-fiction), and movies all tell us stories. Literary critic Wayne Booth calls this “the daily barrage of narrative.” And he was writing before the internet.
These stories can affect who we are. Each one implies something about what’s significant and worth our attention. When we hear stories, Booth says, we ask, “Should I believe this narrator, and thus join him? Am I willing to be the kind of person that this storyteller is asking me to be? … These questions might well have been asked about any story from the beginning of time.”[1]
When Paul writes his letter to the Galatians, he knows that the gospel they believe will transform them—for better or for worse. The salvation story they accept as true will guide their lives toward either destruction or eternal life. That’s why he’s so upset that they’re “turning to a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6). This, Paul says, is the true story: The new age is here, brought about by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Through Jesus Christ, God gives grace to sinners, peace to people who didn’t earn or deserve it.
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The new preachers in town tell the Galatians a different story. Yes, Jesus rose again. But the next chapter is called “Obeying the Law.” That’s the way to our goal. These conflicting narratives have confused them. They don’t know which story they’re living in. Things have gotten muddled. Most of us, at times, can relate to this. There’s no end to the spiritual “authorities” telling us stories. Gurus, teachers, movements, sects, philosophies, and “prophets” all tell us what’s gone wrong with our lives and how we can be delivered.
Which “Gospel” Is True?
Who should we believe and thus join? Who will we become as a result? Timothy Keller writes, “Since the one true gospel is so crucial, and so often and easily reversed, this awakens in us a troubling question: How can we ensure the gospel we believe is actually true? How do we know it’s not merely a gospel that we feel is true, or are told is true, or think is true or sounds to us as true—but a gospel that is true, objectively, and therefore can save, really and eternally?”[2]
