The Shepherd’s Staff and the Lion’s Roar: Discerning Truth in an Age of Scriptural Shrapnel
My friends, let me tell you about the morning the war of words came to my own living room in Akasia. A beloved uncle, a man who taught me to pray, sat on my couch, his tablet glowing with fury. He was quoting scripture—my scripture, our scripture—to defend a political headline that, to my spirit, smelled of division and fear. He wasn’t just sharing an opinion; he was launching scriptural shrapnel, each verse a fragment torn from the whole, aimed to wound rather than heal. In that moment, I felt the fierce tension every thinking Christian in South Africa knows: the tension between a fierce fidelity to the Bible and the terrifying reality of its frequent, frightening misuse.
We stand at a cultural crossroads. Our nation grapples with a temple collapsing in Verulam, with unemployment that chokes hope, with the raw wound of gender-based violence declared a national disaster. Into this pain steps a chorus of voices, each with a Bible in hand, each claiming to speak for God. How do we discern? Is our only choice between a faith that abandons reason and a reason that abandons faith?
I propose a third way. It is the way of the Discerning Disciple, armed not with a blind man’s zeal but with a scholar’s care and a shepherd’s heart. It is the way of Rigorous Apologetics—not as a weapon to bludgeon opponents, but as a tool to till the hard soil of our time, preparing it for the seed of truth.
The Two Ditches: Fundamentalism and Folly
To navigate, we must first name the ditches on either side of the narrow road.
· On one side lies the ditch of Fragile Fundamentalism. Now, let us define our terms clearly. Biblical fundamentalism, in its South African manifestation, is not merely a high view of Scripture. It is a hermeneutic of false objectivity. It operates under the illusion that the reader—with all their culture, pain, politics, and presuppositions—can be removed from the equation. It proclaims, “Thus saith the Lord,” while too often meaning, “Thus saith my ideology, tradition, or fear.”
We see its fruit. It is the misapplication of Revelation’s “666” to modern medical vaccines. It is the weaponization of Deuteronomy to justify apartheid-era policies or, in our time, to support the death penalty without engaging the redemptive trajectory of the entire biblical narrative. This approach, for all its shout of “biblical truth,” fails the most biblical of tasks: to “rightly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). It offers a lion’s roar that scatters the flock but does not lead them to pasture.
· On the other side yawns the ditch of Relativistic Folly. This is the belief that the Bible is a wax nose, shaped to any modern whim—be it secular materialism, syncretism, or uncritical cultural accommodation. It drains the Scripture of its prophetic power, its authority, its uncomfortable, transformative truth. In a worthy effort to decolonize interpretation, it sometimes risks evacuating the text of any fixed meaning given by its Divine Author.
The Analogy: The Savanna of Modern Discourse
Imagine, if you will, our modern discourse as a vast African savanna. A cacophony of sounds fills the air: the laughing gossip of hyenas (clickbait headlines and social media fury), the warning cries of birds (well-meaning but alarmist voices), and the deep, distant roar of lions (the profound, foundational truths).
The fundamentalist hears a lion’s roar in every sound. They mistake the rustle of a bush (a cultural trend) for a majestic predator (a timeless biblical principle), firing scriptural buckshot at shadows. The relativist, meanwhile, decides there are no true lions at all—only various animals whose roars are equally valid cultural expressions. Both will be devoured.
The discerning disciple learns to identify the true lion’s roar. They use reason as their keen eyesight, the community of faith as their alert ears, and the Holy Spirit as their instinct. They know the true roar—the Logos, the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ—is consistent, powerful, life-giving, and good. It does not just make noise; it establishes order.
A Core Argument: Why Your Mind Matters to God
Let us construct a clear, logical argument for this integrative, discerning faith.
Premise 1: God is the source of all Truth. The Bible declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If God is truth, then all truth—whether discovered in a physics lab, a philosophical syllogism, or the pages of Scripture—finds its origin in Him. As the early church fathers understood, Christianity is the “true philosophy”.
Premise 2: God created human beings with rational minds to discern truth. We are called to love God with “all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). The intellectual task is not foreign to faith; it is an act of worship. The Apostle Paul reasoned in the synagogues and the marketplace of ideas (Acts 17:17). The historic councils, like Nicaea, used precise philosophical language to protect essential doctrine.
Premise 3: Therefore, to reject the proper use of reason in understanding God’s world and God’s Word is to reject a gift from God and to compromise our ability to discern His truth. It leaves us vulnerable to every “wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14).
A common objection is: “But doesn’t this put human reason above God’s revelation? Isn’t this the pride of Athens infecting Jerusalem?”
This is a crucial question, one that goes back to Tertullian. However, this objection fails because it presents a false dichotomy. We are not placing autonomous human reason above revelation. We are using God-given reason submitted to the Holy Spirit to understand God-given revelation. It is reason illuminated by faith, and faith seeking understanding. The goal is not to judge the Bible by our standards, but to understand the Bible on its own terms, using every tool God has provided. To refuse these tools is not humility; it is to bring a blunt spoon to a surgical operation on our culture’s soul.
Grounding in the South African Now
This is not abstract. In our South African now, this discernment is the difference between life and death for our witness.
· Will we be those who, seeing the profound pain of language marginalization, can point to the vision of Revelation 7:9—a multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language before the throne? We can use sociolinguistic insight to champion the decolonization of language as a theological, not just political, act.
· Will we be those who, facing the complex geopolitical manipulations where our citizens are tricked into foreign wars, can offer not just nationalist fervor but the biblical ethic of peacemaking and the sacred worth of every life?
· Will we be those who, hearing sensational claims of “genocide”, respond not with reactive fear but with Christ-like love, rigorous truth-seeking, and a commitment to justice that mirrors God’s own heart?
The evidence of history and the current state of our public discourse strongly support the necessity of this discerning path. When Scripture is wielded as a simplistic hammer, every problem looks like a nail—and the result is a broken, divided society. When it is thoughtfully engaged as a healing balm and a guiding light, it can lead to true shalom.
The Invitation: Take Up the Shepherd’s Staff
Therefore, reason itself, illuminated by Scripture and confirmed in our deepest longings for coherence and truth, compels us to acknowledge that we are called to more. We are called to be a people of the Book and the brain, of the Spirit and the syllogism, of passionate prayer and precise thought.
Put down the scriptural shrapnel. Take up the shepherd’s staff—the staff of thoughtful apologetics. Study to show yourself approved. Test the spirits. Let your love abound in knowledge and depth of insight (Philippians 1:9).
Your peace, your witness, and the spiritual health of our beautiful, bruised South Africa are too precious to be stolen by every passing interpretation. Guard your spirit. Filter every word, every headline, every sermon, through the scripture rightly understood. In a world of mixed motives and mangled messages, a discerning heart and a disciplined mind are your God-given, greatest shield.
Be comforted: The Truth is a Person, and He holds you.
Be convicted: His Word demands your utmost care.
Be confident: You are equipped for this. Now, go and discern.
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