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Shallow Thinking - False Conclusions

By Bill Hall

Superficial thinking often leads to false conclusions. This fact is easily illustrated by the Jews' rejection of Jesus as the Christ. We sometimes marvel at their unbelief, but how could they have accepted Him? After all, Jesus had come from Galilee, and the scriptures had plainly stated that the Christ would come from Bethlehem (John 7:41-42). And if He really were the Christ, why would He encourage people to break the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1‑13; John 5:1‑16), and even fail to keep it Himself (John 9:16)? It was true that Jesus performed great miracles, and His feeding of the five thousand was especially intriguing, but Moses had fed the Israelites with manna, and he never claimed to have come from God (John 6:30‑31). And if He really were the Christ, why did He allow sinners to touch Him? Wouldn't He have known what manner of people they were (Luke 7:39)? Besides, His death was obvious proof that He was not the Christ, for the law had said that the Christ would live forever (John 12:34). Now, if He had suddenly come down from the cross, they would have believed in Him (Matthew 27:42), but there He was, "stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4). He could not have been Christ!

Of course we can see the fallacy in their thinking. Had they taken the time‑and it wouldn't have taken long for all of their objections could have easily been removed, and they could have believed on Jesus as the Christ to the salvation of their souls. But they preferred to hold to their superficial reasoning. They refused to look more deeply into the matter.

We see their mistake repeated again and again in our generation, as people allow superficial objections to prevent them from seeing such things as the necessity of baptism ("What about the thief on the cross?"), or the error of instrumental music ("David worshiped with instruments"), or the wrong* of institutionalism ("The Bible doesn't say 'how’"), or the error of infant baptism ("Weren't whole households baptized?"). Then we wonder if some of our own convictions could possibly be founded upon some shallow reasoning which we have heard and accepted at face value. Is it possible that we have failed to dig more deeply into some Bible subject for fear (unconsciously, maybe) that a more thorough study might lead to unpopular conclusions?

The real reasons behind the Jews' rejection of Jesus? (1) They were not concerned for honoring God, but sought for honor among themselves (John 5:39‑47), and (2) they had blinded eyes and hardened hearts (John 12:40). This is frightening! Could such things be true of any of us? The point is this: We can either satisfy ourselves on the basis of superficial thinking or we can seek to honor and please God by opening our eyes an hearts, digging more deeply into His word, and finding a sure foundation on which to build our convictions. It's our choice, but if we are wise, We will dig deep, and lay our foundation on the solid rock of truth.