I've recently written on the KJV only controversy, and how to maintain unity in the face of people trusting different translations. It's a great example for helping us think through difficult issues.

Regardless of what you think about the KJV, what I'm concerned about is that it appears to be so easy for people to believe a lie through easily preventable ways. They are not equipped, and so get easily tossed around by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:11-14). So let's do some equipping!

In the case of the KJV-only controversy, what attracts both a Pentecostal and an Independent Baptist to the same cause?

If I read the situation right, the Pentecostal is attracted to the KJV-Only position because the position sounds quite plausible to them when they first encounter it, but crucially, because it sounds so spiritual. "It's the seventh translation—and seven is the number of perfection." "God is still in the business of revealing his word to us today in our language. He hasn't stopped." This aligns with core charismatic faith.

Baptists aren't known for their spiritualism, but appear to be mainly led by a man Peter Ruckman. What stands out about Ruckman is his "caustic" and "bombastic" speech levelled against anyone who disagrees: and this appeals to people who are otherwise surrounded by weakness and a lack of leadership. He finds conspiracy in the production of modern translations, which either turns people right off, or makes them fully assured converts.

All parties are easily angered over alleged removals, changes or additions to the Bible, especially where an argument can be made that they were conspiratorially removed by a corrupt translator (e.g. Mark 16:9-20, which holds special meaning for Pentecostals, but has weak textual support for being part of the original letter).

Perhaps at the end of the day, we all just want to be sure of our foundations, and therefore are quick to jump to someone who sounds confident in their beliefs.

So what are some strategies we can all use to help not fall into error?

Get a second opinion

Whether you've heard from God yourself, or you've heard someone else, the wisdom of God is to get it confirmed:

It's not necessarily a lack of faith to lay out the fleece a second time, like Gideon (Judges 6:36-40). It can be wise, so that you don't follow a false prophet, or unprofitable idea. The words of a confident person seem right—until someone questions them and puts another view forward.

This is particularly important when hearing a media report, even if from a Christian source. It's easy, and often deliberate, to tell only one side of the story so that it "seems right". But learning about the other side is powerful. It enables us to see through anyone trying to manipulate us, and come to a better understanding of any world event.

Bottom line: whenever you hear something, don't take the first version of events for granted. Take it as undersatnding one particular side, and go looking for another.

Look at the fruit of the teacher

We need to be wise to see through bad teachers. Jesus said we could discern the difference between a true prophet and a false prophet by looking at their fruit—their results (Matthew 7:15-20). This would show us their root. It applies to teachers and other Christians too—and John extends on this extensively (1 John).

What this means practically is that we should not be quick to jump on board with someone we don't know. We should hear them out—with another person who ideally is savvy and understanding (see above point); but, after hearing them we should try to look for the fruit—the results—of their teaching. We should not seek to character assassinate the teacher, like some discernment ministries do. Everyone has weaknesses and sins, and can be brought low by such a take. Thus, it doesn't prove anything, other than that they are in fact yet another sinful human being.

Rather, we should seek to be gracious like we would want for ourselves, and focus on the before and after of the teaching. Did it produce good fruit? Was it a direct consequence of the teaching, or coincidental? Are people trusting more in Jesus, or the teacher?

Ground it in the Word of God

Notice the Bereans, after hearing from Paul, were commended for going back to the Word of God and ensuring that what Paul was saying was found there.

They did not lack faith in God, but rather, they had a healthy lack of faith in Paul. After this process, however, their faith in Paul would increase, as a messenger of God, as long as Paul stayed faithful.

If you trust in your teachers too much, you may subtlely be shifting your faith away from Jesus and to those teachers. Perhaps instead of turning to the Word first, you turn to those teachers first. Perhaps instead of praying first, you Google first. Perhaps, not being gifted yourself in wisdom or teaching, you try and understand it for yourself, without the equipping of the Body. These behaviours are not healthy and will move you away from God.

Learn a little bit

If we were to learn a little bit about the process of translation, we might dispel the mystery of it all, and not be so ready to imagine on the one hand divine infallible inspiration, and on the other hand, deep Satanic conspiracy.

Some things are unexplainable, and remain a mystery, and we may need to just accept that that's the way the Spirit intended it. In fact, that was the attitude of the KJV translators, who added marginal notes on those words or phrases which were unclear, offering alternate readings. They said that to resolve a questionable word would be presumption—not faith!

But other things are readily understood with a little bit of our God-given intellect. The process of translation is one of those intellectual endeavours, though it also has a certain amount of intuition to it as well.

Knowing what is best interpreted as spiritual, and what is best interpreted as intellectual, is key. You can often tell—but not always—when you are receiving a word from God. So, Dr. Michael Brown can tell you of when the Spirit helped him write his commentary on Jeremiah because he went unnaturally fast. Whereas the KJV translators will tell you the procedures they used to interpret the Word into Old English. That's not to say that the Spirit didn't help them, perhaps unaware. But there's nothing unusual in the construction of this translation that would make it more Spirit-led than any other modern translation.

Know that revelation does not replace interpretation

Hearing from God today is important so that we know what the Spirit wants us to do today. That's different from knowing in general what the Word says, using intellectual methods to understand it. But we use our intellect every day—that's not a bad thing. It only becomes bad when we overuse it, and ignore or become blind to the Spirit.

Sometimes, Pentecostals get so caught up with the Spirit that they will adopt an anti-intellectual stance, forgetting that God gave us our intellect to use for his glory. I contend here that hearing something new from God does not trump understanding God's older word intellectually. Rather, they go hand in hand.

God's fresh revelation can help us make sense of what aspect of God's Word to focus on in that moment. Without it, we may know the good we could do, but not the good we should be doing now. (See The Spirit AND the Word 3: We need both objective AND relative truths)

Diving deep into God's Word like the Bereans is a noble activity. God wrote it down for us so that we could turn to it for objective knowledge, to ground us in good character, virtue, and righteousness.

God's objective Word helps us to take a fresh revelation captive to the Word, ensuring that we're not led astray by strange words and ideas. Without that grounding in the objective Word of God, we'll be easily led down a foreign path, away from God.

So if the Spirit is inspiring anything, it's going to be in alignment with the truth, the Bible, unbiased science, and godly wisdom. They're all going to align. This means we can use intellectual tools to verify something spiritual.

Thus, when we find the Dead Sea Scrolls containing many copies of fragments of the Bible, and it shows the holes in the texts that the KJV translators relied on, we ought to readily accept that we need to update the translation. The Spirit, at a time when the enemy was shaking the very foundations of our Scriptures (I'm referring to 'historical criticism'), inspired someone to look in a cave and find biblical scrolls, for greater assurance. But that assurance required intellectual examination of those texts. It's another beautiful picture that is so frequent, of the Spirit and the Word coming together.

Question the opposite

"God always heals"—so what about those situations where God doesn't heal?

"The KJV only"—so how do you explain people getting saved from reading a modern translation?

"The charismatic gifts have ended"—so how do you explain godly people using them to God's glory?

If a person can't answer these questions, they either have very little understanding, or very little grace. Quite a high number of people who God uses regularly to heal others have disabilities or diseases themselves—reminding them of who is the author of healing, and that there is no formula or impersonal force to heal. Those who follow the KJV to the exclusion of all others tend to move to a smaller and smaller crowd until they get so cold and grumpy nobody notices Jesus in them. Those who studiously avoid the Spirit and the Spirit's gifts can suffer a similar fate. But generally, they just miss half the action. Each of these positions contain some truth, but pushed to the extreme they become harmful. Stay away for now, until they grow.

Often, though, preachers will have some reasonable answers. We should ask ourselves, are they adequate? Do they show grace? Does it account for those passages in the Bible that seem to contradict it? How are the people who don't believe it in the church treated? This need to see the fruit of the teaching is why it's much more risky to listen to preachers and teachers online or who you don't know. It's better to hear and see them direct.

Understand the Dunning-Kruger effect

There is a known phenomena whereby people who learn something a little bit tend to have a very high confidence in themselves, but as they continue to learn, that confidence drops sharply, only to slowly rise again after much patience and slow learning. The initial confidence spike is most likely directly due to ignorance about the topic, and therefore, ignorance about how to rate their performance.

The following (very rough) graph shows the key parts:

As a proverb we might say (my words):

The simple think they have grasped deep understanding in a moment,
until one knowledgeable comes

Practically, we should know where we stand on an issue: have you actually experienced it, whether personally or with people you know? If not, we should hold back from embracing the idea, or speaking on it. We should find out more.

The people to find out more from have often written books about it, or at least have sermons or articles on it. Get some knowledge, or ask someone who understands those matters.

Finally, it's always best to experience something before passing judgment. It's easy to attack an idea that some random person on the Internet is talking about (or indeed attack the person). As I'm exploring the intersection of Pentecostal and Conservative ideas, having grown up in Conservative churches I'm now experiencing a (second, more mature) Pentecostal one. I'm pushed to experience things I would have never have otherwise, and, I get to see how their ideas play out in real life.

A Conservative might quickly dismiss a KJV-only position: "God doesn't inspire people!", not realising the Spirit is alive and well today! But a Pentecostal might eagerly latch onto it: "Wow, it really is inspired—overcoming all our human limitations!", not realising that if God wanted to speak to us today in our language, he would not be speaking in Old English (and not everyone speaks English, whether modern or old!). Most things are more complicated than they first look—take your time.

Be in a 5-fold ministry church

The Bible gives us a good framework for being equipped against bad doctrine, and false prophets:

Some people think that apostles and prophets have had their time, yet in my experience they will still acknowledge that there are pastors with a church planting or pioneering gift (apostles), pastors with insight and understanding (prophets), pastors with evangelistic gifting, pastors good with pastoral care, and pastors who are great teachers.

In dealing with bad teaching, lies, deceit, or just honest gullibility, a good teacher or wise and understanding person will be the best guard against being "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine". The wisdom of the world says to go your own way, and listen to your heart and yourself. The wisdom of God says to honour your elders (those older and wiser, particularly those in authority over you), listen to them, take their teaching respectfully, and diligently search the Scriptures for yourself and your own understanding. If your church only has a teacher, find someone who "understands the times and knows what to do" (1 Chronicles 12:32).

Know how God made your personality

Some people are thinkers, and some are feelers. Thinkers look to truth and logic to make decisions. Feelers like to maintain harmony with others. God has given each a role to play (which is why we need the Body, made up different people). Thinkers are best sought out when the matter is intellectual and needs thinking through for the truth content. But feelers are needed to create and maintain unity and a feeling of belonging.

If you realise you are a feeler, in this situation where we want to protect ourselves from believing a lie, you should seek out a thinker. If you understand you are a thinker, there's usually no need to go on a witchhunt. Rather, seek first to understand the people on other side, where they come from, what they appeal to, and that will gain you respect and a hearing. No one likes to be misrepresented, so make sure you do as you would want, by listening and asking questions until you understand both sides. Then open up about where you are coming from. This approach appeals to the feeler who seeks to understand to know what is important to others and does not want to be direct. (For fellow thinkers, you may be able to jump into and benefit from a debate, but that still assumes you each know the topic well.)

Blanket calls for unity that allow no room for discussion only work temporarily. They should not be normative, because they allow the issues to simmer without resolution. Blanket bans of discussion such as "no talking about religion or politics" are tyrannical, and do not heal wounds. They should only be used as a last resort and on a temporary basis, to keep a fractured relationship from opening wider. Usually, it's best to understand each other and let the conversation flow, as described above.

Practically, I encourage regular discussion on difficult topics over a meal, introduced briefly by skilled people. We need safe forums to think things over, and develop awareness of our differences, so that we're more gracious in the topic going forward. It's usually isolated people who get the most grumpy, so you want to be connected to the Body.

Conclusion

Some of these measures are structures that, once established, happen without you noticing. Being in a church Body that has the 5 gifts as described in Ephesians, with opportunities to discuss difficult topics, is an excellent start. Sometimes, these things will need to operate outside of your local congregation, and that's okay (e.g. you might know an evangelist friend from another church, for example).

Some are just to be understood, like knowing that revelation does not replace interpretation, but they go hand in hand. Or, understanding the Dunning-Kruger effect to help you remain humble when you don't know much.

Other measures are for you personally and require action. Bring it to the Word of God, learn a little bit yourself. These are things you need to do, and probably by yourself (though that might be just an introvert's bias!).

Some measures require the teacher themselves, or someone close by. Looking at the teacher's fruit necessitates being around that teacher, or those they are teaching. Questioning the opposite of what they're teaching requires a dialogue, unless there's books or debates already.

Still other measures need the church. Getting a second opinion requires someone with opinions!

Hopefully this will give you a good toolset to not be tricked into believing a lie.