Be Wise As Serpents

There are times when arguments must be met squarely, but I do not believe it is our duty, or that it is wise, to combat every er­roneous idea at the time it is set forth.

By M. L. Andreasen. President, Union College

One night, after I had preached on the im­minent coming of Christ, a man came up to me and said he was happy to know that we believed in the soon return of Jesus to this earth. He said he had watched events in the Near East, and since the Jews were going back to Palestine, it was evident that the coming of the Lord was near. I replied that I was glad to know that he was interested in the near return of our Lord and that he agreed with what I had presented in the sermon. After a short chat, I invited him to come back and he promised to do so.

One of the brethren, who had been listening to the conversation, was somewhat perplexed because I had not immediately set the man right on his mistaken notion concerning the return of the Jews. I explained my reason and custom to the brother as this: I do not con­sider it wise to set straight a person's erro­neous, notions under circumstances such as ob­tained that night. The visitor was impressed with the sermon, and was in agreement with what had been said. If I had attempted to tell him he was wrong on that one point, I would have done more harm than good. It was not a propitious time to go into the question ex­haustively on that occasion. Had I told the man he was mistaken in his conclusions, an argument would have been started, and he would have gone off intent on finding further arguments to support his notion. He would have started out on a line of reasoning and study contrary to the truth. Such a course would have fostered the wrong spirit within him and left him unsympathetic to further reception of truth.

In this particular case, I took up the subject of the return of the Jews a few nights later when this same man was present. When he heard the discourse and felt the force of the facts presented, he saw the matter in a differ­ent light. After' the meeting, he chatted with me again and said that there was a time when he himself believed in the return of the Jews, but that he did not believe so any more. I gathered that he hoped I had not noticed what he had said on the subject a few nights before. Had I commented on his untimely remark at the time he made it, it would have made it harder for him to retract later on. That man is a good Seventh-day Adventist today.

There are times when arguments must be met squarely, but I do not believe it is our duty, or that it is wise, to combat every er­roneous idea at the time it is set forth. If it can be worked out, it is far better to take up the subject later when there is time to give it an adequate presentation. We should seek to make it easy for our opponents to come over to our side, rather than making it hard, so far as arguments are concerned. For this rea­son, I often ignore or seem to ignore certain statements made in conversations, lest I start a person thinking along wrong lines and pro­voke a spirit of antagonism in him. Then, later, when I take up the subject in a public meeting, I have an undisturbed forty minutes in which to present the truth of the matter. And if I really have the truth and can ade­quately present it, I should be able to do a much more effective work than could possibly be done in a few minutes of conversation where my questioner has a chance to talk back.


Ministry reserves the right to approve, disapprove, and delete comments at our discretion and will not be able to respond to inquiries about these comments. Please ensure that your words are respectful, courteous, and relevant.

comments powered by Disqus

By M. L. Andreasen. President, Union College

October 1937

Download PDF
Ministry Cover

More Articles In This Issue

Domination Not True Leadership

How does the church settle questions?

Field Training School Developments No. 1

It is evident that our time for soulsaving work is short. All this constitutes an inescapable call to more aggressive, intensified evangelism.

The Evangelist's Relationships

As one of the fundamentals of successful work, the evangelist must always remem­ber that the conference president is his best friend.

Preparing Candidates for Baptism

The importance of sound conversion and faith prior to baptism.

Ways of Increasing the Tithe

The Spirit of prophecy makes very clear the minister's responsibility relative to increasing the tithe.

The Meat Question

Is it a sin to eat meat?

How Sabbath School Lessons are Prepared

Believing our full worker body would appreciate an accurate statement of the procedure lying back of the finished Sabbath school lesson product, we asked Elder Well­man, who has been one of the secretaries of the department for the last ten years, to pre­pare this informative article.—Editor.

Editorial Keynotes

Books for the Ministerial Mind

Effective Approaches to Catholics (Concluded)

Part three considers advertising for Catholics

The Background of Volume VIII

Our continued look at the development of the writings of Ellen White.

View All Issue Contents

Digital delivery

If you're a print subscriber, we'll complement your print copy of Ministry with an electronic version.

Sign up
Advertisement - RevivalandReformation 300x250

Recent issues

See All
Advertisement - SermonView - WideSkyscraper (160x600)