1 Timothy 6:20, commentary and pictures

To keep what was committed to trust is to guard the truth, the work of ministry and the faith once delivered to the saints, keeping God's commandment spotless until Christ appears. To avoid profane and vain babblings is to turn from irreverent empty talk and vain philosophy and speculation that pretends to knowledge and draws away from the faith. Science falsely so called is mere human theories, opinions and deductions exalted as certain facts, set above God's wisdom and made the test of His Word. It includes above all the teaching that man came by slow degrees from brute creation, which demeans man, hides God and leads to unbelief, with phrenology and spiritualistic theories about God belonging to the same class. Safety is to be content with what God has revealed, for all truth radiates from Christ and science joined to Him is true while science apart from Him misleads.

The Trust and Warning

The charge stands as a warning against deceptions that draw away from the faith, where the desire to be rich sinks into temptation and a snare and into destructive lusts that drown in ruin, for love of money is the root of all evil and pierces with many sorrows in turning from the faith. The man of God is to flee those things and to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness, fighting the good fight of faith in order to lay hold on eternal life. He is to keep the commandment without spot and unrebukeable until the appearing of Jesus Christ, the blessed Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light. Those who are rich in this world are not to be proud nor to trust in uncertain riches but to trust in God, to do good and share, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

To keep what is committed to trust is to guard the truth and the responsibility of ministry, which is religious belief itself, the inheritance of faith once delivered to the saints by Christ in His ministry of the Word. To avoid profane and vain babblings is to turn from irreverent, empty talk and from vain philosophy and speculation falsely presented as knowledge. Professing such things causes error and turning away from the faith, and theories of science blended with Scripture where they conflict with it must not be given authority over God's truth lest the heart turn from eternal things and lose the promised reward.

The charge belongs to all who profess to be Christians, calling for firm, spiritual-minded, earnest workers who arouse to duty and will not be deceived. They are not to turn to the right or to the left to accommodate a worldly standard, but to examine themselves by the Word of God, which points out defects of mind and of thoughts and actions that God will not sanction, so that each may know whether he is in the faith. With a heart desiring to be improved and set in order, wrongs are to be corrected and the beginning of confidence in the past leadings of God held firm unto the end, not by individual choice and inclination.

What False Science Is

Science falsely so called is mere human theories, speculations, deductions, opinions and writings exalted as certain facts and certain knowledge. It is made the test of God's Word, put with the Bible upon a common basis and blended with Holy Writ in an attempt to make human deductions harmonize with Scripture, but where there is no agreement there can be no harmony. Christ alone pours out the whole treasure of heaven in wisdom and knowledge established upon eternal principles, speaking only truth, so believers are to take His greater and certain wisdom rather than exalted human wisdom, for no man can serve two masters whose interests clash, and God and mammon cannot be served together. When scientific research is not guided by the Word of God even the greatest minds become bewildered in trying to harmonize science with Scripture, because human knowledge of material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect and the Creator and His works are beyond finite comprehension.

It is human discoveries, conceptions and theories exalted above the wisdom of God, and nature exalted above its Maker and above nature's God who is the Author of all true science. Such teaching places human reason above divine revelation and causes men to forget the Creator while exalting nature. It includes evolution and kindred errors taught in schools of every grade from kindergarten to college, where human speculations and theories are mingled with true study so that what should give a knowledge of God instead leads to unbelief. It claims human beings evolved from animals and came by slow degrees not merely from a savage state but from the very lowest form of the brute creation, which demeans man the noblest of God's creatures, destroys his dignity, hides God from view, and makes skepticism attractive to the young. That false science is unenlightened by God's Word, and finite intellects become bewildered and lost when they try to investigate science and revelation apart from God, concluding Bible history is unreliable because they cannot explain God's works and ways by natural causes and intent on excluding God from sovereign will and power in the established order of the universe.

It includes phrenology, which is dangerous because it leads people to undervalue God's grace and place too much confidence in their own judgment. It includes spiritualistic teaching about God's personality and specious scientific problems and theories regarding God and His Word. These are the most specious temptations of the enemy, coming in on the highest, most elevated plane and stealing in as a thief in the night to steal away the landmarks and undermine the pillars of faith, and they spiritualize the doctrines of present truth until there is no distinction between substance and shadow. This spiritualistic false science is deadly because it unsettles people in the faith, makes Christ's revealed truth and the importance of coming events seem worthless, replaces the people's past experience with a false account, and weakens the foundation of faith. The educational ability of those who boast of scientific knowledge in this line offers no benefit and may entrap the soul, so their influence is to be rejected.

It includes scientific research whose discoveries are interpreted and perverted to place the oracles of God in a questionable light and to make the truth of God appear uncertain beside the records of science. It brings the Word of God before a finite tribunal and judges inspiration by finite measurement. Those who bring the Bible into conflict with false claims called science deny the divinity of Christ and cast away the Bible to free themselves from personal accountability to God, acting from ignorance of the character of God, pride of understanding, pride of opinion, love of sin, love of ambition and self-exaltation, and they include rank infidels, believers in the lying wonders of Spiritualism, rejecters of divine truth, and those controlled by the spirit of antichrist. They start inquiries that even the most humble and pious Christian would be perplexed to answer, but inability to answer proves nothing against the Bible, since a little child can ask questions about God, the soul and the future that the most learned cannot answer, while the truth of God's Word is revealed to those of lowly heart who comprehend its duties and obey its precepts.

It is not the science of salvation, humility, consecration, or sanctification by the Spirit. Knowledge of the mysteries that the men of the world call science is not necessary for entrance into the kingdom of God, and treating that knowledge as essential to higher education cannot see afar off. That false science is sophistry and tradition put by Satan into the mind, shutting out the true higher education, and it will perish with the learner. In the last days it is termed higher education, when human minds marvelously increase in giving explanations of science and seeking a natural cause for everything seen and heard. The world is skeptical when God speaks from His Word yet credulous when a learned man speaks, accepting human theories while men are lifted up in their own human importance and extol their own natural abilities.

How It Leads Astray

False science is the work of the old serpent to insinuate infidelity, bewilder the senses, and close the gates of Paradise, working with special power near the judgment to undermine the foundation of true religion, cause the Word to lose its value and sacredness, and cause family religion to fail. It is his adapted snare for the educated, as coarse, hollow, senseless jest is his snare for the illiterate, and it is voiced by misleading teachers who present their sophistries under the name of science. Error, skepticism and infidelity disguised in the garments of philosophy and science are his device for winning the soul away from the living God and away from truth and religion by exalting nature above nature's Creator.

Its special object is to crowd the work of God and the gospel revelation of God's love and of everything essential to human happiness and well-being, that is the plan of salvation, out of sight and mind in order to destroy those for whom Christ died. When the mind is engrossed with the conceptions, discoveries and theories of men to the exclusion of the wisdom of God, it is stamped with idolatry, and God cannot look with approval upon wisdom that exalts itself above Him. Because human knowledge of material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect, and the Creator and His works are beyond finite comprehension, finite intellects become bewildered and lost when they try to investigate science and revelation apart from God.

Insisting on explaining God's works and ways by natural causes leads to concluding that Bible history is not reliable, doubting the records of the Old and New Testaments, doubting the existence and reality of God and of Christ, denying His miraculous power and sovereign will in the established order of the universe, attributing infinite power to nature, letting go the anchor, and beating upon the rocks of infidelity while endeavoring to be wiser than the Creator by searching out mysteries that will never be revealed. It dazzles minds and obscures spiritual danger, and when intellectual powers are idolized and used in the service of false religion, intelligence does greater harm than ignorance and prepares the way to accept the papacy. It militates against the Bible and surrounds the young with an atmosphere of temptation to regard the Scriptures lightly, to disregard the faith of their fathers, and to find skepticism attractive, hiding God from view.

In education this appears when schoolbooks interweave unbelieving sentiments and teachers admit uncertainty whether God's Word or false discoveries are true instead of standing firm on the eternal Rock, so that conscientious minds waver and former doubts become settled facts as sophistry is crowded in through unseen agencies to befog minds in skepticism. It unsettles faith, prejudices against truth, makes the word of truth ineffective, freezes the soul, exerts a harmful influence, and leads to denouncing God's message and messenger as false and to twisting truth and reproof into a lie that confuses others. It seeks to make God and Christ seem of no account, to make void the law of God, and to undermine the foundation of Christian principle, denying the divinity of Christ from ignorance of God's character, pride of understanding, love of sin, ambition and self-exaltation, and it is supported by the lying wonders of Spiritualism and by great miracles.

It leads to doubting God, accepting falsehood, regarding Christ as nothing, rejecting the message of Christ's soon return, accepting fables, and pursuing self-indulgence as before Sodom's destruction. It makes the foundation insecure and uncertain, so that God is not glorified, truth is not practiced, justice and equity cannot enter, deformity of character is revealed, the oracles of God become extinct, and sound earnest truthful working is mingled and confused by varied interpreters until men drift into atheism, while spirituality joined to it becomes a dangerous element in the schemes of an imbalanced mind. False science now controls men of the world and will control them completely, leading them to think themselves capable of doing wonderful things, which proves weakness in understanding the Word that makes wise unto salvation.

Safety in Revealed Truth

Safety lies in searching and understanding what God has made known of Himself and His purposes, gaining such a view of Jehovah's glory, majesty and power that men realize their own littleness and are content with what is revealed for themselves and their children. Human knowledge of material and spiritual things is partial and imperfect, and the Creator and His works are beyond finite comprehension, so mysteries God has not revealed and never will reveal through the eternal ages cannot be solved by insisting on explaining everything by natural laws or by making human theories and speculations the test of God's Word. To attempt to be wiser than the Creator in this way bewilders even the greatest minds trying to harmonize science with Scripture, and leads to regarding Bible history as unreliable, doubting the records of the Old and New Testaments, denying God, attributing infinite power to nature, letting go the anchor, beating upon the rocks of infidelity, and erring from the faith while seduced by the devil.

Keeping minds searching and conjecturing about what God has not made known and does not intend to be understood is Satan's masterpiece of deception. It is the same discontent by which Lucifer fell, demanding secrets not confided to him and disregarding what was revealed about his own lofty position, arousing the same spirit in angels under him to cause their fall, and now seeking to imbue men with it to lead them to disregard God's direct commands. Against this, God sends ministers to hold forth the word of life by preaching the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, not philosophy and vain deceit or profane empty talk and falsely named knowledge. Believers are to take Christ's greater and certain wisdom, since He alone pours out heaven's whole treasure of wisdom and knowledge and speaks only truth established upon eternal principles, while theories, deductions, opinions and writings of scientists and great men called science are unstable and uncertain words of men that cannot be put on a common basis with the Bible where there is no agreement and no harmony, for no man can serve two masters and God and mammon cannot be served together.

All truth radiates from Christ, so true science must be joined to Him, while science apart from Him is false and misleads, philosophy without Him is foolishness, theories separated from Him originate with Satan, and His life stands as the contrast exposing all false science, erroneous theories and misleading methods. Understanding God's Word and the testimonies of His Spirit safeguards against error and Satan's influence, while ignorance of Scripture and of God's power leaves people open to accepting false science. God gives truth to vindicate, and guides and teaches His earthly messengers, sometimes through angels who instruct and help His chosen messengers, calling His servants to stand firm as Christ's soldiers and keep working for the truth. God's truth rests on the authority of Thus saith the Lord and is confirmed by the Holy Spirit, while evil deceptive ideas called science come from the father of lies and will face judgment. The truth of God's Word is revealed to those of lowly heart who comprehend its duties and obey its precepts, and inability to answer hard inquiries proves nothing against the Bible, since a little child can ask questions about God, the soul and the future that the most learned and pious cannot answer, a fact misused by those who from pride of understanding, self-exaltation, ambition, ignorance of God's character and love of sin deny Christ's divinity, cast away the Bible to escape accountability, and follow infidelity, Spiritualism's lying wonders and the spirit of antichrist.

Guarding the Trust Today

God's commandment-keeping people are to refuse Satan's deceptive arguments and never use them, refusing to follow the trail of the serpent, giving truth the foremost place so they are sanctified by it. Safety lies in meeting every thrust of the enemy as Christ did when tempted in all points as man is tempted, presenting the word of the living God to every temptation and bringing no railing accusation against the tempter. Satan can gain no advantage over the child of God who relies on God's word as defense, for Satan still lives to deceive through false science.

Each believer is to constitute himself a guardian of the treasure of truth committed to the saints, which is religious belief, the inheritance of faith once delivered to the saints by Christ in His ministry of the Word. Keeping it means making the Bible the guidebook and contending for that faith, keeping out selfishness and Satan's suggestions. It means humbling heart and soul before God and receiving Christ's grace anew, and faithfully living out the living principles of the Word, including Sabbath observance, so the heavenly character of the truth shines forth to the world in clearness and purity.

Doing the work committed to trust so it is accepted by God calls for looking up in faith and confidence and hope rather than at dark and boisterous waves. It calls for trusting the heavenly Father who knows every purpose of the soul and will not leave in darkness but will give the light of His divine presence. It calls for praying each day in faith, not only for health but to be filled with the Spirit of God for the work, making faithful performance of that trust the whole aim of life with no other ambition, held in great love and tenderness.

Keeping the trust requires waiting on the Lord to be taught how to labor and to be shown the work each is best adapted to perform, rather than starting out in an independent spirit to promulgate new theories. It means holding to the truth received from Christ rather than seeking new and strange teachings from human beings, rejecting everything that lessens faith and scatters forces. It means instead laboring together with God in harmony with the truth and with brethren in counsel and cooperation, guarding most carefully in this time against the exaltation of false science by which Satan seeks to make void the law of God.

As a denominated people believers must keep every point of present truth and bear a straightforward, decided testimony for it, refusing to yield up faith to human sophistry that calls itself science. They must stand firm for the right and present truth unmixed with the falsities that have stealthily crept in, refusing to be drawn astray by false science which makes a jingle of the true word of prophecy. The follower of Christ holds a firm, steadfast vital godliness that will not be swayed by sophistries and delusions, by the reasonings of science falsely so called, though unbelievers are generally not pleased with such character and the living stones in God's temple are not discerned, appreciated, or understood by the worldly-minded. God's grace enables revealing the light of truth in every word and act while holding this stand.

Truth and error cannot be united, so theories that misinterpret Scripture and undermine established truth, including seductive scientific fables, must be rejected. Unity with those led into deception requires their conversion, and the warning covers guarding entrusted truth and rejecting empty, irreverent talk and claims of knowledge that are false.

Those entrusted with responsibility, including those with grave responsibilities in connection with publishing houses, must heed Scripture's warnings about false science and discern clearly, choosing what is good and rejecting what confuses the understanding. Disregarding the light it gives and failing to heed it leaves men in blindness, walking like blind men who can neither see nor understand. Satan's plan is to bring up the old temptation by leading souls to follow misleading teachers who voice sophistries under the name of science, and the verse rebukes pride in years of study apart from God's Word. It points instead to studying the Word of God to learn what the Holy Spirit says, where the science of truth is found that becomes a blessing to all who come in contact with it.

Those who give supreme trust or allegiance to knowledge falsely called science above the light received will not be fit to lead in the coming time of confusion and testing nor to lead God's people in the final crisis. Trust in intellect, genius, or talent cannot replace faithfulness to God and keeping pace with the light, and the unfaithful will not be entrusted with the flock.

The faith taught by Paul, Peter, and John must not be dismissed as outdated, absurd, or unworthy of an intelligent mind, nor exchanged for falsely called science, and human philosophy must not be trusted over the truth of the Bible and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. False claims of knowledge fill the mind with false ideas and corrupt the soul, and pursuing impressive advances and worldly fame at the expense of clear understanding of pure principles and immortal truths misuses the mind's powers. Those powers should instead be directed toward holy things and lasting truth.

In education, theories and speculations falsely called science and philosophy must not be allowed to occupy students' minds, for they distract from learning through nature that creation and Christianity have one God. Students need to be brought into close contact with nature, because lessons direct from nature have a simplicity and purity of the highest value that lead the soul away from sin and worldly attractions and toward purity, peace, and God. They need to learn that creation and Christianity have one God and to see the harmony of the natural with the spiritual, making everything their eyes see or their hands handle a lesson in character-building, so that mental powers are strengthened, character is developed, and the whole life is ennobled.

In publishing houses no page of falsely named science and error is to be placed in workers' hands, and clear spiritual discernment is required to choose the good and reject everything tending to confuse the understanding. Apprentices are to be taught truth and righteousness, study the Bible, and pray for the Holy Spirit to help them distinguish truth from error and work for their own salvation and the salvation of others. Disregarding this light leaves men blind.

Those carrying on God's medical work must have their feet planted on the truth of the living God in order to stand against the oppositions of science falsely so called, which are specious scientific problems and theories regarding God and His word. They are the most specious temptations of the enemy, coming in on the highest, most elevated plane, stealing in as a thief in the night to steal away the landmarks and undermine the pillars of faith, spiritualizing the doctrines of present truth until there is no distinction between substance and shadow. Medical students are not to be educated in them because God will not endorse these theories.