“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” – Proverbs 26:4-5
God’s word is true.
A fool says you cannot consult God or His book to learn the truth…
…and Christians foolishly believe them!
Christians cast aside the one source of divine revelation and try to prove the truth of God without using the Bible to people who have already rejected both.
They discard the power of God unto salvation, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and the hope of glory in order to “meet the unbeliever where they are at.”
The folly of the fool becomes the folly of the Christian: denying the Bible to be true.
You don’t help the fallen stand up by falling down with them. You must remain standing. Where you stand is on God’s word being true.
Answering from Faith
From this stance of faith you can answer the fool according to his folly without being like him.
There is so much the fool does not know, believing God’s word gives knowledge and wisdom otherwise hidden from the natural man.
The fool says God has not spoken to us. The Bible says he has spoken many times and in divers manners (Heb 1:1).
The fool says he doesn’t know what was in the beginning, but he knows it was not God. The Bible says in the beginning God created (Gen 1:1).
The fool says we cannot know about an invisible God. The Bible says the invisible things of God are clearly seen (Rom 1:20).
The fool says that it is impossible to have a perfect Bible. The Bible says God’s words are true from the beginning, pure, and will endure longer than man (Psa 119:160; Psa 12:6).
The fool thinks Proverbs 26:4-5 is a contradiction because they can only speak about the Bible being wrong. They do not believe it to be true.
Let the Bible Discern Their Thoughts
The Bible is a discerner of the intents of the heart.
When people see fatal errors, mistakes, and irreconcilable contradictions in the Bible, do not let this concern you. The Bible is doing its job of identifying fools.
The Bible identifies those who reconcile the contradictions and sort out supposed mistakes as believers. The believer finds that there is not one contradiction that remains after careful study of the Bible rightly divided.
If you respond to fools by entertaining their foolishness, you are becoming like them, and are not giving voice to the truth of the Bible.
Your studied answers should always be from faith in God’s word being true.
God’s word is true from beginning to end without error.