Think It Possible That You May Be Mistaken

We have quoted from Oliver Cromwell a single searching sentence: “I beseech you…think it possible that you may be mistaken.” Searching men, with searching minds are constantly penetrating into unknown areas, and discovering much that modifies the theories and hypotheses of the past. And where there are so many unanswered questions, so much as yet undiscovered, so much as yet unrevealed, a closed mind can be neither comfortable nor condoned.

The Lord God has not told us all He knows⎯nor have the minds of men as yet discovered the complete or ultimate answers concerning men, or mind, or matter. But still there is sometimes conceit where there is a little learning. And when a person has learned more, by comparison, than another person, sometimes a little learning seems like a lot of learning. But conceit of learning is unbecoming any man⎯and all men⎯for there is no field of knowledge which any man can be sure he has arrived at the ultimate and absolute answer; there is no one who has reached the ultimate in any area of endeavor.

This suggests again some questions that could be asked of all who are dictatorial in teaching, of all who are overly positive in opinion:

Who knows of a textbook that will not be revised? Who knows of a process that will not be improved? Who knows of a theory that may not be modified or abandoned? Who knows how the world was made? Who knows how life came to be? Who knows how a single living cell becomes an eye, or a tooth, or a wondrous functioning physical form? Who knows how the body heals itself? Who knows the source of the instinct of animals? As the voice asked of Job so many centuries ago: “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts?”

Who knows all the answers? Who knows what visions of the great beyond the prophets have seen and left unsaid? Who knows what man will yet discover, or when the Lord God will further reveal His mind and will? He does not expect us to know all the answers⎯not now. But he expects a mind open to truth, and a teachable spirit, and a willingness to learn, to seek, to search with freedom and with faith.

He expects us also to use the truth we have⎯and to keep His commandments.

And as to the theories and tentative teachings of men: He expects us to know that we may be mistaken⎯and to avoid conceit of learning⎯and to walk humbly with Him who keeps creation in its course.