Can we eat the meat and spit out the bones? - By Elizabeth Prata

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We are forced yet again to slog our way through another ill-conceived article written by Ms. Prata. This particular one is mercifully short, but nonetheless is significantly flawed. It is a confused mess, in fact.

Surprisingly, she quotes some relevant Scriptures, an all-to-rare occurrence. We commend her for finally opening her Bible, even though she misapplies the verses.

To quickly answer her question, yes, we can eat the meat and spit out the bones. In fact, we must.

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The Bible says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2).

Only the pure word of God transforms the mind. (Only one sentence in and already Ms. Prata goes off the rails. Paul was not discussing the "pure word of God," it's God's will that is perfect here. And His perfect will is discerned AFTER the renewing of the mind.

So the curious person would stop to consider, how is the mind renewed? The answer is, by putting on the new self [Col. 3:10], that is, putting off the sinful nature in favor of the new way of the Spirit [Ro. 7:6].

So Ms. Prata can't get a simple Scriptural statement correct.)

Strive to keep your doctrine as pure as possible. (Ms. Prata now runs with her false precept. Having claimed that only the pure word of God transforms, she now derives her imperative: Keep your doctrine pure as possible. 

However, the pure word is not synonymous with pure doctrine.

Further, the careful reader will note that if we follow Ms. Prata's advice, failure is inevitable. We cannot get our doctrine pure enough to be transformed, if the standard is that only the pure word transforms. No one has pure doctrine. No one can attain this.

Which means everyone's doctrine has some bones. Every pastor's teaching has some bones. The greatest theologians in the world have some bones. Ms. Prata's favorite teachers have some bones.

That's one of the purposes for the gift of discernment, to separate out the bones. 

But more importantly, there is no biblical principle that commends a person for the purity of their doctrine. While we would concede that good doctrine is important, it simply is not the standard of righteousness some seem to think it is.

Ultimately, it's an odd form of salvation by works. Pure doctrine requires an intensive effort [Ms. Prata used the word "strive"] to refine and hone every jot and tittle of one's belief system. Every day it gets tweaked a little more as some teacher explains a detail that needs attention. These details get parsed and analyzed and categorized until the most minute sub-doctrines are properly arranged. 

Precisely correct doctrine becomes a consuming passion, a never ending quest, and a way to sort out us vs. them, the true believers from the evil false teachers.

There is little fruit in such an approach.)

If you are of the ‘eat the meat and spit out the bones’ type, please know that for every ‘bone’ you ingest you make your forward walk move backward. (Now Ms. Prata is truly in the weeds. If one spits out the bones, the bones are not being ingested.) 

Bones are not pure. They do not help your mind transform. They pollute your soul. (Which is why they are spit out.)

Think of it this way.

If you were a gas thief, and sucked up some gas to start the siphoning process, once the gas comes up the tube and the flow has begun, you spit out the gas from your mouth, of course. But over time, if you do that enough, your teeth fall out. Your mouth tissue degrades. If you miscalculate and get even a tiny bit into your lungs, even once, you could aspirate, choke, or even die. Gas is a poison, we are not supposed to ingest it. (We really do not need an analogy to explain the analogy, do we? Even then her analogy to explain the analogy is not a particularly good one. Everything about siphoning gasoline is perilous. There is no benefit potential, other than getting some gasoline. There are much better ways of obtaining gasoline.)

With God’s words, it’s even MORE important to avoid taking in the poison. There is no safe way to ‘eat the meat and spit out the bones’. NONE. (If that's true, we should not listen to any teacher. And especially, we should not listen to Ms. Prata.)

There is nothing you can learn from a false teacher. (Oops. New topic. Apparently this is what Ms. Prata had in mind from the beginning, and she is only now getting around to telling us this. She's not talking about just any old Bible teacher or pastor. She has false teachers in mind. 

But even here we would contest her assertion. Is a false teacher someone who gets one thing wrong? Two things? A lot wrong? 

According to Ms. Prata's previously stated standard, only the pure word of God transforms. Which means if the teacher teaches even one thing wrong he must be a false teacher. 

We know that John MacArthur is one of Ms. Prata's heroes. Years ago Dr. MacArthur changed his doctrine regarding the eternal sonship of Christ. 

This is a "bone."

So our question is, is Dr. MacArthur a false teacher now, or was he a false teacher before? If he was in error before, he was a false teacher. If he is in error now, he is a false teacher.

The Scriptures, however, have a different standard than does Ms. Prata regarding a false teacher. It's found in 2 Peter chapter 2. A false teacher is an egregious and public sinner. He is actively malevolent. A false teacher is recognized by his lifestyle of excess and total disregard for holiness.

Clearly we are not talking about someone whose doctrine doesn't always agree with Ms. Prata's doctrine.)

Their aim is to destroy you, make merchandise of you, and to hand you to satan. They speak lies. Avoid all false teachers and stick with the true ones. You will be much better off.

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7). (This Scripture is in reference to the Corinthian church who did not put a man out of the church who was having an affair with his father's wife. This is not a verse about pure doctrine.)

A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. (Galatians 5:9). (This is a verse about trying to be justified through the law by getting circumcised...)

Do not consider ingesting what the Lord considers a spoil.