Take Heed Lest Men with Base Alloy

What I have done and taught, teach thou,
My ways forsake thou never.
So shall My kingdom flourish now
And God be praised forever.
Take heed lest men with base alloy
The heavenly treasure should destroy;
This counsel I bequeath thee.

Alloy. Two metals blended. Not a pure metal.

Base alloy. What they would do with coins when they wanted to cheapen them. Take the real silver or real gold, melt it down, mix in just a little bit of cheaper metal, and shape new coins. Who'd know that the purity wasn't what it had been? The purity was just a little "watered down."

In the history of coinage, we see what happens when the standards of purity aren't maintained. A little of the cheap stuff is added. And then it happens again. And again. Over the course of months or years or decades, there is virtually no precious metal left in the coins.

Could that ever happen with doctrine? Just a little something wrong is allowed to stand. Over time, a little more base alloy is snuck in. Slowly changes are made and people don't notice.

Purity of doctrine is important. Faith lives from the truth. Of course, in this sinful world, errors and false doctrine will continue to hound us. That doesn't mean that errors and false doctrine are okay. But neither does it mean we're damned to hell if our doctrinal comprehension should happen to be in error on some point.

In coinage, base alloy can eventually turn the coins into worthless slugs; the treasure can be destroyed through slow dilution. So too, in doctrine, so much "base alloy" has been added in some churches that they are no longer Christian -- they no longer possess the treasure.

When people get upset over a "little thing" like a "minor doctrinal point," it's not because they're hard-nosed legalists. (Well, sometimes it is. But not always.) It's often due to their proper love of what is good and what is true, and their fervant desire not to lose that treasure.