Tim Keller gives three rules for gospel "polemics":(I understand that polemics is a big word that most of us don't think we'll really participate in, but the fact is at some level we will. We might not publish a paper critiquing someone else but we all engage with other people and their arguments and offer explanations why we think they or their arguments are deficient. I thought I could share one of Keller's rule that I most resonated with, you can check out the others. I need to warn you though that if you follow this particular rule you often won't sound as persuasive, at least at first. It is sometimes much easier to argue with a straw man than to actually communicate with a real person.)He calls it,Murray's Rule:You must take full responsibility for even unwitting misrepresentation of someone's views.Don Carson says that if you have strong concerns about Mr. A's views, and you are considering publishing a critique, it may be wise to go to Mr. A first, but "not out of obedience to Matthew 18, which really does not pertain, but to determine just what the views of the [other person] really are." This fits with some startling strong words by Westminster Seminary theologian John Murray. In his book Principles of Conduct he argues that "all falsehood, error, misapprehension, every deviation from what is true in thought, feeling, word, or action is the result of sin. . . . Quite apart from sin there would have been ignorance and lack of full understanding on the part of all created rational beings. But limited knowledge is one thing, falsehood in understanding or representation is another" (p. 132). In other words, to misrepresent reality to others is always wrong. He grants, of course, that there is a great difference between a deliberate lie and unintentionally passing on erroneous information. But he goes on: "[W]e think very superficially and naïvely if we suppose that no wrong is entailed in purveying misrepresentation of fact. Even when persons are, as we say, the innocent victims of misinformation, we are not to suppose that they are relieved of all wrong. What we need to appreciate is that the representation is false . . . a misrepresentation of God's truth." He concludes: "This consideration that all falsehood, as a deviation from truth, is per se wrong should arouse us to the gravity of our situation in relation to the prevalence of falsehood and to our responsibility in guarding, maintaining, and promoting truth" (p. 132).This is very sobering. In our internet age we are very quick to dash off a response because we think Mr. A promotes X. And when someone points out that Mr. A didn't mean X because over here he said Y, we simply apologize, or maybe we don't even do that. John Murray's principle means that polemics must never be "dashed off." Great care should be taken to be sure you really know what Mr. A believes and promotes before you publish.For the rest