[donfriesen1]

Whose responsibility is it to correct mistakes of the past? Can past mistakes be ignored as happening, going forward?

Should past erroneous presentations of misinterpretation of scripture be glossed over, pretending it never happened and the mistake ignored as if never having happened when going forward?

Imagine the confusion a congregation might have in the hearing of new concepts contradicting past concepts, but being done without any explanation of the past error.

Those who have preached, taught, and practiced a misinterpretation of scripture, have what responsibility when they discover they have preached misinterpreted scripture?

Jer1.9,10 "the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth...to throw down, to build”

Jeremiah's role was both to destroy and build. Preach against false doctrine and preach true doctrine. The NT preacher's role is the same. Expose error and reveal truth.

If the preacher thinks 'If I do an about-face on a doctrine I have long preached, I will undermine and discredit the authority of all I have ever preached. Therefore, I can not now represent myself as a preacher who has made a mistake on what I preached in the past. People will then question everything I have ever preached if I do so. So, for the sake of those things which I have correctly preached, I can not now publicly proclaim that which I formerly said was truth is now wrong. Some may fall to the way-side if I do so, if I recant a past misinterpretation.'

[By that last paragraph will be seen the importance of preaching the Word, and not opinions or personal convictions as if they are the Word. Those who have always looked to the Word for faith, and not the preacher, will never be swayed when having a preacher doing so, even in the face of revealing they have been wrong about a past misinterpretation. The faith in the Word in a new correct interpretation will smooth disruptions caused by changes. God's Word has life for healing.]

Any hearer's free will is not violated when truth is presented by another to correct their past errors.

Those who think so may mask the past for their own present benefit. Covering over the past-sharing of misinterpretation by not now openly proclaiming so in the present, may be done for reasons of pride. Not revealing the error of the past may be to hide being seen as preaching an error, for personal pride reasons.

Truth is of more importance than personal pride. Truth is of more importance than protecting the public image of roles which people play, even if it is a role given by God. Let the chips fall where they may in presenting truth. Should any fall away from doing so, it is by personal choices. We know how?-that the old prophet of 1Kg13 lied, except by his own telling of his mistake.

Peter owned-up to past errors he had held, his wrong attitudes towards Gentiles. He did not hide the errors of this to maintain the appearance of being a God-called preacher. Wouldn't he have been embarassed to be shown that his attitude did not line up with God's? He had even fought God himself when God was telling it to him, saying, 'not so Lord. I won't kill and eat'. He must have been embarassed. He eventually swallowed his pride when he reported to his peers, 'who was I to resist. What I had long stood for as a Biblical command, I put aside, when God showed me his views of it.'

God represents Israel as his chosen people. Doing so, he does not discredit his own choice by hiding the many frequent errors of his chosen. They were called to be a kingdom of priests, a nation-messenger of the truth of the one true God. They failed at this. God does not hide their many, many errors from public view though they have sinned as his choice. Instead, he publishes it.

Preachers should not hide the past error of their presentations of misinterpretation from their congregations. People respect, and not dishonour, those who openly fess up. Public confession is applicable in situations involving public sins, and so, doctrinal errors presented publicly should be corrected publicly.

Should any fall-off from the Faith of God because someone makes a public correction of a past misinterpretation, then they bear their own responsibilities in doing so, because it is an exercise of their own free will. Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do, both for the preacher who has preached misinterpretation and for the one who had previously believed the preacher who now is correcting it. The correction of past mistakes by one, does not absolve another from not doing the right thing.

Right must be done in spite of any negative results others potentialy may or may not have. (Why do we usually first assume the negative result?)