Balderdash – NONSENSE (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary).
A popular board game around our house is called Balderdash. In the game, you anonymously submit a nonsensical definition of some obscure word, hoping that others are convinced that your “made up” definition is the correct one. In effect, you make the definition plausible enough to bluff someone into believing it is authentic. You can imagine the laughter when the definitions are read aloud. Of course, the cards used in the game have the real definition of the word, and are the final authority.
False teachers have done the very same thing from the beginning of time. They attempt to bluff the ignorant into accepting their doctrines as truth. The sophistry of these ungodly individuals has an appeal to it that is unmistakable. It’s appeal serves to deceive the credulous, and they are led away into the apostasy.
In the end, remember that there is only one real authority in religion. It is God’s Word. Despite the appeal and seeming plausibility of the sophist’s claims, all he really has to offer is balderdash.
