The dangers of buying into false teachings are many and diverse. I can lead to everything from simple misunderstandings, to an unfulfilling Christian life, to false “gospels” which do not lead to Salvation.
So what do we do to keep from falling into these errors? How do we stop ourselves from buying into false teachings? The answer is quite simple.
First, however, let me start with what the answer is not. The answer is not that we must know every false teaching, that would be totally impossible. There are simply too many for us to be able to know them all. You could quite literally study these false teachings morning, noon and night for an entire lifetime and never cover all of them, much less learn all of their weaknesses and why it is that they are wrong. Since the fact of the matter is that anything that is not the Truth of God is a lie, the lies abound to a nearly unimaginable extent.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Discernment Part 1
As I look around me I notice huge problem in our Churches. I see a lot of very passionate people, with good hearts, wanting to do the right thing, and with absolutely no discernment whatsoever.
Discernment is defined as; “Keenness of insight and judgment.” [Discernment. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discernment]
Yes, it is critical for us to be discerning, to judge what we hear, and what we are taught, so that we may be sure that what we are holding fast to is the truth of God, and not the unholy musings of fallen men.
Certainly we know that the Pastors and Teachers in our Churches should be on the lookout for such things, but all the more committed to teaching the truth to the people of God so that they will know the truth and not be led astray by false teachers. In Ephesians 4:11-16 Paul says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” [ESV]
However, the responsibility does not fall to them alone; we all share together in the responsibility to study God’s Word and to know the truth so that we are not “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” There are a few reasons for this. One is that our teachers simply cannot teach us everything, and especially not all at once. That kind of instruction takes time, especially when getting to the real depth of truth that is revealed to us in the Bible. Another reason is that these people are human, and no matter how careful they are, there is still the possibility of error, no matter how hard they try, it is possible for them to teach something wrong. Further, there are some who really have no care for the truth, but are themselves pushing “human cunning” rather than the truth of the Word of God.
This is something that scripture does warn us about (see Jude, 2nd Timothy 2) and instructs us that we must be on guard against such things.
Discernment is defined as; “Keenness of insight and judgment.” [Discernment. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discernment]
Yes, it is critical for us to be discerning, to judge what we hear, and what we are taught, so that we may be sure that what we are holding fast to is the truth of God, and not the unholy musings of fallen men.
Certainly we know that the Pastors and Teachers in our Churches should be on the lookout for such things, but all the more committed to teaching the truth to the people of God so that they will know the truth and not be led astray by false teachers. In Ephesians 4:11-16 Paul says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” [ESV]
However, the responsibility does not fall to them alone; we all share together in the responsibility to study God’s Word and to know the truth so that we are not “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” There are a few reasons for this. One is that our teachers simply cannot teach us everything, and especially not all at once. That kind of instruction takes time, especially when getting to the real depth of truth that is revealed to us in the Bible. Another reason is that these people are human, and no matter how careful they are, there is still the possibility of error, no matter how hard they try, it is possible for them to teach something wrong. Further, there are some who really have no care for the truth, but are themselves pushing “human cunning” rather than the truth of the Word of God.
This is something that scripture does warn us about (see Jude, 2nd Timothy 2) and instructs us that we must be on guard against such things.
Monday, April 26, 2010
The ESV MacArthur Study Bible
I am very excited to report that I have learned that the MacArthur Study Bible with the text of the English Standard Version [ESV] will be released on August 31st of 2010.
John MacArthur has been the Senior Pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California for over 40 years. He can be heard daily on his radio program, Grace to you (www.gty.org), all over the world. Some years ago now he brought his decades of Bible study, Pastoral Ministry, and all of the books that he has written to The MacArthur Study Bible. Up until now it has been available with the text of the New King James Version or the New American Standard Bible, both of which are excellent. With around 25,000 footnotes explaining virtually every passage of Scripture, The MacArthur Study Bible has been a treasure and a big help to many people.
In 2001 Crossway books introduced the English Standard Version of the Holy Bible. You can read the translation philosophy and some explanation at www.esv.org but in short it is an essentially literal translation of the Bible, highly accurate and trustworthy, yet also readable and accessible to common people.
A couple of years ago (more or less) while listening to the Grace To You radio program I heard John MacArthur say that he was planning to put out the MacArthur Study Bible in ESV, and I was very excited to hear it. Sadly, that was the last I had heard of it until I stumbled across the news on Facebook, of all places, just the other night.
Wonderfully, the excellent text of the English Standard Version is finally meeting up with MacArthur's decades of in depth Bible Study and teaching. This is a must have for all Christians who long to understand the Bible in a deeper way.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Context, Context, Context Part 4 (conclusion)
The fact is that these errors in Bible study are very commonplace, and very damaging. While understanding the Bible in its’ fullness and richness can take quite a bit of time and hard work, but the results of such study are very well worth the effort.
I will leave you with this example of a horrendous false teaching that comes out of committing all three of these errors at one time. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 6:10a&c-11a, which is a favorite (out of context) segment of Preachers of the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity movement and says, “And the Lord God…” will “…give you… great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill…” [ESV] They like to use this to say that God wants to give us all of this today, but they have taken it out of context in all three ways, first, they have picked and chosen snippets out of a much larger passage so that they could twist them to fit their intentions, second, they say them as if they were written to people living today, instead of the Children of Israel who they actually were written to, and they were promises under the old (Mosaic) covenant, and not the new covenant (I know that gets complicated, and I don’t want to delve into it right now). By twisting this all up they ignore the true meaning of the text and claim that if you will just send them some money, then this text (ripped out of context as it is) will become true in your life, which of course, it will not.
It is critical that we take the time to get this right.
I will leave you with this example of a horrendous false teaching that comes out of committing all three of these errors at one time. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 6:10a&c-11a, which is a favorite (out of context) segment of Preachers of the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity movement and says, “And the Lord God…” will “…give you… great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill…” [ESV] They like to use this to say that God wants to give us all of this today, but they have taken it out of context in all three ways, first, they have picked and chosen snippets out of a much larger passage so that they could twist them to fit their intentions, second, they say them as if they were written to people living today, instead of the Children of Israel who they actually were written to, and they were promises under the old (Mosaic) covenant, and not the new covenant (I know that gets complicated, and I don’t want to delve into it right now). By twisting this all up they ignore the true meaning of the text and claim that if you will just send them some money, then this text (ripped out of context as it is) will become true in your life, which of course, it will not.
It is critical that we take the time to get this right.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Context, Context, Context Part 3
The third context error is in reading things outside of the overall context of the entire Bible. This is most clearly seen in the telling of “Bible stories.” Any of us who grew up in Church and Sunday School, and Church Youth Group and such would be very familiar with this phenomenon. We would well remember all of the flannel graphs (and don’t think I’m attacking flannel graphs, I love them, I miss them… but I digress) and story books, and rote telling of stories. Rarely, if ever, were these “stories” actually read to us out of the Bible, and virtually never was it explained to us how these accounts fit into the overall context of the Scripture. This was especially true of lessons from the Old Testament.
A good example of this is the account of Daniel in the lions’ den, as we commonly know it. We are told this story without ever being told really who Daniel was, why he was in a foreign capital city (if we are even brought to understand that much) or what his life had consisted of. The fact of the matter is that it was quite recently that I even came to understand that this even in the life of Daniel happens toward the end of his life, when he was an old man, in his eighties! This might not seem like a really big deal, but over the course of years of instruction it adds up, and you can easily end up seeing all of the things that you’ve been taught as nothing more that disjointed stories, and you might even come to see them as mythical, and not even real, which becomes a really big problem. But even more than that, it causes a failure to understand the absolutely terrific context of the whole of Scripture.
A good example of this is the account of Daniel in the lions’ den, as we commonly know it. We are told this story without ever being told really who Daniel was, why he was in a foreign capital city (if we are even brought to understand that much) or what his life had consisted of. The fact of the matter is that it was quite recently that I even came to understand that this even in the life of Daniel happens toward the end of his life, when he was an old man, in his eighties! This might not seem like a really big deal, but over the course of years of instruction it adds up, and you can easily end up seeing all of the things that you’ve been taught as nothing more that disjointed stories, and you might even come to see them as mythical, and not even real, which becomes a really big problem. But even more than that, it causes a failure to understand the absolutely terrific context of the whole of Scripture.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Context, Context, Context Part 2
The second way in which the context error shows up is in forgetting who a particular book or passage was written to, or what exactly it was written to address. This is very common in the teaching of the New Testament epistles. You have probably even heard it in Sunday sermons, though it is certainly not limited to that, I mention it only to show how pervasive it tends to be. How often do we sit in Church and hear a passage read from one of these letters as if it were written directly to us in the twenty-first century? Certainly it was given, at least in part, for us, but it was not written directly to us, and if we are to understand it correctly, we must first understand who it was written to, that is the cultural context.
A good example of this is to be found in Ephesians 5:18 which states, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” [ESV] Again, this is part of a larger portion of Scripture, so it could be used as an example of the first problem, but it also works well to show the second one, so I’m going to use it for that. Clearly this is a true statement and a good rule to follow, and you would not be wrong to say that we can take this as a command to not get drunk, but if that is all that we take away from this, we are missing a lot. Often, we don’t even see the second half of the verse, which says to be filled with the Spirit. This gives us a clue as to what the passage is talking about. While “don’t get drunk” is good instruction, the fact is that Paul is here addressing the fact that Pagan “worship” rituals of that time included getting drunk as a means of communing with the false gods of their false religions, and as many of those in the Church had been saved out of such practices and either were starting to fall back into them, or at least Paul had cause for concern that they might fall back into them, and was here giving instruction to the Christians so that they might avoid such things as they learned to walk with God. Hence he does not command them to simply not get drunk, but wants them to know that if they want to be close to God and commune with Him, they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. By missing the cultural context of the passage, we miss out on its’ richness and simply walk away with rules that we may, or may not, understand. We may also walk away from some passages with terrible false ideas because we did not take the time to study the text in its’ original meaning. A good thing to remember to help to avoid this error is this; a text cannot mean what it has not meant. That is to say, it still means what it meant when it was written, the only thing that will be different is how it applies to us, since we live in a very different world, but the meaning of it is the same.
A good example of this is to be found in Ephesians 5:18 which states, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” [ESV] Again, this is part of a larger portion of Scripture, so it could be used as an example of the first problem, but it also works well to show the second one, so I’m going to use it for that. Clearly this is a true statement and a good rule to follow, and you would not be wrong to say that we can take this as a command to not get drunk, but if that is all that we take away from this, we are missing a lot. Often, we don’t even see the second half of the verse, which says to be filled with the Spirit. This gives us a clue as to what the passage is talking about. While “don’t get drunk” is good instruction, the fact is that Paul is here addressing the fact that Pagan “worship” rituals of that time included getting drunk as a means of communing with the false gods of their false religions, and as many of those in the Church had been saved out of such practices and either were starting to fall back into them, or at least Paul had cause for concern that they might fall back into them, and was here giving instruction to the Christians so that they might avoid such things as they learned to walk with God. Hence he does not command them to simply not get drunk, but wants them to know that if they want to be close to God and commune with Him, they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. By missing the cultural context of the passage, we miss out on its’ richness and simply walk away with rules that we may, or may not, understand. We may also walk away from some passages with terrible false ideas because we did not take the time to study the text in its’ original meaning. A good thing to remember to help to avoid this error is this; a text cannot mean what it has not meant. That is to say, it still means what it meant when it was written, the only thing that will be different is how it applies to us, since we live in a very different world, but the meaning of it is the same.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Context, Context, Context Part 1
When reading or teaching the Bible, there is an issue that has become very significant in our time. That is the issue of taking the text out of context. Now, I know some people will see that and agree, but mostly are only thinking of one way in which this is done. I intend to show that there are three ways in which this is commonly done.
The first way, which is most familiar to us, is to take a piece of a passage, a single verse, a phrase, or, in extreme examples, even a few words out of the text and teaching them as if they are totally self contained, and unrelated to the surrounding material. It is well known to most serious students of scripture that this can lead to many misunderstandings and even full blown false teachings.
A simple example of this first problem can be seen in the very common usage of Romans 8:28, which is as follows; “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” [ESV] The common usage of this verse actually tends to commit this error twice. First of all, this verse is one very small part of a fairly long teaching passage, although it does contain some truth that is able to be understood even apart from the rest of the passage, however, it is understood in a much more complete and full sense when it is understood in context. The gross error that sometimes tends to arise from the misuse of this verse however, and is very common, is people simply saying that, it’s all good, remember in Romans 8:28, it says that all things work together for good. But the fact is that it really doesn’t simply state that. The verse itself is very clear that the working together of all things for good applies only to “those who love God… those who are called according to his purpose.” That is to say that all things work together for the ultimate good of God’s elect, that is Christians (in the true sense—the Born Again). For any and all who are not Born Again the fact is that absolutely nothing works together for good, because those who die in an unredeemed condition will be cast into eternal hell. This is hardly the definition of things working out for good.
The first way, which is most familiar to us, is to take a piece of a passage, a single verse, a phrase, or, in extreme examples, even a few words out of the text and teaching them as if they are totally self contained, and unrelated to the surrounding material. It is well known to most serious students of scripture that this can lead to many misunderstandings and even full blown false teachings.
A simple example of this first problem can be seen in the very common usage of Romans 8:28, which is as follows; “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” [ESV] The common usage of this verse actually tends to commit this error twice. First of all, this verse is one very small part of a fairly long teaching passage, although it does contain some truth that is able to be understood even apart from the rest of the passage, however, it is understood in a much more complete and full sense when it is understood in context. The gross error that sometimes tends to arise from the misuse of this verse however, and is very common, is people simply saying that, it’s all good, remember in Romans 8:28, it says that all things work together for good. But the fact is that it really doesn’t simply state that. The verse itself is very clear that the working together of all things for good applies only to “those who love God… those who are called according to his purpose.” That is to say that all things work together for the ultimate good of God’s elect, that is Christians (in the true sense—the Born Again). For any and all who are not Born Again the fact is that absolutely nothing works together for good, because those who die in an unredeemed condition will be cast into eternal hell. This is hardly the definition of things working out for good.
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