Let's start with a little game. Below are 10 statements. As you read each one, write down whether you think its a true biblical teaching or false teaching. You don't have to explain why you think its true or false, just determine which it is.
Things the Bible Teaches...??
1. Most people are basically good.
2. God accepts the worship of all religions.
3. The OT Law (Law of Moses) condemns children to death for cursing their parents.
4. Jesus was the first and greatest being created by God the Father.
5. Sin entered the world when Eve ate an apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
6. All people are created in the image of God and He loves them as His children.
7. Money is the root of all evil.
8. All you have to do to be saved is ask Jesus into your heart.
9. God will never give you more than you can handle.
10. God helps those who helps themselves.
Did you figure out which ones are true and which are false? What if I told you that only ONE of those statements is a true biblical teaching, and its not the one you think it is. The answer key (with an explanation for each) is in the comment section if you're curious.
If you got a bunch of them wrong, don't feel too bad, the wording got a little tricky and I even tricked some of the leaders last night with those statements. If you somehow got them all right, or came close, I am willing to bet that you were able to figure it out based on one thing: you've read the Bible.
Answer me this: have you ever felt like you can't talk about God because you don't know enough? Or have you felt like you can't talk about God because someone may ask you a question that you don't know how to answer? Or because you just don't know what to say?
How do we fix this? How can we know more? Where can we find answers? How can we know what to say?
The answer is simple: by reading the Bible. If you take nothing else away from any of my messages, take this: READ THE BIBLE. Know what it says. Consume it like New England Clam Chowder from the Cheesecake Factory after a 5-day fast (there's a story there). Take it in like cool water after a long summer day in the hot sun. Get lost in the Word of God like when you get stuck scrolling through TikTok until 4 in the morning.
Read.
The.
Bible.
Why is it so important for Christian's to read and know the Bible? Some of you know that I've recently gotten really into TikTok (my wife tells me I'm obsessed). Over the last month I've been interacting with a lot of false teaching (FROM CHRISTIANS) that has come across my For You page. I never knew how bad it was out there, even just within Christian circles. People who have a very poor understanding of the Bible are teaching whatever they want and calling it biblical. Then, people who don't know the Bible very well are believing them! This is a problem. When we don't know the Bible very well, we are going to fall into a lot of false teaching.
In Psalm 1, David talks about the blessing that comes to those who meditate on God's Word every day - it leads us to righteousness and keeps us close to God. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul tells Timothy "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."
This letter, naturally, comes after 1 Timothy 4:8, where Paul tells Timothy "For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
We can see benefits to physical training. It keeps our body in good shape, allowing us to have a higher quality of life and live longer. There is value to that. But Paul here is saying that training in godliness has MUCH GREATER VALUE, holding promise both for this life, and the life we will spend in eternity with God. And how do we train in godliness? By reading Scripture. By spending time in the Word of God. It is what trains us to live as God wants us to live, and to draw near to Him in all things.
When we invest our time in the Bible like we are commanded to do, our minds are changed, our behaviors change, our lives change, our words change, our understanding is changed, and we are better able to identify false teaching. These are amazing benefits for this life, and as we draw near to God, these hold benefits for eternity as well.
So read the Bible. Meditate on it. Think about it. Memorize it. Act on it. The more we read the Bible, the more we will know what to say when people ask us questions. The more we read the Bible, the more we will know and be able to identify false teachings. The more we read the Bible, the more we will talk to people about the Gospel and faith in Jesus. This is because it is "out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). What we put into our hearts and minds is what is going to come out of it. So the more time we spend in the Word of God, the more the Word of God will come out in our daily lives.
If you want to grow in your faith, to grow closer to God, and to have everlasting benefits in both this life and the life to come: Read the Bible.
1. False - Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Apart from God, we are dead in sin with no hope of redemption or salvation.
ReplyDelete2. False - God desires worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth. Other religions do not worship in truth with who God is, and so their worship is actually directed at someone or something else. It is not acceptable to God.
3. True - Leviticus 20:9 - "For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him." "Cursing" here is not specifically talking about cussing at your parents, but rather calling down a curse upon them. This breaks the commandment to honor your father and mother, and God clearly took it very seriously. This isn't just about young kids, though. At any age, even as adults, we should not dishonor our parents.
4. False - Jesus was not created. He is God. John 1:1-2 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." This is talking about Jesus as "the Word" who became flesh.
5. False - this one was tricky. The Bible does not teach that it was an "apple" that was eaten, only a fruit. We can be sure that apples are not the fruit in question because the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was unique and solely within the Garden of Eden, whereas apple trees are quite common throughout the world today.
6. False - all people ARE made in the image of God, and He loves them, but only those who are in Christ are considered His children.
7. False - the pursuit of money is the root of many kinds of evil, but not all evil.
8. False - nowhere in the Bible does it talk about asking Jesus into your heart for salvation. Romans 10:9-10 - "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." We are absolutely saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, but it is the Holy Spirit who indwells us, not Jesus. This leads into a discussion of the Trinity which I will not go into here, but if you're curious, go ahead and ask in the comments below.
9. False - God gives us things we can't handle all the time. He never gives us anything HE can't handle. We have to learn to rely on HIM and not on ourselves.
10. False - Romans 5:8 - "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." There was absolutely nothing we could do to help ourselves out of sin; only God could do that. God helps us especially in those times when we cannot help ourselves. Again, He calls us to rely on HIM, not on us.
Edit: Number 8 is not as false as I had thought at first. Ephesians 3:17 indicates that Christ does dwell in our hearts through faith, though this appears to be a result of salvation. We are not saved by asking Him into our hearts, but He does dwell there. So I was wrong about that.
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