Reading by Narrative

Sometimes well meaning people fall prey to the artificial subject titles of Scripture. It's as though the subject titles themselves are equal in inspiration to the words of Scripture. That inevitably leads to a misunderstanding of the Bible.

Even the division by chapter are verse have nothing to do with divine inspiration. They were placed in the Bible by a translator or a transcriber to help us find our place, that's all. That is absolutely all.

Let me give you an example

I cannot count the times I have heard preachers preach from Ephesians 5:23 and thought it was a good beginning place. That's because some scribe put the words "Wives and Husbands" (NIV) just before it. Actually, it is a totally rotten starting place, because if you start there you think wives are supposed to submit to their husbands and that's that.

What if you take the "Wives and Husbands" part out and just read the flow of the text? Then the complete passage reads: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives...to your husbands as to the Lord...Husbands (to) love your wives just as Christ loves the church."

As a matter of fact, if we complete the thought Paul is expressing, we find out that he is not even talking about husbands and wives!

"What's that?" you ask. "He's not talking about husbands and wives? Joe, have you lost your mind? What do you think he is talking about?"

I don't have to guess. Paul tells us clearly. He says, "...but I am talking about Christ and the church."

"Well, yes...mumble, mumble, mumble, he's talking about the church, but he mentions husbands and wives." Yes, he does, and if you want to pretend that's the subject, go ahead, but beware! You will be teaching heresy. If you think there's some righteous application there, OK. But be aware that you will be misusing the text. Is that what you think God wants you to do?

Paul does write those words, but if you use these verses to prove something about how husbands and wives should behave toward each other, you are too soft headed to really be reading Scripture.

Immediately following his "...love your wives..." phrase, Paul makes clear that he is using the perfect relationship between husband and wives originally intended in Genesis (that they become one flesh) to illustrate the relationship of the Bride of Christ to the Bridegroom.

I just recently heard another use of Scripture based on the afore mentioned scribe's putting the words "Overseers and Deacons" before 1 Timothy 3:1.

To begin with, most preachers, deacons and teachers skip right over verse 1, which very, very clearly says, "If anyone sets his heart on being and overseer..." It seems that inviting a person to be an "overseer" is not initiated by the church, but by their burning desire to serve in that capacity. The person "sets his heart on being..."

Secondly, the passage is not even about the overseers and deacons as prospects, it is about being very careful to place only those whose doctrine is sound into leadership positions.

The issue in Timothy's church, as revealed in the narrative, was leaders who subscribed to weird and heretical doctrines (check it out in Chapters 1 and 2). Paul addressed this topic (sound doctrine) four times in the narrative of the book, each time urging Timothy to remain steadfast in the doctrine of the birth, life, death, burial, resurrection and second coming of Christ...and nothing else...period.

Timothy is urged to remain faithful to the message that there is one God and one mediator (Christ) and that a teacher chosen must be someone committed to the "true faith" (verse 7). He is told that there would be those who were never committed to Christ and would fall by the wayside and teach things taught by demons! (Any of those teachers in your church? There have been in every church I've ever served in.)

Paul instructs Timothy to point out false doctrines (4:6ff). We are simply not to allow false doctrine to be preached or taught in the church...period. It must be called out and corrected. That might mean exposing some false teacher's teachings in order to demonstrate how and why they are false. That might mean showing how some revered conference leader is teaching false doctrines and urging our members not to associate themselves with such a conference leader.

Just because someone writes a book, that is no reason to believe or follow what they write. Many contemporary writers present their knuckle headed ideas and then go searching for some Bible verse that proves their position.

Do you remember the "Prayer of Jabez?" What a farce! What a stupid, asinine, heretical use of one part of one verse to form a doctrine of getting God to do what you want Him to do! Yet many, many preachers and other Christians fell for it, hook, line and sinker. There was not even a pretense of seeking a context of the verse, let alone substantiating it with other Scripture.

Come on, Christians! (The bold letters mean I'm yelling) Get with God's program! Let the Holy Spirit put God's Law of love and grace in your hearts, and stop this silly business of using Scripture to prove what you want it to prove!

STOP IT! (The bold capitalized letters mean I'm yelling even louder.) READ THE BIBLE AS A NARRATIVE AND FIND OUT WHAT IT REALLY MEANS (The underline means I'm just about screaming.)

Use the chapters, verses and section topics as aids. Don't think they are part of God's inspiration.

Christians Need REAL Biblical Discernment

What would you call a “Christian” speaker, conference leader and self-described spiritual authority who:

Engages in Contemplative Spirituality (a mystical practice not found in Scripture which includes elements of eastern mysticism.)?

Claims to have direct revelation from God apart from Scripture?

Is involved with false teachers such as Joel Osteen and Louie Giglio?

Claims to have visions and direct encounters with Jesus?

Claims to have been shown the world through His eyes, and heard God's voice personally? 

Has had “personal revelations” not in the bible that "Jesus" then said to teach from?

Asserts that what is received from God was given as a secret, but 'He knows I'm going to tell it.'

States unequivocally "I am not a sinner"?

Wrote a book, claiming to have received the book directly from God as if a force had taken control of the writing?

Claims to have been with Jesus in another dimension and was taught new things?

Twists scripture and compares personal exposition to credible teachers' work?

Wants you to feel your theology?

On a personal website does not draw firm doctrinal lines while implying the Roman Catholic Church is a Christian denomination alongside the Methodist, Baptist, and other denominations?

Has a penchant for making promises about God's intentions, as if to know at any given moment what God would do in this or that situation?

What would you call such a person in light of 1Timothy 1:3; 1:7; 4:1; 4:7; 4:16 and 6:3?

Would the fact that this person has a very, very large following make it alright for a few false doctrines to slip in?

Would the fact that a person speaks well, uses interesting illustrations, looks sincere and has great enthusiasm make a few false doctrines OK?

Would you call that person a false teacher?

You would not be wrong to call that person Beth Moore.

Further references: 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 12:10; Hebrews 5:14.

Heaven Is for Real

Christians are often characterized as ignorant, “right-wing” red-necks who live in an imaginary world. The sad thing is, many who call themselves Christians are exactly that. They have been so steeped in the selective use of Scripture for legalistic lifestyles that they fall for anything.

In recent years they have manifested that tendency by falling for Hollywood’s portrayal of Biblical events. They have fallen for The Passion of the Christ. They have fallen for Noah. Now they are poised to fall for another, more insidious movie, Heaven Is for Real.

Come to think of it, this penchant for all things Hollywood is not really new. The Ten Commandments was so well accepted as to cause people to think Charlton Heston really was Moses. Biblically, it was not all that accurate. At best it was marginally more accurate than many others.

At any rate, this new movie (based on the book of the same name) propagates the absurd idea that someone has been to Heaven and returned to report on the experience. This is nothing more than superstitious nonsense built on spiritual mysticism and vain imaginations.

If anyone actually HAD gone to Heaven and returned, their only reports would be of the majesty, excellence and glory of Christ. Instead they report about their good feelings, their happiness and how comforted they were. They report about having had fun, received special treatment, and how much more they understand than they ever did before. That would not be the focus of one who had entered Christ’s presence.

What does the Bible have to say on the subject?

John 3:13 says, ““No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” And John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time.”

Some of the Bible’s writers had visions of Heaven. None had near-death experiences. Paul and John fall into this category. Micaiah and Stephen had what seemed to be glimpses of Heaven, but neither described their experiences.

Lazarus died and John spent a chapter about the event without a word about Heaven, even after Jesus resurrected Lazarus. Both Elijah and Eutychus died and came back, but neither gave any description of their experiences, either.

Only three men wrote about what they saw when they glimpsed Heaven—and the details they gave were comparatively sparse (Isaiah 6:1–4; Ezekiel 1, 10; Revelation 4–6). All of them focused properly on God’s glory. None of them reported anything except fear and shame in the presence of God’s glory.

The issue is that “Christians” are far too unsatisfied with Christ and continually seek to add to or somehow verify their Christian experience. They soak themselves in superstition, secularism, spiritual mysticism and vain imaginations instead of focusing on the Christ of the Bible.

One who is saved will have a personal relationship with God through Christ and will need nothing more to confirm it.

The Proper Use of Scripture

IJohn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Many people have that verse as their favorite Scripture. They may use it as a source of comfort. They might consider it some sort of release to sin; being assured that there is forgiveness for them. For some people, every time they sin they “claim” this verse to soothe their conscience.

God does forgive. He has forgiven us in Christ. He sees us as perfect through the shed blood of Christ. But this is not the proper application of this verse. (The idea that there is only one interpretation but many applications is born of ignorance and is untrue. Scripture is not intended to be “applied” randomly and “as needed.”) The statement in John 1:9 is true, of course, but it is meant to be applied to the context of the entire book, not as a stand alone passage.

The verse in question is a part of a great dissertation by John, one who had seen Jesus with his own eyes as the one who created the entire universe, including mankind. It is not about us, it is about Him. It is John’s message about Him to us. In this book John is proclaiming what he has seen (Jesus) and what he has heard (Jesus message of the Kingdom of God).

Because the Scripture has been chopped up into chapters and verses (using the excuse that it is therefore easier to “find one’s way around in the Bible”), there is a tendency to ascribe to short parts of it that which is not a part of the whole. That’s an eternal mistake.

The book of John is about the magnificent salvation that has been made available to any person. In keeping with Paul’s message in Romans, John recognizes that we all sin. He also tells us repeatedly that in Christ, God has provided forgiveness for our sin because He is our atoning sacrifice. It is about the evidence God has placed in our hearts under the New Covenant (Christ) of that salvation.

He tells us in no uncertain terms that there is only one Christ. He says there will be others who claim to be Messiah (and some who just think they are Jesus, not even knowing who Jesus is), but that they are imposters. Those who are in Christ will immediately recognize the imposters because we have the Holy Spirit who gives us discernment. He tells us we can know teachers of false doctrine by the power of the Holy Spirit so we can test them.

John is concerned about teachers of false doctrine. He warns us about those who would lead us down the paths of heresy, legalism and religious behaviorism. He implores us to keep our focus on Christ alone. He tells us that the love of God for us causes us to love one another. That reflects what Christ said when asked about the greatest commandment (love God and love your neighbor as yourself).

He says, “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God,” a reminder that the New Covenant is written, not in stone or on paper, but in our hearts.

John concludes by telling us why he wrote the book. It was not to give us platitudes to live by, but to assure us of the nature of the one who was from the beginning: Christ, our Lord and Savior. He proclaims that if we continue to focus on sin instead of Christ, we are not saved and need to take a look at our eternal condition before God. But, he says, if we are saved, we will recognize and run from sin, keeping our focus on no other but Jesus. Jesus is the one true God and everything else is just an idol.

Characteristics of Teachers of False Doctrine

Scripture has a great deal to say about false doctrine and those who teach it.

Matthew 7:15 warns: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.”

First Timothy deals extensively with teachers of false doctrine. In fact, that’s what the whole book is really about.

Romans 16:27 -  “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

We often emphasize the “divisions and obstacles” in this passage, but we tend to ignore the “contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught” part.

There are references to false teachers in 1 John, 2 John, Titus, the Revelation and many other places.

What are some characteristics of teachers of false doctrines and how do you recognize them.

Teachers of false doctrines typically promise what they cannot deliver. Their promises are often based on some imagined “word from God” that causes them to teach contrary to scripture or to teach practices that violate God’s set laws of finance. They eventually end up destroying the church they are supposed to serve.

In other words, the fruits of false doctrine are often collapse and church splits. Those are not acceptable fruits.

Teachers of false doctrine often stray from the gospel and teach some sort of prosperity faith, faith-healing or spiritual heresy.

Many teachers of false doctrine are leaders of very large congregations and are very charismatic. They teach a sort of “positive thinking” theosophy resulting in leading hoards astray.

Sometimes teachers of false doctrine are not the leaders of “mega-churches,” but of churches that should be growing but because of their false teachings and/or their inattention to the gospel, end up splitting instead.

Another characteristic of teachers of false doctrines is that they “experiment” with a variety of styles of both worship and education. They leave the methods that follow the principles laid out in God’s word and follow the crowds of those who are bent on becoming modernists.

The really sad thing is that leaders of the congregation who really “like the pastor” follow him over the cliff of failure and despair, blaming everything but themselves for being led down the wrong path.

More than anything else, Christians need to learn how to “rightly divide” the word, understanding that it is God’s revelation of His character, His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption.