Decisions, decisions — which superhero cliché to use first?

How about none. Instead, we’ll forgo an introduction and just “take off.” Oops.

So here they are, the first of I’m-guessing-20 comparisons¹: modern spiritual superheroes² in trivia-slideshow style, along with some very amateur Photoshopping. ³

Superman — John Piper

Superman

Mild-mannered by day, and passionate and powerful — also by day. Surely the first and most popular of superheroes could not be assigned to any other modern-day author/teacher.

Like the Man of Steel, Piper’s care for humanity is easily seen. God-given fervor for seeing, savoring and delighting in doctrinal truth help him soar. He can bend Scriptural steel with his bare hands, shoot heat rays from his eyes. And Piper even lives and works in Minneapolis, preaching at a great metropolitan church, weekly.

Members of that church and others who’ve read Desiring God or heard his many online sermons would agree that he genuinely cares about doing good. A Boy-Scout hero. His only weakness? Many kinds of Kryptonite, such as too-frequent Twittering and TV-watching. We can all identify.

Yes, as with the Last Son of Krypton, some people think Piper is too serious about his job. But confronting evil, not to mention superficiality in the Church, is serious business. Besides, at the right moment he’s just as quick with a quip as any of the “flightier” heroes. Catch him in civilian mode: quirky as Clark Kent, with a contagious grin. All that’s missing is the eyeglass-shove.

Fighting for truth, justice and Christian Hedonism, in a world that so needs all three — that’s Pastor Piper. You’ll believe a man can cry.

Batman — John MacArthur

The Batman

Some may question his methods. Some may even call him too serious. But you can’t question his almost cheerful commitment to rid Christianity of bad teaching. That’s John MacArthur, author, dark knight of Gotham City (Los Angeles) and pastor at his own Batcave, Grace Community Church.

Possessing no superpowers, Johnny-Mac (his alter-ego) is still a man of stealth, strength and many other talents. When he’s not writing books about holy living or particular religious crimes against truth, he’s applying his detective skills to Scriptural study and finding forensic evidence from the worst abuses of the Bible. Supervillains such as The Joelker (Joel Osteen) may try their doctrinal crimes, but one pellet of Bat-prosperity-preacher repellant makes them flee.

He may be dark and brooding, and even sometimes work against other spiritual superheroes. He and Superman (John Piper) may have some disagreements, but they’re on the same side. However, grittier heroes like Wolverine (Mark Driscoll) definitely get on Bats’ nocturnal nerves.

Wonder Woman — Beth Moore

Wonder Woman

Some may have thought superheroing was strictly man’s work. Then from a mysterious island came a new kind of hero. Deep-South drawl. Great hair. Flashy duds. Let’s not picture any more wardrobe descriptions that lead to unfortunate mental images.

Beth Moore wards off almost all criticism with her magic Baptist-woman arm bracelets. Many truths in the Bible are lassoed by her golden lariat. Yet some would argue that really, most other heroes already had her same powers, such as flight, strength and durability. So there’s some overlap. But when you’re in the thick of battle, even the redundant heroes are helpful.

Sure, more-complementarian superheroes, male or female, would prefer she work better under the leadership of male heroes. But you can’t deny her positive effects, especially if your church has an unfortunate absence of male heroes. If Wonder Woman arrives, you had best watch out.

Beware especially if it’s the day of her new small-group curriculum’s release, and you’re caught between a Christian bookstore and a stampeding horde of her fans, the Blue-Haired Amazons. And if you’re actually the quasi-Christian husband of one of those fans, Hera help you.

Mr. Fantastic — Al Mohler

Mr. Fantastic

Is anyone as flexible as the author/speaker/talk-radio host/blogger/husband/father/chronic reader/president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary? How does he do it?

Clearly, Al Mohler as Mr. Fantastic is blessed by some cosmic storm with powers of extreme flexibility. He can stretch his body and limbs amazing distances to do superhero work. He’s able to wrap around multiple projects simultaneously.

Meanwhile, he’s very much a leader of other heroes. Since assuming the presidency of the largest seminary of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, Mr. Fantastic has led a team of at least Fantastic Four, and many other heroes with many diverse callings and powers. Only Professor Charles Xavier (C.J. Mahaney) could perhaps boast an equally large training academy for young heroes just developing their abilities.

And while Mr. Fantastic is quite a public presence with impressive speaking gifts, he’s equally at home in the lab, perhaps working on a few more Fantasticar-style vehicles for Biblical worldview messages to the masses. We can only hope and pray this leader and super-stretchy spiritual star doesn’t stretch himself too far.

Iron Man — James White

Iron Man

With all his technical expertise and charisma (though we would doubt the multibillionaire parts, not to mention the skirt-chasing), James White could have chosen a different life. Instead, perhaps after an attack by enemies of the Church that changed his life, he did something few others do. He studied the mechanisms of apologetics, built himself a suit of armor made from right exegesis and Biblically based logic, and became a hero who is made, not born.

He’s sarcastic, with indestructible arguments proving Jesus’ divinity, Reformed grace doctrines, justification through faith and more. Very often you’ll find him firing repulsor-blasts from his hands in debates with members of the Mandarin (the Mormons) Iron Monger (Bart Ehrman) and of course Whiplash (Dan Barker).

Iron Man’s battles over the Bible have led him even into conflicts with other heroes, most notably The Hulk (Dave Hunt). Some may wonder whether such force against The Hulk is necessary, but others point out it wasn’t Iron Man who started that fight. And let’s face it, very often you need even a man with inner flaws like us all, to swoop in with his high-tech suit, save the day, and blast false teachers to smithereens. That’s a — ahem — stark reality.

(Continued from Christian myths, part 1: Cautions before busting and Christian myths, part 2: To bust or not to bust.)

What do you do if someone says music with a beat is evil? Or that anything except music with a beat is evil? What if you hear someone quote a verse and interpret it in a way that you know isn’t what the verse means at all? Or maybe a Christian friend keeps telling you (I hope gently) that you’re views are against the Bible. Is it always wrong to bring this up? Divisive? Unloving?¹

What I’ve found is that sometimes it can be, if love is not the main motive. Yet love doesn’t automatically mean you look past lies. Scripture presents both sides: love, and uphold truth.

As promised, to end this little series: three reasons, Biblically based, to bust Christian myths.

1. Much of Scripture specifically refutes wrong beliefs with the truth.

This is especially true in the epistles. With few exceptions (Romans, Philippians), most of them were written in direct response to falsities. They didn’t just write the truth and ignore the lies.

Paul penned Galatians because they were dealing with Jewish legalistic leaders, the Judaizers, who sought to add to the Gospel with new rules and regulations.

The Corinthian church got Paul’s scorchers (especially 1 Corinthians) because they were compromising with culture and buying into false beliefs about the body.

Jude’s short book would have been written only about what Christians had in common — salvation (verse 3) — but he switched and wrote about lies.

I could even suggest that God allowed humans to sin so that His perfection would be magnified even more. Though Scripture doesn’t say this exactly, I’m guessing that in the New Earth we’ll find the truth (if we ever do) is close to that, anyway. At the very least I can say this: for me, learning to debunk the lies makes the truth, and the God of truth, seem even more glorious.

2. We must know more about how to pick out Christian lies in our own lives.

Any Christian’s growth to be more like God comes from God. Yet we don’t just sit there like fatalists and wait for this to happen. The Bible still encourages us to try, though we know it is actually God working in us (Philippians 2: 12-13). God works His will through what we do.

Understanding about spiritual truth also comes from the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2: 14-15). Yet we’re still encouraged to fight for it. Paul’s encouragement to Timothy does say not to argue about mere words, and avoid “irreverent babble.” But the apostle also says to him, rightly handle the word of truth (1 Timothy 2: 14-16)! ² The apostle’s advice to him surely applies not just to young Christian pastors, for we find similar admonitions to all believers. Avoiding “irreverent babble,” including false doctrines, and seeking the truth takes action — action God enables.

Have you seen what I’ve come to see — that many Christians are very capable of knowing, receiving and loving God’s truth, even while carrying on in beliefs that are contradictory? Might it be God’s grace that enables them not to see the contradiction and be mostly okay anyway?

But it might also be God’s grace that brings a caring friend, a firm correction from a pastor, a well-placed book, or a web-article that happens by, to show what Scripture really says.

Sometimes it takes a direct word about a specific belief to show how it doesn’t match the Bible.

Figure A:

When I was younger, I had the default view many Christians have about following God’s will. I thought that very likely the most “spiritual” thing to do in seeking God’s will was to get a Still Small Voice in my head that would say so. Or there would be a sign to confirm that a decision was the right one. Or it would somehow be so spiritually obvious what school major to choose, which job was the right one, whom God wanted me to marry, that sort of thing.

The difference was, I actually never followed that method exactly! I just thought something like this: well, if I did live that way, that would be so much more Spiritual, wouldn’t it?

I was not a false Christian. I believed the Gospel. I loved Jesus. But still I had the wrong ideas, buried deep down in my head. I don’t even remember anyone teaching them to me. And I had not read some book about it. They were just floating around, in church culture, unchallenged.

It took specific debunking of those ideas — including a bold little book by John MacArthur called Found: God’s Will — to show me how these subtle notions didn’t match the Gospel at all.³

3. We are better able to help Christian friends who still believe the lies.

Surely this isn’t just me whose afternoon can be ruined by hearing that someone I know — or a friend or acquaintance of someone I know — is getting deeper into some anti-Biblical belief.

• Based on what she has said, a young woman is very likely sure, based on church teachings or lack thereof, that suffering and trouble are almost always from the Devil.
• A young man without a father figure in his life is drawn to “patriocentrist” circles. By that I mean a false system of safety, family structure, culture influence and personal holiness at least as long as you follow the rules and become a “man” in the patriocentrist leaders’ way.
• Another teenage boy, raised in a strongly Christian homeschooled environment, brilliant and gifted, is kept from attending any college because he is convinced it might corrupt him.
• A woman on an internet forum is convinced there can be something called “Christian Deism” that denies the whole point of Jesus’ mission.

This site was partly started as a resource to reach out to such people. Whether it’s seemingly little lies like looking for God’s will in wrong ways, or bigger errors like Jesus-taught-a-“social-Gospel,” believing myths doesn’t just make as wrong academically. False belief hurts people. It ruins lives. In the worst cases, it leads to someone not having been a Christian at all.

So go myth-bust. Let’s labor to locate, target, and systematically destroy the lies, mostly in ourselves — errors and myths that don’t honor God and can hurt either us or others. It’s not just good for goodness’ sake. It’s to grow in God’s truth and glorify Him above all else.

(Continued from Christian myths, part 1: Cautions before busting.)

On Monday afternoon I came home from work, and about tore out several of my personal hairs.

It was because of my wife. Yet let me quickly say I was not being mean; my frustration wasn’t because of anything she said. It was because of a Friday Wretched Radio broadcast that she played for me.

“Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

A woman called in to this Christian talk-radio program, hosted by Todd Friel. She didn’t pick much on Todd, but on one of his friends, a guy named Justin Peters. This teacher/speaker has a ministry particularly geared toward pointing out the wrong teachings and heresies of “Word Faith” leaders, such as Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn and (everyone’s favorite) Joel Osteen. A victim of mild cerebral palsy, Peters’ purpose is to show video clips of the “prosperity” preachers at churches, then carefully, Biblically explain why their teachings are anti-Biblical.

Well, this myth-busting of people who had made Such a Difference in this dear lady’s life didn’t sit well with her. She started off by condemning Peters for being so mean and for condemning other Christians … uh, yeah. Think about that last sentence from a logical-fallacy perspective. Todd brought up that little inconsistency, very graciously yet clearly.

Bing went one hair from my head.

Then she went on into general admonitions that Peters should be more “loving.”

Boink. Bing. Out went a few more hairs, along with a howl — loving, but lamenting.

Toward the last, the woman even brought up the “judge not lest ye be judged” notion. By that point she was just hurling clichés, leading by her own feelings, arguing from emotions, not a lot of Biblically informed thought. And I had pulled out at least a few more clumps of hair.

Finally she parted with a gushing blessing on Todd Friel, but without willingness to see her inconsistencies or even lack of concern for those who have been deceived by false teachers.

Even if God had worked through the false teachers to convey some truth to her, it didn’t matter that almost all of what they said otherwise was heresy. All that seemed to matter to her was her own experience. So regretfully classic. “Bless her heart.”

What would she say if she met the young man I heard interviewed, who had been “healed” by Benny Hinn yet was still partially blind?

What about a man who has worked for years to honor God and provide for his family, yet doesn’t have enough “faith” to get a ministry empire like Joel Osteen?

What if she had bought steak from a grocery and had no problems herself — would it matter much to her if almost all the other packages were putrid and gave people salmonella poisoning?

Please, before moving on to this post, pray for this woman — and for many like her! Such persons, even if they are true Christians, have adopted the belief that it’s almost always wrong (except for them) to myth-bust other Christians, even directly and in public. It will hurt people.

You have met them. Maybe you are one of them yourself — or maybe just a little.

Either way, I hope you’ll read the rest with a spirit of Christ-honoring open-mindedness. If this is the case, might you for a moment dismiss whatever experiences you’ve had with abuses of Christian myth-busting, or God using a particular teacher for you despite his un-Biblical beliefs, and consider: is myth-busting, when done right, Biblical? ¹

Starting on Saturday, I’ll list at least three reasons why it is.

Maybe you can think of a few more reasons. Or maybe you’ll think of rebuttals.² Regardless, please post your thoughts. “Discernment” can be done wrong, that’s for sure! Yet done right, with love and Biblical balance, busting Christian myths honors God and points people toward His truth and His love — and most of all, His glory.

(Continued from Camels and needles, the Kingdom and peoples, part 1.)

Other verses truly are about how the love of possessions can lead to sin (1 Timothy 6:10). To learn that lesson, we can refer to those passages. But Mark 10 is not about that.

Did the disciples think like a lot of us do: that of course, the money of the rich gets in the way of true goodness and spiritual concerns? If they did, why were they “exceedingly astonished”? Instead they would have nodded their heads, like we often do. Yes, that ugly Donald Trump, living it up, buying whole island chains during coffee breaks — he’ll never get into Heaven.

Rather, to Christ’s disciples, the “rich” was not our perception of a greedy uber-capitalist Bernie Madoff. To them, rich people were religious scholars, people who cared for the Earth, community pillars, recyclers, good people who gave to charity and helped the poor. Their wealth enabled them to be more spiritual than thou. Without the pressures of a 50-hour-a-week job, they had more time to be spiritual and donate to all the worthy causes.

Jesus took direct aim. In effect, He said that it would be easier for a literal camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for anyone uber-“good” to enter the Kingdom of God.

Further in

How about this? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a (select one: dedicated public schoolteacher, loving mother, soup-kitchen volunteer, 50-year missionary veteran, Mother Teresa, the Pope, Billy Graham, Bono) to enter the kingdom of God.

If such good people can’t get into God’s kingdom, no one can. Not by himself. Not by virtue of goodness or wealth or spirituality or care for the Earth or giving money to the poor and needy.

“With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

So it turns out any of those people could get into the kingdom of Heaven. A Pharisee could get there. A rich person could get there. Billy Graham could get there. A schoolteacher, a charity worker, Mother Teresa and Bono could get there, too. But not because of their good deeds.

Only if God makes it possible can a rich or “spiritual” person be saved. If you’re relying on good works, love for your neighbor, following the “golden rule” or charity work, you won’t get in.

Like many people, I heard this teaching of Christianity through all my life: salvation is only from Jesus, good works won’t save you, and so on. But it took someone debunking the wrong idea of this passage for me to see that this truth was here too.

Jesus was consistent. He did not spout off a Book-of-Proverbs-style statement to confuse us. He said He was the only way to enter the Kingdom, and He stayed on message, always.

Isn’t this meaning almost exactly opposite to how the verse is read today?

New strains of “Christians” (real and otherwise) pushing for “social justice” may hear the needle’s-eye-gate myth, debunk it, and claim real Christians should see wealth as inherently evil. But to borrow another metaphor only Christ could create, they’ve caught a gnat-sized error in their strainer — but swallowed a camel.

If you trust in your riches and charity work instead of Christ, you’ll die. Trust in some notion of virtuous poverty and caring for the needy? You’ll also die. All people’s own “righteousness” amount to filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6), and without the right faith, any good deed mutates into sin (Romans 14:23, Hebrews 11:6). Only Christ through His fulfillment of the Law (the real one) and suffering and death as an atoning sacrifice for sins (1 John 4:10), not human works or “righteousness,” can save.

Was there ever a “needle’s eye gate” in first-century Jerusalem?

Every once in a while you hear this anecdote tossed about in reference to Jesus’ famous metaphor in Matthew 19¹. It goes like this: in Jerusalem of Jesus’ day, there was a very small, very tight passage through which it was really hard to get a camel. So that is what Jesus was talking about.

The better commentaries and study-Bible notes² bust that myth: there was no such gate. The only sources for that idea are commentaries long after the first century. To say Jesus meant it was only pretty hard for the rich to get into the Kingdom, not impossible, rejects the true meaning.

But there is an even greater error Christians believe based on that verse.

Have you heard of it? Nowadays, with all the “social gospel,” Christianity-is-about-helping-your-neighbor-and-feeding-the-poor notions around, it’s even more prevalent.

Ye have heard that it was said …

The Bible says rich people’s money may keep them from the Kingdom.

AKA: Jesus opposes wealth.

Figure A:

Many fundamentalists seek to explain away the obvious hostility to wealth in the saying attributed to Jesus [. . .] Unfortunately for the fundamentalists, the concensus [sic] of New Testament scholars is that Matthew’s passage barring rich people from heaven means exactly what it says. It remains to be seen how many of them are willing to give up all their wealth in accordance with the ideals they claim to profess.³

What’s the truth in this?

Everyone knows about the “prosperity preachers,” who talk and act as if all the blessings for believers in the Bible refer to material wealth if you’re only do this-and-such faith maneuver. It would be grave error to think that just because the “poverty is more Biblical” idea is wrong, the opposite extreme is the more-Biblical view. …

What’s the lie in this?

Jesus is not making some statement about the Virtuous Poor, or about how only too many possessions get in the way of true faith. If He did, we would see it here. But read the whole passage — you don’t.

Absolutely we find encouragements in other Scriptures to give to others. That should be the God-given attitude of every Christian, out of gratitude for what God has given us. Barnabas, an encouragement-gifted apostle, started a land-donation “program” of sorts in the very early Church (Acts 5; also note that Ananias and Saffira were not condemned and struck dead for keeping profits but for lying to the Holy Spirit). Paul encouraged not giving under compulsion, but from a heart that was cheerful (2 Corinthians 9). Nothing in the Bible supports forced redistribution of wealth by the church ⁴.

What’s the Word?

Jesus had talked to a rich man who was convinced he had kept all Ten Commandments. Jesus quizzed him about whether the man would be willing to give up all his wealth as well. But that was the young man’s idol. He simply left, sorrowful (v. 22).

(Continued in Camels and needles, the Kingdom and peoples, part 2.)

Here’s a tip on how to make counterfeit money, right here on a Christian site: Don’t put much effort into your bad bills — only enough to get a few past someone who’s not really looking.

Real crooks and counterfeiters never do, anyway. Instead of painstakingly making fake versions of a real bill, they put little manpower into their designs. But it makes sense. After all, they only need their bills to pass a casual inspection. If someone familiar with a real bill’s facets stares hard, the jig is up.

That’s according to blogger Tim Challies. A while ago for some research, he naturally went to the best place to learn about doctrinal discernment: a local bank. Christians should be glad he did. It gives more truth to that usual “study truth so you’ll know the error instantly” argument.

But I wonder how many Christians, even those who have gotten all those email forwards¹ about real/counterfeit money and discernment, wind up making some errors even when it comes to the business of finding errors. While starting a site about debunking Christian myths, it’s worth remembering that!

Three potential side effects of busting Christian myths come to mind:

1. We don’t even bother to look for errors.

Call me crazy, but somehow I get the notion that many Christians out there still have this take on things, even in our modern 21st-century society.

Let’s say a Secret Service agent trainee sits in that room full of cash all day long, staring at the bills and figuring out what’s right about them, and feeling really good about it. Yet when the time comes to get out there and discern fake cash, the trainee would rather stay in the room, fondle the bills, figure out what’s right about them, and keep feeling really good about it.

Yes, we as trainees need to keep up the training. We never finish studying and familiarizing ourselves with truth. But even then, we need to get out there and engage with others, trade in the commerce of ideas both inside and outside the Church, and keep sharp eyes for the lies.

Exception: Not all Christian “agents” are meant to deal specifically with counterfeit money. Some may have other spiritual gifts, such as encouragement or showing mercy (1 Corinthians 12). But Scripture doesn’t have little footnotes after verses saying you-must-discern, adding “some manuscripts include ‘… unless you have a really big heart.’” All believers should at least have a working knowledge of how to spot un-Biblical ideas, both minor and major. And all should have the willingness to do something about it — even if it means calling for backup from those who have more teaching-and-preaching-style spiritual gifts.²

2. We spend all our time looking for lies, not truth.

Some Christians, most likely annoyed ones, could list a few “discernment ministries” or “watchdogs” out there³ that spend so much time trying to debunk the bad stuff that they a) become really cynical about all these lies Christians believe, b) sound really cynical, c) lose sight of the glorious truth and the Bible’s big picture, d) overreach and start picking on stuff that really doesn’t matter, i.e. keyboards vs. organs, e) all of the above.⁴

Perhaps the worst of those possibilities is the very real chance of studying lies so much that you start believing them yourself — because that’s all you’ve studied! An oft-cited example is Saruman, the wicked wizard from The Lord of the Rings epic, who studied the evil power of the Dark Lord Sauron for so long that he himself became evil and even allied with the dark lord. For true Christians, there’s no danger of becoming apostate.⁵ But studying lies so much that you enjoy that more than God’s truth may be a sure sign your “faith” was not real, nor saving.

God forbid that any Christians who lean toward the spiritual-discernment side of things gets so wrapped up in trying to spot mistakes. We would either miss what is right, or fail to learn such things so that we can help others, and have the truth become so much more glorious to us!

3. Looking mostly for big lies, we miss the little lies.

Tim Challies in his columns went on to write about how many Canadians had become panicked during a counterfeit-money scare. Media reports had exaggerated the amount of fake $100 bills being spread around, implying a local problem was nationwide.

While many people were worried about fraudulent $100 bills, many $5’s, $10’s and $20’s were no doubt slipping through unnoticed. We see a similar situation in the church. It is quite rare that we are presented with fraudulent teaching that contradicts the most important teachings of Scripture. More often we are faced with issues of lesser importance than the major tenets of the faith. If we look only for false doctrine that contradicts the first-order doctrines, we may allow countless lesser errors [to] slip through.⁶

Few false teachers would walk into a church and say, Ladies and gentlemen, put down your Bibles and follow what your hearts are saying, but mostly me: this morning I shall blend Godless evolution with Genesis, demean God’s sovereignty, deny the value of Christ’s grace and talk only about God’s love but be legalistic anyway. Instead, he would be much more subtle.

However, even that still assume the only errors to look out for are the big ones. But if you focus only on the lies that keep people from being true Christians (Did Jesus come in the flesh? 1 John 4:2), you might miss the little lies (Oh yes, He came in the flesh, but He only really became God at His baptism ⁷).

Or we might miss the error that says You must not judge a fellow Christian, or in other ways, a nonbeliever (see Judging the ‘judge not’ notion from earlier this week). Or the error that says The love of the money is the root of all evil ⁸. Or the error that says We can’t possibly know anything about Heaven and it’s wrong or unspiritual to try. Or the error that says Don’t make a decision until you’ve “heard” directly from God that it’s His will.

Many Christians who believe the little lies don’t have a clue that they do. Maybe they assume these beliefs are part of Biblical truth. They’ve grown up with them, so far seen no bad fruit from them, maybe have a pleasant spiritual anecdote about them, and are convinced. They’ll likely even be bothered when you question them because they think you’re the un-Biblical one.

Also, none of these errors will keep you from being a Christian. They may be a sign you are not a Christian. But only the biggest errors can keep someone from the faith.⁹

Instead, the little errors for real Christians will be, at best, dashed inconvenient and annoying. At worst, believing the errors will keep us from glorifying God as we should and make Him “bigger,” and more incredible, to ourselves and to others.

More likely if you as a Christian let a lie go unchecked, it will prolong the process of your being “transformed by the renewal of your mind” by Christ (Romans 12:2). Make no mistake, Scripture is clear that process will happen for Christians. But leaving lies alone will make it take longer. And though one could say we must leave it to God to take care of the lies, why not delve deeper ourselves and see if He will correct them now?

We have no alternative, anyway. Scripture clearly says to do so. It’s hard to dismiss that.

Coming next week

Surely many Christians agree it’s right and Biblical to sort truth from error. They just disagree on what is truth and error, or which topics are most vital, or whether you should do it out loud or quietly, lovingly or firmly. But of course there are still those who don’t think this way. They may believe, or act according to the belief, that all Christians should do as they do: only learn the truth, and sort-of sit there and enjoy it.

That may be partly based on reading Philippians 4:8 way out of context. Or it may include silent assumptions that if they have mercy/compassion spiritual gifts, and are doing great things for God with them, everybody should practice the same gifts.

Either way, next week will be Christian myths, part 2: Believe the lies, or bust.

Here’s a quick preview: we bust lies because the Bible does, and because this helps us help other Christians. But the biggest reason of all, I would argue, is that it helps us. We learn to glorify God even better by contrast as we see Him more amazing when compared with idols, and when contrasted with darkness and lies, His light and truth are even more wondrous.

Of all the Christian myths out there, this one is surely among the big kahunas.

One might even argue it’s the biggest — at the very top of a top-ten list of Christian myths. In fact, if we can’t see its un-Biblical basis, we may not see the un-Biblical basis of anything.

The Bible has 774,746 words. This error comes from just two, ripped screaming from context.

Ye have heard that it was said …

The Bible says: “Judge not”!

AKA: The Bible says not to judge.

AKA: Christians are so judgmental.

Figure A:

A ranting fundie street preacher¹ is hollering in a secular university’s free-speech area. He catches the attention of some, the derision of most. One girl passing by think she’ll try a little drive-by shot. “The Bible says not to judge!” she blurts, and then goes on, very satisfied with her deep knowledge of Scripture.

Figure B:

Some Christian-spirituality book author, or sermon preacher, decries the image Christians have in the world. We’re too often seen as being judgmental, the leader proclaims. We need to be more loving. We need to win people with love. The Bible says, “Judge not.”

Figure C:

Christians: Since the bible says NOT to judge, why are you always judging Pagans?²

From Yahoo Answers, mid-October 2009 ³

What’s the truth in this?

Judging someone for being guilty of a sin must be done with care for at least three reasons:

1. Those who practice the same sins for which they condemn others risk God’s judgment; He is the ultimate judge (Romans 2: 1-2). That counts for sins against Him, and sins against each other — true judgment and repayment of personal wrongs is up to God, not us (Romans 12:19).
2. Sharing truth must be done with a spirit of humility and love (even if it’s tough love). All Christians have been guilty of the same kinds of evils as everyone else. The only difference is that God has saved His people from those consequences (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11).
3. Judgment should be done more in the Church than in the world, the Apostle Paul says strongly (1 Corinthians 5: 12-13). This is done to protect the boundaries of the Church, where immorality would defame the Name of Christ and must not be tolerated. To an extent, outsiders are expected to have immoral behavior. Still, that does not mean we must never point that out.

What’s the lie in this?

1. No judging allowed never ever is nowhere near what Scripture says. The whole Scripture and hundreds of separate passages assume the idea that judging is necessary. More on this below.
2. No judging allowed never ever is rarely people’s real meaning anyway. Few in practice truly mean Never judge anyone for any belief or action. Rather, it’s a card played for personal use: Don’t judge me, at least not what I’m saying now. Logically, that backfires and utterly fails.

But we needn’t even delve into all those other passages yet. Matthew 7 itself rebuts the wrong.

What’s the Word?

Two words: “Judge not”? Try reading the other 103: Christians must evaluate their own hearts before pointing out sins in others. Going from point A to point B without taking out the plank in your own eye makes little sense (note how Jesus’ hyperbole still translates to the present day). But Jesus never says always avoid point B, removing someone else’s speck. Instead, work on yourself first. “Then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

If somehow Jesus really had meant never to judge someone, by his actions or character, these verses would make no sense. To avoid giving holy things to mangy dogs or pearls to uncaring pigs, you must judge what/who is a dog or pig. Watching for false prophets requires judging.

Elsewhere, Christ Himself and epistle writers go into detail about how that looks.

Further in

The Bible is clear that Christians can and should make spiritual judgments for three reasons: to love their fellow believers and guard the glory of God; to prevent lies and their resulting evils from infesting the Church; and to emulate Jesus Himself, Who loved both grace and truth.

1. Right judgment is loving and guards God’s glory.

Too often no-judging critics treat Christian criticism of them as if it’s always about merely personal wrongs. But for matters of morality and Law, God sets the standard. If a Christian talks about the standard, he’s just the messenger.

If you saw someone trespassing on government property, it would be wrong and unloving for you not to warn him he will be shot by snipers or electrocuted if he goes further ⁴. Similarly, Christians who don’t act as if they do believe practicing sin will condemn a person to God’s “wrath and fury” (Romans 2: 3-5) would be hypocritical, anti-God and unloving.

For this reason, Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 judges all over the place. A man is shacking up with his stepmother and not being called on it, acting as though this is normal for a claimed Christian. Danger! Following the right process and throwing him out is necessary to protect the reputation of a local church and preserve the holiness of Christ’s Name. The idea is not just punishment — it is tough love. Maybe he will stop having his sin enabled, and come back and repent.

2. Not judging sins allows lies and hypocrisy to infest the Church.

One wonders if non-Christians who use the don’t-judge-ever canard take the time to think: if taken to its logical conclusion, actual tolerance (that is, peaceful coexistence with different beliefs) will go down. The hypocrisy in the church you claim you hate will skyrocket.

Failure to judge implies to the world Christians aren’t serious about sin — either in their own congregations, or in the sight of the Creator/Savior they claim to represent.

If you overcorrect for hypocritical standards or judging toward having no standards or judging at all, sure, you may allow for greater belief-diversity among “Christians.” But what you also allow is behavior like lies, backstabbing, verbal abuse, actual dangerous intolerance and thumbed noses at God’s real rules. What would keep a “Christian” from shacking up with his stepmother or a pastor with a secretary? Or a deacon from downloading child porn? Judge not.

Jesus judged people all the time — not just the Pharisees. He also encouraged His people to judge with righteous judgment, but only after first ensuring they are not guilty of the same sin.

Paul and other epistle writers did the same. Christians have the Spirit, the mind of Christ, which helps them make spiritual judgments (1 Corinthians 2: 12-16). At many points they refer to the bad guys by their very names, right there in public, such as in 1 Timothy 2:20 or Paul’s criticism of Peter himself in Galatians 2: 11-24.⁵ After all, public error sometimes needs a public correction. If you sweep public error under the rug and don’t deal with it openly, people won’t see justice done right — when they need to. Even worse, if someone is called down for sin or error and goes on to repent, no one will see that either.

And that gives quite the lie to false Christian teachers who, when confronted with public criticism, whine about how the critic didn’t come to them personally first before taking it public.⁶ If the offense were personal, there are Biblical ways of dealing with that (Matthew 18: 15-20). But for more-serious offenses against God and His truth, taking it public has Biblical precedent.

3. We must follow Christ Himself, Who brings both grace and truth.

Christ was full of grace and truth (John 1:14). His message was not just “Believe and follow Me,” but first “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). If we as Christians want to avoid the truth parts (you are a sinner) and show only grace (Christ can forgive you) that grace is worthless. Who cares for forgiveness for sins he doesn’t know about? By acting this way, we fail to show all of God’s nature to people. He is not only kind and loving, He is holy and hates sin.

Says author Randy Alcorn:

Some people hate truth. Others hate grace. Jesus loves both. We can’t undercut either without undercutting Him.

So we have to make a choice. Are we going to spend our lives trying to please the grace-haters or the truth-haters? Or are we going to seek to please the only One whose judgment seat we’ll stand before: Jesus, who is full of grace and truth? ⁷

So, for the sake of God’s glory and loving others, the purity of His people’s beliefs and holiness, and to emulate the example of Christ Himself …

Make sure you’re not judging hypocritically. Daily do spiritual surgery on your own eye-planks. But don’t blind yourself to others’ specks — either by your own sin, or by some “spiritual” notion of I Mustn’t Judge. See the evil in the world for what it is and be grieved by it. God will punish sin. And sin comes from false beliefs. What would be truly unloving is never to share those truths with others, because we’re selfishly fearful of being seen as the unloving bad guys.

On the flip side, anger against sin can come from God-given repulsion to anything He also hates, but pity for people must accompany that anger. Christians have all been guilty of the same sins and all deserve His wrath. It’s only due to His grace that we have been saved from anything!