(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.

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

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