2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Without due vigilance to obey the command to rightly handle God’s truth, it’s easy to allow our own thinking, our emotions, or the ethos of our cultural moment to shape our interpretation of Scripture. That’s one reason why my father always taught me to start with God’s Word—when we read, study, and apply God’s Word to our lives and recognize that it is our authority, it will keep us from error.
And when you don’t do that—when you allow yourself to be the authority—you can fall into more than accidental error: you can dive into downright heresy! This was highlighted recently in two stories I saw of church leaders who don’t even pretend to care about what the Bible teaches.
Here’s the first example I saw:
A United Church of Christ “minister” in LA (who refers to her sermon as “heretical”, so at least she admits it!) preached:
Well, do I think that [the resurrection] could have happened and did happen? I believe so . . . I feel it probably did.
But if I’m to be scientific or realistic I don’t know. And I say that because there’s no “proof.”
Did it really happen? . . . Did Jesus really raise from the dead? I don’t know.
If Jesus didn’t physically raise from the dead and ascend, it doesn’t change a thing about my love of God and Christ and Christianity . . . because I truly believe in my heart of hearts that my faith . . . is a resurrection faith.
Now, it should be obvious to any Christian why her hesitation to affirm the resurrection of Christ beyond a “I feel it probably did” is a problem—our very salvation depends on us affirming that we believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead!
Romans 10:9 KJV – “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
The resurrection is so central that the Apostle Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote that, without it, our faith is useless and we have no hope!
1 Corinthians 15:14, 17–19 KJV – “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain… And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
Her message is utter heretical nonsense that offers no hope to anyone for now or for eternity. She is a wolf!
Here’s the second example:
A Canadian reverend of The Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto, Ontario, preached in a sermon that for 40 years he’s wanted his church to remove the “uncomfortable” and “problematic” word Savior from the church website as that can be a “stumbling block” to potential visitors and those seeking membership at his church.
Many, before they come to our church, will check out the website to see what this church is about: so, see what they believe. And many of the folks that did that will tell me, out in the community, “Brent, I looked up your church, and it sounded reasonable, but when I got to that word Savior, it was a problem.”
I would hope that someday, this church would see the possibility of changing that word because it is a stumbling block for so many who want to be here. It is a stumbling block for people who do interfaith work. How do we explain that phrase to Muslims, and to Jews, and to Hindus?
Yikes! Another wolf. For someone to claim to be a pastor and yet fail to understand how to explain the gospel to those of other religions doesn’t make any sense until you understand that he (and you probably guessed this) doesn’t believe Jesus is the Savior in the biblical sense that you or I would mean it.
He doesn’t mean the person of Jesus Christ—the Son of God, the long-promised Messiah, and Lamb of God—who died for the sins of the world as the only hope for sin-cursed humanity. He (and he’s clear this is just his personal definition—everyone can define Savior however they want) defines the “savior” as “the person, persons, or situations that help me to heal my relationship with God.”
Because of this belief, he wants Savior—which comes with certain biblical connotations—replaced with the more meaningless guide.
I think the word guide just as effective explains the meaning, that Jesus is the one who guides us back into a healing relationship with God. It doesn’t say he is the only guide.
Everything he claims so obviously contradicts Scripture it’s hard to know where to start so I’ll just give you two Scripture verses that highlight how Jesus is not a “guide”—he’s the One who alone can save us from our sin—and that, yes, he is a stumbling block! The Bible openly admits that and commands us to teach the full counsel of God and proclaim the gospel message anyway, trusting God to remove hearts of stone and give people hearts of flesh to respond to the gospel.
Acts 4:12 KJV – “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
1 Corinthians 1:23–24 KJV – “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
Now, why do I highlight these two obvious examples of heresy from two very liberal churches? Well, for two reasons. One is as a reminder of how far someone can slide when they reject biblical authority. As soon as we start elevating man’s ideas over God’s Word, we run into error and open a door of compromise that others will kick open even further.
But the second reason I’m highlighting these examples is to encourage you, if you have a faithful pastor, to remember to thank him for what he does. So many pastors compromise God’s Word or are silent on the hot-button issues of our day. If your pastor is faithful to teach God’s Word as the authority, thank him for what he does and let him know you’re praying for him.
I’ll guarantee both the people discussed above do not believe in a literal Genesis 1–11. Rejecting Genesis 1–11 goes hand in hand with liberal theology.
And may all of us take to heart what God, through the Apostle Paul, told the young Timothy:
2 Timothy 3:14-17 KJV – “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
