The apostle Paul warned his young protégé pastor Timothy
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” ~2 Timothy 4:3-4
Our world is full of lies. From our governmental officials, to commercials, to our three-year-old kid trying to hide that broken vase, lies are all around us. The world is a master at presenting its counterfeit products as the genuine article. And because Christians are followers of the Truth, you would think we would be more in-tune with sniffing them out.
But many Christians believe many lies. We sometimes don’t even realize that they are lies because we’ve never actually looked them up in God’s word for ourselves. It’s just “the way it’s always been.”
There are hundreds of lies Christians believe, but there are three I have personally seen infiltrate the church, the lives of my friends and family, and even at times my own life.
Here are my top three lies Christians believe:
1. My infant baptism will get me into heaven
In my opinion, this is the most destructive lie ever told. I watched the pastor at a family member’s funeral declare that “because so-and-so was baptized as an infant he is now in heaven with our Heavenly Father.” Yet, I had never seen this person pray, read the Bible, attend church, talk about God, or even so much as bless his food. Not that those are the benchmarks of a believer, but Jesus says in Matthew 7, “You will know them by their fruit.” His life never showed a hint that God was a part of it, yet this pastor now proclaimed because of his infant baptism he was now in heaven? Really? I even, at one time, believed the lie that I would go to heaven because my parents had me baptized as a baby. That was, until I actually read the Bible.
As a pastor, I’ve had numerous people in my community ask if I would baptize their child and when I ask them “Why?” the usual response is “Because their mother (or grandmother) would want it done.” They’ve never attended church, but they believe baptism is that magic bullet that everyone needs. Get baptized and I’ll be good. Yet, nowhere in God’s Word does it even mention baptizing infants, but instead, people are baptized after a personal faith experience with Jesus. Baptism doesn’t “save” you. Ask the thief on the cross who it was that pulled his nails out so he could get down and be baptized. Yet Jesus told him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Practically speaking, when has a parent EVER been able to make a decision for their child? You can’t. Ultimately, they make their own decisions. All we can do is teach and guide them into making the right ones. So what makes us think that we can make the most important decision of their life, the decision to follow Jesus, for them? Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…” It’s our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross that saves us. Baptism is simply an expression of our decision to place our faith in Jesus.
2. All Christians need to do is be “good.”
That is what a “good Christian does.” This lie is one of the enemy’s greatest weapons. He wants us to believe that if we just “act” a certain way and keep up appearances that we will be okay.
But “good” according to whom? Have you ever read the 10 Commandments? Every single one of us falls short of God’s standards. Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). If you are banking on your “goodness” to get you into heaven, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
It is through the Holy Spirit that we are empowered to do God’s work. But, our salvation rests on knowing Christ, loving him completely, nothing else.
God will not ask if you were a good person when you stand before Him. He knows you’re not. What He will want to know is if you personally knew His son Jesus, loved him, and followed him.
3. God wants us to be happy.
Well, maybe, but He wants you to be holy. Happiness in Scripture is usually referred to as fleeting. Neither God’s word or Jesus (or anyone else for that matter) ever tell us that God wants us to “be happy.” Instead, He wants us to be: righteous, holy, godly, pure, blameless, self-controlled, etc… but “happy” ain’t on the list.
God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness.
If you have ever truly followed God for any length of time you’ll know that it’s not easy. If it was easy everybody would be doing it. But following Jesus is hard work, frustrating, and draining at times. Yet the reward, blessing, peace and fruit, far outweigh our temporal sufferings.
The truth is that being happy and content in our daily lives is a by-product of following Jesus with an obedient heart, but it is not the reason we follow Him. We give our lives to Him because His love and sacrifice demands a response. But life in Christ is not synonymous with happiness. Happiness is indeed a part of it, a wonderful part, but it’s not the goal.
Lies only lead people away from the truth. The only person we can always trust is Jesus. So don’t ever take another person’s word for granted when it comes to the truth of God’s word, but search the Bible for yourself. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find.
I appreciate the goal of this article but feel it needs some perspective added to it. I completely agree with you on what you are disagreeing with regarding the first point, however I would be careful with how you are describing how we “know” someone is a Christian, particularly;
“Yet, I had never seen this person pray, read the Bible, attend church, talk about God, or even so much as bless his food. His life never showed a hint that God was a part of it, yet he was now in heaven?.”
While I do agree that these are very good things, you just watered down Christianity to a tiny precious individual experience that many people do in the church that are not saved and the things you mention in point 3 are far above the simple things you listed here. I understand the point but I would really engage your heart as to how you are measuring your own Christian walk if these are the ones you run to and how you so quickly compare these things to someone being saved as opposed to baptism. I do agree that many times these practices are found in many to most Christian’s lives. Furthermore I would like to point out that in section 2, you point out that none of us are good and we are saved because we know and love God. While I would challenge this as well, as our salvation is rested on Christ, his work, death and resurrection alone, I will say that our know of and love for Him is our response to God in accepting that truth through the Holy Spirit’s work in us; when I say know and love I mean, becoming his pot, sheep, servant, friend, child and wife. So when Christ says I never knew you it means you are not these or rather knowing him mean embracing him as the potter, shepherd, master, friend, father and husband. I bring this to bear because it is important to give people the grace and peace of the knowledge of their salvation given by God merely accepted and lived in by us.
I would consider section 3 in a new light, especially considering that they are sitting next to each other. I warn you against completely minimizing the idea of happiness, particularly in the aspect of God’s hope for our lives. Several commentaries explain that happiness is a possible word to parallel with the word blessed in the beatitudes. I do agree that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Jefferson since of the word is in correct but yet, life, liberty and happiness from a scriptural aspect is part of what God is offering; Eternal Life with God, Freedom from Sin, Happiness with God and enjoying the blessings he gives us the greatest of which is Him.
I would like to focus on the aspect of how you view happiness, or rather how you experience God in your life. Reading this it seems like you have not realized the parallel of your relationship with your children and your relationship with God; do you really care only about your children’s right behavior? Of course not! I know you buy your children gifts, ice cream and take them on fun trips. In the same way God does give us things to enjoy and delight in. The issue is when the entirety of life is aimed at those things alone, when they take the sole priority over and above other essential things and when they handle them in an improper way. It is true that He cares first for our holiness but that is not above our happiness; it is rather like the foundation of a house making a house more stable, thus the more holy a person is the happier they will be. God made us; he is explaining to us how to live according to our design and purpose. In the same way that you want your child to be able to enjoy a milk shake but you wouldn’t give him one if he threw it across the room, pour it on his head or would be gluttonous, it is the same way that God wants us to engage in holiness with him in order to enjoy Him and the blessings He has for us.
In one aspect I am agreeing with what you are saying, but I am totally disagreeing with how you are saying it, because you are shaping how people view their relationship with God through it. Like marriage, which God uses as a look through a lens darkly as to relationship with Him, it can be hard, grueling and exhausting but it is worth it.
I would also totally disagree that part of the reason that we follow God is not for happiness, surely it’s not the only reason but you have watered down the entire experience of knowing God down to sheer duty, that’s horrible. If that is how you view your relationship with God I weep for you. Is that how you are shaping your children’s hearts, to create in them a heart merely begrudgingly obeys you? No, not at all, I know you want them to enjoy you, to look up to you, to have the joy and anticipation of knowing your words are trustworthy. To look at it another way, is having sex with your wife merely obedient? Absolutely not, it is obedient, but you also enjoy it, it fulfills you, it builds you both up, it strengthens your relationship. I make this point because God literally makes the point that he will know us and we will call him Ishi (husband). God looks at us like this and wants us to enjoy this with him.
Let me say that I do not mean to say that all of life is going to be a bowl of cherries, but rather that do not sacrifice the idea happiness on the altar of holiness but rather to explain that holiness and/or obedience is the framework of blessing and many times happiness. I do not minimize that many times things will not makes since, be easy or be a happy moment and many times it will require extreme trust, but all because part of starry night is black does not mean it is not a beautiful picture. I also wanted to make the point that when you are refuting lies, you are not merely explaining a negative but need to support a positive and that positive is not merely a truth or a belief but relationship and a covenant.
I hope you are doing well Darin. I will be praying for you that you will be able to enjoy the fullness of who God is and what He has for you. God is not a task master, the opposite in fact. He is the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… or rather, He is The Lord your God who brought you into His house, the house of freedom, so you could be his wife, care for you, provide for you, shape you, teach you, give you the entirety of his wisdom and inheritance, that you would be royalty in a land of no government, well fed in a land of famine, loved when you have only known hatred, enjoyed when people have ignored you, adored when you have been abandon, justified when all else condemned you, and healed when you have only known sickness.
RedeemedReformed… thank you for your comments. You took my post and expanded them and most of what you shared I wholeheartedly agree. Though I feel you assumed too much and expressed thoughts on my behalf which I did not say, and at times used absolutes on my part. Also, not sure what to think about another dude talking about my sex-life, but hey, I’m always fine with increasing talk about it.
With regards to point 1, nobody “knows” if one is saved but God. He alone knows the heart. My point in listing out “pray, read the Bible, attend church, talk about God, or even so much as bless his food” was that there will be evidence of a regenerate heart. Not that those are the litmus test, but in New Testament terms there will be fruit. I knew that family member for 24 years and there was no fruit/evidence in his life. Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruit.”
In regards to point 3, I do not feel as though I “completely minimized the idea of happiness.” The point I was trying to make is that many people go to God expecting to find a life filled with nothing but happiness, and are then disappointed when life gets tough; and Jesus promises that it will get tough (2 Tim 3:12). Happiness is absolutely a blessing that comes in following Christ, but even when life sucks the happiness out of us we can still grow in holiness. You say that holiness “is rather like the foundation of a house making a house more stable, thus the more holy a person is the happier they will be.” Again I agree, but you cannot switch the two around and say the happier a person is the more holy they will be. Thus in God’s eyes holiness proves its importance over happiness.
As a blog post I simply wanted to address the three biggest issues I see in Christian’s lives around here. Books could obviously be written on each subject in depth, which I don’t plan on doing. But it was good chatting with you L.S. Hope you’re doing well too!!
Sorry to Offend. I won’t post again. Seeya.
You didn’t offend.