11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. - Acts 17:11
It is no news flash that smart people can do some pretty dumb things. But lots of times we forget that smart people can also believe some pretty dumb things.
What possessed a military genius like Napoleon to think that the harsh Russian winter would be no match for his troops? Sure, they were well trained and well equipped, but it's not as if he had a shred of historical evidence to support his decision to march on.
What caused the leading scientists and thinkers of Galileo's day to ignore evidence they could see with their own eyes and brand him as a heretic and a quack?
And why would an otherwise brilliant leadership team at IBM bet the farm on mainframes and practically give away the PC, as well as the underlying operating system, to a young programmer named Bill Gates?
All of these, and many other equally baffling decisions, were made by people far smarter than you or me. Yet, in hindsight, they all look like idiots.
What happened?
In each case, an otherwise intelligent person badly misinterpreted the facts, made an incorrect assumption, or relied upon information that we now know to be completely false—with disastrous consequences. Sometimes they were confused by cultural bias (which at times can be so strong that it literally blinds us to the truth).
In other cases, their underlying assumptions were so widely believed and accepted that no one thought to question them. Sometimes they were done in by a bad case of wishful thinking. But whatever the cause, they weren't alone. History is filled with examples of otherwise intelligent people who acted upon amazingly goofy assumptions— and paid a high price for doing so.
The High Price of Flawed Assumptions
We, as Christians, aren't immune. Even a highly moral, deeply sincere, smart Christian, with the best theological pedigree, has no guarantee of protection from the consequences of a bad decision based on flawed assumptions.
Over the years, people have made life-altering decisions based on what they perceived to be biblical principles, only to discover too late that what they thought was biblical didn't come from the Bible at all.
Most of the time, they were victims of a spiritual urban legend. A spiritual urban legends just like a secular urban legend. It's a belief, story, assumption, or truism that gets passed around as fact. In most cases the source is a friend, a Sunday-school class, a Bible study, a devotional, a book, or even a sermon.
Because they sound so plausible and come from a reputable source, spiritual urban legends are often accepted without question and then quickly passed on. Once widely disseminated, they tend to take on a life of their own. They become almost impossible to refute because “everyone” knows they're true. Anyone who dares to question their veracity gets written off as spiritually dull, lacking in faith, or liberal.
Admittedly, the consequences of some spiritual misconceptions aren't particularly devastating. For instance, if someone mistakenly believes that the Bible says that “God helps those who help themselves” or “a penny saved is a penny earned”, it will throw them a degree or two, but it will hardly destroy their faith.
Spiritual urban legends aren't just harmless misunderstandings. They're spiritually dangerous errors that will eventually bring heartache and disillusionment to all who trust in them.
But far too often the consequences are spiritually devastating. Think of the disillusionment that sets in when someone writes o= God for failing to keep a promise that he never made. Or the despair that follows a step of faith that turns out to have been a leap onto thin ice.
That is why an exposé of ten widely held but blatantly false spiritual urban legends is so important. They aren't just harmless misunderstandings. They're spiritually dangerous errors that will eventually bring heartache and disillusionment to all who trust in them.
My bet is that you've already seen through a few. Others you may have always questioned, but until now thought you were the only one who didn't “buy it.” Some may rock your boat. But whatever the case, I encourage you to examine each one with an open mind and an open Bible.
There is an old carpenter's adage: “Measure twice, cut once.” It's based on the observation that once we've cut a board too short, no matter how many more times we cut it, it will still be too short. The same holds true for the spiritual principles upon which we base our life. Once we've made a decision or set a course of action, it's usually too late to go back and start checking out the accuracy of our assumptions.
The Bereans of New Testament times o=er an example worth following. Believers who lived in the Macedonian city of Berea, they went so far as to check out everything the apostle Paul taught them, examining the Scriptures to see if what he said was really true.
Now remember, Paul was an apostle, an author of Scripture, God's spokesman. But rather than being o=ended, he praised them for their lack of gullibility and noble search for the truth.
I encourage each of u to follow their example as we work through some of the spiritual urban legends to come. I think you'll discover not only that they are false but also that each one flatly contradicts what the rest of the Bible teaches. In many cases, they even contradict what their so-called supporting verses, or “proof texts,” actually say.
Can anyone tell me what iron pyrite is? It's an iron sulfide comprised of one atom of iron to two atoms of sulphur, and it's often known as Fool's Gold — iron II disulfide, if you want it's technical name.
Spiritual urban legends are a bit like fools gold. They look great at first glance, but once tested, they prove worthless. I want to make it clear that nothing in this discussion of spiritual urban legends is meant as an attack on the people who believe these things. They themselves aren't dumb. Their assumptions and
beliefs are.
No doubt we've all jumped to some pretty foolish conclusions in our lives. I know I have. But fortunately, early in my faith journey, I had some careful-thinking mentors who pointed out the folly of basing my belief system on what everybody else said rather than on careful biblical scrutiny. They taught me to avoid reading just my favorite verses. They showed me the importance of reading all the surrounding verses—and the rest of the book as well.
Their advice has served me well and saved me much heartache. It has also solidifed my confidence in the Bible. The more I've learned to toss aside the clichés, happy talk, and cultural assumptions that don't fit what the Bible actually says (or the way that life really works), the greater my trust in it as God's Word and the ultimate source of spiritual truth.
"See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver from my hand." -- Deut. 32:39
Healing is a manifestation of God's power and compassion: Jesus' healing ministry in the Gospels demonstrated God's power and desire for restoration.
Healing can occur without the recipient having great faith: The healing of the man at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-15) and the man born blind (John 9) are examples where the individuals did not necessarily have great faith beforehand.
God's purposes extend beyond immediate physical healing: The Bible acknowledges that suffering can serve a greater purpose, such as strengthening faith. Romans 5:3-5; 1 Peter 1:6-7; James 1:2-4; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:28.
Faith is important, but not a guarantee: While the Bible encourages prayer and faith in seeking healing, stating that "the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick" (James 5:14-15), it also emphasizes that healing is ultimately up to the Lord's will. The importance of faith in approaching God is highlighted in Hebrews 11:6.
God's sovereign will is the ultimate factor: The Bible teaches that God's will is decisive in all things, including healing. While faith is essential, it does not guarantee a specific outcome as God's purposes are beyond human understanding.
Healing is also linked to the coming Kingdom of God: Jesus' healings were signs of the inbreaking of God's reign and a foretaste of future restoration.
The biblical examples of Jesus healing based on faith highlight that faith is a response to and reliance on God's ability and desire to heal, rather than a force that compels Him. Therefore, faith healing ends where God's sovereign will determines otherwise.
The Bible directs believers to pray for healing, particularly in James 5:14-16, which instructs the sick to call for the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil, and in Acts 4:29-30 where believers pray for boldness and for God to perform signs and wonders, including healing. Additionally, many Psalms express prayers for healing and restoration, such as Psalm 103:2-3 and Psalm 41:3.
Pastor Larry W. Osborne, of Oceanside, California, said:
While faith is a concept deeply rooted in the Christian Scriptures, most of our modern ideas about it aren't.
Much of the blame can be placedon the way the original manuscripts of the New Testament have been translated into English. It's not that the translators are unskilled or deceptive. It's simply that translating anything from one language to another is a difficult task, burdened by all the ancillary meanings and uses found in one language but not another.
A quick comparison of how we use the words faith, belief, and trust in modern-day English with how they were originally used in the Greek language of the New Testament can be eye opening. Let's take a look to see what I mean.
Faith
For most of us, the word faith conjures up an image of confidence. It's the opposite of fear and doubt. It's often defined by our feelings as much as by anything else. That's why most teaching on faith tends to focus on eradicating all fear, doubt, and negative thoughts. It's also why“You gotta have faith” has come to mean “Think positively.”
Belief
On the other hand, the word belief usually conjures up an image of intellectual assent. We say we believe in something as long as we think that it's probably true. And since our beliefs are thought to exist primarily between our ears, we're not particularly puzzled when people claim to believe in something—say UFOs, Bigfoot, Darwinian evolution, creationism, even Jesus—but live as if they don't. For most of us, beliefs are intellectual. Acting upon them is optional.
You can see this definition of belief in the way many of us approach evangelism. We tell the Jesus story to people and then ask them if they believe it. Those who say yes are immediately assured that they're headed for heaven. After all, they're “believers.” It doesn't seem tomatter that the Bible adds quite a few qualifiers beyond mere mental assent.
Trust
In contrast to our use of faith and belief when we use the word trust it almost always carries an assumption that there will be some sort of
corresponding action. If we trust a person, it's supposed to show up in our response. For instance, if the parent of a teenage girl says, “I trust
you,” but won't let her out of the house, we'd think that parent was speaking nonsense.There's no question the daughter would.
Clearly, each of these three words carries a distinctly di/erent meaning in the English language. But to the surprise of mostChristians, almost
every time we find one of these three words in our English New Testaments, each is a translation of the exact same Greek root word.
That means that the Bible knows nothing of the sharp distinctions we make between faith, belief, and trust. Biblically, they not onlyoverlap, but they are practically synonymous.To the writers of Scripture, our modern distinctions between faith, belief, and trust would seemquite strange and forced.
The Greek word for all three — faith, belief, trust — is pistis.
To better understand what biblical faith is and how it works, let's take a look at the most famous faith passage in the Bible: Hebrews 11. Often called God's Hall of Fame, it offers a lengthy list of examples, each one showing what God-pleasing faith looks like and what it produced.
The writer of Hebrews starts with Adam's son Abel, then moves on to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, laying out aseries of vignettes that describe their steps of faith and the great victories that followed.
Then the writer adds twelve more examples. But this
time he offers only a name or a cryptic reference to the great victories their faith accomplished. It's an inspiring list. At first glance it seems to support the popular notion that faith rightly applied can conquer anything. It tells of kingdoms won, lions muzzled, 0ames quenched, weaknesses turned to strength, enemies routed, the dead raised. All in all, a pretty impressive résumé.
But the writer doesn't stop there. He goes on. After reciting a litany of victories, he suddenlyswitches gears and changes direction. Now he speaks of people whose faith led them down a di/erent path—folks who were tortured, jeered, flogged, imprisoned, stoned, sawed in two, and put to death by the sword. He ends with a reminder that still others were rewarded with financial destitution, persecution, and mistreatment.
Then he writes these words: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.” In other words, these weren't the faith rejects, the losers, the ones who couldn't get it right. These were men and women whose faith was applaudedby God. Yet their faith didn't fix anything. In some cases it made matters worse.
In Hebrews chapter 11, we learn how trusting and obeying God might get you torn in two, thrown into jail, hated by your friends, and force you to drive an old beater
the rest of your life.” That ought to thin the herd. That's essentially what the Bible says that faith (at least the kind of faith that God commends) might do. It may lead us to victory. It maylead us to prison. Which it will be is His call—not ours.
