That's Not In There

Despite the current trends away from Christianity in America, we still have our cultural roots sunk deep in Christendom. We have Catholic and Baptist hospitals, para-church charities, and Christian-based homeless shelters. We still have rights endowed by the Creator. We still carry around a substantial amount of Judeo-Christian morality. And more. Our culture, in fact, thinks they know quite a bit about Christianity. It should be no surprise, however, that what they think they know might not be right.

Everyone knows, for instance, that when you die you go to heaven where you sit on clouds, play harps, and hope to earn your wings. Now, the simple fact that none of this is found in Scripture doesn't deter most folk. "Don't bother me with facts; I know I'm right." Watch any of the ever-popular horror movies where Satan plays a major role and you'll likely recognize him by his red color, his horns, his forked tail, and his pitchfork. The Bible refers to him as "an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14), but the horned pitchfork guy still must be the case. And who doesn't know for a fact that the fall of Adam and Eve is due to the apple they ate? No, really! Look it up! Oh, it's not in there? Yes, that's right. It's not. "Fruit", yes, but not an apple in the text.

"Oh," we say, shaking our heads, "you need to know your Bibles better." And we'll proceed to demonstrate ... that we don't. Because we can cite all sorts of Bible verses that, as it turns out, don't exist at all. One of the ubiquitous ones is "God helps those who help themselves." (Hezekiah 5:2). We know that. Odd that the Bible doesn't. In fact, I think the problem addressed by the Gospel is that the opposite is true. We can't help ourselves. Or how about "Cleanliness is next to godliness." (Psalm 152:3)? You know that one, right? Then you know as well that Psalms only has 150 chapters and no such verse is found in the Bible.

Others are oft quoted and, in fact, not as far from the truth. Take "The Lord works in mysterious ways." (Samuel 22:7) Nope. Not in "Samuel". (It actually comes from a 19th century hymn.) And one we all have heard is "Spare the rod; spoil the child." (3 Peter 2:1). Of course, there is no Third Peter and, while the idea can be found ("He who withholds his rod hates his son" (Prov 13:24).), the quote isn't in there.

Now, the bulk of this is the product of ignorance. We as a nation think we know what's in the Bible, but we don't. Unfortunately, we as believers are often just as mistaken. Some of the things we find taught as truth in our churches today isn't found in the Bible. A lot of us are pretty sure that drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes are a sin right out of the pages of Scripture, but they're not. Or take, for instance, the certainty that "God wants you to be happy." I mean, it sounds nice and it almost comes from the Bible (you know, "The Beatitudes", where we read a lot of being "blessed"), but you will also find that God wills your suffering. After losing everything, Job's wife told him to curse God and die. He told her, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10). Peter said, "For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong." (1 Peter 3:17). "If God should will it so." And the author of Hebrews assures us, "Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines" (Heb 12:6) and "all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant" (Heb 12:11). God wants your best, but that may not be happiness.

There is the delightful-sounding, "Love the sinner; hate the sin." As it turns out, it's a Ghandi quote. In Scripture, from a man after God's own heart we read, "Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies." (Psa 139:21-22). Now, sure, maybe David was off the mark, but why, then do we read that God hates all who do iniquity (Psa 5:5)? Now, clearly this stuff needs careful processing and examination, but I'm not at all sure you can argue that Scripture requires us to "Love the sinner; hate the sin."

Oh, I know one that, if I haven't done it yet, should upset you. We all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves everybody equally. God doesn't hate anyone. Right? Well, don't we? You'll be hard-pressed to find a single Christian who would disagree that it's true. I can only imagine that's true because they haven't really read their Bibles very closely. If God doesn't hate anyone, why would He say, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Rom 9:13)? I mean, doesn't that require that God hate at least one person? In fact, isn't that something we just saw in Psalm 5:5? Now, again, this is something that needs careful consideration and study. I'm just pointing out that it's not as clean and pretty as everyone seems to think it is.

A couple other quick examples. Everyone knows that "Money is the root of all evil", right? Well, that's almost right, but the "almost" makes it wrong. First, the King James says, "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim 6:10). There is a vast difference between "money" and "the love of money". Beyond that, the NAS goes further to explain "The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil." You see, neither money nor the love of it is the root of all evil; "all sorts of evil" makes much more sense. And then there's the constant claim that when God forgives sin, He forgets it. This one is also problematic. It's a problem because if God does that, aren't we supposed to? I mean, aren't we supposed to be "forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." (Eph 4:32)? So if He forgives and forgets, so must we, right? And, look, doesn't the Bible say, "I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." (Heb 8:12)? So it must be true! Yes, I suppose, as long as you're willing to admit that you know things God doesn't (you remember your sin, right?) and "Omniscient" includes "not remembering". As it turns out, it does not say that God forgets. It says He doesn't remember it. One is to delete it from memory and the other is not to call it up. Not the same thing.

Well, these are just some examples. Our culture thinks they know a lot about Christianity. As it turns out, most of what they know is wrong. They think they know what the Bible says. As it happens, they know very little. Sadly, it also happens that Christians know far less than we think we do. We grab onto things we like and run with them without being careful to rightly handle the Word of God. Perhaps we should be more diligent than that with something as precious as the writings God made for us.