Faulty Doctrine is Misleading Us
Happy new month, everyone! This year is going by pretty quickly. I hope you had a restful or enjoyable weekend. For me, I enjoyed a sleepover with my friend and cousin. It was such an amazing and refreshing time. We spent time gisting, arguing over our different ideologies and watching movies. Speaking of movies, we watched a movie titled, “Not Without My Daughter.” It was such an amazing story; I experienced a roller coaster of emotions while watching, and honestly, I didn’t want it to end. I think I might write in more detail about the movie in another post. So, let’s get right into today’s topic.
Many of us grew up in churches where the basis of the teaching was about what God could do for you, and not necessarily on what he had done in the person of Jesus. They often used stories of Abraham and Sarah to talk about waiting on God, having faith in God and how God can do anything. So, if you had a situation that needed divine intervention, you held on to this hope that God was going to help you out of your rot.
Now, I don’t want you to get me wrong; I am not saying that God cannot help your dire situation, however, the premise of most of these types of teaching was that if God did not come through for you, then it must be because of your lack of faith, no faith at all, or perhaps, something more sinister contending with what God wanted do. As such, many ran from pillar to post in search of a lasting solution to their problems.
However, scripture paints a different picture: We see Christ healing people, and providing for them, irrespective of if they had great faith (the centurion) or no faith at all (the disciples in the story of the boy who suffered from seizures). God does such things for us based on his goodness, and its his goodness that is meant to lead you or others to repentance. The signs and wonders are meant to point us to Christ; often reminding us of how he saved the believer from death and not to only alleviate our difficulty.
In John 6, after Jesus had done the miracle of multiplying the bread and the fish to feed the 5000 men, the beneficiaries of this miracle began to search for Jesus, and rightfully so. When the eventually found him, Jesus said in verse 26, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
These people were after what he could do for them physically, to satisfy their hunger, their material need. They didn’t necessarily care that he was pointing them to God and eternal life. And when he laid out sound doctrine for them and began to tell them the hard truth, about how anyone who comes to him, must eat his flesh and drink his blood, (verse 54-56) they left him. They wanted Jesus’ blessings but without Jesus. Jesus alluded their behavior to their lack of belief in him (“But there are some of you who do not believe.” Verse 64).
These people followed Christ not because of who he was, but for what he could do for them. We still observe this behavior today, especially during difficult times. Many are in search of a miracle. They come to God because Christians have parroted that God can do anything. They assure you that God can bless you with a child, grant you a job, provide a husband, alleviate your poverty, and give you access to things you lack. Don’t get me wrong again, God can do anything.
However, if the foundation of every Christian message is one of God turning your difficult situation around, then this type of teaching can often result in two things: (1) When people believe with all their heart that God can do all these things, and then he doesn’t, they lose their belief in God completely. As such, you begin to hear statements like, “if God is good, why did he allow this terrible thing to happen, or why haven’t I gotten a job, or gotten married....and the list is endless.
It was Kanye West who recently said that he had a problem with Jesus, because he prayed to him, and he didn’t answer. I can’t say for a fact that he mouthed that he no longer believed in God, but he went back to referring to himself as “God.”
(2) Say God decides to give you everything you asked him – the job, the marriage, the children, the lifestyle. And you can afford everything you ever dreamed of, and are living your “best life,” then why do you need God? Like Kanye West, you may begin to think that I can give myself all that I have ever wanted, so, why should I think about God, or spend time praying, or reading my bible, or disciplining myself to live by his word? When there is enjoyment to be enjoyed?
You may no longer feel the need for God. You might think, “Why should I pray when all my prayers are already answered? Why should I serve in church or even attend, especially after partying all night?” Then when you do go to church, all you hear is encouragement to have faith so God can do something for you. But you have a spouse, children, a home, nice clothes, shoes, and bags. Your bank account is full, and you can travel to another country whenever you want because you can afford it. As such, there really is no need for you to commit to the Christian way of life.
You see, you may not start out right veering away from God, but eventually, you’d get there if your relationship with God was predicated upon what he can do for you, and not what he did on that cross. Essentially, if you want Jesus’ blessings, rather than Jesus himself. This is what faulty doctrine can do. It may cause you lose your belief in God when things don’t go your way, it may cause you to become a lukewarm Christian, because you have everything you need and so, you no longer need God, or it can cause you to carry the enormous burden of not having enough faith, to cause things to change in your life.
True doctrine on the other hand, always directs us to Christ. It reminds us of his sacrifice on the cross and emphasizes that we are in the process of sanctification and refining. This journey transforms us, making us more like Christ each day. True doctrine helps us understand that even in difficult situations, the answer we desire may never come, and that is okay.
The Effects of True Doctrine
We can reflect on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel. When King Nebuchadnezzar decreed that everyone must bow down to his golden image, and anyone who refused would be thrown into the fire. Despite this, the three Hebrew boys remained steadfast in their faith and refused to bow down.
When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced this difficult circumstance, they boldly (and respectfully) told the king that they would not bow to his golden image, as it violated God's commandments. They expressed their faith by saying they believed God, who created all things and holds all power, could save and deliver them. However, they made an even more profound statement by reinforcing their point with truth and sound doctrine: they declared that even if God did not save them in that moment, they still would not violate his laws.
Faulty doctrine would have us believe that surebanker (as we used to say as children) God will certainly deliver you from that fire, sotey, smoke no go even smell for your body (How did I do with my pidgin by the way?) However, sound or true doctrine will remind us in the book of Hebrew that they were many whose stories did not end up like the three Hebrew boys, yet the characters in such stories did not lose their faith. Ultimately, the book of Hebrew (speaking of Jesus) tells us that “...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).
Faulty doctrine misleads us in such situations by making us believe that the solutions we seek will always happen here and now. This perspective robs us of the anticipation and hope for the day when Christ will return and address everything that overwhelms us. It causes us to set our eyes on the things that we see, rather than on the things that we can’t see as 2 Corinthians 4, Colossians 3:2, and Matthew 6:20-21 teaches us.
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In a way, our difficult circumstance is meant to reshape our thinking and help us fix our eyes on Jesus, who in John 6 says that anyone who believes in him, he will raise him up on the last day. It is meant to give us something to look forward to, and to even pray more fervently that God’s kingdom will come (so all this suffer go end).
It is also important to note that the presence of a difficult situation does not mean the absence of God. Hebrews 13 says, “for he himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you...””” God is always with us - in the good and bad. God is always faithful.
To conclude, this is not to say we shouldn’t pray for God to help us, and to alleviate our pain when we are trouble. The bible encourages us to pray and bring all our burdens to God, because he cares. As such, you should know that when your difficult circumstances tries to deceive you, saying that because you got a different outcome for which we were praying, then somehow, God did not intervene – this isn’t true. God is always present, causing everything to work together for the good of those that love him.
Our attitude should be that even if God doesn’t come through for us in the way we believe He should, we will not lose our faith in Christ. Our Christianity should not be based on what God can do for us (although He can do anything), but rather on the reminder of what He has already done for us on the cross and what He will do for us when Christ returns.
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