Biblically Critiquing Pastors and Teachers

This past weekend I attended a "Christian" women's conference that jump-started my thoughts how to properly make biblical judgements and how and why to critique preachers and speakers in a biblical manner.

At this conference Bibles were not used, the Gospel was not preached, Jesus and the cross were ignored and replaced with woman empowerment. Needless to say, the conference was far from edifying.

The best way to guard yourself from false teaching is to know the truth and know how to correctly handle the truth. (2 Timothy 2:15) So that is my goal this week, to learn how to correctly handle the truth.

From GotQuestions.org

Paul instructs the Ephesians, we are to “no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). Rather, we are to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” and we do this by “the knowledge of the Son of God” (v. 13). The knowledge of Christ can only be obtained through the Word of God, and it is by that Word that we distinguish between the true and the false.

In the book of Matthew (7:15-20), Jesus says, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"

If a church or ministry has is not producing good fruits, then you can know that there is something wrong with the teaching.

What is "Good Fruit"?

• Good fruit (Matthew 7:17) is that which occurs when the Holy Spirit is present. Romans 8:9 says that we are controlled by the Spirit (rather than our sinful nature) the moment we believe in Christ. The fruit of the spirit is the the work He does in the hearts and minds of believers to conform them to the image of Christ. It is the inevitable transformation that takes place in true followers of Christ.
• "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."- Galations 5:22-23
• Matthew 7:1 - Every good tree bears good fruit and every bad tree bears bad fruit.

Sermon/Teaching Discernment:

The apostle John tells us in his first epistle (1 John 4:1-6) how we are to discern which spirits are from God. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” - From GotQuestions.org

Only through the work of the Holy Spirit will you be able to discern what is true and what is not. However, I believe that if you are at all concerned about truthfulness in teaching, that is proof that the Holy Spirit is in you. If honest, God-centered, Biblical teaching is something you desire, here are three questions that you can ask whenever you hear a sermon by a new preacher.

1. What does this teacher/pastor say about Jesus? It must be in line with the Jesus of the Bible and not some made up idea of Jesus.
2. Does this teacher/pastor preach the Gospel? 2 John 9 says that "Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God."
3. Does this person exhibit character qualities that glorify the Lord?

Questions I Ask:

When I hear a preacher/Christian speaker for the first time, this is usually the process that I go through in my head.

1. Is this God-centered theology or man-centered theology? Usually you can tell right away.
2. How does this person handle scripture? As an advice column or a revelation from God?
3. Does any of this contradict what I already know to be true about God and the Bible? If what they teach does not line up with the Bible, it is not a good teaching.
4. Did I learn about God through this sermon/message?

Other things I take into consideration:

• Is this a comedy show or a sermon?
• Does this person ever talk about sin and hell? If not, they are not teaching the Bible accurately.
• Does this person focus only on sin and hell? Again, that is not accurate teaching.

Be a Biblical Theologian

This morning I read an article on Christianity.com titled:

A Healthy Church Member is a Biblical Theologian

We can attend church for years without truly knowing God. I think the writer of this article is exactly right by saying that a healthy church member is a biblical theologian. If you do not have a thorough understanding of what the Bible says about God you are living with an ignorance of truth. God wants us to know Him and not just know of Him.

We can know God! I think its amazing how quickly we forget that God is not supposed to be just a part of our life, he is the central figure, the ruler in our lives. The Bible was written to help us understand and know Him. The Bible would not be here if God did not want us to know Him.

We can all be Biblical Theologians by:

- Reading God's Word. That means reading it from start to finish to accurately gain an understanding of who God is. This will help us to discern what is true and what is false regarding what our culture teaches us about God.
- Maintain a good understanding of biblical, historical, and systematic theology.
- Obeying His commands given to us in the Bible.

"Without a well-formed theology, including an accurate understanding of how God’s commands are to be understood in their historical development and context, it is difficult indeed to obey the Lord’s command to teach others to obey. What shall we teach? What shall we obey? How shall we know what to apply to our lives? These questions are better answered when Christians are knowledgeable of biblical theology and know their God." - from the article above.

It used to bother me that I had no idea what I believed in many areas of theology. I remember a friend of mine who had a statement of faith written out on an AIM profile and I thought to myself, "That's a great list. He really knows what He believes. What DO I believe?" Instead of living in ignorance, I chose to devote my life to understanding what the Bible says about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. There is no knowledge more important than the knowledge of God.

Joyce Meyer: Authentic Happiness?

Jesus told the crowds, “Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

The cross was an instrument of death. Therefore taking up your cross is to die to yourself.

I struggled for years with low self-esteem, depression, loneliness, fear of people, etc. Our culture screams that in order to be somebody you have to know how to love yourself above anything else, because if you can't love yourself, you can't begin to love others. This is far from the truth, but I believed it anyway. I searched for ways to learn to love myself - what better way to do that than to focus on God's love for me. I went to church with the intent of wanting to be uplifted and assured of God's love for me. This was was kept me from staying depressed all the time. Nevertheless, the Bible does tell us we should be joyful and of course we should never hate ourselves because we have all been beautifully created by God, but our main focus in life should never be on ourselves. It should all be about Jesus Christ.

I struggle with this 'me me me!' mentality all the time. I'm not skinny enough, my hair isn't pretty enough, my face isn't clear enough, I don't have enough stuff for my kitchen, I need ____ and I need ____. I think everyone in our culture deals with this and most people don't even realize that they are doing it. But what we need to keep in mind is that we are no longer living for ourselves if we are Christians. We should be striving for Biblical attitudes towards life.

Joyce Meyer is the author of over 50 self-help books that include Biblical principles. Yet, she is called Pastor (which is another thing I don't believe is biblical, but let's continue on.) If she is called Pastor, that implies that she is a teacher of the Bible. Teaching Biblical principles and the teaching the Bible are two completely different things. It is taking the parts of the Bible that you like, coming up with your own spin on things, teaching those, and ignoring the rest of what the Bible teaches. I've fallen as victim to many of these teachings throughout my life, it is very easy to get sucked into a self-topical sermon, especially one that you can relate to. You end up not learning a thing about the Bible though.

I know people who love her and people who can't stand her. This is what made me wonder about this ministry. What is her ministry? Why does she teach biblical principles (basic rules and ideas of the Bible)? I read some of a few of her books and checked out her website, even listened to a couple of her teachings. She does have a lot of good to say. From the average Christian's perspective, she is very inspiring and you can learn a lot about yourself from what she says. But what good comes from learning about yourself? That is the problem. I don't know how much God can be glorified by anything that she says. I mean, she tells people they need to get motivated or that they are selfish beings... yes, we know this... this is why we became Christians in the first place. On the surface, everything appears to be biblical but if you take the time to really look at what she's teaching, it doesn't look so biblical anymore. In fact in many cases she is not being true to what the Bible actually teaches. That worries me, because a lot of people love her teaching. 2.5 billion people have heard her.

So this brings up the question - is it wrong for us, as Christians, to want to be happy and motivated? Of course not. We do need to look at everything from a Biblical perspective though. We are God's children, we are not of this world. The way Joyce Meyer teaches leads you to believe your happiness comes first and then Jesus. She writes paragraphs about how we have such a hard time getting motivated to do stuff and then she'll add a verse in there, totally out of context, and say it relates to what she's talking about. Very similar to what many pastors do these days - they play with the Bible like a toy, turning it into something it isn't. I cannot take Joyce Meyer's ministry seriously because her main focus does not appear to be Christ. Her books are all about enjoying yourself, loving yourself, and motivating yourself. She also seems to be more interested in emotions than faith.

The Bible points us to one person, Jesus Christ - not ourselves. In fact the Bible says the exact opposite. The Bible was not written to increase your self-esteem. Self-esteem is not a Biblical principle. You should never read your Bible with the intent of it just making you a better person or increasing the quality of your life. Many people do this and it is wrong. You read the Bible to help you grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ and through that you develop a relationship with our God. When you become a Christian, your life is dedicated to God. You die to yourself.

Quotes by Joyce Meyer:

"One of my greatest desires is to see people thoroughly enjoy the quality of life Jesus died to give us—to actually be happy." - Joyce Meyer

I'm literally floored by this statement. All I could think when I read this was, "Wow." No, Joyce. I am sorry but you are wrong. Very wrong in fact. Jesus did not die so that you or I would have a greater quality of life. Jesus came to testify to the truth of the Bible (God's Word). Jesus died because we are horrible, rotten sinners and we all deserve to go to Hell and if he did not die for us, we would be in big trouble. He saved us from our sins that we commit on a daily basis. Jesus died so that we would follow him and be fulfilled through him only. He even said this:

Mat 10:22

“and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

To be a follower of Christ means that you will be hated, persecuted, and despised all throughout your life. When I was younger I didn't understand this because I lived most of my life trying to please everybody and just "going with the flow". But we just can't do that if we are to be true followers of Christ. If you are loved by everyone and don't cause any controversy by what you believe - examine yourself to see if you are truly in Christ. It is in no way easy to follow Christ.

This is exactly why I am skeptical of any Christian ministry that the secular world accepts. They are not persecuted by the secular world, because they do not tell the truth.

In fact, the more persecuted you are for your faith, the better off you are. The 12 disciples of Jesus (except John who was exiled) were executed for preaching Christ.

If we follow Christ, we will not be rewarded with authentic happiness, we will not have a perfect life, we could even have what is viewed as a "horrible life", but we will be blessed. Not with earthly treasures, health, wealth, and prosperity - but with love, hope, joy, patience, peace, kindness, God's provision...

"I have great news for you: God wants you to be happy today and every day. He really does. Jesus’ statement about life in John 10:10 is absolutely amazing to me: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).”" - Joyce Meyer

God does not want us to just be happy, he wants us to glorify Him in all that we do, he wants us to live for him. Through that we may experience happiness, we may experience trials, we may experience sadness. I searched through multiple translations of the Bible and I cannot find the version that says "that they might have and enjoy life" Not even the The Message adds that part. Not only has she taken it out of context but she changed the meaning to that Bible verse. Yikes! John 10:9-10 is a proverbial way of saying that Jesus is the only way to be saved from sin. That scripture is referring to the life we have in Christ for all eternity, not the sinful life we have on Earth. The fullness of life refers to our eternal security.

Did you know that if you don't like yourself, you are never going to like anybody else, and you won't be able to help your spouse like himself or herself? - Joyce Meyer

"Remember, He died so we could experience authentic happiness." - Joyce Meyer

No, he did not die so that we could experience authentic happiness. He died so that we could be saved by faith in his son, through the grace of God. Of course that alone should make one jump for joy and weep tears of pure joy!

Those are just a few quotes I found on a couple pages in one of Joyce Meyer's books... the ministry has over 50 books.

(I originally posted this on my blog titled Biblical Homekeeping)

God - All loving? All forgiving?

Last week our Pastor said, "There is no such thing as 'Just Forgiven'" This is true. A person's sins cannot be justified with the fact that "God forgives". If you sin, God is not going to "just forgive".

If you sin, you will be punished for that sin unless you have repented and put your trust in Jesus and turned from your sins. That is Biblical, that is exactly what Jesus taught. God's Law requires that all sin must be paid for, and we - sinful beings by nature - are unable of doing that on our own. That is why we need Jesus. He is the only one who can pay the fine for us, we cannot do it ourselves. Jesus did not come to this earth to make it a better place or to bless his people with riches and good times. He came to testify to the truth. He came to fulfill the prophesies and promises of God and to do the will of God, which was to pay the ultimate price of death for the sins of His chosen people, and then he defeated death and rose to life. Jesus said:

Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Mat 10:34	"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35	"For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

There are many pastors these days that do not teach the Gospel as the apostles did. Does your Pastor talk about sin? If he never mentions sin, there is a problem there. Do all of the sermons uplift you and make you feel good? There is a problem there. This entire idea of self-esteem that our culture has grabbed hold of (including churches) is not biblical at all and a very selfish way of thinking. Many pastors soften up the gospel so that they won't offend anyone (the complete opposite of what Jesus did, I might add), they talk about forgiveness and God's love but they fail to mention sin and God's wrath. They fail to mention the real reason that Jesus came to this earth. The Bible teaches both God's steadfast love and his wrath/judgment, and there is a reason for that.

These pastors have come up with their own gospels (such as the Prosperity Gospel), that trivialize all that Jesus did. This is a problem, and a big one at that. People are flocking to these churches thinking they are being saved because they said a prayer and it's just not true. The act of praying does not save you. Repentance and trust in the Lord does. These pastors are not upholding their duty to spread the gospel, the true gospel - the one the Bible teaches.

Jesus took the punishment of all the sins in the world (past, present, and future), he suffered the wrath of GOD. Can you even imagine what that must have been like? Can you imagine the punishment for the sins of just one individual? The way I view sin is as a slap in the face to my creator. It is disgusting, it is low, and it is intolerable and a complete lack of respect. God created me, he gave me life - he gave me my family, my friends, my home...and how do I repay him? Think of how many times you sin in a day, multiply that by 365 and then multiply that by about 75. Wow. Brother, sister....That is what Jesus did for you. That is what Jesus did for billions and billions of people's sins. That is the ultimate sacrifice - God's own son. Is that not AMAZING? How merciful and gracious our Lord is!

We cannot pay for our own sins because we are sinful by nature. The payment had to be one that was pure, sinless - that was Jesus. We are destined to Hell because we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) and because of what Jesus Christ did, we now have a choice in where we will spend eternity.

See? It's not about self-esteem. Jesus did not come to make us live happy lives, he came to take our punishment so that we wouldn't have to go to Hell. How unbelievable is that? I mean seriously, it is beyond our own understanding. It is/was the most beautiful and perfect plan, ever. For a pastor to ignore this is to ignore the gift of true salvation.

If the Gospel is not preached, then people will come to Christ for the wrong reasons - to feel better about themselves, to make their life better, to relieve their fear of Hell, etc. They hold the title of Christian but if asked, they cannot tell you why they are a Christian. They simply do not know. Most people know that Jesus died to take away the sins of the world, they do not know why he died or that in order to be saved they must repent and turn from their sins, and trust Jesus Christ to be the one and only way.

Jhn 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

When we die we will face God on the day of judgment. Whether a person believes that or not, it is reality. If we die in our sins, God has every right to send us to Hell. We sin every day, we 'slap God' every single day. We have to believe that just as He is faithful in His promises to love and protect his people, He is also faithful to his promise to uphold proper judgment. He is just by forgiving those who have repented and he is just by destroying those who disobey his law. (I'll write more on God's law tomorrow)

1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So how does this tie in with what a preacher such as Joel Osteen preaches? I'm not a person who enjoys gossip or slandering another human being for the sake of gaining something for myself. That is not what this is about. I believe Osteen is one of the teachers the Bible warns us about, and I believe it is good to bring this up and "expose" a teaching such as this.

I believe Joel Osteen is one who has created a gospel all of his own. If you read this transcript from his interview with Larry King you'll see him say many times, "I don't know", when talking about very critical issues, he doesn't talk about God, he rarely (if ever) uses scripture and if he does it is taken out of its original context. I don't understand how a Pastor can ignore so much of the Bible. How can he not know the answers to everything Larry asked? The Bible speaks so incredibly clear on these things. When comparing his teaching to the Bible, is there any truth to what Osteen says? God wants us to be healthy, wealthy, and have great relationships? Is God really all-loving? Are we doing God's will by only taking the fact that He loves us? Is God really all forgiving? Do we have the right to anything?

And last but not least. Check out this video.

The Purpose of this Blog

Question to Ponder: Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?

I heard that question last night as part of The Truth Project. It has got me thinking - what would we look like if we really believed that everything we believe is really real? Can you imagine what life would be like with complete confidence in the word of God? Do we really understand that what it says is true? Do any of us really live like that?


This blog is about growing in holiness, spiritual strength, and spiritual discernment. It is an outlet for the things that I learn and how I interpret those to be true or false, biblical or unbiblical. If this blog benefits or blesses anyone else, that is wonderful! If it offends someone, I hope it offends for the right reasons, otherwise I apologize - for I am a sinner and in no way am I perfect. Overall though, much of the stuff I write about is simply me trying to understand something.

I am constantly learning things. We learn and are influenced by more than we realize in this culture. We are constantly learning new things each day. Whether it be through the Bible, through a book, a church sermon, a Bible Study, advise from someone, TV shows & movies, or events that occur in our lives. We obtain so much information each day and we are constantly learning.

I believe the most important thing we must do as humans is to learn the ways of God. The creator of the universe did more for us (his people) that we can even comprehend and the least we can do is devote our lives to pleasing the Lord.

"We must do the hard work of exercising discernment - sentence by sentence,
paragraph by paragraph, argument by argument. Facts, insights, perspectives,
and methods must all be tested in the light of the principles of Scripture." - Dennis E. Johnson

I find myself letting a lot of things slide. As an example: I will think, "Well, God knows where my heart is. So I can go watch this movie, because even though it blasphemes the name of God repeatedly, He knows that I don't agree with that." Seriously, I do this all the time with not just movies but many aspects of life. That is the wrong way of thinking. Everything that I do needs to be for the glory of God! The way we treat truth is so different from the way Jesus treated it. We say that we will drop everything and follow our Lord Jesus Christ, but do we do it? Seriously? Is God really the focus our our life or is he just part of it?

The topic of discernment is a difficult one because it can be very subjective. In many cases, when the issue is not of God-spoken sin, it is up to the person to discern what is right and what is wrong for them. However, if God has spoken, then it is what it is. If the Bible, read in proper context, says that something is a sin, there is no room for argument because God has spoken. This is why you need to consult the scriptures with everything.

What is Discernment?

"Discernment is the ability to think biblically about all areas of life." - Tim Challies

"Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about
truth. The discerning person is the one who draws a clear contrast between
truth and error." John MacArthur

"Discernment is the ability to see through the apparent to the actual." - Dr. Mike


Here are a few verses about discernment:

Rom 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and
acceptable and perfect.

Job 34:4 - So let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.

Ecc 11:5 - God's ways are as hard to discern as the pathways of the wind, and as mysterious as a tiny baby being formed in a mother's womb.

1Cr 12:3 - So I want you to know how to discern what is truly from God: No one speaking by the Spirit of God can curse Jesus, and no one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

-Shaina
.