They Speak Visions from Their Own Minds

Some Old Testament Scriptures are especially relevant to the present state of Christianity. For example, the Lord’s warning in Jeremiah 23:16-17: 

“Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’” 

Throughout history there have been true prophets and false “prophets.” Jeremiah was called the “weeping prophet” because he cared deeply about God’s people even though he was constantly persecuted for accurately sharing God’s loving warnings (Jeremiah 20:8-9). 

We’ll be popular if we talk about Christ's love without mentioning His attitude toward sin (John 7:6-7). We'll be popular if we never mention LGBTQ lifestyles and abortion and we claim biblical leadership roles were simply part of Paul's chauvinist misunderstandings. 

Discernment disappears when Christians defend biblical errors in ministries, mini-series, music, and popular teachings, claiming that as long as they're doing some good, we shouldn't criticize them. 

Compromise is taking its deadly toll as more and more Christians make statements such as: “I'm personally opposed to -----------, but I don't think my vote will matter or I don't want to tell other people what they can do.”

Dear Christians, we should be weeping over the false hopes and stubbornness now promoted in Christianity. 

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Notes: 

Sometimes a good Bible teacher like Alistair Begg will compromise in a particular area. See Is Attendance Approval?

Should we completely quit listening to someone who teaches mostly good, biblical teachings but gets some important things wrong?

Each individual must make that decision, but whenever we know that a teacher, mini-series, song, or book contains errors, we must be willing to carefully examine all teachings coming from that source.

If we are not willing and able to do this, we should stop watching, listening, and reading teachings from those people.

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💙 I encourage you to take the time to review the information in the Bible Love Note Discernment: Use It or Lose It. It offers extra information for digging deeper. 

💙Be sure to check out The Bible Love Notes devotional Wisdom for Life. It's discounted on Lifeway, Amazon, and CBD. 

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