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Don't Be Afraid to Be Noble, Even if Others Call You Picky

This 1-minute devotions offers some specific teachers to avoid and some encouragement to carefully check all Bible teachers for accuracy.

Dear Christians, we're in the heat of battle, fighting for God's truth and seeing casualties and deserters all around us (Ephesians 6:12; 1 Timothy 4:1). 

We must constantly renew our minds in God's Word so that we can correctly divide truth from error (Romans 12:2; 2 Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 4:12). 

Have you ever thought about this fact: The Bereans in Acts 17:11 checked out the teachings of the apostle Paul, a divinely inspired man of God. Some people might have called them legalistic, pharisaical, negative, or narrow-minded—but Scripture calls them noble. 

It's easy to identify teachers who contradict Scripture in obvious ways. It's a bit harder to recognize those who mix truth with error. And it's downright difficult when someone teaches mostly sound doctrine but teaches a significant error on an important cultural and biblical issue. (See note.) 

With God's Spirit and God's Word, we can identify errors in all of these categories if we refuse to excuse, defend, or overlook anything that contradicts the 100% true, reliable, perfect Word of God.

People may call this picky, but God calls it noble.

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Here are a few examples of teachers who fall within these three categories, each linked to explanations of their errors. It can be helpful to understand their methods and weaknesses so we can identify similar errors in other teachings.

🠞Obvious errors: Joel Osteen, Rachel Held Evans, Brian Zahnd, Bart Ehrman, Jen Hatmaker

🠞Truth mixed with errors: Eugene Peterson, Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, and Timothy Keller: creation, abortion, LGBTQ issues, salvation, Homosexuality specifically minute 20-25. 

🠞Mostly truth with a significant error: Alistair Begg

I'm grateful there are also many excellent Bible teachers who speak truth without errors. Those are the ones we should seek. If you feel like a lone voice of truth in your sphere of influence, find comfort in this devotion: Majorities Are Often Wrong.

Biblical, concise, affordable devotional

💙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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This 1-minute devotions offers some specific teachers to avoid and some encouragement to carefully check all Bible teachers for accuracy.


Bible Love Notes

3 comments:

  1. sjoezJune 13, 2024 at 7:43 PM

    Thank you for this post, Gail!

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  2. NickiJune 20, 2024 at 1:24 AM

    Thank you for your faithful posts Gail. I can usually easily understand when leaders preach false doctrine, but I was not aware that Alistair Begg has an important error in his doctrine. Does this refer to his recent advice given to a person regarding attending the wedding of a homosexual family member, or is there another error? I enjoy listening to his sermons, and do not want to continue doing so if there is error in his doctrine. Thank you and may God bless your work.

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    Replies
    1. Gail @ http://biblelovenotes.comJune 21, 2024 at 12:28 AM

      Hi Nicki,

      Yes, Alistair Begg is known for good, sound teaching, but when he advised a grandmother to attend her grandson's transgender wedding and bring a gift, he was encouraging this grandmother to help celebrate something that breaks God's heart.

      He's been graciously corrected by a number of Christian teachers, but he's refused to admit his advice wasn't biblical. If you click his name in the devotion, it will take you to an explanation of this issue.

      If you enjoy listening to his teachings, I would just recommend that you do so with discernment, especially if he preaches about LGBTQ issues.

      There are sites I use that are "mostly good" but I use them more cautiously than sites that have been completely trustworthy.

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