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By April J. Buchanan | Religion Columnist

Are we grounded in Biblical truth or wishful thinking? What do we desire?

Is what we believe and practice based on what Scripture says or on what appeals to our own desires that can be read into Scripture? Do we desire to know God as He has revealed Himself or to hear ourselves read into the pages of Scripture and those who will promise us all our hearts desire? What do we desire? Do we want to hear God’s Word opened and exposited or do we yawn and complain at the idea? Are we easy targets for false teachers? Do we even know how to spot a false teacher?

Many today are emotionally led. “Tell me what I want to hear. Make me feel good. Read me into scripture where I’m always the hero or the victim but never the villain. Promise me all I want and claim that I can make it happen by the power of my own words. Don’t worry, I won’t test it; I love to hear smooth things. Tell me extravagant stories; I don’t need evidence. Pump me up emotionally with music that makes me feel good. Create an atmosphere that caters to me. When what you teach is exposed by those who care about sound doctrine, I’ll blindly defend you and become outraged that they would dare call out your false teaching. I will be loyal to you and prop you up because my desire is fulfilled in your mishandling of God’s Word. We will love bomb all who are loyal to your false teaching, but should any present a Biblical argument that exposes your false teaching, we will slander them, gaslight them, make them out to be the villain and support you. Tell us smooth things. We have your back. You can do no wrong. Even when it’s undeniable that you are teaching error and that you’ve lived a life of secret egregious unrepentant sin, we will still defend you and welcome you back to teach us what we want to hear. We don’t care about Biblical qualifications; we will say, ‘we all make mistakes’ and ‘who are others to judge you’? We have our bag of bad theology ready. You’ve trained us well. We are passionate about our false beliefs and false teachers. We think ourselves more spiritual than those who we call religious because they care so much about the Bible and what it says. We know how to respond emotionally not Biblically.”

Bad theology doesn’t start in the pulpit; it starts in the heart. What do we desire?

Do we trust God or do we want to hear teachings that allow us to be sovereign in our circumstances? Do we want God or do we want God to do what we desire Him to do, be what we desire Him to be and speak where we allow Him to speak? Do we desire truth or teachings that allow us to be in control?

There’s no short supply of false teachers. If we desire truth, we will have to be diligent to study the truth, test all things according to God’s Word and search for doctrinally sound churches. Christ will build His church!

Grace and Peace

Soli Deo Gloria