Many of these are just the old heresies brought back into play. They were wrong before and they are wrong now. We need to be confident enough in what we believe to be able to reject them and to explain why.
“Claim your miracle”
Why this is wrong: It isn’t wrong to ask in humility for blessings, but there are several things wrong with this approach.
We can’t force God to do anything. This misuse of God’s word is trying to manipulate God into giving us what we want. This isn’t humility, but trying to extort good things from God by taking His promises out of context and misusing them.
We have to ask for the right things. In James 4, the people he refers to are unhappy, and they think it is because they don’t have enough. In reality, it is because they are focused on material things rather than God. When they can’t find contentment by getting the things they crave, they try to use God as a means to getting more material things. He doesn’t give it to them because He knows what is actually good for them. They are being rebuked because James sees what they are doing and why.
We have to ask for the right reasons. One of the most common verses quoted in support of this is James 4:2, You do not have because you do not ask God. They don’t quote the following verse: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Most people following this path want things for themselves to alleviate their poverty or add to their comfort. Trying to get God to give you more money or more things completely ignores the fact that God has lessons He wants us to learn, and is likely using hardship to teach them. One of the harder lessons for moderately prosperous people to learn is to be happy with what they have rather than constantly wanting more.
The Scripture that talks about this:
James 4:2-3
You crave what you do not have. You kill and covet, but are unable to get it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.
“Cast your bread on the waters with a love gift and wait for the blessing”
Why this is wrong: Give with the intent of not getting back. If you give to others with the expectation that God will repay you with interest, you are not giving, but investing. God may bless you for your gift, or He may not. He is more likely to bless you with wisdom and spiritual growth than with material things, because to do otherwise would teach you the wrong lesson.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Luke 6:34-35
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
“The followers of God will prosper. Believe, follow Him and you will be rich.”
Why this is wrong: The verses that talk about this indicate that those who give up everything for Jesus will be given back much more than they gave up. This is taken literally when it shouldn’t. What Jesus was saying is that anyone who gives up family for Him will gain a much bigger family – his fellow believers. Anyone who gives up his house will gain many houses – the houses of his fellow believers that they will open to him. Anyone who gives up his parents for Jesus will gain a heavenly father that is far greater. Anyone who does all these things will also get persecutions and give up a comfortable life on earth, but will gain eternal life.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Mark 10:29-30
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
“Good deeds or efforts contribute to salvation.” Or “You must do good deeds to be saved.”
Why this is wrong: When man rebelled against God, he tried to take control of his own destiny. We have been doing it ever since. There is something in our nature that makes us need to do something rather than depend on someone else. That’s why even the church has a tendency to want people to do something to earn their salvation or forgiveness. There is no need – Jesus did it all. To try to add a requirement do something is to call Jesus a liar when He said that His sacrifice was enough.
There is one way in which this is partly true. Faith without works is dead faith. If we are not living what we believe, then we don’t really believe it. This, though, is the evidence of the saving faith, they are not a component of the saving faith. Works play no part in our salvation.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast”.
Galatians 2:21
I do not disregard the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.”
Romans 3:20
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
James 2:26
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
“Christ only appeared to be human.”
Why this is wrong: Jesus had to be fully human to substitute for us.
The Scripture that talks about this:
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
1 John 4:2-3
By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
“I believe that it is the plan of God our Father that no believer should ever be sick…It is not—I state boldly—it is not the will of God my Father that we should suffer with cancer and other dread diseases which bring pain and anguish. No! It is God’s will that we be healed.”
Why this is wrong: We are not on Earth so God can make us happy and healthy. We are here to learn to trust Him and rely on Him for everything. God allots health, pain and suffering to accomplish specific purposes. To tell those who are suffering that it isn’t God’s will undermines His purposes. Tell them instead to pray and find out what God is trying to teach them. It also causes people to turn away from God if they feel that He made promises He didn’t keep. Please see Good and evil.
“Jesus was just a good man.”
Why this is wrong: Jesus was the Son of God. God said it. Satan said it. Jesus said it. Jesus proved it. It’s why the Jews had Him killed.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Matthew 3:17
And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Mark 3:11
Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
Matthew 10:32
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”
Acts 1:3
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
“Good people go to heaven”
Why this is wrong: There are no good people. There is no way to justify yourself or earn your way into heaven. The only way to get into heaven is to be perfect. Since no one can be perfect, the only way is to be made perfect. The only one who can do that is God. The only way for that to work is if you accept Jesus’ sacrifice as a free gift and understand that you can’t earn it. In order for that to work, you have to follow His teachings to the best of your ability and dedicate your life to Him.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Romans 3:12
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Romans 3:23-25a
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”
“That may be true for you, but it is not for me. There is no such thing as objective truth.”
Why this is wrong: This is more of a problem with logic than with Christianity. To say that something is true means that it correctly states something about the real world. It also states that its opposite is not true. Two claims that contradict each other cannot both be true in the same way at the same time. To say that Pat is a man and at the same time say that Pat is a woman cannot both be true. Different religions that make different claims about the same thing cannot both be true, although they can both be false. If Jesus claims to be the Son of God and Islam claims that He is not, either one claim may be false or both claims may be false, but they both cannot be true. Jesus’ claim to divinity is well-established by Biblical and non-Biblical sources. Every claim in the Bible that can be checked has been found to be true. For many claims there is no evidence either way, which does not make them untrue, just unknown.
People who claim that there isn’t enough evidence for Jesus’ claims are deceiving themselves. They most commonly approach the Bible with assumptions that exclude the evidence before they look at it. “Miracles can’t happen. The proofs are all miracles. Therefore, there is no proof.” Please see Chapter 18 – Miracles.
Most don’t want it to be true because they would have to stop living for themselves. They will be without excuse in the end.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Romans 1:18
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
“There are many roads to God.”
Why this is wrong: Please see the preceding on truth. There can be only one road to God. Jesus is the only way to God. He proved it by miracles, death and resurrection.
The Scripture that talks about this:
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“Jesus wasn’t fully God”
Why this is wrong: Jesus was fully God. This is plainly evident in the language He used concerning Himself and His Father. Jesus had to be fully God for His substitutionary sacrifice to cover our sin.
Modern examples: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Unification Church etc
The Scripture that talks about this:
John 8:58
“Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus told them, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
John 10:30
“I and the Father are one”
Colossians 2:9
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
“Jesus was a man who developed his Christ-consciousness, thus achieving full divinity.”
Why this is wrong: Jesus was born the Son of God. He was not a man that God adopted or that God raised to a higher position. He didn’t raise Himself to deity by righteousness or good works.
Modern examples: New Age Movement, Christian Science
The Scripture that talks about this:
Luke 1:30-35
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Philippians 2:6-8
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage
“People become angels when they die”
Why this is wrong: When we die, we are adopted by God as sons (children) of God. We are created beings as angels are created beings, but we don’t change from one kind of created being to another when we die. Rather, we are healed of our sin and imperfection and returned to the state we would have been in had it not been for the Fall. Jesus talks about us being like the angels in certain ways after we die, but that is very different than saying we become angels.
The Scripture that talks about this:
Matthew 22:30
At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
Ephesians 1:4-6
For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his presence. In love he selected us beforehand for adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the Beloved One.
“If you are having trouble in your Christian life, clearly it’s because you are not saved.”
Why this is wrong: The Christian life is about learning and growing. We learn when God gives us situations to learn from. This usually involves trial of some kind. We grow stronger by overcoming challenges and temptations, which means that they have to be there to overcome. Sometimes God provides those situations Himself. More often, He just uses the situations we cause each other or ourselves to help us grow. Every once in a while, He lets Satan do things. Jesus did not promise us ease and blessing in life. He promised us suffering and death. The ease and blessing come in heaven. It is the Christian that isn’t having trouble in his life that should be concerned that he either isn’t saved or isn’t fully striving to follow God.
The Scripture that talks about this:
2 Timothy 3:12
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
Matthew 10:38-39
Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Hebrews 12:7-8
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons (children). For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined like everyone else, then you are illegitimate, not true sons.