Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long- Psalm 25:5

Our world is saturated with crazy-town beliefs and deceptive philosophies. I could give a million examples (okay, well maybe not a million, but a lot). 

Here’s one example: 

A majority of folks today (especially those under forty) literally think there is no such thing as absolute, fixed, immutable truth. These folks (most of them very nice people) are persuaded that every individual on earth has their own unique little “truth”. No one can dispute their even if their “truth” flies in the face of all sorts of hard evidence to the contrary or contradicts someone else’s “truth”. Thanks to this crazy-town worldview we are now at a place where a significant minority now “identifies” as something they clearly are not (an animal, a different gender, a different race, etc.). These folks are convinced their “truth” is the TRUTH. So much so, they demand the rest of the world enter into their delusion and celebrate their “truth”.  Normal folks can even get “cancelled” if they refuse to enter into these delusions. 

Sigh.

It’s easy to get really judgy regarding this stuff.   

However, it is critical we remember, that at this writing planet earth is very much under the control of Satan (Ephesians 2:1-2, Job 1:7, 2nd Corinthians 4:4, Revelation 2:13). This generation is also (in my opinion) living in an age of powerful deception (Matthew 24:3-4, 2nd Thessalonians 2:11, Psalm 4:2).  Therefore, Christians are not exempt from getting caught up in deceptive philosophies or wrong thinking (Colossians 2:8). Some of those philosophies and deceptions are the same the ones our non-Christian friends and neighbors have fallen prey to, others are unique to Christianity.  There are at least three worldly and wildly dangerous beliefs that have infiltrated Christian thinking. These beliefs are taking the church captive and hamstringing the churches effectiveness. They are:

Your authentic self is your best self-

We live in a time and place where individualism is valued above all else. Everyone is encouraged to discover and celebrate their “authentic self”. This sounds great on the surface. It even sounds kind of Christian, after all, God made us all unique individuals, right? Well… sort of. It is true we are all unique creations made in God’s image (Psalm 139:14). It’s also true that it is a beautiful act of worship to discover our giftedness and use it for God’s glory and the good of the church (1st Corinthians 7:7, Hebrews 2:4, Ephesians 4:8-16). However, all humans are—at the core of who we are— fallen, sinful and super messy. This means that when we celebrate someone’s “authentic self” what we are really celebrating is their sin nature run amok.  Oftentimes, we are applauding the very things (chaos and sin) that keep people from finding genuine peace, spiritual transformation and moral virtue (2nd Corinthians 5:17, 2nd Corinthians 3:18). Our aim as believers should not be to become our “authentic” or “true” self or to applaud anyone else’s “authentic self”. Instead, our aim ought to be to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification (becoming like Jesus) and to help others to do the same (Matthew 28:18-20).  Romans 12, Colossians 3, 2nd Peter 1:3-11 give us the blueprint for the sanctification process. If we follow the instruction in those passages we will be successful Christians and our best self. 

Results matter more than character-

Unfortunately, it has become disturbingly common for churches and Christians to disregard the bad behavior of Christian leaders because “good things are happening in the organization/church” or “people are getting saved” (1st Timothy 5:24-25). This whole notion disregards Scripture that tells us that God is deeply concerned with more than results (Proverbs 16:2, James 4:2-4). Anything (even a good thing) done with a wrong heart or bad motives will have little to no eternal value (1st Corinthians 3:10-15, Hebrews 4:12-14). Furthermore, it’s simply a fact that when people “get saved” under a bad leader quite often they end up falling away from the faith when the leader’s behavior is revealed. All this to say, character matters. When character is sacrificed on an altar of “results” the results we get will ultimately be less than what could have been and displeasing to the Lord. Yikes. 

Prayer is irrelevant- 

God commands Christians to pray (Matthew 5:44 James 5:16, Philippians 4:6, 1st Thessalonians 5:17). However, there are a lot of Christians who believe God has already decided and/or already knows how everything is going to work out so there is no reason to pray. These folks literally believe God has commanded them to do something totally pointless that makes no sense. I believe prayer is critical because God speaks to people through situations and in a still small voice every time we ask Him to. Seriously. He does. Every. Single. Time. The more we ask the more He prompts people. Humans have freewill so sometimes they ignore God’s promptings. That’s on them. It’s on us to keep asking for the Fathers will (Matthew 18:1-6). 

What we believe matters. 

A lot. 

Wrong thinking always leads to wrong actions. Wrong actions inevitably yield terrible outcomes. Conversely, right thinking provides spiritual protection and ensures a better outcome. In our age of deception, it is imperative we hold every idea and belief up to the light of Scripture, even the ideas we hear in church or from Christian influencers. If the idea or belief lines up with Scripture we ought to live by it, if it doesn’t it needs to go. 

Seriously.