LUKE: YEAR OF OUR LORD - WEEK 30 - MYTH - CONCEPTIONS

1 Timothy 4:1 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will [a]fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons (NASB)”

Demonic doctrine (doctrine, meaning the teaching of a set of beliefs). What is THAT about? Sounds out there…UNTIL you realize that there’s this new trend on Social Media called ex-vangelism (people who are leaving the faith for some pretty incredible reasons): Did you know…

1 - Christians, not Jews, wrote the Torah? 
2 - The God of the Bible is NOT the One True God, but is actually a smaller god out of a larger pantheon of gods from Canaan? 
3 - Jesus didn’t die on the cross? 
4 - We are saved by keeping the Sabbath? 
5 - Jesus is actually the ANTI–Christ!

Well, at least that’s what the ex-vangelists say… And they know this because they heard someone else quoting someone else who read it on a website put together by someone else who saw it one time on a social media meme.

That’s tragic, Church. But you know what worries me more? When the people of God are deceived and actually BUY INTO THIS CRAP.

One of worst things I have seen in my ministry life over the years is a lack of knowledge in the Church about Biblical doctrine and true Theology. What is Theology? It’s the study of God. And though you can develop part of your theology through your interaction with this world: “The heavens declare the glory of God,” for example; or “men who deny the truth are without excuse because what can be known about God can be seen in Creation.” And for hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of years, people only had the oral traditions of the working and the character of God along with their observations of the world (i.e., science - which, ironically led them TO God, not AWAY from God as many people do today). It was Moses who would write down the story of Creation, of the Patriarchs, of the interactions of God with His people. The first 5 books of our Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy - are called the Book of Moses. There were people who chronicled the lives and ministries of God’s people throughout the years - but there are huge portions of history where the majority of the people were illiterate and could not read.

That’s why the invention of the printing press was so radical. People were able to get the scriptures into their own hands, and as they began to learn to read, they were able to see for themselves the story of God throughout history.

And as the writings became more and more available and studied, Theology became rooted in what we know of today as “THE BOOK,” which is what “The Bible” actually means: “bible” being a word that means “book.”

So now that we live in a time where the Scriptures are more readily available for people to read for themselves than ANY OTHER TIME IN HISTORY, isn’t it tragic how it seems like no one really KNOWS what the Bible says. Oh - they’ll tell you what OTHER PEOPLE have told them what the Bible says, but if you really dove down deep and asked them, they’d really have no first-hand knowledge of what the Bible says.

Now - that’s a sermon in and of itself…but I bring it up today because Luke 13 has a LOT to say about false assumptions and bad theology. There’s a thread running thru these short accounts that tie it all together in the fact that Jesus has come to bring the light of TRUTH into the darkness of myth- conceptions about WHO God is, HOW He works, WHAT His will is, and WHERE things are going.

Now, we could probably take a few months to confront so many misconceptions, but since we’re going through the Gospel of Luke this year, I just want us to focus in on the five false assumptions about God and our relationship with Him found in Luke 13. So buckle up - we have 6 points to cover today!