We have one regret in writing this book. It’s incomplete.
These twelve false assumptions are the major growth teachings with which the church struggles, but more are created all the time. As a seminary professor remarked, “Our ability to sin creatively is limited only by our depravity.”1
What’s a Christian to do?
1. Seek God and ask him to illuminate your thinking with his truth and wisdom. If the teaching is accurate, God wants you to understand that he is the fount from which all truth flows.
2. Make the Bible your final authority. Don’t let religious-sounding jargon, high I.Q., eloquence, authority, or sincerity determine if a teaching is true. Test the spirits with the Word of God. And when you read the Bible, look up the verses in several translations. Check out the context. Does the idea fit in the passage? Learn to be an independent student of the Bible. There are many good commentaries, dictionaries, and Bible study aids in Christian bookstores. And enroll in a Bible study methods class offered by a church (yours or another).
3. Learn to think critically. In other words, don’t believe something just because an authority figure says it (including us). Beware of teachers who are threatened by your questions. Jesus answered people’s questions; the Pharisees were insulted by them.
4. Spend time with people who think for themselves. Learn what questions they ask when they read new information. Mavericks often find nuggets of gold that party-line people miss out on because they’re stuck in tradition.
5. Ask yourself if you believe something because you were taught it, or because it’s true. Many people don’t question false assumptions because they might shake up their loyalty to their family, church, or community. Remember that God’s truth will always win out.
6. Look at the fruit of the teaching. Does it lead to love, responsibility, self-control, and forgiveness? Or does it bring on isolation, compulsion, guilt, and shame?
Our prayer is that you will dig underneath every false assumption to the truth—and, in the truth, find Jesus.