Recovering Abused Bible Verses (Part 6) - Luke 18:25

5. When Jesus talks about a camel going through the eye of a needle He is actually talking about the gate to an ancient city.

This is a very popular idea among the Word Faith teachers. I have heard it taught in Australia, the US and Europe. The most frightening thing about this teaching is not the teaching itself (as bad as that is) but what it says about how little teachers and church members in these churches know their Bibles.

Here's an example of this teaching:



The motive behind the teaching seems quite clear. They want to say that it is good to be rich, you just have to be like the camel that has to bow down as it enters the narrow gate of the city. Likewise the rich man only has to bow down in humility to enter heaven’s gate.

Just a very quick glance at this passage of Scripture shows this teaching to be wrong. But, equally tragically, it ignores a truth that is way more exciting than anything this world has to offer. Let’s pick this up at Luke 18:22 near the end of Jesus’ conversation with the “rich young ruler”:

22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." 23But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." 26Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" 27But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (Luke 18:22-27)

Is the eye of the needle the gate of a city? We can be certain it is not because in verse 26 the disciples understood it as something impossible “who can be saved” and in verse 27 Jesus confirms that he is describing something physically impossible. But Jesus is explaining that salvation is impossible unless God works a miracle. I found it the greatest irony that the people who teach that the eye of the needle is the gate to a city also invite people to make a decision to become a Christian. Even though the text says that “with man this is impossible”.

Here is the great truth we learn from Luke 18:

Conclusion 5: Man is utterly incapable of saving himself. But God is fully able to save sinners – conversion is a miracle!

It is a miracle made possible by the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Once again, it all points to Christ's redemptive work. Those who abuse Scriptuire continually point away from the cross of Jesus Christ. The Cross is where we must begin and end our theology. We need to preach the Cross again and again. It needs to take center stage in our preaching. The older preachers knew this. Spurgeon was once told that his sermons all sounded alike. His response:

That may be so. I can take any verse in the Bible and make a bee-line for the Cross.

As we have gone through this series I have wanted to make these two major points. In all of the five abused Bible verses i have discussed, each can be clearly understood by reading the surrounding text. It is true in fact that most interpretive problems are readily solved by a plain reading of the surrounding text. My other major point has been that sound teachers always take the text they preach and show how it ultimately points to the cross of Jesus Christ - as we will now see as we conclude by reviewing this series.

In Part 2 (John 3:17) we learned that :

Jesus did not come to condemn because this world is already condemned under the wrath of God.

In Part 3 (Romans 2:4) we learned that:

The kindness of God that leads to repentance is shown in that He delays His wrath giving sinners time to repent.

In Part 4 (Matthew 18:20) we learned that:

Two or more of us gathering in God's Name for the purposes of church discipline gives those of us in the church confidence that we have Divine authority to deal with unrepentant sin within our camp.

In Part 5 (Jeremiah 29:11) we learned that:

Jeremiah 29:11 was a promise of blessing to a particular future generation of the Israelites in Babylonian slavery - it is not a verse that we can apply as a personal promise from God to us. If that were the case then we would also have to apply the verses personally that concern God cursing certain people. The major message to 21st century Christians from Jeremiah 29:11 is that God does not abandon His people!

And in Part 6 (Luke 18:25) we learned that:

The eye of the needle Jesus spoke about was not the gate to a city. The following two verses clearly refute this bogus teaching. Jesus' major point here is that man is utterly incapable of saving himself. But God is fully able to save sinners – conversion is a miracle!

Coming Soon - Popular Myths Embraced By Popular Teachers.

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Go Back To Part 1

Recovering Abused Bible Verses (Part 5) - Jeremiah 29:11

4. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.



This lame video also has very lame handling of Scripture. It is very common these days to see professing Christians treating the Bible like a smorgasbord. People like to pick the verses that they like and claim them as their own personal verse. And Jeremiah 29:11 would have to be at the top of this category! But reading it in its context and wider context we learn that this is a part of a particular message, to a particular people, at a particular time, in a particular situation. What was the situation of Jeremiah 29:11?

Israel had been taken by the Babylonians into captivity. The temple is in ruins and the king has had his eyes cut out. The glory of Israel as a nation is finished. But in the midst of this terrible situation – God speaks.

4"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD. 10"For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. 15"Because you have said, 'The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,' 16thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your kinsmen who did not go out with you into exile: 17'Thus says the LORD of hosts, behold, I am sending on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. 18I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, (Jeremiah 29:4-18)

We could spend all day talking about this but I’ll give just a few points to consider:

1.Why do people think they can claim verse 11 as their own but decide that verses 17 and 18 don’t apply to them?
2.When God speaks in verse 11 remember that verse 4 shows us that He has His foot on their neck while He is saying it.
3.The people receiving the promise in verse 11 will not even live to see it’s fulfillment (it will take 70 years).
4.The reason Israel was in Babylonian slavery was because that they spent their time listening to prophets who told them things they liked to hear.

It is foolish to read Jeremiah 29:11 as a personal message from God to us as individuals. But there is something far greater that we learn from this story in its true context:

That God does not abandon His people!

As this series concludes in my next post, I hope you will see the overarching message from the true meaning of these abused Bible verses.

In Part 2 we learned that:

Jesus did not come to condemn because this world is already condemned under the wrath of God.

In Part 3 we learned that:

The kindness of God is shown in that He delays His wrath giving sinners time to repent.

In Part 4 we learned that:

Two or more of us gathering in God's Name for the purposes of church discipline gives those of us in the church confidence that we have Divine authority to deal with unrepentant sin within our camp.

In today's post we see that:

The major message to 21st century Christians from Jeremiah 29:11 is that God does not abandon His people!

Concludes on Wednesday - Part 6: When Jesus talks about how difficult it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, is he speaking of the gate to a city or . . . the eye of a needle?

Go On To Part 6
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Recovering Abused Bible Verses (Part 4) - Matthew 18:18-20

3. When two or three gather in God’s Name He is there among us. Whatever they bind and loose on earth shall be bound and loosed in heaven.

This was a very popular saying in the Pentecostal church that I attended for ten years. I would have heard this quoted hundreds of times and almost always at every prayer meeting. I don’t think it is entirely incorrect to believe that God is among us when we gather in His Name, but it is amazing that, considering the number of times this verse was quoted, I never heard it in its context. It actually appears in Matthew 18:

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Matthew 18:15-20)

What is the context here? Church discipline! Church discipline is the true Christian’s friend and the false Christian’s reality check. It restores the fallen brother and removes the false convert. God, in His kindness, delays His wrath, giving lost sinners time to repent. In this time when God restrains His wrath (that will come one day) He has given the church the authority to deal with unrepentant sin in the congregation. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 5 that God deals with those in the world. The church deals with those in the church. And sometimes the church casts people out into the world to protect the believers and in the trust that God will now deal with them.

Conclusion 3: Matthew 18:15-20 gives those of us in the church confidence that we have Divine authority to deal with unrepentant sin within our camp.

As this series continues I hope you will see the overarching message from the true meaning of these abused Bible verses.

In Part 2 we learned that:

Jesus did not come to condemn because this world is already condemned under the wrath of God.

In Part 3 we learned that:

The kindness of God is shown in that He delays His wrath giving sinners time to repent.

In todays post we see that:

Two or more of us gathering in God's Name for the purposes of church discipline gives those of us in the church confidence that we have Divine authority to deal with unrepentant sin within our camp.

Continued on Monday - Part 5: Yes! It's going to be Jeremiah 29:11!

Go On To Part 5
Go Back To Part 3
Go Back To Part 1

Recovering Abused Bible Verses (Part 3) - Romans 2:4

2. It’s the kindness of God that leads people to repentance.

As with most of today’s "trendy churches", catchy slogans and worldly wisdom have replaced the exposition of God's Word. We are now reaping the harvest of this pragmatic philosophy with multiple generations of biblically illiterate church-goers. People who readily embrace cliches and spiritual sound bites without ever testing them for biblical soundness. Many of those who shepherd are also a product of this landscape and only serve to perpetuate the trainwreck. Joel Osteen is a high profile representative of the many therapists self esteem gurus out there masquerading as theologians and shepherds. True to that heritage, Joel Osteen claims:

“We’ve heard a lot about the judgment of God and what we can’t do and what’s going to keep us out of heaven. But it’s time people start hearing about the goodness of God, about a God that loves them….. It's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.” (online source)

Joel Osteen has quoted this as a reason why he doesn’t talk about sin. Do you know where this verse is? Actually it’s only a part of a verse – a part of Romans 2:4 (I will highlight the whole verse in bold print):

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man--you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself--that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:1-5)

Here we see what God’s kindness is. It is God’s forbearance of our sin. It is that God is withholding wrath that we deserve. When we see our sinfulness and rebellion against God against the background of God’s kindness in withholding the wrath that we deserve – this leads to repentance. This is consistent with Paul’s teaching to the Corinthian church:

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)

Conclusion 2: The kindness of God leads to repentance because this kindness is shown in that He delays His wrath giving sinners time to repent.

As this series continues I hope you will see the overarching message from the true meaning of these abused Bible verses.

In Part 2 we learned that:

Jesus did not come to condemn because this world is already condemned under the wrath of God.

In todays post we see that:

The kindness of God is shown in that He delays His wrath giving sinners time to repent.

Continued on Friday - Part 4: When two or three gather in God’s Name He is there among us. Whatever they bind and loose on earth shall be bound and loosed in heaven. In the meantime here is a very provocative video to watch . . . if you dare!



Go On To Part 4
Go Back To Part 2
Go Back To Part 1

Recovering Abused Bible Verses (Part 2) - John 3:17

1. Jesus Did Not Come To Condemn Anybody

Have you heard that quote before? People say it a lot. In fact Rob Bell says that very thing in one of his best selling videos called "Bullhorn Guy" which I discussed in an earlier post. He uses the argument that "Jesus didn't come to condemn anybody" against preaching about sin.

Where this verse is in Scripture? It appears just after the most famous verse of all, John 3:16. Let’s go there and see if we can find out the context for why Jesus did not come to condemn.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." (John 3:16-21)

Jesus did not come to condemn the world because it is already condemned. The condemnation is that sinful men love darkness and hate the light and will not come to the light so that their sinful works will be exposed. Preaching about sin is not what condemns people – their own sin has already condemned them. Preaching about sin, righteousness and judgment is the most helpful thing we can do for people already condemned by a Holy God for their crimes against Him. Jesus did not come to condemn because this whole fallen sinful world is already under God’s wrath as we see later in the same chapter (John3:34).

Conclusion 1: Jesus did not come to condemn because this world is already condemned under the wrath of God.

Continued on Wednesday - Part 3: It's the Kindness Of God That Leads People to Repentance.

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Recovering Abused Bible Verses (Part 1)

If I was to say to you as a preacher:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

And then go on to teach on why we should hate our parents - how would you respond?

1. You would read the verse in context. This is why expository preaching is important and that also that the preacher works his way through a book verse by verse (Yes - I realize the irony of using a topical blog post to point this out). Here we see that Jesus is explaining the radical cost of discipleship and is using what we call hyperbole to make a point. Hyperbole is defined as:

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

2. You can also check for a parallel verse in another Gospel.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37)

3. Another rule of Bible interpretation is that it cannot contradict the rest of Scripture.

You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.' (Luke 18:20)

I could go on into the greek but I think you get the point that you cannot teach hatred of parents from Luke 14:26. How about the old favorite “you shall not judge” which is a popular response to people who make biblical assessments of sin. Do you realize that that verse is quoted from Matthew 7, the very same chapter where Jesus teaches how to judge between true and false teachers.

We need to be careful when listening to teachers (myself included) that the Scripture is being handled rightly. We also need to be careful in our own use of Scripture. There is so much bad use of Scripture I keep hearing today and there are several verses that often get used or abused for the sake of a false teacher’s agenda. I keep encountering it on Christian TV, in sermons, in books, and in conversations. I really believe it would be helpful to take a closer look at this for two reasons:

1. We need to test all teaching against Scripture.
2. The real meaning of the abused verses I will be examining over the coming weeks is something way more excellent and profound than the way they get abused.

This post is the first of a six part series. In each of the following five posts I will take a look at an often used and often abused verse from Scripture. I will show how the abuse is quite easily detectable. I will also show that this abuse serves to conceal far more glorious and profound truth than the carnal falsehoods that false teachers glean. We are going to take a look at five popular Bible verses that get used regularly and wrongly and focus on their real meaning. So stay tuned!

Go On To Part 2