What steps can Christians take to ensure their church community aligns with the core values of their faith?

In order to do this biblical literacy is key, I’m not just saying within the community/congregation, but the entire leadership of the church as well.

It is important that sound doctrine be taught and studied. It’s also important that should leadership go against the principles of the faith in any way that they be called out by their congregation and not allowed to run roughshod over them.

This is what biblical literacy prevents.

It prevents a congregation, taking in the false or misguided teachings of an uneducated pastor.

This is where false teachings and corrupt doctrine flourish, in churches that won’t read their Bibles.

Sadly, many Christians only know famous scriptures. The most famous of these being John 3:16.

“for God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Most people don’t even know John 3:17, which is the line of scripture directly after that. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

This set of scripture shows why Jesus came to earth as a human.

It also shows that there is no other way for the world to be saved, but through him.

The last portion of that, the world can only be saved through him, shuts down a lot of new age teachings and all other religions that says there are other ways to heaven.

Which brings to mind another very famous scripture, John 14:6.

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

Another example of misunderstood doctrine is Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds (stripes) we are healed.”

In charismatic churches specifically, this line of scripture is used to proclaim physical healing.

However, that’s not what it’s talking about at all.

If you read the entire 53rd chapter of Isaiah, you get a different understanding.

You see that it is talking about salvation. The suffering that Jesus endured was not so that we could be healed of broken bones, paper cuts, and runny noses. (Or HIV, cancer, kidney disease.)

Instead, it was so that we could be wiped clean of all sin. So that we could be healed, spiritually by his blood.

This interpretation is backed up by other pieces of scripture, such as 1 peter 2:24 which reads as follows…

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

The misinterpretation of Isaiah 53:5 is one of the most dangerous ones I’ve seen. It leads to a lot of people falling away from their faith because God didn’t heal them or a loved one when he was asked to.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God will heal everything we ask him to and yet that is what some churches claim Isaiah 53:5 says.

Not taking the time to read and understand our Bibles, the word of God, is a death sentence to our faith.

Many people call God, “blood thirsty” and unfair.

And they will point out scriptures where violent things do happen.

If you don’t read your Bible and understand the context, then one can be taken in by these arguments and convinced to abandon God.

Many people fall prey to new age teaching because they do not read their Bible.

Many people do not give God the reverence that he deserves, the respect that he commands because they do not know him.

They do not fully understand who he is and what he has done for us.

And why is that? Because they refuse to read his word.
God is the Almighty creator, the sovereign Lord of all.

He is the standard setter, he is the rule maker.

We are his creations, some of us are his children, and we are all his subjects.

Many people don’t understand this. This is why when people don’t get what they prayed for they say that God “didn’t answer their prayer.”

God answers prayer in three different ways. It’s not just yes or no.

He answers with a yes, he answers with a no or he answers with not yet.

Many people do not understand this so they fall away from their faith the minute they don’t get what they want. Their faith melts away like cotton candy in the rain.

I say all of this to show that the most crucial and significant step that we can take to make sure that our churches and communities aligned with the core values of our faith is to read our Bibles, understand what is in them and live by what we’ve learned.

MB