Episode 145 – Hijacked Scripture

          Welcome back! There is so much false teaching being pedaled as Christian, it’s been hard for us to decide which of it to tackle. And the truth is, there is so much, we may be spending the entire summer on it. But it’s important! As we looked at in episode 1, Truth Matters! Anything less than truth will not serve us well.

          And that is exactly why we are brutally honest on this subject, and even harsh sometimes, and why we will continue to be in the coming weeks. So, after talking about why Truth Matters and answering questions many have on the subject, taking on Mormonism, and having Erin Coates, who knows first-hand how important it is to be able to stand in Truth, as our guest, we decided this week to take on false teaching that is directly in the Bible.

          I can just hear all of you gasping. Of course, there is no false teaching in the Bible, but there is false teaching on how some Scripture is presented. And that’s what we are going to dive into today. We’ve all seen memes, posts, prints, tattoos, bumper stickers, whatever of single verses of Scripture. They are usually accompanied by a picture depicting what that verse means – or at least what it is perceived to mean. This is what we are going to look at today – verses of Scripture that have been ripped out of context to be used in ways it was never meant to be used. Many are used as life verses.

          And we will apologize up front to those of you who are going to be offended by this. And we promise that after we deal with verses that are incorrectly used and often misunderstood, we will give a few verses that can be used by themselves without the original meaning being polluted. So let’s start with the most used verse of Scripture – John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This verse has been posted in all kinds of places. I have even seen it on the side of a tractor trailer. It’s been called the central message of the Bible. And don’t get us wrong, it is an amazing verse with an amazing truth.

          In fact, the only reason it isn’t a good stand alone verse is because of the way it has been used. It is often used as a prompt to get someone to say the sinner’s prayer or walk the aisle of a church. And the problem with that, is that when its used, the only prerequisite given is that God sent Jesus for everybody – everybody in the world - and if you just believe in Jesus, you will go to heaven. For fun, we googled “John 3:16,” and here’s what came up. “The cornerstone of Christian belief that their God sacrificed his son for the salvation of humanity.” That still might not sound so bad, but by using it in this way, you are selling people a false doctrine. First, Jesus did not come for every human who has ever lived and second, there is more than just believing in Jesus to be saved – Satan and the demons believe in Jesus, and they are certainly not saved. The problem is not with the verse. The problem is with ripping it out of the surrounding passage and its context.

          So let’s look at the surrounding passage and context. In John 3, Jesus is speaking with the Pharisee, Nicodemus. He has come in the night because he curious about Jesus. He says to Jesus in John 3:2, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Nicodemus was an exceptional Pharisee in that he did think Jesus was from God, and was curious enough to sit down and talk to Jesus. (although he did go at night so he wouldn’t be seen, but baby steps!) Nicodemus does go on to become a follower of Jesus, even assisting in preparing His body for burial after Jesus’ crucifixion.

          Back to Jesus’ and Nicodemus’ clandestine meeting. Nicodemus was confused. He knew that Jesus must be from God, but he wasn’t sure what that meant. He would have easily accepted that Jesus was a prophet, but Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God. So he was trying to wrap his mind around how Jesus can be both from God and the Son of God. Jesus tells him there is only one way he will ever understand. In John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

          And then we all probably know Nicodemus asking if that means he has to crawl back up into his mother’s womb. Jesus’ reply to this is found in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Everyone has a physical birth, obviously. But Christians have a second birth, a spiritual birth. It’s what the term “born again” means. Our second birth is when the Holy Spirit regenerates our heart and we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus even tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus, who questions how is this rebirth possible, that if you are unable to understand or believe the earthly things Jesus has said, you will not be able to understand or believe the spiritual things.

          We can turn to Paul for exactly what Jesus’ words here mean. In 1 Cor. 1:18-19, Paul says, “ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,’I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Jesus, and Paul, are saying that unless you have been regenerated (born again) you will not be able to understand the Word of God. It will not make any sense, and may even seem like foolishness to you. Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus that He is the promised Messiah. He was what Moses was foreshadowing when he lifted up the bronze serpent to the Israelites that when they kept their eyes on it, were saved from death the biting snakes.

            And we could spend a lot of time unpacking all of that, but for our purpose, suffice it to say that before we get to Jesus’ words in John 3:16, Jesus has told us that 1 – unless you are born again (regenerated by the Holy Spirit) you are not able to understand the things of God, and 2 – It is only by looking to Jesus as your only possible Savior that you can be saved. Armed with that truth, we then get to the famous John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And Jesus follows up this statement with John 3:17 (another often misunderstood verse) “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.” Jesus goes on to explain more what He means by both of those statements, but we will summarize for time’s sake.

          The Trinity had and has a mission for His first coming and His second coming. In the first mission, God the Father sent Jesus His Son to show the world God. To usher in God’s kingdom on earth. To redeem all who belong to God by having Jesus be born fully Man and live a perfect life completely obeying the Law of God. In other words, Jesus was the only human ever who could have merited salvation. And as that perfect human, He was the perfect sacrifice for humans to atone for their sin by taking God’s wrath on Himself – He defeated sin. Because He was also fully God, He had the power to be resurrected and defeat death and Satan. He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell in believers then and for all time. So the first mission of the Trinity was to redeem those who belong to God. 

          And this is where John 3:16 comes in. “Whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Given what the rest of the passage says, there can be no doubt about the meaning of this verse. The problem comes in with the “whoever.” As we said, this is used as a one liner to get people to pay the sinner’s prayer. But if that is all that is used, it’s possible that the person praying the sinner’s prayer is not really saved. Again, Satan and the demons believed in Jesus. Jesus has made it clear prior to this verse that the “whoever” means those who have been reborn – regenerated – those who belong to Him.

          And let’s touch on John 3:17 when Jesus said, “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.” Again, this is often misused to say that Jesus does not judge anyone. Jesus’ first mission was not to condemn the world, it was to redeem His people. And what we mean by that is that God is being patient with evil and unbelievers. But that will not always be the case. As Paul tells us in Romans 2:4, “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?” Jesus’ first mission was to show the world God and redeem His people. The world has been given common grace in the Person of Jesus. Jesus showed everyone – believers and unbelievers – that He was God and the only way to salvation. What separates the world from God’s people is the belief that Jesus is God and the only way to salvation.

And just like our salvation is not fully realized until we either die or Jesus comes back, neither is God’s judgment. Jesus’s second coming, the Trinity’s second mission is to finally bring the redemption of God’s people and the fulness of God’s wrath to fruition. Paul tells us this in the follow up verse of that Romans 2:4 verse we read. Romans 2:5 says, “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.” To quote our new book, The Final Exodus – Deciphering the Book of Revelation, “Make no mistake, God will not be patient forever. There will come a time when He says, “Time’s up!” We see how this plays out in chapters 15 and 16 of Revelation through the bowl judgments.”

So in a nutshell, how John 3:16 (and 17) are correctly interpreted is that God sent Jesus to show the world Himself. For His people specifically, Jesus showed that God is with them, God has come to save them because they could never do it on their own. And whoever believes that will spend eternity in heaven. And Jesus did not come on that first mission to condemn the world. The world is doing a great job condemning itself! But there will come a time, Jesus’ second coming, when God will come to condemn the world and release His judgement and wrath on them. 

So quote John 3:16! It is an amazing truth! Use it as part of your Gospel presentation! Just make sure you are filling in the rest of the passage along with it. That it’s not enough to just say, “oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus.” Make sure they understand what they are believing in, who Jesus is, why He came the first time, and why He’s coming a second time. And a great teaching to go along with it is the teaching Jesus used – Moses holding up the bronze serpent. And if you aren’t familiar with that or want to read the entire story, it’s found in Numbers 21. Okay, let’s do another one. It’s graduation season and this is a favorite verse to give a graduate on a mug, keychain, blanket, or written in a card. It’s Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.” 

          This verse is often used to give to everyone – whether they are a believer or not – to mean that God’s plan for your future will prosper you. This is a favorite verse of the word of faithers. And the problem is that once again, it is being ripped from it original context. While there is definite encouragement all believers can take from this verse – and we will get to that in a minute – this verse was written to the nation of Judah while they were in exile in Babylon. 

The Lord was giving His people a message through Jeremiah. Jeremiah tells the people that it was God’s Hand that put them into exile as punishment for their idolatry. He tells them the punishment would last 70 years. And then goes on to tell them to settle in and “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take 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. But 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.” Jeremiah then warns them about false prophets that will come giving them false messages. And there were false prophets! Even before the exile, there were some who were saying God wasn’t really that angry. He’s not going to punish you like Jeremiah and others say He is. And that’s the point of this passage in Jeremiah 29. God is telling them, here’s the truth – don’t believe anything else you hear. You will be here for 70 years, and during that time seek the welfare of the city you are in and live amongst the people. He then tells them in Jeremiah 29:10, “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.

And of course, Jeremiah 29:11 comes right after this. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” Now that’s the NIV version because that is the most well-known, but the ESV uses “welfare” in place of prosper, and “evil” in place of harm. The original Hebrew word for “prosper or welfare” is “shalom,” a word we have all probably heard before. Shalom means peace, and more specifically God’s peace. Strong’s concordance defines it as, “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace.” Harm of evil is the Hebrew word “rah,’ and is defined in Strong’s concordance as bad or evil. So put this into context of the original audience. They had been conquered by a pagan nation, ripped from the land God had promised would be theirs, and were oppressed in a land where they didn’t know the culture, didn’t speak the language, and were expected to bow down to a pagan king. And on top of that, they knew that God had done this to them. In Jeremiah 20, Jeremiah tells them that Babylon is coming to conquer them and the people respond in Jeremiah 20:2, “Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.” 

God answers them pretty swiftly in Jeremiah 20:5, where He says“ I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.”  So the Israelites knew that God was punishing them – pretty severely. They were also told to use the time in exile to repent and stay faithful to God. And we see from Daniel 9 that most did not repent and stay faithful. But God knew that was going to happen. When He punished the 10 tribes of the Northern nation of Israel and the 2 tribes of the southern nation of Judah by exiling them into Assyria and Babylon, respectively, He knew that most would fall away and be destroyed. He was doing this to bring a remnant – those who truly belonged to Him to repentance and faith. As Ezra 9:8 says, “But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery.”

And Jeremiah chapter 29 is for that remnant. God is telling them, accept what I have done, learn from why I have done it, and obey me by remaining faithful to me while you seek the good of the community I have put you in and the oppressors I have put you under. Jeremiah 29:11 is God’s promise to them, that their punishment will not last forever and that He is doing it for their own good. His plan for His people is not to destroy them – and this would have been a huge promise since the people had seen most of those from the northern nation of Israel destroy. But instead, God’s plan for His people is to give them peace with Him. They can have hope, will have a future, and will be protected from evil because they belong to God. And it is God who takes care of all of those things.

So does this verse apply to us? While the specifics are meant for God’s people who were exiled in Babylon, the sentiment behind the verse does apply to us – just not in the way it’s often used. Christians have been persecuted and killed since Jesus’ ascension. And knowing God is sovereign over all can make us wonder why is He allowing it – or maybe even causing it? And we may not have an answer to that on this side of heaven. But here in this passage of Jeremiah, we get encouragement that the eternal things – hope, a secure future, and protection from evil are given and held secure for His people. Stay faithful regardless of what we see going on in this world, because its all temporal. For those of us who belong to Christ, the eternal things – the things that really matter – can never be lost or taken away. And we just saw this truth reiterated in our study of Ephesians. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that God has, “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

So by all means, use Jeremiah 29:11 as part of a witness of the goodness of God, but don’t use it alone to mean that God has a plan to prosper everyone and give them a future and do them no harm here on earth. Using it this way will only lead to disillusionment and disappointment. Okay, so here is one I’ve seen all over. I’ve even seen jewelry with it, and that is Luke 1:37, “Nothing is impossible with God.” Sometimes a line similar is used out of Mark 10:27, “With God all things are possible.” These two passages are very different, but when you drill down, the meaning of both of these ripped out verses are the same.

First, Luke 1:37. The Angel, Gabriel uses this phrase when responding to Mary after she asks how will she come to have a baby since she is a virgin. The angel responds in Luke 1:35 – 37, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.. For nothing will be impossible with God.” The angel Gabriel was telling Mary that God is omnipotent and sovereign – so much so that He can make a virgin and an old lady both have babies. Both were to fulfill OT prophecy. Both were impossible things that could not be done in the natural realm. They could only have been accomplished by an all-powerful, almighty, sovereign God.

And the Mark 10 passage’s meaning is the same. In Mark 10:17 – 31, we see the interaction between Jesus and the young ruler and the afterwards conversation between Jesus and His Apostles. If you recall the story, the young ruler asks what must he do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him he must keep the commandments. The young ruler says he has, so Jesus, knowing his heart, tells him to go and sell all of his possessions, give them to the poor, and then come follow him. And, as we all know, the young man went away sad because he didn’t want to sell his stuff. Jesus then tells His disciples that, “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.”  We say in TBB “Jesus was using an exaggerated parallelism here. …. Jesus wasn’t saying that being rich makes it harder to become a believer. It is God Who does the saving from start to finish! He can save a rich man just as easily as a poor man. We see His point in the second line. Can a camel ever fit through the eye of a needle? No! It’s impossible! Likewise, no human being can ever do enough, be good enough, or behave well enough to earn their way into Heaven.” The disciples were astonished and asked, Then who can be saved? Jesus answered in Mark 10:27, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

In other words, it is impossible for man to save himself. Only God can save. So both of these verses show that God is almighty, all-powerful, and all sovereign He is the only one who can birth a baby from a virgin or old lady. He is the only one who can save. And while, yes, God can certainly do anything – like make your new business a huge success or help you run that marathon, that is not what these verses are meant to be used for. What they are meant for is to show that God has a plan and purpose and nothing can thwart it. God can and will accomplish all that He purposes. As it says in Is 14:27, “For the Lord of hosts has purposed,and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? Job backs this up in Job 42:2 when he says to God, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

So, again, use Luke 1:37 or Mark 10:27, but use it in the correct context – that nothing will stop God’s plan and purpose. And while we don’t know all of His plans and purpose, we do know the big plans. “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) So when things are as bad as they can be, when we are being persecuted, when we are sitting under a corrupt government that is taking all of our rights away and trying to close down churches and snuff out Christian voices, when it seems like God is disappearing from people’s hearts and witnessing the Gospel becomes a dangerous undertaking, take heart. All these obstacles may be impossible for us to overcome, but with God all things are possible. His plan will move forward and His purposes will be fulfilled.

We will do a couple more) and we have talked about this one before, but since it’s plastered all over people’s social media pages and hanging on their walls, its worth addressing again. Phil. 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Like some of the previously mentioned verses, this verse has been hijacked to mean that you can do anything if you ask in Jesus’ name because He will strengthen you. If you read this section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, you will see that he is addressing their concern for his well-being. He tells them in Phil. 4:10, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.” He then goes on to say that he is not, nor is he ever in real need because even though he has been through just about everything, he has learned to be content no matter what. He can deal with whatever circumstances the Lord puts him in because Jesus strengthens him to endure.

 I hope we’ve noticed a pattern with all of these, and so many other, hijacked verses. The original meaning – as with all of Scripture – is pointing to Jesus and glorifying God. Whereas the hijacked meaning is all about us. We talked about narcigesis a couple of weeks ago. That’s where you insert yourself in Scripture. That’s what is being done with these verses. They go from God’s victory to our victory. God’s glory to our own glory. It cheapens God from the sovereign almighty to our personal Santa Claus. And not that God isn’t concerned with our personal situations – He absolutely is, but His biggest concern for us after He saves us is our sanctification, not that we are able to prosper materially or physically.

We’ll do one more. And this is one that has been thrown around a lot, especially as we see America and other countries going in a very bad direction. 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” This has been used as a call for Christians to pray and repent so God will heal the nations of this world. 

2 Chronicles 5 - 7 is all about Solomon dedicating the Temple he had just finished to God. After Solomon had prayed, He and the Israelites offered sacrifices, and held a feast to honor God and celebrate the finishing of the Temple. The Lord appears to Solomon after all of this and says in 2 Chr. 7:12 – 14, “Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” What this shows is that this verse is tied up with Israel and the temple and the fact that from time to time God might send judgment upon the land in the form of drought, locusts, or pestilence.

In fact, a few verses later in 2 Chr. 7:19 – 20, God says, “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,  then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” The Old covenant was a unique covenant between God and the Israelites. The Israelites were God’s chosen nation. There are no chosen nations today. Part of that covenant was that there were blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. We see it over and over in the OT, and it’s exactly what we see when we read the entire chapter 7 of 2Chronicles. In fact, these curses came to pass – the Israelites were plucked from the land – they were exiled in Assyria and then Babylon. And the Temple was cast out of God’s sight – Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it.

So it’s pretty clear that 2Chr 7:14 is not to be used to mean that if Christians today just humble ourselves, pray harder, and turn back to God, He will heal our nation. Like we said, the blessings and curses covenant was unique in the OT between God and the Israelites. God never promised that if His people repent and pray, He will save their geographical nation. But that doesn’t mean that his verse and passage doesn’t have any meaning for us, because it does. Certainly, God can make the place where we are living better – there’s no guarantee He will, but it is certainly appropriate to pray that He will. 

More than that, though, we are called to bring all of our troubles – national and personal before God. We are called to humble ourselves before God, turn to Him, and repent when needed. And with that will come blessings – it puts us in the right position before God, we have intimacy with Him in our prayers, and when we repent, we find forgiveness. And that is the big takeway from this passage. God is merciful! Even to the Israelites, He showed His mercy over and over. For us on this side of Jesus, His mercy is shown through Jesus. We aren’t under the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience covenant – we are under the new covenant.

So if you want to use this verse, use it. But make sure you fully explain that what it ultimately shows for us is that Praise God, we are under the new covenant. Jesus took on the curses for our disobedience, and we get the blessings earned from His obedience! Sadly, we are running short of time. Maybe we will do another “hijacked verses” episode in this series, but for now, we want to finish by giving some verses that can be used stand alone. 

We are not proponents of life verses, but for those of you who like them, we want to give you some verses that you can take out of the original passage and the original meaning will still be clear. First, and we admit we are biased on this one, Proverbs 9:10 – Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge of the holy one is understanding. While it would be very beneficial to read the entire Proverb, you can easily understand the correct meaning of this verse. Now I suppose people could misunderstand what fear of the Lord is, but hopefully, anyone who has been a Christian for more than a minute, gets that it is not a quaking fear, but a reverent awe.

          This is a great verse – which is why we chose it for our ministry title because it encompasses so much in it. To even begin to have wisdom – godly wisdom – we need to grasp that God is the Almighty, He is holy, and He is sovereign. And we need to approach Him and the study of Him in that posture. And the more we get to know Him – the more knowledge we get of Him, the more we will love and understand Him! Another is one we have used over and over, Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the will of God. What is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

          We’ll give a couple more. Lamentations 3:22 – 23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Psalm 121:1, “I lift up my eyes to the hills.
  From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” And there are many more. The point is that if you want to quote one verse, just make sure it is a verse that cannot be hijacked. Pick a verse that clearly and plainly is glorifying God for who He is, not for what He can do for us. Choose verses that obviously point to Jesus. Use verses that can’t be hijacked and turned from God centered to man centered.

          And when you see someone trying to hijack a verse – use it as an opportunity to show them the real meaning. Because the real context is so much deeper and fuller and encouraging than any of the shallow meaning being slapped onto it.

          That’s a good place to end for today. Thanks for joining us! We hope you are enjoying this series. Drop us an e-mail or leave a comment if you are! Have a blessed day!