Is Right Teaching a Numbers Game?

Is it likely that the discernment of two people would be more accurate than the discernment of 15 consultants and 99% of the membership of a church? Well, based on that wording, it would seem unlikely that the vast majority would apt to correct and the one or two who came to perceive things differently.

But right sound Biblical doctrine is not a numbers game. Instead it is what does Scripture actually say. Again and again God has raised up men like Noah, Abraham, Moses and the prophets and had them preach and teach what He wanted His people to believe and live by. Sometimes the people would obey for a season and then stray into believing other things.

Then God sent His very own Son, who was and is the way, truth, and life. Jesus in addition to being one and only sacrifice that can redeem us, taught his disciples what He wanted them to teach others. He also directly taught Paul. Those apostles taught others, and what they taught was the sound teaching that God wants His church to know and obey.

But individuals and entire churches would listen to other teachings and believe them. Paul had to both write to those churches and go to them to correct the errors that kept creeping into the churches.

Paul also spent years teaching individuals like Timothy and Titus to be able to teach correctly and straighten out errors that had infiltrated the churches.

However, as generations went by, error crept in and false doctrines came to permeate the Church. But in His mercy God brought along men who took the time to study Scripture and see how far what was by then the accepted teachings in the Church had caused it drift away from what is in God's Word.

The great reformers in the history of the Church were able to be used by God to help people get out of the mire of deception they were in by diligent study of Scripture and then preaching it. Most often they would go through books of the Bible verse by verse since God had a purpose both in what He said and how He said it in Scripture. They always used Scripture to explain Scripture. They also took the time to investigate the meanings of words and phrases in the original languages and what was being referred to in the time God had it written, believing that what God meant when He inspired its writing He still meant.

Even what is written in the Old Testament means the same thing now as it meant them. But how it was understood by the priests and teachers in their time had to change when God Himself came in the flesh and clarified what such things as sacrificing animals was a foreshadow of. Jesus was the actual Lamb of God to take away the sins of world. And many of the teachings of those who taught the Law of God were wrong. Not because there was anything wrong with the wording of Scripture, but those who were teaching it were in error. They were false teachers and didn't know it.

To teach what is right takes careful study of God's Word. We always have to go back to Scripture and read it in context, and read entire books of the Bible, and as much as possible learn about what it says in the original languages and historic context. Getting deceived is easy. Entire churches and even denominations have started with a strong clear understanding of Scripture and over time became swallowed up in deceptions that had them compromising into religiosity and worldliness.

Let us remember:

(2 Tim 3:16-17)  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ESV

Right teaching is not a numbers game. It is a proper understanding of Scripture. If you'd like to grow in your understanding of Scripture you should take the time to study it. One place you could do that for free is with the online resources of the Masters Seminary where John MacArthur is president. Here is a link to the resources page:

http://www.theologicalresources.org/the-masters-seminary/tms-resources/

On that resource page you can access the free courses by clicking the link below the Online Lectures paragraph.

Let's study God's Word so we continue to learn what God wants us to know, believe and obey.

What Should be Taught? Who Should Teach?

2Tinothy 2:1-2:   You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (ESV)

This second letter to Timothy was written not long before Paul's death. These instructions were of crucial importance. Paul had taught Timothy for years and knew it was essential that Timothy not only teach what he'd learned from Paul to others, but to teach them to men who would then teach others.

Who taught Paul? Jesus. (Galatians 1:11-22) Paul then taught others who became believers in and followers of Jesus. But not everybody who was taught by Paul remained content with what he and the other writers of Scripture had to say. Some neglected certain aspects of the teachings, and others added other non-Biblical teachings to what they believed. Much of what Paul wrote in his letters to the churches was necessary to correct false teachings.

Since Paul knew it was unlikely that he would be around much longer to teach sound doctrine, he urged Timothy to pass on these teachings to men who would be faithful to teach others also.

The teaching of Scripture, including what God had Paul write, is what God wants us to know and live by. Jesus is our Savior and Lord. Salvation comes from hearing and believing that we're sinners and cannot save ourselves, but thankfully Jesus is the Son of God who came in the flesh to suffer and die for our sins, and that sacrifice was acceptable as was demonstrated by His resurrection never to die again.

Jesus is also our Lord. And we're to be His disciples and taught to observe all His commands. (Matt. 28:19-20)

Jesus taught His chosen apostles including Paul. Timothy learned from Paul. Then Timothy was to teach men who could be trusted to teach others. That example needs to be followed today. There has to be men who will take the time to study Scripture diligently to seek to understand what our Lord meant when He taught it and inspired it to be written.

Paul's instruction to Timothy is not to be taken lightly. Then and now God wants what is in Scripture to be taught clearly, effectively, and extensively. Take a look at the content of Paul's letters. There is so much in them that God wants us to know. But take care that Scripture is understood and taught as it was intended when God inspired it to be written.

(2 Peter 3:15-17)  ...Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. ESV

What should be taught? All of Scripture, especially the writings of the New Testament because they help us understand even what is in the Old Testament. Who should teach? Men who will be faithful to teach what God  had Paul and the other writers of  Scripture teach in their inspired writings.