Series/Bad Theology
Bad Theology
4sessions so far
Still being written
Common sayings, tested against Scripture.
There are sentences we say about God. We say them at funerals. In hospital hallways. In a text message at eleven at night when somebody we love is coming apart. Some of those sentences are true. Some are half true. And some of them, if you say them to a person in the worst week of their life, do real damage.
The sessions
- 1God Helps Those Who Help ThemselvesThe line comes from Benjamin Franklin and an older fable, and it guards against passivity. Romans 5 says something different about how God saves: Christ died for the weak and the ungodly. A better word: God helps those who can't help themselves.Romans 5:6-11
- 2To Thine Own Self Be True"To thine own self be true" is Shakespeare, not Scripture. What the saying protects, where it breaks, and what Psalm 139 offers in its place. The line comes from Polonius in Hamlet, and we dropped the half that gave it brakes. Scripture never says your knowledge of yourself is complete or your verdict on yourself is final. Jeremiah 17, Luke 9, and Psalm 139 show a better pattern: be completely honest about what you feel, and refuse to let it be the last word.Psalm 139:19-24
- 3Everything Happens for a ReasonThe idea is older than Christianity, and it reaches for providence, which Scripture affirms. It breaks when "God is at work in this" becomes "I know why this happened," the mistake Job's friends made. A better word: I don't know why this happened, but God hasn't left you, and neither have I.Romans 8:22-29
- 4God Won't Give You More Than You Can HandleThe phrase borrows from 1 Corinthians 10:13, a verse about temptation and the faithfulness of God. Used as a promise about suffering, it leaves the person who could not handle it with nowhere to go. A better word: he will give you more than you can handle, and he won't give you more than he can.1 Corinthians 10:6-13
