The Most Dangerous Lie About the Bible | 2 Peter 2 | Crossroads Daily

Hey, I'm Chuck. I'm Kirsten. I'm Mish, and I'm Miko. Oh man, 2nd Peter. 2nd Peter. Peter's like, he's going hard in the paint around false teaching. Hard in the paint. And just the impact that it can have. And you know, again, this is why I love the Bible. I love the Bible for lots of reasons. I love the Bible because it's impossible to not deal with the real stuff if you just read through the Bible. You just got to wrestle with it. And false teaching is very, very, very common and very, very, very toxic. It always has been and it absolutely is when we have it, you know, accessible on our phones like that. So why do you think though that false teaching is so hard or often can be hard to recognize as false teaching? I think it's affirming to so many parts of your Bible and what we in church will say your flesh. Yeah. So there will be a freedom that's I think oftentimes offered you to think and act and be a certain way. I think there's a want sometimes out of comparison that a person can then attach themselves to, to some of these teachings, whether like for men, oftentimes it's like how to be a man is what I find recently. But ultimately it's affirming of something in you. And I think it also shows like a true, like everything almost has like an ounce of truth in it. It'll lock on to this like slight bit of truth and make it a mile wide. Yeah, that's really good. I mean, that's the evil one strategy. I mean, if you look at the apple, right? Like, yeah, I mean, he, he wraps his lie in truth around, around, well, apple, whatever the fruit was. He wraps his line true. I think you're right. That's often a common pattern or trait of false teaching is like, there's something, there's a nugget in there. But is that true? I really like this chapter because if you want to write a bestseller, you might not start with like this. And I think it is his second letter. And I think false prophets, how I see it often is it makes it easy, make something easy, you know, like easier in your life. It's a shortcut. Usually it's some way to be like, Oh, well, like, you know how it would make life easier. When in reality, life just is not easy. Like in reading this book and meditating on it and making it, knowing it's your truth is not easy. The way of Jesus is not easy. Not easy. And so I really love chapters like this because I'm reminded of like, Oh, yeah, like this stuff that's written down is not easy because it's truth. I hear that. I hear surrender. Like it takes surrender to follow this, right? Whereas opposed to these different ideologies where it's like, if a person can appeal to your emotions, you

know, affirming you or whatever, it's like then they can feed you a perspective and then ultimately get you to adopt their beliefs, right? And you feel like convicted or you feel like at one with what they're saying because it appeals to, you know, something that you've all like, whether it's your emotions or it's affirming to you with your flesh, you know what I mean? And it's like, you're more alive in that space than you may be spiritually. And this may not be the best theological description of it, but I'll notice like, even in myself where like, if there's something, even if it's appeasing to my flesh, oftentimes there's something that's very unsettling in my spirit about it. You know what I mean? Where I'm like, I don't like that. And I think that the less... And that's the Holy Spirit. Yeah, yeah. I mean, one thing that Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth. And one of the ways that happens is like, man, yeah, I like this. There's a part of this, but there's that inner thing in you that's like, ah, wait a second. That's the Holy Spirit. So yeah, so I guess also then a lack of, to answer your question specifically, how did you word it exactly? Like, how do you... Oh, why is it so easy? Why do you think it's attractive? False teaching is attractive. And then I guess also then just that lack of relationship with the Holy Spirit. Yeah, yeah. Amen. Amen. I just want to, this is like the pastor in me, wants to say this, like, this is why it's so important. And I want to encourage you because you're doing it. It is so important that you read the Bible for yourself. That's right. I mean, I can't say this enough. If the only way you get the Bible is through a speaker on a stage, and I'm one of those. I'm one of those speakers on a stage. I'm the only way you're getting the Bible. or Brian, or Allie, Kyle, whatever you're listening to, oh my gosh, you are not gonna be equipped to really discern false teaching. Because there's a relationship that the Spirit wants to have with you and the Word of God that has nothing to do with me or any other teacher.

And so, I'm sorry, I just had to say that. I'm so passionate about that. I love that because it says that the disciples wowed the people that they were around because they were uneducated followers of Jesus, but because they were receivers of the truth from the Lord, they were wise in the Spirit. And so, if anyone thinks, I was one of them, like, I could never comprehend this. This is too much. I have to have someone teach me, or I have to have a million devotionals and things attached to this. It's like, what a lie. This was taught to, what, year zero followers to understand. Because most people who were engaged in the Word of God weren't literate, and it wasn't written in a way that they could get it. And yet, the truth was able to be absorbed as they were in spaces learning it together. If I can just add to, reading for yourself, reading it amongst a setting like we're reading it. Ancient Hebrews, they called it a midrash, which is so churchy, but it's so important. We get to just talk about scripture. And I love that you ask these questions that make us force ourselves to think about ourselves, because it's really difficult. But that's the way that you're able to reflect

on God's love for you, specifically in His Word. So, I encourage you, if you, we can put a plug for our church. Please find a group to do this with, because it is so, so crucial to growing in your faith. There is an aspect of this truth I only get from Kirsten, Mish, and Miko. Or you name it, we swap people in and out. And that's part of, it's meant to be a communal experience engaging the Word of God. I would say that's one of the ways that we can protect ourselves from false teaching, is when we're in a context of community, where it's not just me taken in a medium. What are some other practical ways, you think, for people to just equip themselves to not be, I don't know, as susceptible to false teaching? There's a lot of false teaching out there. For me, I have to ask God daily to humble me. And I use Peter as an example of, again, if he was not in, if he did not put himself into community right when he was given the type of authority he was given, I wonder what would have happened. Because earlier in the Bible, he also was like, oh, Gentiles who want to come to the faith, like, I don't know, you might need to get a circumcision. And it was around community that actually debated against that and said, no, no, no, no, once you accept Christ, you are grafted and you are adopted into that sonship.

And still he writes this afterwards. And so to me, it's the humility. Peter had humility to say, yes, you're right. I have to have that humility to be like, my thought, my opinion, my feeling might be totally wrong. And I have to pray for that daily. That's good. Yeah, I think social media is so dangerous for false prophets. And so something tangible, like an episode ago, we talked about like how the minority voices, like sometimes God convicting us, the discernment between a healthy, Holy Spirit led minority voice versus just a hot take to like, what's it called? Like a trap. Clickbait. Clickbait, yes, yes. Nothing drives me more crazy than someone twisting around scripture to be clickbait. And I'm sorry, you're not gonna get a download of like the fullness of what God's trying to say in a one minute. Like rage. Let alone a 10 minute thing that we're doing. Right, right, right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would just lean back into community. I think for me, that's just something I think that God's really shown me just over the last few years. For so long, it was like, okay,

this is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. And over the past few years, I recognized it's about having a personal relationship with Jesus lift out amongst other believers. Like that is the other piece of that. And the fruit of it, also just the protection that comes in it, where you're not, you don't just have this silo echo chamber. I love how you said, like there's just certain perspectives that you get from the people around you. And when you said that, I was reminded of like that verse where it says, we all know a part. But what if we don't all know the same part? You know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, I didn't know that part. And this is from the divine wisdom God's given you. Now I get to actually benefit from you guys' relationship. And we're all surrendered to like the same truth. Yeah, so it's like it aligns Yeah, you know what I'm saying? So that's so good. I'll leave you with this If you wanna do a little bit of extra credit look up who the Bereans were in The scripture there in the New Testament and it's a group of people who took this seriously They they and they were known for that is there people who they vigorously searched the scriptures to make sure that what these teachers were Saying to them are true. Yes, and if there's ever been a season in a moment to be like the Bereans it's right now So just look that up in the New Testament as another encouragement to continue to walk this journey with Jesus