In this article, I will analyze some of the warped beliefs and practices of modern-day Christians (although this list is certainly not exhaustive), starting with the worst.

Faith as a Cultural In-Group

Much like the Jews of Jesus’ days (Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, priests, etc.), modern-day Christians have transformed the Christian faith from a missional way of life into an exclusive identity group. Let’s examine a few aspects of how modern-day Christians repeat the errors of the first-century Jews.

Hatred of Foreigners

The Jews always existed to be a light to the nations, but by the time Jesus came around, many of the Jews had declared the nations around them unclean and were more focused on venerating themselves than bringing Yahweh worship to the Gentiles. This infuriated Jesus, who called these Jews children of the devil (John 8:44) and sons of Hell (Matthew 23:15). His heart was like the original heart of Solomon, who prayed for foreigners to have their prayers answered at God’s temple (2 Chronicles 6:32-33). This is why Jesus drove out all those who bought and sold in the courts of the temple where Gentiles were supposed to worship (Matthew 21:12-13).

American Christians today have done something similar by setting up barriers for members of other nations to sojourn in America, which was originally conceived as a city on a hill, i.e., a light to the world. Conservative Christians generally want to keep out all but the most “valuable to us” immigrants, whereas the Israel of the Old Testament generally welcomed all those who came in good faith to experience for themselves the blessings God had given Israel. As God commanded the Israelites, “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).

Of course, that does not mean we have to let criminals live amongst us without consequence, allow sojourners privileges that should only belong to citizens (such as the ability to vote), or set up a welfare system for both citizens and sojourners that violates biblical guidelines for social welfare and overburdens our economy. But we should not place our interests above the interests of those of other nations, for our ancestors fled persecution and suffering and became immigrants to found our nation, just as the Israelites fled Egypt.

We also must be wary of when Christian nationalism transitions from a reasonable pride in one’s country and heritage into a blind allegiance to the nation above all else. Jeremiah and Daniel were both considered traitors for allying with Babylon against Judah (see for example Jeremiah 38:1-4), even though the judgment upon Judah was the will of God and could only be averted through national repentance.

The Christian Jews of the first and second century also opposed the nationalistic Jews who declared independence from the Romans during the First and Third Jewish-Roman Wars and placed their trust in godless princes like Simon bar Kokhba to lead them to victory, regardless of God’s will. If America or any other nation falls under God’s judgment, godly citizens of that nation will stand with God against it, warning it that without a return to God’s commandments, it will suffer destruction, and its purposes shall not stand.

Hatred of Sinners

Within their national identity group, the Jews of Jesus’ day separated the “good” righteous Jews from the “bad” sinners and scum of society. The Pharisees attacked Jesus for daring to eat with sinners and tax collectors, the members of Jewish society who were considered out of bounds for decent people to affiliate with (Matthew 9:9-11). But Jesus called out their hypocrisy and reminded them that we all need mercy, and our self-righteousness excludes us from the saving power of the gospel (Matthew 9:12-13). See Luke 7:36-50 for a similarly themed story.

Jesus also warned those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised those whom they didn’t consider righteous that the one who checks all the religious boxes but has a hard heart will not be justified in God’s sight, while the worst of the worst who genuinely repents will indeed be justified (Luke 18:9-14).

Such it is today, where those who call themselves Christians argue with, oppose, mock, and condemn the lost members of our society. They forget that no one is righteous and no one truly does good of his own accord (Romans 3:10-18) and that Christians must be humble, because we have no right to boast, because everything good we have we have received from God (1 Corinthians 4:6-7). Instead, arrogant Christians pride themselves on being in the faith and despise those who are too stupid to do likewise.

As God warned the self-righteous, the lowly members of society who seek God’s forgiveness in earnest will be justified, while those who spend years attending church, praying, studying the Bible, and tithing will not, if they do not have a similarly soft heart and are not genuinely seeking to share the blessing of their salvation with all men, no matter how wicked or ensconced they are in supposedly “unforgivable” sins like sodomy.

Remember above all else that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) and desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:304). Hence, we as believers do not judge those outside the church while they remain outside, but can freely associate and share the testimony of Jesus Christ with them (1 Corinthians 5:9-12). God is their judge (1 Corinthians 5:13).

Legalism and Hypocrisy

There is a confusion in modern Christianity about whether attempts to impose obedience to God’s commandments constitute “legalism”. Often this goes hand-in-hand with the idea that Jesus came to condemn the Pharisees for preaching that people should adhere to God’s Law, instead of relying on “faith” in God.

Both of these beliefs are false. I have already explained the importance of commandment-keeping in How the Gospel Works, but as far as Jesus’ perspective of the Pharisees goes:

Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. (Matthew 23:1-5)

Jesus commanded his disciples to be obedient to God’s laws and even to observe the commandments preached by the Pharisees. However, he condemned the Pharisees for being hypocrites who failed to actually follow the law they preached. They pretended to be righteous and only kept the lighter parts of the law themselves:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:23-24)

Furthermore, to make up for the deficits in their righteousness, the Pharisees created fake rules that ran contrary to God’s laws. Indeed, during the intertestamental period, many Jews had adopted a second set of commandments beyond the written law of Moses in the Bible, which they called the “Oral Torah” (Mishnah), claiming that Moses had handed these prescriptions down orally outside Scripture. These are referred to in the Bible as “the tradition of the elders” (Matthew 15:2), “the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8), or “the tradition of my fathers” (Galatians 1:14).

The problem with this is that God’s Law is holistically perfect. Everything that needed to be there was there, and nothing that didn’t need to be there was there. Every jot and tittle was important and could not be neglected, and not a jot nor tittle of any other law should have been included. Therefore, adding something to one part of the Law would necessarily cause a violation of a different part of the Law.

That’s what Jesus is explaining when he discusses the practice of offering up to God the money that would have been used to care for one’s parents (Matthew 15:1-9). Though it’s a good idea to give money to God, doing it that way necessarily leads to breaking the commandment about honoring one’s parents. The issue was thus not that the false Jews were strict followers of God’s Law, but rather that they were actually violating God’s laws and hated true followers of God (like Jesus and John the Baptist) accordingly.

That is what true legalism is, not zeal for God’s commandments. It is not about insisting on following God’s Law but rather replacing God’s Law with man’s precepts. In that Matthew 15 passage, Jesus quoted Isaiah 29:13, thereby showing that this practice had been similarly prevalent in the time leading up to Judah’s destruction by Babylon. And indeed, it continues to this day in the modern Christian church.

Examples:

• Jesus enjoyed drinking at parties so much that He was called a winebibber (Matthew 11:19). He was not a drunkard, because He did not get excessively drunk, but He definitely liked to use wine to get into the festive mood. Yet today, many Christians proscribe drinking alcohol altogether.
• The Bible does not say anything at all about gambling, but some Christians forbid even recreational gambling.
• The Bible does not forbid drug use in either the Old or New Testaments (although it does forbid drug abuse and its connection to sorcery in Galatians 5:20), but Christians by and large still support the War on Drugs.
• There are multiple positive depictions in the Bible of God’s people dancing (e.g., Exodus 15:20, Judges 21:21, 1 Samuel 18:6-7, 2 Samuel 6:14), yet some Christians forbid it altogether.
• The Psalms contain numerous references to musical instruments, yet some Christians forbid their use in performing psalms or even altogether.

Each of these false prohibitions restricts us in some way from living out our faith fully, but by these restrictions Pharisaical Christians proclaim their self-righteousness, while still engaging in adultery, sexual immorality, no-fault divorce, gossip, hatred, and various other sins that are called out explicitly in the New Testament as wrong and to be avoided. They thus imitate the Pharisees and scribes by cleaning the outside of the cup and dish while leaving the inside full of filthiness (Matthew 23:25-26). They become whitewashed tombs, outwardly beautiful but full of uncleanness (Matthew 23:27-28).

This pattern of behavior is also the “form of godliness without power” mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:5.

Magical Christian Thinking

Magic at its core is an attempt to make spiritual power quantifiable and repeatable. This could be through substances (like potions), incantations, enchantments, etc.

God’s people have power, but it is always to be used in service of God’s goals, not our own. We can never guarantee that He will want us to be healthy, rich, or successful in every endeavor. On the contrary, sometimes we need to suffer to mature or to open new avenues of ministry.

Prosperity theology and other forms of magical Christian thinking, on the other hand, attempt to systematize Christian power to produce repeatable results. If you pray a certain way, tithe a certain way, or worship a certain way, you can consistently produce the results you desire.

The ultimate objective of the magical discipline of alchemy was to produce a philosopher’s stone, which could create gold from base metals and grant immortality to the stone’s owner. Immortality and gold = health and wealth. That’s exactly what prosperity theologians seek today through their version of “Christianity.”

For an example of what happens to those who seek to use Christian power in a magical way and not a faithful one, see Acts 19:11-17. Note that this story is followed immediately by the burning of magic books.

You do not obey God to get some kind of dependable reward. You obey Him because He is your Father. He is in charge, and He wants what’s best for you, but His highest priority is to bring healing to the world. You must focus your efforts on achieving that. God will indeed bless us if we are faithful, but not always with health and wealth.

Reading the Bible Without Compassion

Modern Christians tend to read the stories in the Bible of the saints of old in the least understanding light possible. It’s like they think God wants us to understand how wretched we are to such an extent that no man’s efforts are valuable. The truth is that God loves a man or woman of genuine faith, no matter how imperfect. That’s why Hebrews 11 has a “hall of fame” of Old Testament saints, even though most are recorded in Scripture as making foolish decisions or failing to live out their faith perfectly.

Remember that you will be judged by the measure with which you judge others (Matthew 7:2). Here are some examples of ways saints in the Bible get an unfairly bad rap.

Noah

Noah got a bit toasty and passed out naked in his tent (Genesis 9:21). The Bible does not condemn getting tipsy, nor is being uncovered in your own tent inappropriate. Furthermore, God supported the judgments Noah made after he woke, suggesting Noah was not in the wrong.

Abraham

Abraham pretended his wife Sarah was his sister when sojourning in Egypt (Genesis 12:10-13). It may seem like Abraham thus “gave away” his wife, but in reality, Abraham was dealing with the most powerful man on earth at the time. Pharaoh was the kind of man who would murder another man to take his wife, and indeed, Pharaoh’s officials took Sarah into his house without asking her permission (Abraham did not tell Sarah to seduce or make herself available to Pharaoh).

It’s worth noting that God made Abraham prosperous during this time and afflicted Pharaoh with plagues, not Abraham. Generally, God’s people suffer consequences when they sin, instead of being rewarded. Also, Abraham was still in an early phase of his walk with God when this happened and thus was still learning to trust God to come through in miraculous ways to protect him.

It is understandable that he would tell a half-truth (as Sarah was indeed his sister – Genesis 20:12) to avoid being slaughtered by a ruthless tyrant. Any modern Christian would do the same in such a dangerous situation. And indeed, both Abraham and Isaac later discovered that they didn’t need this subterfuge to protect themselves, as the kings of Gerar they deceived in the Promised Land turned to God when they were punished for seizing Sarah and Rebekah.

Sarah

Sarah acted contrary to God’s will by giving Hagar to Abram as a wife, rather than waiting for God to fulfill His promise in Genesis 15:4 to give Abraham a son from his own body in God’s own timing (Genesis 16:2). However, based on Genesis 18:11, we know Sarah had gone through menopause by the time Isaac was born. A realistic interpretation is that Sarah did trust God, but when she went into menopause at the age of 75 (which is possible, given that lifespans were longer in those days), she figured that her opportunity for a natural childbirth was past and that God must have wanted her to use a maidservant as a surrogate instead.

It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to know that God would make an elderly woman give birth, but given that that had never happened before, it is unreasonable to expect Sarah to expect that from God. This is no different than how unexpected Jesus’ resurrection was for His followers before it happened. Would we have really so simply expected the impossible without it having ever happened before? And indeed, Sarah is said to have trusted God in the end, which allowed her to birth Isaac (Hebrews 11:11).

Jacob

Jacob “stole” Esau’s birthright, but he was only able to do so because Esau despised it (Genesis 25:34). In Hebrews 12:6, Paul confirms this, siding with Jacob over Esau, whom he calls a fornicator and a profane person.

Jacob also caused tension in his house by favoring Rachel over Leah, but he never intended to marry Leah at all, having always loved Rachel and having intended to marry only her (Genesis 29:25). It is understandable why he would have loved Rachel more, even if the highest ideal for him to strive for would be to try to show Leah as much love as Rachel, since they were indeed married.

Joseph

Joseph reporting his dreams to his family (Genesis 37:5-11) is sometimes seen as arrogant, but why should he not be allowed to share promises given to him from God? His brothers sinned by selling him into slavery, meaning he was the victim of their sin. Moreover, those dreams did come true. It is not Joseph’s fault that his brothers responded faithlessly to God’s promises.

Moses

Moses was not a murderer for killing the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-13). Instead, he sought to be a judge for the Hebrews by the will of God (Acts 7:25). Judges had two jobs: deliver God’s people from oppressors and mediate disputed amongst God’s people. Moses first killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and then attempted to stop a fight the next day between two Hebrews, thereby seeking to perform both duties. However, the Hebrews failed to understand that God was sending them a deliverer and rejected Moses as their judge (Exodus 2:14), thereby consigning themselves to an additional 40 years of slavery.

Samson

Samson was a hero of the faith (Hebrews 11:32). He also delivered Israel and judged the Israelites faithfully for 20 years (Judges 16:31). The book of Judges draws attention to his moral failings not because he himself was a failure or an unrighteous man, but instead to highlight how an increasing pattern of casually disregarding God’s commands can undermine and eventually destroy a righteous man’s ministry.

Understanding Failure

This is not to say that every Bible hero needs to be portrayed in the most positive light possible. Beyond his sin with Bathsheba, David also failed to discipline his sons or his nephew Joab, resulting in much chaos and bloodshed later. However, even if we recognize his failures to live up to the Bible’s highest ideals, we should still be understanding: David was a godly man who was doing the best he knew how, growing up in a difficult time when godliness was poorly modeled by the generation that preceded him.

And that’s really the point: all these heroes of the faith were human beings just like us, with the same temptations, struggles, disadvantages, and weaknesses as any man or woman living today. We should not dance on their graves, proclaiming how much more righteous we would be if we were in their place, because that is simply not true. We must beware what Jesus said about the scribes and Pharisees:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:29-33)

Only by recognizing how we too are sinners and how our genuine attempts to be righteous will be just as flawed as those of our forefathers will we escape this condemnation from Jesus. It is enough for us that God rewards all those who seek him with a sincere heart, as He did David. Remember: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).

Using Satan as a Crutch

If you hang around with Christians long enough, you will hear them talk a lot about Satan. They talk about how Satan is plotting to destroy them, how Satan is causing their tempting thoughts, how Satan is causing all kinds of problems in their lives to try to ruin them, etc. Satan has kind of become a catch-all for every woe and temptation Christians experience. However, this is not really consistent with how the Bible describes him. It would be better to properly understand him.

Yes, Satan is a conscious being, most likely a fallen angel who was jealous of God. Yes, he is pure evil. Yes, he was involved in trying to kill Jesus and destroy the early church. However, he is nowhere near as powerful as most Christians make him out to be.

In Job 1:6, Satan tells God he has come from “going to and forth on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” This illustrates a really important point about Satan: he is not omnipresent. He is not everywhere all at once.

He is also not omniscient: he doesn’t know everything that’s happening. He certainly doesn’t know everyone’s thoughts. He can only be in one place at once, and he only has access to what he can see at one point in time (or what other demons can tell him).

Satan is extremely dangerous because he is attempting to coordinate opposition to God and bring about the destruction of His people. But he is nowhere near as powerful or knowledgeable as God, which is how most Christians describe him.

1 Peter 5:8 says Satan “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” In other words, he is opportunistic, looking for a chance to do damage when it arises. He was able to possess Judas (Luke 22:3; John 13:27) because Satan was monitoring Jesus and His apostles closely and knew Judas to be a thief and a liar. That doesn’t mean he knew every evil thought of every Jew in Judea at the same time.

Note that Satan is shown to have widespread power in Mark 4:15 and 1 Corinthians 7:5, but this most likely refers to Satan’s extended power through his demonic minions, who are distributed widely and are close to most Christians and can act on Satan’s behalf (or call him in). This is similar to Acts 26:18, where the reference to Satan is not so much his individual power alone but his entire effort and what he represents.

It is particularly important to note that amongst the many times Paul and the apostles discuss combatting sin and the flesh, Satan is rarely mentioned (1 Corinthians 7:5 is a partial exception, only because an unwise practice in marriage allows Satan to drive a wedge between spouses). Why? James 1:14-15: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Note that James says we are enticed by our own desires, not Satan. Our desires, the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5), are our primary stumbling block, and no demon need be involved to make that happen. Satan can introduce or enhance temptation in certain situations, but most of the time, it just comes from within us.

James 4:1-3 shows that sinful desires cause not just individual sin but also strife amongst Christians. James 4:7 asserts that refocusing on God and submitting to His instructions will allow Christians to send the devil fleeing in situations like these.

Externally, plenty of bad things happen without Satan causing them. Creation is in the “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21), which means bad things will happen as part of life. Certainly Satan can cause bad things, as in Job’s case, but he doesn’t cause every bit of suffering or struggle in our lives.

All this is why Satan is barely mentioned in the Old Testament and not even that much in the New Testament. He can only act where God allows him (Job 1:12; Job 2:6), and when a Christian is crucifying his own flesh (Galatians 5:24) and following God as closely as possible, Satan doesn’t have much foothold to affect him.

Realistically, the only time we need to worry about Satan affecting those following God’s commandments consistently is when God is allowing persecution of the church to further His ministry aims. Nonetheless, at such times Satan is still only working according to what God permits according to His will.