Empty Speculations

Here are five of the most common myths about Christianity: 
1.   Christianity is anti-science and anti-intellectual. 
2.   The Bible is full of errors and contradictions. 
3.   A good person can get into heaven. 
4.   Christianity is merely a set of rules and regulations. 
5.   All Christians are hypocrites and the same. 

Meditation 
1 Timothy 1:3,4—As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach different doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. 
 
False doctrine and empty speculations are costly. They confuse people from understanding the truth and distort God’s plan. They undermine faith. They create divisions among followers of Christ.  
         
How easily people can be duped into embracing false narratives.  The Apostle Paul knew his protégé, Timothy, would encounter problems with this because Paul had experienced this issue with many of the churches he had helped. The Thessalonian believers struggled because they were taught that the Day of the Lord had already arrived (2 Th. 2:1-2). The Galatian Gentiles were told they had to become Jewish proselytes to be saved—a message completely at odds with what Paul taught them. 
            
When I listen to Christians struggling with their beliefs, there is almost always one common and glaring theme. They have not read through the Bible and do not have a habit of spending time studying Scripture. This is a sure setup for conjecturing. We cannot know much about what we have not studied.  How can we understand God’s plan if we have not read it? The remedy for combating false teaching is to be grounded in the Bible.
            
If your church does not encourage you to read the Bible, you are in a dangerous position. Priests, pastors, and speakers of all kinds can tell you what they want and establish traditions, a “new word,” societal norms, or ecclesiastical authority as equal to God’s Word. Unless you are equipped by studying Scripture, you may be led to believe them. This is why Paul taught in 2 Timothy 3:16,17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 
            
It is a great thing to be complete and equipped by the authority that supersedes all others. Whenever someone states or suggests they have something new and greater than Scripture or that replaces or is more palatable than what God wrote, confront, if possible, the false messenger. If that is not feasible, run!
 
Inspiration 
“False doctrine corrupts the life of the Church at its source, and that is why doctrinal sin is more serious than moral.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship      
 
©2025 Daniel York ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)