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| Q: | One of my sister's friends is Christian, believes that Jesus died to pay for her sins and rose again; but her church also has some very strange teachings, such as: - Mars was the first Earth, but then something went terribly wrong, so God created Earth. They explain this from a warped translation of Genesis 1:2 and evidence that there was once water on Mars. - They believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but that the celebration of Lent/Easter comes from an Egyptian myth about Osiris. - They believe that if you take the Hebrew Old Testament and arrange the characters in a certain way, you can find prophcies about 9/11 and other things. (How accurate is this claim, by the way?) They also do 'speaking in tongues' and similar things. I'm at a total loss about what to say about all this, since I've never heard of most of it. Can you help? | ||||||
| A: | I'm happy to hear that your sister's friend believes that Jesus died to pay for her sins. It's sad, however, to hear that she is currently buying into wild and fanciful interpretations that do nothing but draw one's attention away from Jesus. The wierd teachings you mention remind me of Paul's first encouragement to his young colleague Timothy: "Command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work--which is by faith" (1 Timothy 1:3,4). The kind of wild stories you mention will only promote controversy (because they're untrue) rather than a clear view of Christ our Savior. Christians should focus on salvation, not speculation. When people make wild claims about what they think can be found in the Bible, it's good to remember the first rule of biblical interpretation: Let Scripture interpret itself. Clear statements of Scripture should not be made unclear by wild statements that aren't found in Scripture. Concerning the matters you mentioned: 1. The Bible clearly states that God created the heavens and the earth first, before anything else (Genesis 1:1). Mars was created on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19). To claim that something went terribly wrong with the original earth, before sin entered the world, would contradict the "very good" of Genesis 1:31. 2. There is nothing in the Bible that remotely suggests that early Christians chose to commemorate Christ's resurrection (Easter) or prepare for that commemoration (Lent) because of some pagan god. Just because Christian festivals may have coincided with pagan festivals at times does not mean that Christians were motivated by those pagan festivals to do what they did. 3. I suppose you can make the Old Testament say whatever you want it to say if you rearrange the letters! But the Old Testament was not inspired by God for us to mutilate its words and then speculate on the meaning of those mutilated words. The Old Testament Scriptures were given to point people to Christ. This is the purpose of every prophecy. Consider what Jesus himself said about the purpose of the Old Testament in John 5:39. How can you help someone like your sister's friend? You can rejoice with her that she believes in Jesus as her Savior from sin. At the same time you can remind her that those who believe in Jesus cling to his Word (John 8:31), and do not manufacture wild stories in its place. | ||||||
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