Now it’s my turn! I have been pastoring for eighteen years or so and have preached a number of years prior to pastoring. In that period of time, I have made a lot of mistakes and said a lot of stupid things. However, today I will address some things that I got wrong. Without excuse, I want to admit that I have preached, taught and believed the following things wrong! (Note: the following will not be anywhere near an exhaustive list—I want to give two examples only)
Lift Jesus Up
Like many others I have encouraged people to “Lift Jesus up—lift him up in praise because He said ‘if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.’” In doing this I was following others before me—I had heard it from preachers, pastors and worship leaders for many years. There are even songs which encourage people to “lift him up, lift him up, lift the name of Jesus higher.”
Now I do not take issue with the idea behind this phrase. I still believe that if we will worship God, it will cause others to look favorably on Him and thus, draw them to Him. (We need to also remember that Jesus told us to let our light shine before men that they would see our good works “and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” in Matthew 5:16) But that is not at all what Jesus is communicating in the passage from which this idea is “lifted.”
Let’s look at John 12: 32:
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.On the surface and isolated completely from its context this verse could very well be used to support the “praise-Jesus-draw-all-men” theory. Unfortunately when the concept of context is applied, it blows the whole thing.
Observe the next verse:
“This he said, signifying what death he should die.Thus, it becomes clear that when Jesus used the term “lifted up” He was not referring to praising Him but crucifying Him. It is clear that no one wants to do that AGAIN in order to draw people to the Lord. And in fact, it is not possible to do that again because He died once and now He is “He that liveth, and…[is] alive for evermore.” (Revelation 1:18)
So not only had I taught and thought wrong, I had also sung wrong.
Jesus Forsaken at Calvary
This mistake like the last was the result of listening to and uncritically accepting the ideas of others. Also like the previous error, this is also bolstered by songs that I sung and/or heard sung.
The idea is that Jesus was forsaken on Calvary by the Heavenly Father. To be exact, I taught that the Father was so repulsed by Christ becoming sin for us, that He was forced to turn His back on His own Son. That idea will really stir up a congregation because it just proves to them how much God loved them.
The problem is this idea is impossible! I say that for the following reasons:
1. God does not have a back to turn. He is spirit. Of course, I understand that this is an anthropomorphism and means that God forsook His Son but even that won’t fly.
2. Why would God forsake Jesus at the most terrible moment of His earthly life when Jesus was doing the perfect will of the Father? If God would turn His back on Jesus, then I can hardly trust Him to stand by me during my hard times because I fall far short of doing His will perfectly.
3. There is no way God could forsake Jesus because to do so would destroy the Holy Trinity. They have never been apart from each other (and the Holy Spirit) from eternity and will never be eternally.
The question then arises, what does it mean in Matthew 27: 46, when Jesus cries from the Cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
There are many explanations (do a search and you will see) but the one I find most plausible is as follows: Jesus quotes here from the 22nd Psalm as a way of showing that He fulfills this prophetic passage. By doing so, Jesus Himself shows us that He was not forsaken. Just take a look at
Psalm 22: 24 “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.”
This verse says the very opposite of what is generally taught; it says that God did not hide His face (and thus did not turn His back either) from the dying Lord Christ.
From the foregoing I have learned some valuable lessons:
1. Don’t let “gospel songs” shape your theology—they can be (and often are) wrong.
2. Don’t uncritically accept the ideas of others.
3. Study the Bible in its context and don’t isolate passages—"A text without context is a pretext.”
4. Just because something will “preach” does not make it correct. Unfortunately, untruths will galvanize a crowd at times when truth will anesthetize them.
I was wrong, I am now wrong about some things (many actually) and I will be wrong again in the future. There I’ve said it now!
