Misconceptions and misperceptions

 I have had a running conversation with several people about the Bible and the misconceptions and misperceptions people have about things that happened in the Bible.

1. For instance, Moses did receive the 10 Commandments on stone tablets, but God spoke them first.

Exo 20:1  And God spake all these words, saying, 

Exo 20:2  I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 

Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

God spoke, verbally to the Israelites, all of them, the whole congregation.

2. Lot's wife, turned to look back at Sodom as it was being destroyed, and turned to a pillar of salt. She did not look back for love of the sin as has been stated all the time, no she looked back because she had family, babies , grandbabies there in the midst of that destruction.

Gen 19:26  But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lot's wife had fallen behind a step or two and when her husband could not see her she turned and looked back at the city where she and her family lived, where she left her grandchildren and her friends, how could any one of us say we would do different.

3. The sermon on the mount was to a small group not a big sermon preached to the multitudes.

Mat 5:1  And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Christ was being followed by the multitudes, this was just after the baptism where the Holy Spirit descended on Him, just after the temptation in the desert. The multitudes were seeing healings like they had never seen, and they flocked to the Healer, Christ went up in the mountain, away from the crowds and His disciples came to Him and He taught them.

Some say He went into the mountain to be heard better by the crowds, yet He sat and they came to Him. You can not teach the multitudes from a sitting position.

Now, my question is simple because some of the people I have had this conversation with have been in the church for years and they do not know these things.

These are not even obscure points of reference, these are very well known events from the Bible that most everyday Christians are "familiar" with.

My point here is, what are we teaching, that basic facts in the very Scripture are unknown, replaced with conventional or societal conceptions, yes from TV or somewhere, but if we do not teach the basic structures then what are we teaching?

If we miss basics like this then what else are we missing? Where is the scholarship of the masses? Discipleship? arming the lay people with the answers they need to combat the "wisdom" of the world?

I understand 3 things misconceived or misperceived are not the end of the world, also that there are no doctrinal issues at stake in the 3 examples I posited.

I also understand that I am speaking in broad strokes when asking about our discipleship programs in the whole. I get that there are things going in the right direction with discipleship, teaching and mentoring in a lot of places.

I am postulating these things though from a standpoint that there is not enough of this going on for the simple fact that if we were teaching the way we should this nation here in the US would not be going down the road it is going.

Christ told the Disciples :

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 

Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

He said go and teach, teach all nations. I believe that we have failed in our teachings here at home. We have sent missionaries throughout the world and neglected our own Homefront. We have lost our nation, the majority at least.

We have neglected certain things, certain people, certain situations all because we didn't want to offend.

Well why does the World need us if we are just like them? Why do they need the Christ we have if we live just like them? Because we told them they do? We have lost the battle through our inaction, and our actions are the only way we will regain any lost ground.

We can not teach what we do not practice, we can not teach what we do not believe. We can not teach what we do not know.

We can not teach if we are not open. So many churches closed due to Covid, and I will not second guess any of them, but it is time to reopen, for if our doors are closed they will go elsewhere, and if they go elsewhere they will never come back to us.

I am not going to a carpenter to fix my car, nor am I going to a mechanic to fix my lighting issues.

The World has gone to the world for solace, for advice, and the church has let them by never being open.

We have to teach and disciple and mentor. If we do not we will lose even more ground.