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It's popular to say, "No creed but Christ," as if to say we don't need creeds, we just need Jesus. Ironically, that's a creed, and one in need of some clarity. Creeds and confessions are formal statements of beliefs summarizing essential or important biblical doctrines. What does your church believe about Jesus? God? Mankind? Sin? Salvation? The resurrection of the dead? Such beliefs are summed up by confessions. So if you were to say "No creed but Christ," which Christ? The Mormon Jesus? Of course not, you say. Ah, then there's more to your confession than, "No creed but Christ." And what about Jesus? Was He just a great teacher? No, He is the eternal Son of God who is worthy of our worship. Now you're being confessional. You might say, "Well, we believe what the Bible says." But even heretics say that. What Bible are you talking about? Is 2 Macabees in your Bible? Some people are overly pious and like to think they...

A pastor told his congregation to speak prophecy to one another. But his definition of prophecy included visions of sharks and pirate ships... Matt Chandler : "'Lord, what would you want me to encourage [this brother] with?' And I'm quiet and trying to listen, and then automatically there's a picture of a ship, a pirate ship. And there's canons on the pirate ship, and there's a shark chasing the pirate ship." Prophecy is not praying for people and then sharing whatever random stuff pops in your head. The Bible says if someone speaks in the name of the Lord and it doesn't come true, they've spoken presumptuously and it isn't from God (Deuteronomy 18:22). Chandler: "What if we're only talking to ourselves? What if we're like, 'Okay, Lord, will you show me somebody that I might encourage,' and someone would pop in our head, and that's just us. So what? Oh no, you're going to encourage somebody. Why would t...

Was Jesus a socialist? Well, the Bible says that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 19:16). So Jesus is sovereign, not socialist. But in Acts chapter 4, we see at the beginning of the church that "those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common" (Acts 4:32). There was not a needy person among them. They gave their lands and their goods and the proceeds were distributed to those in need. See? Socialism! Uh, no. Socialism isn't freely giving, it's forcefully taking. A socialist government believes the state has a duty to take what rightfully belongs to one person and give it to another. That's called stealing. God was very clear about where thieves will go (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Whether one person does it, or ten million people vote for the elected officials who do it, it's still theft. That was not the early chur...

Wait a moment. What's in this image? Is that a picture of *gasp* God? And are these paintings of Jesus? Even though the second commandment says, "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above?" Yes, well there's an explanation behind our opening graphic. When We Understand the Text began as an effort to share the gospel and teach the Bible in context, correcting many assumptions people have come to believe but the Bible doesn't actually say. For example, the Bible does not say Jesus stands knocking at the door of your heart, waiting for you to invite Him in. These images on the opening slide represent famous depictions of Bible stories. The logo is in a font called protest paint. So this opener was meant to be a protest against many common but false assumptions about the Bible. This does not break the second commandment. God told Israel not to make a graven image of anything in heaven or on earth, but...

Legend has it that Gandhi once told a group of missionaries, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." There are two problems with this quote. One is that Gandhi did not actually like the Christ of the Bible. And two, Gandhi did not say this.* Gandhi was a civil rights leader in India who encouraged nonviolent civil disobedience to gain independence from the British. This inspired another civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., who employed Gandhian principles to achieve social change. Since Gandhi was such an icon, his sayings became legendary, including many quotes Gandhi never said. This is one of them, and it's been repeated everywhere from the Washington Times to Relevant Magazine , and in books by Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, and Jen Hatmaker. While Gandhi didn't say this about Christianity, he did say, "No religious tradition could claim a monopoly over truth or salvation." However...