Go to Homepage

Is What You Say What You Get?

It is my sincerest desire to try and help all Christians come to the knowledge of truth, especially my family and dearest friends. Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude all warned the Church to beware of false teachers and false teachings. God holds all of us responsible for the things that we believe and teach.

Often times when a sincere Christian tries to warn others about the false teachers or false teachings, they themselves are accused of dividing the Body of Christ or having a judgmental spirit, etc. But, the truth is that God forewarned the Church that in the last days men would turn from the truth and began to follow the teachings of men rather than teachings of God.

Paul said this to Timothy:
2^nd Timothy 4:3: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

We are living in the last days and truly this sort of thing is alive, well and thriving in the Church of today. The Church needs to be aware of this for the simple reason that Christ wants us to live in the truth and preach and teach it. We are told that knowing the truth will make us free. Freedom comes from knowledge of the truth. No matter how convincing false teachers are today or how wonderful their message may sound it will only bring condemnation and suffering in some way or other. So it is love that promotes me to share the truth to try and spare someone from disappointment and discouragement.

The lack of knowledge is one of the things that seem to be the root cause of this problem. It is mostly from not taking the time to actually research his or her Bible to know what the scriptures actually mean. We often have a tendency to be lazy when it comes to Word of God and expect others to teach us. When we do this we possibly open ourselves up to accepting the teachings of men rather than the teachings of God. Even when we are learning from family and friends we need to take the time to study for ourselves. There is nothing wrong with listening but we should always check out what we are being taught.

Another problem that exists today is the simple matter of not understanding our own language and behavior especially when it comes to the way we talk. Language has changed in the last hundred years and some words and expressions that were used then are not very common to us today. My Dad who was one of the greatest men I ever knew was often limited because of his lack of education in our language and Bible meanings. The Bible warns us not to call someone "Raca" Matthew 5: 22. The word Raca was a word used by the Jews during the time of Christ to belittle someone. It meant to be empty headed. It was like saying that someone has no brains. But my Dad not being educated concerning this thought believed that this word meant "rascal" and was immediately stricken with fear for anyone calling someone "a little rascal." It didn't matter whether it was said in humor or not, He thought that it was going to bring a person that said this into the judgment of God for doing so. But my Dad was raised during the depression and was only able to go to school to the 6^th grade, after that he was forced to go to work like many others that lived in the heartland of America at that time. Not only limited from not getting a proper education he never took interest in Bible Concordances or anything like that because he didn’t feel that they were important enough to take seriously. Because of this he often became confused over certain issues.

Today we still have people that we love very much in church that still find no need in getting a good understanding of the Bible, often feeling that since they have been born again by the Spirit there is no need.

A number of years ago I was ministering in our little Church and happened to share something that was taken from a Bible concordance about the relationship between the Church and Jesus Christ. I used a word that literally shocked a member of our congregation because he didn’t realize the meaning of the word. The word that I read from the commentary was "intercourse." It was used speaking of the communication between Christ and the Church. What he didn’t realize was that for hundreds of years people used the word "intercourse" speaking of communication and relationship between people. Only in the secondary usage of the word "intercourse" found in the dictionary does it pertain to sexual.

Nowadays when we hear the word intercourse unfortunately it is generally used for that purpose. Like the word "gay" in my youth meant to be happy, nowadays it means to be homosexual. However this person was appalled that I would use such a word in the Church especially to describe the relationship between God and the Church. He thought that I was implying a sexual relationship. Had he known the true 1^st meaning of the word in the dictionary he would not have approached me for this but would have understood the true content of what I said. When he approached me for this I was stunned that anyone would think that I could possibly speak about Christ and the Church in a sexual way. Knowledge can be very important and can help to keep peace among the brethren.

I have said all of this to point out to us that there are expressions that we as humans use that are normal in the way humans talk or convey thoughts and feelings. The Bible also uses such phrases in helping us to understand certain things that God wants us to understand in the Word of God. It could also help us to understand some of the things that are being taught in our day that are not true at all.

One of the common teachings that is passed on and taught today is the mistaken belief that "spoken words" have a supernatural power to curse or bless. It is true that we can curse or bless people by the things we say about them or to them. In the since that I can curse them by saying bad things about them and causing others to mistreat them, or I can bless by saying good things and causing others to treat them as friends, etc. James said that the tongue was a fire of iniquity set on fire by the fires of hell. This is all scriptural but the teaching that I am referring to goes beyond this Bible teaching and goes into the realm of superstition and becomes cultic.

There are those that teach others saying that God has given all believers in Christ special powers so that they can create things with their spoken words. In the same way that God created the Heavens and the Earth with his Word we can create things as well. Most often this is used in the view of creative miracles, etc. Most of this teaching came from a man that had studied Christian Science and combined it with Pentecostal teachings to come up with what we call the Word of Faith movement today. Out of this comes the teaching that we are little gods and possess a special God given power in our tongue that gives us authority over anything that we want to change or make happen. This same group condemns people that allow their children to watch or read Harry Potter while at the same time attempt to use God in the same pagan way of belief that they condemn. They do this by believing that they can bless or curse themselves and others with their words because of some supernatural ability. Who needs a potion or enchantment to curse or control someone when you can simply do it with your words? This is witchcraft in any since of the term.

One of their leaders a former farmer that is self taught in Bible theology and stands in the ranks of the leaders of this movement as a very spiritual leader. He teaches that we can have anything that we desire by just simply by claiming it and speaking it into existence. Of course according to their teachings this is supposed to be an act of faith and will always work if applied properly.

One of the things that he uses to promote this teaching is a scripture that is found in Romans concerning what God promised to Abraham. He believes that God taught Abraham "to call those things that are not as though they were" and that by saying and confessing them they would happen. The sad thing is that this former farmer would have done well to receive a better education in grammar and English before thinking that he had a better understanding than the Bible teachers that were before him did. Let’s look at the scriptures that are not only used by him but by hundreds and even thousands of followers of that movement:

Romans 4:16: Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17: (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18: Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

It is commonly taught that Abraham called those things that were not as though they were, so they happened. Because of this understanding we are suppose to do the same thing. But, this is not the meaning of the scriptures that you have just read. It was not Abraham that called those things that were not as though they were but it was "God."

The whole context of this chapter in Romans is to prove that God was not only committed to the saving of the Jewish people through Christ, but was also committed to the saving of the Gentiles as well. It came by promise and Paul took us to the place where this promise was made. God was promising to save the nations, Jew and Gentile. God spoke to Abraham and said: "I have made thee a father of many nations." When he spoke this he was saying that nothing could change this. If God decides to do something and says that he will, consider it done. Whether the Jews liked the fact that God had decided to save the Gentiles didn’t matter. God had promised it and their unbelief couldn’t stop it from happening.

So it wasn’t Abraham that called those things that were not as though they were but it was God. Only God has the power to do this. Not us, not now, not ever on this earth do we have the power to do this. Our words are just words and should be used in honesty, in worship and in all the good things that God wants us to do with them.

This brings us to a subject that I spoke of a little earlier in this letter. This group also believes that if I use such a term as " I laughed myself to death," or used similar terminology then I would be bringing a curse on myself and could even die from it. The belief is that since our words have so much supernatural power that we can curse ourselves as well as others by saying such things. The warning is that we had better careful or it will happen. This is superstition, not Bible and it is cultic. It falls into the same category of the belief that bad things will happen if a black cat runs across the road in front of you. Things like bad luck for walking under a ladder or seven years bad luck for breaking a mirror. This is how ridiculous this is. God tells us not to be children in understanding.

Now we return to understanding the English language. To use a phrase of speech such as "I laughed my self to death" is a term called "hyperbole."

hy·per·bo·le (hº-pûr"b…-l¶) n. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

The thing about hyperbole is that the exaggeration is always so great that the person hearing it knows that it is not to be taken literal. In other words there is a different meaning to what is being said. It is much like a metaphor. What is even stranger about this terminology is that the Bible uses hyperbole in some of it’s content.

First of all I would like to say that there is a vast difference between hyperbole and telling lies. A person might think that because a hyperbole exaggerates that it is a lie. The difference between an exaggeration in a lie and that of a hyperbole is that in a lie the person telling it expects the hearer to believe the exaggeration. In a hyperbole the exaggeration is to be taken as a metaphor and is not to be taken as a literal truth and everyone understands that it is not to be taken literal. I was accused of saying that the Bible tells lies on account of this misunderstanding of the difference between lying and a hyperbole. But, you know if a person doesn’t understand they just don’t understand.

My point is that if a Christian’s words are so powerful that if he uses a hyperbole and says he could sleep for a year it might happen because he spoke it with his words then we must consider Jesus Christ himself. If anyone has power with his or her words to do this is would certainly be Jesus. If Jesus used hyperbole and it didn’t have any affect because he spoke it then how is it possible for us that are only born again to have a greater power?

Did Jesus use a hyperbole? The answer is yes and there are two that I would like to share with you:

Luke 14:26: If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Realize that this is not a parable, it is a statement and it is a hyperbole. It uses an exaggeration for emphasis that is not supposed to be taken literal but has a greater meaning. The exaggeration is the word "hate." The minute we read this we know that God doesn’t want us to hate anyone, lest of all our own parents. Remember the first commandment with promise was to love and honor our parents. So is God lying since he doesn’t really mean this? No, it is a hyperbole and it is written this way to cause us to wonder. The emphasis and meaning from this is this: If we are put into a situation where we have to choose between following Christ or following those that we love, we must chose Christ over them and follow him. We must realize that God deals with intent. The meaning of what Jesus says in this scripture is different from the way it was written, it was written this way for emphasis, to make a point. Did Jesus lie? No way, he didn't say it with the intent to tell a lie, but as an illustration.

Another place in scripture is one that is often used to prove their point in their false teachings.

Mark 11:23: For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

First of all we must realize that Christ is using hyperbole again to make a point. He is using an exaggeration that we should recognize as such for emphasis, or to get his point across. God does not want us to literally go around commanding mountains to be moved. He isn’t lying but is using exaggeration to help illustrate the true meaning of what we should have a desire to accomplish through prayer. Once again we must realize that God is concerned with intent. What did God mean by this scripture? It certainly doesn’t mean what it appears to mean anymore than the scripture about hating your parents in order to follow Christ. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray he first began with what we call the Lord’s prayer. He then followed it with that we should ask, seek and knock in order to get the answer to our prayers. But it really comes down to a greater understanding when we realize what God wants to give us is good things, Luke said the Holy Spirit to them that ask.

Jesus also told us to seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things would be added unto you. The part that he said would be added was what we should eat, what we should wear and necessary things like that, real needs. We are taught to seek after heavenly or spiritual things, not earthly things. James said that we have not because we ask not but he also said that we have not because we pray amiss to consume it upon our own lusts. If we seek the spiritual then Christ will provide the natural things that we need. So what are these mountains that we can move through faith in God? They are spiritual things that prevent us from walking with God the way he wants us to walk. These mountains can be many things such as the fear of man, habits that corrupt our walk, situations that hold us in bondage, things that keep us from walking in the spirit with Christ. What he is saying is similar to a metaphor meaning that we can literally move the obstacles that stand in our way of serving God through faith. But believe me it isn’t because you have special power in your words to make it happen. It is simply from trusting in a faithful God that brings it to pass when we seek him for spiritual help.

Since hyperbole has no consequence except for making or illustrating a point then how can we believe that God is going to hold a person responsible for using a hyperbole when God himself knows the meaning and intent in it? Especially since God uses hyperbole himself?

Those teachings that say you can curse others or yourself through your statements because of special power in your words are superstitious and childish in understanding. To believe that we have any special supernatural power in our words is certainly wrong. It is simply someone making a big deal out of nothing in order to make a lot money and possibly get a great deal of fame.

Yours in Christ,
Tommie Spurgeon

Printer-Friendly version..