Followers of Christ, we must emulate the Berean Christians
In the book of Acts, Luke commended the Berean Christians for their quest for truth, using the Word of God as a standard. He remarked that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they were willing to hear the Gospel and eager to search the scriptures for the veracity of what Apostle Paul taught them (Acts 17:11). Their wisdom protected them from false teachings, and this enabled them to walk in the light of the truth of the Word of God.
The rate at which false teachings, other gospels and scriptural perversions are dominating the pulpit these days, calls for urgent attention to the practice of the Berean Christians. Every Christian who wants to survive the onslaught of devilish perversion of the Bible these days, should compare what is being taught in our meetings today, and what the Bible actually says. The teachings in our churches should be compared with the revealed Word of God. This has become imperative because of doctrinal confusions and hermeneutical perversions in churches today.
In some African churches, pastors preach messages without opening the Bible. Stories, fables, and promises are dished out to worshipers without scriptural backing. Divinations nicknamed “prophesies” have taken over our pulpits. Worldly cultural practices have become prevalent, and worshipers no longer care to know what the Bible says and how the apostles ran the early church. The Berean Christians did not depend on the apostles for their knowledge; they searched the scriptures for themselves, comparing and contrasting what they were taught and what the Word of God said.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
There are so many false teachers in the pulpit these days. Their major assignment is to pervert the Gospel and entice genuine Christians to walk in darkness. They speak the language of the Bible, but their vocabulary is completely different. It is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate the false ministers from the genuine ones. The teachings of the false teachers have become so popular that genuine biblical preaching is now maligned as false because it lacks charisma and does not attract congregational cheers.
We must forsake false unbiblical teachings and allow the Holy Spirit to groom us in the knowledge of the things of God: “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (1 John 2:27).
This is the provision that God made for us because He knew that there shall come a time when false prophets shall be many. He advocated that we should rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us, because He is truthful and does not lie.
There are people in Churches today whose mandate is to execute a downright satanic agenda by watering-down the Gospel and recruiting ignorant men and women into accepting it as a divine truth.
In the Philippian church, Paul recognized these sorts of people whom he called the enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ and warned the genuine believers to avoid them. According to Paul, they were many, their end was destruction, their God was their belly, their glory was in their shame and their minds were on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-19).
Without searching the scriptures, I wouldn't have rejected cross-less Christianity — a doctrine sold to me by my previous mentors — and I wouldn't have embraced the cross. The mystery of the cross was revealed to me through scriptural research, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and I have come to realize that Christian growth is experienced through personal study of the Word, which evolves into formidable personal relationship with God.
For many years I didn’t experience growth until I started studying the Bible with the Holy Spirit as my teacher. I realized that I need to deny myself, carry my Cross and follow Jesus if I want to be His disciple.
In these challenging times, I do not think that it is right for believers to utterly depend on men for spiritual growth. The man you see in authority might be operating under false anointing or has been mentored by false teachers without even knowing it. Let us borrow a leaf from the Berean Christians and search the scriptures under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit.
It is the only way to properly assess the truth or falsehood of what any one tells us about God and His ways.
Oscar Amaechina is the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria. His calling is to take the gospel to where no one has neither preached nor heard about Jesus. He is the author of the book Mystery Of The Cross Revealed.
