Why Do We Believe False Teachings

Jeremiah 29:8
"For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream."

Most of us would be alarmed if we knew how many people harbored beliefs in false teaching.

For example, and please note that I voted for President Trump but, The fact-checking organization "Politifact" rates only 16 percent of the President’s statements as true during his tenure. You do not even want to know what Mr. Bidens rating is.

Another example.......
Moving away from the political arena for a moment, consider whether the following statements are true or false:

We only use 10 percent of our brains.
We lose most of our body heat through our heads.
If you swallow chewing gum, it will stay in your system for seven years.
Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis.
If you answered “true” to any of these, you’re guilty of believing falsehoods.

Now think about, Why do people so easily believe false religious teachings?????

1. The Availability Heuristic.
This is a mental shortcut that can lead us to overestimate the frequency of an event when that event is more “available” or vivid in our memory......or as some know = Last in First out!

2. Emotional Reasoning.
This is when we allow "feelings/emotions" about virtually any emotionally charged topic, whether we’re talking about sex, religion, money, crime, or war. You see.......our feeling will lie to us.

3. Confirmation Bias
Once we have a belief, we tend to cling to it, even when it’s untrue, because we LIKE WHAT WE KNOW EVEN IF WHAT WE KNOW IS WRONG! This is the tendency to seek out information that supports what we already believe. We do this in two important ways. First, we tend to surround ourselves with messages that confirm our pre-existing opinions. This is why, in the U.S., conservatives tend to get their news from sources like Fox, whereas liberals tune into MSNBC.

Second, we tend to ignore or discount messages that disprove our beliefs. If we’re sure that climate change is a hoax and someone shows us a research study disputing this belief, we might dismiss the study’s findings by saying that the researcher is obviously biased or corrupt. This protects us from having to change our beliefs. When our ideas are true, this probably isn’t such a bad thing. Unfortunately, it also can keep us firmly believing things are false.
Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...true?msclkid=8dbace37cfb011ecb0c4b130e2ff4e98

These are some basic reasons why we see arguments and confontations with other Christians who have been taught Bible information from sources different that ours. It would be advisable IMHO that when we start to feel angry, or scared or confrontational when talking to others about Bible theology that we try and remember these 3 basic reasons for what we are experiencing.
 
Emotional reasoning is a tough cookie to crack for me.

i'm a feeling first gal, and learning to break that is, well, pretty hard.

Although I admit I am not quite as bad as I was, I still find I can harbour some hidden resentments when I get triggered by something someone does if its someone that has done something to me before.

There are other ways we can believe things that are not true, that I can add to your list, one that I often struggle with is when I have unrealistic expectations. Rose tinted glasses can sometimes be my default zone, and I have to keep reminding myself, no matter how hard I try, I will never be Kim Kardashian,
 
To few ppl are " CRITICAL THINKERS" today!

MANY want someone else to just tell them rather than have to do the work to hear correctly from God !

There is also the fact that ppl want " to feel" like everything is good with their lives. They DONT want a watchman to tell them the dangers just ahead if they absorb the falsehoods, and follow after men.

We ARE in the age where ppl are slothful, full of pride, enjoy the lust of the eye, want man's approval, have zero concern for eternity for they are living in the moment !

May his true ppl raise up a cry of awareness that is so loud and penetrating that nothing can drown it out. May it pierce the hardness, unconcern, and contentment in their present state,that a cry of repentance is heard above the cry for awareness.
 
People like the feel good preachers. Do what you want, believe what you want, its all good. Somebody, I dont recall who, said if your looking for a bible believing church find the church in your area with just a few cars in the lot on Sunday. I myself have driven by a local mega church and seen a lot of cars there. Heard a story or two about it also. So in short. People want a preacher to tell them what they want to hear.
 
People like the feel good preachers. Do what you want, believe what you want, its all good. Somebody, I dont recall who, said if your looking for a bible believing church find the church in your area with just a few cars in the lot on Sunday. I myself have driven by a local mega church and seen a lot of cars there. Heard a story or two about it also. So in short. People want a preacher to tell them what they want to hear.

Correct.

2 Timoty 4:3 is for today..........
" For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."
 
To few ppl are " CRITICAL THINKERS" today!

MANY want someone else to just tell them rather than have to do the work to hear correctly from God !

There is also the fact that ppl want " to feel" like everything is good with their lives. They DONT want a watchman to tell them the dangers just ahead if they absorb the falsehoods, and follow after men.

We ARE in the age where ppl are slothful, full of pride, enjoy the lust of the eye, want man's approval, have zero concern for eternity for they are living in the moment !

May his true ppl raise up a cry of awareness that is so loud and penetrating that nothing can drown it out. May it pierce the hardness, unconcern, and contentment in their present state,that a cry of repentance is heard above the cry for awareness.
In churches across America, crowd appeal and pleasing the masses tends to be the goal rather than calling out destructive lifestyles, which can result in revival and renewal. ONLY be preaching the Word of God that condemns what God condemns can the USA escape the judgment of God. My hope is that the overturning of Roe on abortion is the 1st step in that process!!!!

A.W. Tozer, in an article entitled "Prophetic Preaching," hit the nail on the head when he wrote, decades ago:.....
"If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means than any now being used. If the Church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher."

Tozer also said.....
"The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting."
 
I think for som, they trust their pastors or teachers. They do not think they could teach wrong. so they believe whatever they are taught. and do not "test all spirit" as they say.

I know I fell for this. I always believed I was taught right. It took getting away for awhile and actually studying myself to find some of what I taught I no longer believe in
 
When I was younger, I had a Sunday school teacher who told us he was going to say something that was not true during our lesson. Our job was to stop him as soon as he said it. Thus teaching us not to just accept what was said just because the person who said it has authority. My personal favorite was when he said that the 8 people on the ark were Noah and his wife, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker and their wives. We learned to verify what was said with scripture in a fun way.
 
To few ppl are " CRITICAL THINKERS" today!

MANY want someone else to just tell them rather than have to do the work to hear correctly from God !

There is also the fact that ppl want " to feel" like everything is good with their lives. They DONT want a watchman to tell them the dangers just ahead if they absorb the falsehoods, and follow after men.

We ARE in the age where ppl are slothful, full of pride, enjoy the lust of the eye, want man's approval, have zero concern for eternity for they are living in the moment !

May his true ppl raise up a cry of awareness that is so loud and penetrating that nothing can drown it out. May it pierce the hardness, unconcern, and contentment in their present state,that a cry of repentance is heard above the cry for awareness.

The problem with those wanting someone else to tell them what to believe is the choice(s) they make as to whom they will listen and accept as truth. My half-brother and his wife allow mass media and liberal, political pundits to fill their minds with what they consider to be truth.

As a card carrying skeptic (but not to the level of agnosticism), I don't allow even conservative media to tell me what the truth is.

1 John 2:26-27

26 These [things] have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 27 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.

See? It's really so simple.

For example, I had a nice conversation with a mormon acquaintance yesterday, and I asked him, point-blank, if he believes his god had a beginning, and he said, with emphatic certainty, that his god did indeed have a beginning. When I asked him by what authority he believes that, he just shrugged and diverted away to something else. I yanked him back to the topic of his god, and told him that the God of the Bible stated that, beside Him, He knew of no other, and, of course, he started in on the eisegetical interpretation of that passage, claiming that it was spoken in reference to us, and that his god does know of countless other gods out there. I told him that such a belief is polytheism, and he just shrugged, and smiled.

Wowee! They claim it takes all kinds to make the world go around. Frankly, it would be better if the world stopped spinning if that were the case. I can do without all the falsehoods out there. It would be ideal if everyone accepted scripture for what it says.

MM
 
I think for som, they trust their pastors or teachers. They do not think they could teach wrong. so they believe whatever they are taught. and do not "test all spirit" as they say.

I know I fell for this. I always believed I was taught right. It took getting away for awhile and actually studying myself to find some of what I taught I no longer believe in

Absolutly correct. We accept by faith our pastors and find it hard to believe that that would purposeflly tell us false things.

That is why I always advise everyone to.......READ THE BOOK!
 
When I was younger, I had a Sunday school teacher who told us he was going to say something that was not true during our lesson. Our job was to stop him as soon as he said it. Thus teaching us not to just accept what was said just because the person who said it has authority. My personal favorite was when he said that the 8 people on the ark were Noah and his wife, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker and their wives. We learned to verify what was said with scripture in a fun way.

Coincidently.......have you watched the movie "Noah" that came out a couple of years ago?????

What a hoot! I have never seen such satanic nonsense in my life!
 
Coincidently.......have you watched the movie "Noah" that came out a couple of years ago?????

What a hoot! I have never seen such satanic nonsense in my life!
I saw enough to know it was garbage, I couldn't watch it more than just a few minutes.
 
I saw enough to know it was garbage, I couldn't watch it more than just a few minutes.
Any idea what the "cranes" or whatever it was that was helping Noah build the Ark and then kill all those who attacked it???

I have read the Bible a few times and I can not find those "Things" anywhere!
 
It is sad that Hollyweird thinks that the Bible stories are not dramatic enough and so they have to "spice" them up a bit. It is worse that there are people who believe they are watching a true account of the events. I was also disappointed in the movie put out by Roma Downey called "The Bible" as it also had some rather bizarre scenes that were not true to scripture, I expected better of someone who claims to be a christian.
 
It is sad that Hollyweird thinks that the Bible stories are not dramatic enough and so they have to "spice" them up a bit. It is worse that there are people who believe they are watching a true account of the events. I was also disappointed in the movie put out by Roma Downey called "The Bible" as it also had some rather bizarre scenes that were not true to scripture, I expected better of someone who claims to be a christian.

Agreed!
 
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