Being a Berean
The following are excerpts from an article written by Oscar Amaechina, the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria.
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.
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: “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.” (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.
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 anyone tells us about God and His ways.
Comments from readers:
Brother Amaechina, again, raises a key challenge for our times. I am heartbroken at the way the U.S. has exported many (most?) of the most destructive contemporary heresies: Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Prosperity Gospel, Dominionism, Hyper-grace, Christian nationalism, etc.
A traditional church model of relying on preaching for Scriptural growth is ripe for abuse. Instead, Scripture gives us a model of teaching that does not only rely upon trained ministers (i.e., pastors) or "professional" Christians.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 shows that parents are called to train their own children--which should discourage parents from relying only on Sunday School teachers for their children's growth. See also Psalm 78.
Matthew 28:19-20 commands us to each make disciples of one another in the Body of Christ. In order to make disciples, one first needs to BE a disciple--constantly learning & growing as an example to others.
Ephesians 4:11-16 shows us that there are MANY people in every church who are called into roles for the equipping of EVERY saint for the work of ministry. We should not expect that ANYONE in church should simply sit back and just feed without using what they've learned.
And there's "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman, not being ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2: 15). The Geek word used for 'study' is spoudazo and spoudazo also means diligently. So there's a doubly emphasis to STUDY DILIGENTLY. In doing so, one is able to interrogate and examine the scriptures most thoroughly.
“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.”
Yes! This makes me think of how the apostle Paul was criticized for not being a dynamic enough speaker, and it alarms me to no end. I had to change churches because of my troublesome need to test everything according to the scriptures. I became very unpopular trying to warn against prosperity teachings, and women teaching men in church settings. Rather than experiencing conviction, my fellow congregants seemed relieved to let this boat-rocker go. It was very sad and also shocking to me.
Acts 17: 11 was the HALLMARK for our home group meetings and insisted on it. Search 'DILIGENTLY' Amen.
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