3 Questions To Ask Before You Believe Religious and Political Leaders Who Claim to Speak God's Truth

Jesus warned his followers about false prophets

Image credit: AI from author’s prompt “evil person holding cross”

I’m a former pastor with a Master’s degree from an accredited seminary. I’ve read every word of the Bible and preached many sermons based on passages from it. So it’s obvious to me when people quote Bible verses out of context to “prove” their statements are words from God that cannot be questioned. They never mention other Bible verses that contradict their claims.

Many people who have been taught that every word of the Bible is literally true don’t realize that the Bible contradicts itself. It includes different descriptions of the same event that cannot be reconciled.

One obvious example is the creation stories in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. According to the first version (Genesis 1:1 — 2:4) God creates plants, then animals, then a man and a woman. The man and woman are created simultaneously.

In the version that starts at Genesis 2:4, God creates the man first, then plants and animals, and finally a woman (by taking a rib out of the man). There are other differences, too, as described in this article. Obviously, both accounts cannot be factually accurate.

There is also no such thing as a consistent “biblical worldview” or “biblical definition of marriage.” The Bible is a collection of books written, copied, edited and translated by many different people over a long period of time. It contains a wide variety of perspectives and cultural practices, some of which are now considered immoral and are illegal in the United States and other countries.

One biblical hero (Abram/Abraham, see Genesis 16) whose wife had not yet gotten pregnant raped his slave and forced her to give birth to his child.

There was no concept of romantic love in the Bible, and women could not choose whom they married. Deuteronomy 22 contains many appalling laws about sexual relationships, including a requirement that a woman marry her rapist:

If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged and seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her, he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

The same chapter says that a young woman who is engaged to another man and does not cry out for help when she is raped must be stoned to death along with her rapist.

These are some of the many reasons it is wise to be skeptical of anyone who claims to speak God’s truth, even if they quote from the Bible. Ask yourself questions like these before believing a person’s words come from God:

Are you allowed to ask questions or express doubts?

The Bible is full of stories in which people question God or refuse to do what God tells them to.

In the biblical book of Jonah, a prophet disobeys God’s command to go to the city of Nineveh to warn its residents. Jonah wants God to punish them for their bad behavior. He is afraid that if he warns them, they will change that behavior and God will forgive them. Eventually, Jonah does go, and that’s exactly what happens. Jonah is angry at God and wants to die.

In the book of Exodus, God commands Moses to tell Egypt’s Pharaoh to let the Israelites enslaved there leave the country. Moses is also told to convince the Israelites to follow him to a new country.

Moses doesn’t think he’s the right man for the job, and tries repeatedly to convince God to send someone else. This excerpt from their conversation is from Exodus 4:10–13:

But Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.” But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.”

Even Jesus disagrees with some statements in the Bible, and violates some of its laws. The Bible as we know it did not exist then, of course, but some manuscripts that later became part of it did. They were sacred texts to Jesus and other Jews.

Jesus was criticized by religious leaders for disobeying some religious laws contained in those texts. He healed on the Sabbath. He and his disciples plucked grain on the Sabbath. The Bible reports these events in the twelfth chapter of Matthew.

Jesus also challenged statements from those texts. He used the phrase, “You have heard it said … but I say …” to point out that he disagreed with some. In Matthew 5:38–39, Jesus states:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

The “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” message that Jesus rejects is in three different texts now included in the Bible (Exodus 21:23–25, Leviticus 24:19–20, and Deuteronomy 19:21).

These examples and other stories in the Bible demonstrate that God does not demand unquestioning obedience or punish people who express doubts.

Are you told to love all people, even your enemies?

Jesus makes it very clear that his followers must do that. This is what he says in Matthew 5:43–45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

In Luke 6:27–36, Jesus says something similar:

“Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. …

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. …

Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Jesus practiced what he preached, too. Three different books of the Bible (Matthew, Luke, and John) describe a violent act committed by one of Jesus’ followers in an effort to protect him. That person used a sword to cut off the right ear of a man who was part of the crowd about to arrest Jesus.

In all three accounts, Jesus stops the violence; in one of them he also heals the man whose ear was severed.

Jesus also shares a last supper with his closest friends, the disciples, even though he knows they will soon betray him. One (Judas) will betray Jesus to the authorities who arrest him in exchange for silver. Another (Peter) will repeatedly deny that he knows Jesus to save himself. The rest will abandon Jesus and run away the day he is nailed to the cross and killed.

Are you challenged to think or behave differently?

Do the words you hear challenge you to associate with people you’d rather avoid? Are you encouraged to help people you don’t consider worthy of assistance? If not, the speaker’s words contradict the words and actions of Jesus in the Bible.

Jesus infuriated some worshippers when he pointed out that God sometimes healed people from other countries. This is what Jesus said that made them so mad they wanted to hurl him off a cliff:

But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah … yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Just as some religious people today believe they are God’s chosen people and their country is God’s favorite, some did in Jesus’ day. They didn’t want to hear that God loved and healed people from other countries.

The Bible also mentions that Jesus had positive interactions with Samaritans. He even told a story in which a Samaritan man was the hero. It’s beyond the scope of this article to explain the reasons his fellow Jews found that offensive; go here to learn more.

Jesus said and did many things that challenged the beliefs of some religious leaders. At one point, Jesus criticizes them for favoring their beliefs over the word of God:

“You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ’’

When Jesus tells his closest followers, the disciples, that he must suffer and be killed, Peter takes him aside and says, “God forbid it, Lord!” Jesus replies, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Final thoughts

The Bible contains contradictions. It includes laws that Jesus rejected and practices now condemned as immoral and/or illegal in the United States. It has been quoted to justify slavery, domestic violence, and other abusive behaviors. Today, it is often quoted to justify discrimination, hate speech, and violence against any group of people the person quoting it doesn’t like.

But Jesus repeatedly criticized abusive behavior and sided with marginalized people others condemned. When asked, Jesus said there are no greater commandments than these two:

“ ‘The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ’’

So if someone who claims to believe Jesus is Lord suggests that God hates everyone who disagrees with them about anything, don’t assume that’s true. If that person says you must hate, slander, or attack people who don’t share their views, because those people are enemies of God, ask yourself questions like the ones above.

Even God doesn’t demand blind, unquestioning obedience. Humans who require that want you to follow them, not God.

P.S. To learn more about claims from some of today’s “false prophets,” the Christian organizations challenging their cruelty and lies, and how you can help, go here. And if you’re a U.S. citizen, please make sure you’re registered to vote and that you vote in accordance with your state’s laws.