Not Quite …

by Steven Haper

What we believe may not be quite right, according to God’s word.

Not quite…

How many people sincerely believe that the forbidden fruit of the tree from which Adam and Eve was an apple? But where in the Scriptures does it say this? [It doesn’t!] The Scriptures say, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:16-17), but nowhere in that is it said what kind of tree it was. And when they ate of the tree, the Scriptures say, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6), but, again, nowhere does it say what kind of tree or what kind of fruit.

The idea comes not from the Bible but from Milton’s Paradise Lost, where he names it as such. When Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, he substituted a word, malus, that, as an adjective, means bad, but as a noun, means apple. But many people believe it because that is what they’ve always heard.

And how many wise men came to see the baby Jesus? Most people would tell you without hesitation that it was three, and just about every movie and TV show has that number. But the Scriptures, again, do not teach such! The Scriptures say, “wise men from the East came to Jerusalem” (Matthew 2:1). So, where does the number come from? Most likely because the Scriptures tell us that these same wise men “presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11) and assigned one gift per wise man, hence three wise men. But the Scriptures do not teach such! Again, many people believe this because it is what they have always heard and seen illustrated.

And how about what is necessary for salvation? Some say “faith alone,” some say “grace alone,” and some say “by faith alone and by grace alone” [if you can figure out how salvation comes by two things, but claim by each alone]. They will even cite Ephesians 2:8-9 as their support. But what does that passage actually say? It says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Nowhere in those words will you even find the word “alone.” It doesn’t say it! Yet men continue to cite it as support for this false idea, and some will even insert the word, not content with what the word of God actually says!

Friends and brethren, be careful with what you believe! It may not be what the Scriptures teach! And what will we say to our Lord when we stand before Him in the end?