Have you ever confidently quoted a “biblical truth” only to discover it’s nowhere in the Bible? In this episode of Seek Go Create, Tim Winders unpacks dozens of popular sayings, doctrines, and church traditions that we assume are scriptural—but aren’t. From the Rapture to “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” find out which beliefs might actually be missing from the text and why it matters. If you’ve ever wondered where your faith practices really come from, this episode will challenge, provoke, and encourage you to dig deeper.

"Read it for yourself—the New Testament reads like one story told by one generation to that generation and it will change you." - Tim Winders

Access all show and episode resources HERE

Episode Resources:

• NT90 Hub – This is the central website for the 90-day New Testament reading plan, with downloadable, printable plans, background information, and links to all episodes and resources.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 Is It Really God’s Word

00:56 NT 90 Reading Plan

02:17 Why This List Exists

05:27 Disclaimers And Ground Rules

11:11 Category One Doctrines

13:36 Rapture Myth Explained

15:04 Antichrist And Beast

16:29 Mark And Israel Track

19:55 Conversion Phrases Debunked

24:10 Common Sayings Not Scripture

30:49 Church Practices And Power

33:16 Altar Calls Debunked

33:28 Sacred Buildings Questioned

34:14 Sunday Sabbath Origins

34:43 Paid Clergy Critique

35:59 Denominations And Division

36:54 Heaven Is Not The Goal

38:32 Rethinking Hell Teachings

41:38 Purgatory Devil Angels Myths

44:06 Salvation Life Traditions

46:16 Wonderful Plan Myth

48:21 Not Your Covenant Explained

49:51 Tithing Sabbath Food Laws

53:37 Old Covenant Rebuilt Warning

56:01 Final Thoughts And Next Episode

The Bible is the word of God.

You've heard that your whole life, but the Bible never calls

itself that not once in scripture.

The word points to Jesus, to God's direct speech to a prophetic message.

The label we put on the book is not in the book, and it is not the only one.

The rapture not in the Bible, sinner's prayer, not in the Bible.

The idea that God won't give you more than you could handle, not in the Bible.

I have a list of these.

It's over 100 items.

Some of these are harmless, some are not, but none of them are in the text.

Let's go through it.

Welcome to Seek, go Create.

I'm Tim Winders.

I've recently read the entire New Testament in 90 days.

In the order it was written, not the order in your Bible, the order, the

letters actually went out and were read or arrived at their audiences.

What I found was really cool, it surprised me, challenged me, changed

the way I understood scripture.

I mean, in a big way.

The series here is where I share the discoveries with you.

If you wanna do what I did, the reading plan is free.

Go check it out.

I encourage you to, I ask you to.

It's not about getting the plan that I wrote or anything.

It's about you understanding the New Testament in a better way.

That's what happened with me, and I wrote this plan so that

I could see how it unfolded.

You could go get it at K two M dot.

Foundation slash NT 90, that's K two m.foundation/nt 90.

It lists the plan in order.

You could download it and print it out, put it in your Bible, that type thing.

It also has, podcast episodes that go with each letter or book of the

Bible with some background info, context, all that kind of stuff.

So download it, read along, see what you find.

The link will be down in the show notes.

Alright, so this is what we're going to be looking at today.

When I went through the reading that I did, I kind of had these notes

and I had these places where I was saying, Hmm, that looks interesting.

Or I was write some in my Bible at times.

I had a list, or at least in my mind, I had thoughts of things that I thought

or believed were in the Bible and I would jot them down and say, oh, I

think that's where that should be.

But it doesn't seem right.

Let me come back and check it.

And when I checked, here's the deal.

Many of these things, I could not find them.

I came up with over 100 items.

And if you grew up in the church or the deep South or the Bible Belt or

just around believers or people that spoke what I call church language,

I would bet you would have a similar list that look looks a lot like mine.

What I'm going to do in this episode is I am just gonna walk through a

big chunk of them, not all of them.

I won't be doing all 100, and then I'm gonna kinda share or show you something

that might be even more uncomfortable.

Things that are in the Bible, but belong to a contract that

has already been fulfilled.

In other words, we keep trying to force something that's been fulfilled on us.

So it's two things going on here.

we take things that aren't in the Bible, try to apply them, and then also something

that's in the Bible been fulfilled.

But we also try to make that apply also.

So, anyway, like I said earlier, when I finished doing the NT 90 reading plan,

I just had this long running document.

Things that I'd always heard they were biblical or they sounded

good, or something like that.

I had, I had heard them from pulpits.

I may have even shared or taught them some myself, brought 'em up.

In conversations, we find ourselves saying things that we think are

true or scriptural, they're really things too that you realize.

Because I do think that things come out of our mouths that are in our hearts.

There are things that we really had.

I, I had built my understanding of faith on, and I could almost guarantee

you that some of you listening in are the same, if not all of these things.

At least some of these are going to maybe hit a little close to home.

And so I went back, I, I searched them.

The cool thing is now with some of the search tools, some of the online tools,

AI and things like that, if you get through reading it in context like I did,

and then you kind of say, you know what?

I don't think I saw blank.

We'll get to some of'em in just a moment.

You could kind of do a search and say, find this.

And it's interesting, you know, AI and some of the online search tools,

they could search through biblical text, multiple versions of it.

And when it comes back and says it's not there, it kind of makes you think,

Hmm, wonder what's going on there.

But anyway, so some I did find, but they weren't quite the way that I'd

been taught or the way I'd believed them many I could not find at all.

Now, I wanna say this about what this episode is all about.

This is really not meant to attack anyone.

Some of this may come across as that, I apologize, but sometimes if someone's been

saying something and they've taught it and teach it, and then you have someone

like me say, that's not in the Bible, it sounds like I'm attacking that person.

I am not.

That's not the purpose of this.

The purpose is just to simply say.

It's not in the Bible, you could then decide what you want to do with that.

It could mean that it's still something that's okay.

It might mean something we need to rethink.

Anyway, most of what's on this list came really from people who were

sincere or traditions or just time.

It evolved, or they were trying to explain something that they didn't understand.

They were really oftentimes really just passing on what they received.

Maybe at some point there was someone who said, I'm gonna fool a bunch

of people by coming up with this.

Maybe, I don't know.

Anyway, but sincerity is not necessarily the same as accuracy.

One of the things I've been finding myself doing over and over again,

especially as I use AI and some other tools and some search tools with this,

is I keep trying to force my prompts.

To be biblically accurate.

I even did it with the things I listed out for this episode.

I said, is there anything that is questionable or not biblically accurate?

Not tradition, not denomination, not something that people invented

over the last few hundred years.

I am really desiring and craving to be as accurate biblically as I can be.

Probably not a hundred percent.

I can guarantee you that I'm not one of these that's gonna tell you I've got it

all figured out, but accuracy, biblical.

Accuracy is the thing that I keep repeating over and over again when

you read the text itself in order, in context something show up clearly and

just something simply aren't there.

It's amazing to me, and we'll talk about those here in just a little

bit, but I do wanna say this too, sort of brought it up earlier.

I wanna be real clear.

Not in the Bible doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.

Okay?

Some of what is on this list is perfectly fine.

These are, this is me kind of going through my disclaimers, you know?

You know, saying things like, we'll get to this.

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

It's not really a problem.

There is a mystery.

Paul talks about the mystery and things.

But it's just not a verse.

It's not in the Bible.

There's nothing that says, well, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

And you know how sometimes we use that voice when we say that or when

somebody's preaching it or anything?

The point is not necessarily to throw it out or to throw out tradition,

even though I've gotta say I am one of these people that question tradition.

So keep that in mind as you hear this.

Some of you may love tradition and that's fine.

I'm one that kind of likes to push on it and say, where did that come

from and why are we doing that?

And why do we keep saying that over and over again?

So, but the point is not to throw out every tradition.

The point is to know which things came from the text.

And which things came from somewhere else.

That is all, that's the simplicity of this episode.

And so I, I do wanna say, this is actually not my full list.

I've got a lot more that we're gonna go through here.

I tried to organize them into a couple categories and make them

make a little sense and flow.

some of these need much more than a bullet point.

and, and I'm not gonna address these here, but things like women in ministry

or how we read Revelation, they kind of deserve their own episodes.

And so I'm not gonna be covering those here.

This is just kind of an overview and I'm gonna kind of hit some quickly, give you

some, some things to think about and then, try to keep moving on so that I can get

to a, a chunk of these in this episode.

And there may be a round two, or like I said, some of these might

actually be episodes that, standalone.

But this is just a starting point.

I had this big, long list and I want to try to get this episode done

because I think it's valuable and I, I sort of enjoy this kinda stuff.

I'm gonna read through it, give some background.

Some will surprise you, some of them maybe you already suspected.

You kind of felt it.

All of them are worth checking for yourself.

I'm gonna say this over and over again.

Check it for.

Yourself.

If you think I'm wrong on any of these, I welcome it.

Show me where, point to me or give me the correct quote unquote air quotes

interpretation that I might be missing.

send me the verse, whatever, because up until a few years ago, I would've listed

most of these things as being biblical.

Two, I'm not coming at this whole topic as a, I'm superior.

I've learned all this, or, I'm the Bible answer man, or anything like that.

I'm coming at this as someone who believed these things, repeated them.

It was probably part of my core belief.

But over the last few years, as I've studied and gone through the text in

better context and in order recently.

I've just realized, you know, I've, I've tried to check 'em out, but

I realized they're just not there.

But anyway, if you could show me I missed something, I'm open to it.

Love to have that dialogue and, you know, you could find me on social

media or shoot me an email or anything.

I'm, I'm pretty visible out there.

Let's, let's discuss it Might even be interested in, you know,

getting on a podcast episode and, you know, going back and forth a

little bit, if that makes sense.

I've kind of got these divided up into a few categories.

The first category is kind of what I've lumped together as doctrines and theology,

and some of this could be controversial.

Right outta the gate.

And the first one is what I kind of say something about what I'll

call the left behind theology.

The rapture of the Antichrist, mark of the Beast, Israel's separate track, you

know, pre-Trib, timeline, et cetera.

They all come from the same place.

They're all kind of a package.

That package was assembled in the 18 hundreds.

And I, I will say that this first grouping could be the most controversial

from what I've seen on social media when I posted about these items.

And boy, some people get really upset about it, and you may be

one of them, but, that almost.

Kind of is a little bit of fuel for my fire because the more upset people get,

it makes me question what's going on here?

You know, is this something that I really need to pay attention to and study more?

Because obviously people are serious about this rapture thing.

Or sometimes it makes me think, you know, there could be a little bit of

something here with this deception that I might need to pay attention to.

But what I really wanna say is this, the, the next few items, the first four items

on this list were one of the main catalyst for me to do this study to really dig in.

Because some of this was nagging at me, I kind of felt like it didn't fit.

Well, and so I didn't go looking to disprove it.

I was looking to find out how it fit within the New Testament story

and in scripture and I'll talk more about it when I get to each list.

So that's where the plan came from.

This was really the catalyst for what I've recently created and what

I sort of am continuing to work on.

You know, they are really not the biggest items on the list, I'll tell

you that, but they are sort of the most controversial that I've noticed recently.

And, and like I said, they were critical for me.

I really wanted to know if these items were in the Bible or not.

Let me be clear, they are not.

Alright, the first one, let's go ahead and get this out of the way.

The rapture, first of all, the word rapture is not in the Bible.

Period.

Now, there is one reference that many people will try to say,

basically explains what could be possibly maybe a rapture situation.

First Thessalonians four 16 through 17 does describe believers being, air

quotes here caught up to meet the Lord.

But the event Paul describes is loud and public, not some kind of secret

rapture, which is kind of what we've been taught in our modern day culture.

it's sort of a command.

The Arch Angel's voice is like a trumpet secret pre tribulation

disappearance that was invented by John Nelson, Nelson Darby in the 1830s.

It was popularized.

By the Scofield reference Bible in 1909, and then of course all the left

behind novels, which I have to add here.

I read them all back in the nineties, so I was all into that.

That version is, is just not in the text.

It's not there.

You have to take so many different type scriptures from all over the place to

even patch them together to get close to something that has been shared in

what I call that left behind theory.

Alright, let's get to the next one.

The antichrist as a single future world leader, not in the Bible.

The word antichrist appears only in first and second.

John, I believe it's four times.

It refers to anyone who denies.

The father and the son.

That's in one John 2 22.

It's not talking about a person.

John does say that there are many antichrist, not one, and they were

already present when John wrote this in the mid sixties of the first century.

Second Thessalonians two, three through four describes a man of lawlessness.

Many times this theory mashes these together.

Paul talks about the man of lawlessness, and Revelation 13 describes the beast,

but neither uses the word antichrist.

What happens is people take all those scriptures, throw it together, and they

claim that it is the antichrist from some future event that may happen, not.

In the Bible, not anywhere.

You have to make up a lot of stuff to get to that, and I just don't

like making up a bunch of stuff.

I want to know what the scripture says.

That single figure tradition combines all those texts into one character,

and it is tradition not in the Bible.

Alright, the next one, mark of the beast.

We've all heard this, we even heard it not too long ago, with COVID and vaccines and

chips and AI and all this kind of stuff.

Not in the Bible.

Okay.

Revelation 13, 16 through 18 uses apocalyptic imagery written

specifically to first century churches under Roman pressure.

What's really interesting about this is right now I'm super deep into

studying actual Roman history and I'm in the first century and they talk

about the coinage and the things that happen when you trade and do business.

And it's not biblical.

There's nothing biblical about the history that I'm reading, but

basically it is sort of that mark,

The mark is literary and symbolic in its genre.

It really is.

We just have to, we have to know how it fits.

Every generation has tried to map it onto their current technology.

None of them came from the text.

There are other places where I go into details on that, but Mark of the beast.

As we, as we refer to it, not in the Bible.

Alright, this is a big one.

Israel is on a separate prophetic track, not in the Bible.

The idea that God has two peoples with two plans, one for Israel, one for the church.

It's a dispensational framework from the 18 hundreds.

Romans nine through 11 does give Israel a distinct place in Paul's

thought, including the statement All Israel will be saved in Romans 1126.

But Paul's argument is that this happens through Christ, not through some

separate covenant, especially a separate covenant, 2000 years in the future.

He says.

In Christ, there is no distinction in Galatians 3 28 and also in

Ephesians two 14 through 16.

The two track system is Darby's 18 hundreds framework, not Paul's not.

In the Bible, the pre tribulation timeline, the sequence of

rapture, seven year tribulation, millennium as a future event.

It's not laid out anywhere that's taking pieces of things that are

not connected within Revelation and trying to map that out.

It's constructed by pulling verses from multiple books in the Bible and assembling

it on a chart and trying to make it fit something that's going on today.

And it hasn't worked for the last, in my lifetime, 40 years

that I've been hearing it.

And it's not there, it's just not in the Bible.

So pre tribulation timeline, not.

In the Bible.

Okay.

All right.

So those were the first ones that really had a big impact on me, and

for many of you, that may not be a big deal, but I just wanted to kind

of get those out of the way first.

All of those were built in the same dispensational system.

Remove one and the whole framework starts collapsing.

I believe it collapses because very, very little of that is biblically based.

There's pieces of it that you'll find, but it's taken way out of context.

So, keep that in mind.

Alright, let's get to some others.

Some of these are gonna be fairly controversial because when I kept looking

for it, it kind of was bothersome to me.

The first one, the sinner's prayer, it's not.

In the Bible, no New Testament character praise a formula

prayer to become a Christian.

Not a single example of it.

Romans 10, nine and 10 13 are the texts that are usually cited that's

used, but they describe confession and calling, not a scripted prayer.

Every conversion in acts involves belief, repentance, and baptism.

Maybe that's a little formula, I guess, but the formulaic prayer that

many of us were taught or told to, to do or participate in, it was really

formalized in the early 20th century.

And of course, popularized by.

Billy Graham and and those events that he had.

Again, like I said at the beginning, I'm not saying it's bad.

I'm just saying that the formulaic sinners prayer is not in the Bible.

Okay, next one.

Accept Jesus into your heart.

That's kind of part of that prayer that we talked about earlier.

The phrase is nowhere.

It's not in scripture at all.

Revelation three 20, I stand at the door and knock is the text that's

often cited, but in context that is addressed to a lukewarm church at Leo

Desia, not to unbelievers making an initial decision to follow Christ.

That phrase comes from a 17th century Puritan devotional

language, not the New Testament.

So the phrase, accept Jesus into your heart, not.

In the Bible.

Okay, another one.

Whew.

This is kind of controversial here.

Once Saved, always saved as a doctrine, not in the Bible.

Text like John 10 28 through 29, and Romans 8 38 through 39.

Do speak of security and that is real.

But the warnings are too numerous to dismiss throughout

the New Testament story.

Some of this, you have to take the New Testament as the entire

arc to grasp and understand it.

There's so many references to drifting, falling away, enduring to the end.

Hebrews six, four through six, Hebrews 10 26 through 27.

Revelation 3, 5, 2 Peter two 20 through 22.

The tension is real.

There is a falling away, or really it's a, going back is

what the New Testament refers to.

Going back to the old covenant, for those that came out of the Jewish faith, the old

covenant accepted Christ as the Messiah and the warnings were, don't go back.

It always kind of.

Hinges on how you define salvation also, which that's a whole nother topic.

I'm not going to address it here, but in episode six, a few episodes ago,

before this one, I actually talked about salvation and how, to me,

the definition that I've always had doesn't match up with the definition

that the New Testament has for it.

And that was just a few episodes ago.

I think it was episode six in this series is if salvation is a one-time

transaction, the formula works.

If salvation is what the New Testament actually describes,

it does not fit that neatly.

So once saved, always saved.

Not in the Bible.

All right, the next one, asking Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior.

That's not in the Bible.

The, the phrase is not there.

the phrase Jesus is Lord or Jesus as your Lord is there, in the New Testament is a

public and pol political declaration, but it's not a private personal transaction.

And we'll talk more about that in just a moment.

So asking Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior.

It's not in the Bible.

All right.

Let's look at another category or grouping that I have here.

I can't even remember how many categories that I have here on

my notes here in front of me.

But, these are things, they're phrases that almost all of us have probably

said that maybe we thought they were biblical, that they were in the Bible,

but we'll find out that they're not.

You know, some of it are just thought processes or mindsets.

All right, let's hit the first one here.

I've heard this so many times.

God won't give you more than you can handle.

Not in the Bible.

Okay?

In one Corinthians 10 13, where this is typically taken from, it's

really more about temptation, not suffering or life circumstances.

So we've taken that and sort of twisted it.

The actual promise is that there is a way out of temptation.

It says nothing about God calibrating our hardships or taking care of things,

or God deciding, you know, how, how much we can handle and how much we can't.

That's not what it says.

In fact, Paul says the opposite.

He says, we were burdened beyond our strength so that

we despaired of life itself.

That sounds pretty rough there in two Corinthians one, eight.

So God won't give you more than you can handle.

Not in the Bible.

All right, the next one, this is one I used all the time when we

were all involved with prosperity.

Gospel money is the root of all evil.

We've all heard that, and of course we try to correct that.

When you're in the prosperity gospel, money is the root of

all evil, not in the Bible.

One Timothy six 10 says, the love of money is the root of all evil.

The love not money itself.

Money is the root of all evil, not in the Bible.

Alright, this next one, this too shall pass.

That's not in the Bible.

It is not in the Bible.

In fact, when I did the research on it, the roots of that seemed to be a

proverb that originated out of Persia.

So maybe roughly around the Middle Eastern time, but not in the Bible.

This too shall pass.

Probably something that we just say to ourselves to give us

comfort when things are tough.

Paul never uttered those words.

This too shall pass, not in the Bible.

Alright, here's one.

God helps those who help themselves not.

In the Bible, it originated in ancient Greece, actually in Aesop's Fable.

The English wording is by Algernon Sidney in 1698, and it was popularized by our

good friend Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richards Almanac in the early 17 hundreds.

That was, so, I've got 1736 here in my notes.

The Bible actually teaches the opposite.

While we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly, Romans five, six.

In fact, the whole New Testament story is about how much we need Christ

not putting things on ourselves.

So the phrase God helps those who help themselves.

Not in the Bible.

All right, the next one.

Ooh, this is a big one.

Hate the sin.

Love the sinner.

Not in the Bible.

It is often attributed to Augustine.

It's not a New Testament phrase, and once you really understand what sin

actually means in the New Testament, and I covered that a few episodes back because

the definition of sin that I thought.

When you read the New Testament in context, it's different.

It's not what I thought it was.

it's just not there.

So go back and listen to that.

But the phrase really falls apart even further.

Sin in the New Testament's, not a list of bad behaviors to hate

it, is missing the mark, falling short, wandering off the path.

Or the Pharisees used to say sinners were people that weren't part of them.

They were not in their club.

They were not in their group.

and I want you to think about this, try to imagine Jesus saying.

Hate the sin, love the sinner to anyone he met, to the woman at the well.

I cannot picture that.

He did not talk that way.

And that is our model.

He moved toward people, not away from their behavior.

So, that's a big one.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Not in the Bible.

Alright, the next one.

I heard this one growing up, cleanliness.

Is next to godliness.

I think I added that one in just 'cause I thought it was sort of funny and I

can guarantee you it's not in the Bible.

It could have some roots in some of the old covenant purity type things.

But, I'll tell you that from a pure standpoint of that text,

cleanliness is next to godliness.

It's not in the, in the Bible.

In fact, some of the dirtiest, and I don't wanna say ugliest or challenged, were the

ones that got the closest to Jesus Christ.

Cleanliness is next to godliness, not in the Bible.

Alright.

When one door closes, God opens a window.

Not in the Bible.

I don't even know where that originated.

I don't have it here.

I usually have tried to do some of some research, but anyway, just know this.

Can't find that in the Bible.

When one door closes, God opens a window, not in the Bible,

or I'll go ahead and clarify.

Here.

God opens another door that's not in the Bible either.

Okay?

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

That's not in the Bible.

That's, I think it originated from a hymn.

What I have here is from William CalPERS 1773 Hyn.

God moves in a mysterious way and is loosely inspired by Isaiah 55, 8, but not.

Actually the verse, God, the Lord works in mysterious ways, not in the Bible.

Alright, let's move to another category and more of, I kinda lump

together church structures and practices and uh, things like that.

These are sort of important and, uh, anyway.

Alright, so the first one, the tithe as a New Testament command, the New Testament.

Never commands a 10% tithe.

That's two Corinthians nine seven.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not

reluctantly or under compulsion.

In fact, in reading through the New Testament, it is very clear that there

is no requirement for tithing or giving.

Now, Jesus really does portray that we should give and we should

have a heart to giving, but, and he mentions tithing in Matthew 2323,

but he's speaking to Pharisees under the old covenant and rebuking them

for neglecting justice and mercy.

He never commands it for the church tithing the mosaic covenant, not in the

Bible as far as new covenant believers.

Alright, this one's a big one.

That's probably gonna be, a, a bigger episode at some point because

this is something that's nagged at me, the pastor as the CEO.

Model is not in the Bible.

A single paid professional leading a congregation as a CEO manages a company

is not a New Testament church structure.

And again, I, as someone who's done leadership and business coaching,

this is a bigger topic that I want to address because, I, I looked for it.

I wanted it to be there.

It's not there, and it kind of makes me revisit and rethink the whole

structure that we have for a lot of our ministry or church organizations.

We'll come back to that, but pastor, SCEO, not in the Bible, the altar call,

no New Testament pattern of coming forward to make a public decision

at the end of a sermon is there.

I think it originated with the Methodist, what they call the mourners bench in

the late 17 hundreds, popularized by Charles Finney's anxious bench in the

1820s during the second Great Awakening.

Of course, I grew up a little bit in the Baptist church.

They have taken it to another level, and it's the altar call.

Come forward, every head bowed, every eye close altar call.

Not in the Bible.

All right, the next one, the church building as a sacred space is not in

the Bible Acts 1724 says, God does not dwell in temples made by hands.

You are the temple in one Corinthians three 16.

We, in many ways have put buildings, temples, cathedrals on pedestals that

is not in the scripture, not biblical.

Again, going back to something I said earlier, I'm not saying it's bad, I'm

just not saying biblically they are.

I think meant to be put on such a pedestal as we have put them on.

Alright.

Sunday as the Sabbath, not in the Bible, not in the New Testament.

At least Old Testament.

Yes.

The Sabbath is actually on Saturday, so not on Sunday.

Acts 20 verse seven and one Corinthians 16.

Two shows early Christians gathering on the first day of the week,

but nobody called it the Sabbath.

Early Christians didn't.

That shift was formalized by Constantine in 3 21 Ad. Alright.

Kind of related to an earlier topic, the paid clergy class, not in the

Bible, maybe with a little bit of, you know, clarification here.

Paul made tense on purpose.

He did say that he had the right to financial support in one

Corinthians nine and he refused it.

And then in one Timothy five 17 through 18, he does say that elders who lead

well are worthy of double honor.

And the worker deserves his wages.

So the New Testament does affirm the right to compensation.

What it does not create is a professional class that stands

between the congregation and God.

It's not a new veil or a new temple that is between the believers, us and God.

And what we've done is we've really put that there.

We have put mostly men between, the believer and God.

That is not in the Bible.

One Peter two, nine calls.

All believers, a royal.

Priesthood.

So it's real interesting.

We have to say this.

The paid clergy class, not in the Bible.

Alright, denominationalism, that's a big word.

Denominations are not in the Bible.

In fact, Paul specifically rebuked, he called the situation.

We've got the quote here.

I follow Paul, I follow Apollos.

I follow CFUs.

Peter as division.

He said that in one Corinthians one, 12 through 13, he would not

recognize the modern denomination framework as a feature.

Denominations not.

In the Bible.

Alright, next category.

This is a popular one.

Whew.

Things about heaven and hell and, sounds like a jeopardy category, doesn't it?

I'll take heaven for 400, Alex.

So, that's, sorry.

Sorry to make light of it.

I'm kind of just trying to be a little humorous here, but

things about heaven and hell.

Alright.

Ready for this Heaven as the ultimate destination for believers.

Is not in the Bible and in modern Christianity, heaven is almost

always presented as the goal.

It is not.

That is actually not scriptural.

When you die, you go to heaven.

That, may be the case, but that is not what early believers were working towards.

That is the story that most of us were told.

But the New Testament does not present it that way.

The New Testament hope is resurrection and a renewed earth.

And we see that in Romans eight 19 through 20.

Three and also Revelations 21, 1 through four, God comes

down, creation is restored.

That is the ending of the story.

Philippians 1 23 and two Corinthians five, eight suggest

that being with Christ after death.

But even those point to an intermediate state, not the final destination.

So, it's real interesting.

All of this kind of fits to something that starts reframing your mind when

we have certain beliefs and tradition.

And you know, the thing we have to say here, the New Testament story ends

just finished reading it a few weeks ago when I finished up Revelation.

It ends with a heaven and earth becoming one.

Not a bunch of souls escaping Earth to go float somewhere else

It's kind of seems like it's here.

That is the end destination, which is interesting.

Alright, this next one we talked about heaven.

Let's go the other direction.

Hell as eternal conscious torment in a lake of fire.

It's not in the Bible.

Most people carry a clean binary.

It's one or the other, heaven or hell.

And their journey here on Earth is to do everything they can to punch their ticket

for heaven so that they don't go to hell.

That's not in the Bible.

That is actually not the New Testament story.

Let me clarify here.

I'm not saying there's not a heaven, and I'm not saying there's not a hell.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is a clear binary choice that we want it real simple.

That is not the New Testament story.

The New Testament framework is really the kingdom.

You're either in the kingdom or you're not.

Jesus talks about the kingdom of God more than anything else.

He does not talk about hell the way we were taught.

In fact, when you really read through the New Testament in context, there's not a

lot of mention of something that would be Hell or Johanna or something like that.

It's there.

I'm not denying that it's there.

It's just not a huge.

Emphasis, so hell as eternal, conscious torment, lake of fire, all that stuff.

Not in the Bible.

Alright, and, and I did mention it just a second ago, I've got a note here.

Kahna is the valley of ham.

Outside Jerusalem used as a garbage dump.

Hades is the realm of the dead.

Tartus appears once, these are three different words with three different

meanings in the western tradition has brought them all together.

Even the lake of fire that I brought up earlier and tried to say that is hell.

It's not that simple.

It's more complex.

There's more to it.

And so that one hell place.

Not in the Bible.

Alright.

And just a couple other things there.

Matthew 25 46 does mention eternal punishment, primarily

mentioned as a disconnect from being with God connected to God.

Revelation 2010 mentions being tormented day and night.

Those are the texts that are most often cited for the traditional view.

But Revelation 2010 specifically refers to the devil, the beast, and

the false prophet, not ordinary people.

And then Matthew 10 28 says, God can destroy both soul and body

and hell, which could support destruction, not necessarily eternal.

Torment.

So, anyway, but the heaven and hell binary gives people a clean

choice that we really like.

Good people go to heaven.

Bad people go to hell.

But that's not.

In the Bible and the New Testament does not sort people into good and

bad, send them to two different places, and the New Testament gives something

messier and kind of more honest.

The kingdom is here and it was here in the first century, and you can

participate in it or refuse it.

That seems to be the actual story of the New Testament.

Now there's this other word that we kinda have to throw in this

category, purgatory, not in the Bible, not in the New Testament.

That actually is a Catholic tradition.

That's come from some other scriptures that's not in our, in

our Christian Bible, the second Maccabees, 1241 through 46, Apocrypha,

There's a reference in, in one Corinthians three, 12 through through 15.

Work tested by fire.

But, that's the New Testament text that's sometimes cited, but it

really describes work being tested, not souls that are being purified.

And really fire is more of a purification type thing.

So anyway, no New Testament writer describes a middle state,

a purification after death.

Purgatory is kind of a third destination in the same afterlife framework.

And like the clean heaven, hell binary.

It's just not in the Bible.

Okay, how about this one?

The devil as a horned figure in hell.

Not in the Bible.

That actually came from, Milton and Dante, and they did more to shape this

image than any other New Testament text.

So the image that many of us have and, of a devil as a horn figure,

you know, into hell and demonic and all that, it's not in the Bible.

Angels with wings, halos, and harps.

Not in the Bible.

Now, harps do appear in Revelation, revelation 5, 8, 14, 2 and 15 two.

But they're held by elders and overcomers, not necessarily angels.

And lemme go ahead and get this outta the way.

the Lord needed another angel.

When someone dies not in the Bible, I don't even feel like I need to bring

that up to people that are serious, seriously looking at scriptures.

I, I hate it when people say that at funerals, the Lord

just needed another angel.

No, the Lord doesn't need another angel.

And people aren't angels when they pass from this life.

But anyway, wings going back to the angelic figures.

Wings do appear on cherub and seraphim in prophetic literature.

Isaiah six and Ezekiel one.

But angels appearing to humans in the New Testament are typically

described as men in white robes.

March 16, five and Acts one 10.

Halos are not described anywhere.

The winged halo wearing heart playing figure seems to be

medieval art, not in the Bible.

All right.

Our next category is kind of things that are lumped into

salvation and the Christian life.

Alright, here's a good one.

Asking for forgiveness every time you sin.

That's not in the Bible.

One John one, nine is likely addressed to unbelievers or general confession,

not a daily spiritual maintenance routine, and just constantly doing that.

Really, the New Testament picture of forgiveness is really more complete

than transactional by just constantly saying, your repenting is almost going

against the finality of what Jesus did.

So anyway, constantly asking for forgiveness.

Every time you sin.

Not in the Bible, we don't see that.

All right.

How about this one quiet time devotional routine as the mark of a serious

Christian that's not in the Bible.

Now, Jesus went away and spent quiet time, and I'm sure that Paul and

Peter and those, those apostles did, but it's really not in the Bible.

There's no requirement.

There's nothing that says it.

No apostle prescribes a morning Bible reading and prayer routine

is the measure of spiritual health.

I enjoy it.

It's helpful for me, and some of you may do it.

I'm just saying quiet time, devotions, you know, spending time reading the

word and all that, that actually is not in the Bible, and definitely

not a mark of being a serious.

Christian.

Okay.

Here's one that's real interesting.

Spiritual gifts ended with the apostles, or what's called

cessationism, that is not in the Bible.

No.

New Testament.

Text says the gifts are temporary.

This is the theological position built to explain an observed

absence, not a biblical command.

So I'm not saying it is or isn't.

I'm just saying that, saying that spiritual gifts ended with the apostles.

That's not in the Bible.

It doesn't specifically say that.

All right, here we go.

This is probably gonna be a tough one.

God has a wonderful plan for your life.

Kinda like a personal happiness guarantee that is not.

In the Bible.

Now it fits with kind of a larger topic that I observed as I was reading through

the New Testament, and it's this theology that says everything should be perfect

or that it will be perfected over time.

And that's kind of saying that God's plan for you is comfort, success,

prosperity, and a pain-free life.

Many people read Revelation as the promise that it all works out

perfectly in the end, but I can't find that anywhere in the New Testament.

In fact, I can't find that God promises perfection or even comfort.

Paul's plan.

Listen, Paul would be part of the model of a New Testament example.

His plan included beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment, and execution.

Most of us probably wouldn't want that life, but that is one of our examples.

Jesus told his followers that they would be hated, persecuted, and killed.

The New Testament promises, presence, not perfection.

It promises the kingdom not comfort.

The wonderful planned version is really from a prosperity gospel

message that really most of our modern churches have today.

Many people would push back on that.

They go, oh, I'm not.

I'm not a prosperity gospel person.

Well, comfort desiring perfection.

That's from the Prosperity Gospel roots.

It's really the same thing.

It's dressed in softer language.

So the simple fact that we say, God has a wonderful plan for your life.

Yeah, he has a plan.

Is it perfection?

Is it comfort?

No, that is not in the Bible.

Okay.

Alright.

Now let's move and start wrapping up here to a, what I call maybe a

bigger section, kind of a bigger thing that I think we need to

understand is possibly in the Bible.

But it doesn't apply to us.

So it's kind of in the Bible, but I'm calling it not your covenant.

This is sort of a important one.

Part one was sort of about the things that were never in the text, all

the other items I just mentioned, but I've got a few things here.

This is really about things that are in the text, but they belong to

a covenant that has been fulfilled.

And because so many of us, myself included, didn't understand or don't

understand that that covenant has been fulfilled because we haven't

read the scripture in context, then we don't understand that

those things don't apply to us.

And for gentile believers, it was never your covenant in the first place.

That's very clear in the Bible.

So some of these we've addressed before, but I just want to hit these items.

And again, these are items that may be in the Bible.

In some areas, mostly in the old Covenant, old Testament.

But because we are New Testament, new covenant, Messiah, covenant believers

operating in the ever expanding kingdom that is now in place, these are not

items that we should necessarily say are we're obligated to follow.

Alright, the first one, controversial, wrote something on Facebook not long ago,

and boy, this will get a lot of comments.

Tithing, especially the 10%, which tithe is a 10th.

The Mosaic Law for supporting Levites in the temple.

It's not.

In the Bible or not in the covenant that we are part of.

Paul never commands a percentage, neither does Jesus.

He says, give generously, cheerfully as you have decided in your heart.

That's in Second Corinthians nine, seven.

So tithing not our Covenant Sabbath observance as a command,

not in the New Testament covenant.

It's a sign of the mosaic covenant between God and Israel.

Paul says, let no one judge you regarding Sabbath.

In Colossians two 13, Hebrews says, A new rest has come.

Hebrews four, nine dietary laws.

this should be clear.

I someone on Facebook recently I saw they were talking about not eating

pork and all that, and it's like, whoa.

Hey buddy, don't mess with my bacon.

All right.

So, but dietary laws, it's very clear from the New Testament,

new covenant standpoint.

That is not something that we have to or need to adhere to unless it's for

health reasons or some other reason.

But Levitical purity codes is where that came from, and

Peter had a vision about that.

In Acts 10, it's pretty clear what God has made clean do not call common

circumcision as a spiritual requirement.

The entire book of Galatians discussed that the Jerusalem

Council in Acts 15 settled it.

That was clear.

It's not in our covenant animal sacrifice.

Once and for all it is done.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice.

There is no need for additional sacrifice.

That's in Hebrew.

7 27, 9 12, 10 10. Animal sacrifice.

Not in our covenant.

Not needed.

I don't recall.

I haven't heard of people doing a lot of animal sacrifice recently.

It may still be out there, but anyway, it's not in our covenant.

Alright, this is one we sort of touched on earlier, but priestly mediation.

There is one mediator between God and men, and it is Christ Jesus.

One Timothy two, five.

The veil has been torn.

We should not put men or a man or a Pope or some other person in

an authority between us and God.

It is not necessary.

It is not our covenant.

That veil has been taken down.

We have direct access to God.

Okay?

A designated house of God, a place to go.

The New Testament says you are the temple in one Corinthians three 16, God's God

does not dwell in buildings made by hands.

That's in Act 1724.

I'm not saying a building's bad, I'm just saying it's not a

requirement of the new covenant.

And so, a designated house of God, not our covenant.

Alright, applying Malachi three 10, we talked about tithing

earlier to New Testament giving.

Malachi was written to the old covenant.

Israel about temple storehouse provisions not giving.

There's also a difference between storehouse and giving.

Not gonna get into that here, but it's not a New Testament giving instruction.

Here's the deal on all of this, and there's a lot more that we could cover

there, but this is what really, really kept jumping out at me as I read through

the New Testament in context and in order.

None of the items I just listed out are necessarily wrong.

If keeping the Sabbath is meaningful to you.

Keep it.

Sabbath is good.

Rest is good.

It's good.

I think physically, and I think it's good spiritually, if giving

10% is your practice, give if it's a good habit for you to give 10%.

I like doing that with every dollar that comes in.

Gloria and I, we have 10% that we give and that we also do in the

savings and other things like that.

It's, it's easy.

10 percent's easy.

It's easy math, by the way, if it's, if it's a practice you have, keep doing it.

The problem is, is when we try to make it a requirement or make it quote

unquote a law, that's not the case.

When you tell someone that they must tithe, they must keep the Sabbath,

they must go through a priest to reach God so that something happens.

So that.

Let's go back to another one we mentioned.

You check the box and you get to go to heaven.

That is rebuilding the old covenant inside the new one, and it's

really saying that what Jesus did never happened, so you really, I.

You, you're really attempting to say you're operating in the new covenant

world, the kingdom, but trying to apply old covenant laws and requirements.

We don't have to do that.

The entire New Testament was written to say that contract is fulfilled,

it is done, it is finished.

You are free.

Alright.

The New Testament is really the announcement that

the old contract is done.

Most of the church, a lot of our churches, they're still making

payments on a paid off mortgage.

We've got to stop doing that.

It binds people up, it limits people.

It also pushes a lot of people away because they looked at that.

They look at that religious stuff and it's just like what

Jesus did with the Pharisees.

He said, that's not what I'm all about.

I'm all about people coming in, not dividing them up.

And so we need to live that way.

It is not the covenant that we live and operate under.

Alright, let's kind of finish up with just a few statements here.

This has been a good episode.

It's going a little long.

Some of what is on this list, it's just harmless tradition.

You know, people say the Lord works in mysterious ways and they mean something

true even if the phrase is not in the text, and that might be fine.

Some of it is actually more serious though when you use a misquoted

verse to tell someone that God calibrated their suffering.

You're actually doing some damage with the first That does not say that.

And you know, some of it has been used to control people.

The tithe, I, I'll be truthful with you, that's a manipulative technique

that's used in many church structures.

The altar call, you know, it's, and that can actually have some

emotion attached to it too.

Attendance requirements, you gotta come, or as we heard, as we visited, a

lot of churches, you walk in a building and they start their Sunday morning

service, they go, this is where God is.

And I'm going, I, I believe God's here.

But God's in other places too.

The implication is on Sunday morning, this is where God is.

That's not biblical.

You know, the clergy laity divide.

You know, we are studied.

We went to seminary.

We are this, you are not that.

I heard that often in Bible school.

We hear from God.

You don't, that's not in the Bible.

There's nothing in the Bible that says that these are institutional structures

dressed up in biblical authority, that they do not have often used in

abusive, manipulative situations.

Not all the time, but often.

None of this means the people who taught these things were malicious,

not necessarily, most of them received what they believed and passed it on.

That is how tradition works, and usually you pass it on and you add something

to it Along the way, you just add a little bit more and it keeps going.

This is how eras compound though.

The only way to interrupt the cycle.

Is to go back to the text.

Okay.

Alright.

I just listed out about 33 items in the first category and then

eight in the second, 40 plus total.

It's not the full list.

I said at the top that I've got at least a hundred, but I need to shut it down here.

I think we're getting close to an hour and I meant it, but I I, I will

get to those at some other time.

Some of 'em need their own episodes.

More are coming.

Maybe I'll do another long list like this at some point.

I wanna be clear about this.

Again, I'm not trying to create a new tradition while I'm

out here busting up old ones.

This is not what this is.

If I miss something, if there's a verse I overlooked or a text I read wrong.

I wanna know it.

Share it with me.

I'm not done studying.

I'm still studying daily.

I'm not done learning, but reach out, find me on social media, send me a message.

I'm pretty darn easy to find out there.

If you have something I need to see, I am listening.

Alright, so, we just had fun with that two categories.

Things that were never in the text, things that were in the text, but

belonged to a contract that ended together is the full picture of what got

carried for that should not have been.

When I read the New Testament straight through in order and context,

all of that is what kept coming up time and time and time again.

That is why this series exists, is I'm just sharing these things.

I hope it provokes you.

I hope it encourages you.

I hope maybe it mm makes you think a little bit.

I think that's a good thing.

Next week, next episode, I'm going to tell the real story of the Bible

that I found when I read it in order in context, something that.

I'd seen a little bit of, but I never really understood it fully till

I put the whole picture together.

It's not quite what I was taught in Sunday school.

The Bible is basically a love story, but the ending has a

little bit of a shock factor.

So that is gonna be the next time on seek go create.

So anyway, here's what I wanna leave you with.

Don't take my word for it.

I've been saying this all along.

Read it for yourself.

The actual text in the order it was written.

When you do that, the New Testament reads like one story.

Told by one generation to that generation and it will change.

You don't forget, go get the reading plan.

If you haven't gone through the reading plan, please do it.

Don't take my word for all this study and read it yourself.

K two m.foundation forward slash NT 90.

Download it.

Just start wherever you can, but try to go through the New

Testament in order in context.

Thanks for joining me here.

Been a little bit long, but this has been a fun episode to put together.

Just remember a lot of the things you've heard not in the Bible.

I'm Tim Winders.

Thanks for joining me here.

Keep digging and studying.

See you on the next episode.