Are you being duped by your church? Does sound doctrine matter? YES! Doctrine in the simplest form is “teaching” and the Word of God is clear that what we teach is to be sound doctrine (teaching), meaning what we are teaching or being taught should not be anything that is not supported by scripture. This includes taking scripture out of context and twisting it to fit an idea, concept, method or philosophy that isn’t found in scripture. Can people teach false doctrine and still proclaim they are about the gospel, discipleship, Jesus? Sure they can, however, it will not lead people to a biblical Jesus or a biblical gospel.

Again, I’m going to pull apart the unbiblical teachings of Caesar Kalinowski – and there are many! You will hear these same teachings from his friends and ministry partners Alan Hirsch and Hugh Halter. (These guys are Emerging Church leaders. Look them up. Their social media alone is very eye opening). One of the main ideas that is taught is the discipling of nonbelievers. This is NOT supported at all by scripture, however, it is the base you need to create a more cultural friendly kind of Christianity. What does Caesar and others use to support such teaching? Well, they don’t have any scripture to support this idea, so they say the disciples were pre-converted. If Jesus discipled nonbelievers then we do too. Again, this is not supported by scripture. Caesar will also say that we disciple nonbelievers because we disciple our kids, but this is NOT supported by scripture either. In any way you look for a definition of a disciple from a biblical perspective, you are going to find that a disciple is a committed follower or learner of Jesus Christ. Unbelievers are neither committed to following or learning the ways of being Christian. (Acts 2:38, 2:41). We know from the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) that the disciples of Jesus (including us) are to go (as you go) preaching/proclaiming the gospel. (they change this out with using the unique language of the Story of God – NOT the gospel). We are to see others come to be followers and learners of Christ..that is NOT unbelievers. Now, however, scripture DOES support the disciples being true followers of Jesus. Jesus’ call to the disciples wasn’t “Hey, come pray this prayer and be my disciple” it was “FOLLOW ME” and these men obeyed Him immediately- they LEFT EVERYTHING! (Matt. 4:18-22. Repeats in Mark 1:18) Then Jesus calls Levi (Matthew) in Mark 2:14 with the same command “FOLLOW ME” and up he went immediately. Later we find Jesus with his specific group of men from whom we have the 12 apostles. (Mark 3:13-19).

“Jesus’ call to come follow him is more than an invitation to pray a prayer- it was a summons to let go of their lives and find a new life in Him and for Him.” – Unknown

Perhaps the disciples were actually more correctly converted disciples than those of us today. Who or what have you given up to follow Jesus? What has it cost you? Something to think about. For them the call was “Follow Me” the act of faith was getting up, leaving everything behind and following Jesus. Then, there is the claim that we disciple our kids, so we do in fact disciple nonbelievers. NOPE. This is NOT supported by scripture either. God’s Word tells us to TRAIN up our children (Prov. 22:6), not disciple them; these are two very different ideas. Most Believers would understand that the point of discipleship is to teach a committed follower how to live their new life in Christ according to God’s Word. The scriptures speak of “training” our kids- in the Hebrew “Khanak” means to dedicate. The same word is also used in regards to dedicating such things as a house, a temple, and an image. (Deut. 20:5, 1 Kings 8:63, Dan. 3:2) however only in Proverbs 22:6 is the verb Khanak translated “train”. Khanak speaks to setting aside, narrowing, or hedging in. So, we are told in scripture to train or even shape our kids so as they grow up they will know and desire to follow Jesus. There is a big difference between shaping our kids to come to Christ and discipling them to walk it out (following Him). The teaching by Caesar and others that the disciples were pre-converted, therefore we disciple nonbelievers is simply unbiblical. The Word of God does not support it. Don’t be duped. That’s it. StraightUp!