New preachers have arisen in the Bible-believing world, which is an encouraging sign, for until our Lord returns, the task is never over for preaching the Word of God. Many, praise God, take the apostle Paul’s teaching to Timothy as inviolable and foundational to everything said in the pulpit or on stage:

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. (2 Tim. 4:1–2, emphasis added)

But we must all be on guard, not just the preachers, for in the end, we are responsible for holding ourselves accountable for the preaching we accept. As the apostle warns:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires … (2 Tim. 4:3)

Paul accepted his own accountability for preaching the Word (in his case, the OT Scriptures) as he traveled around the Mediterranean basin. For example, the Bereans, of Jewish background, subjected Paul’s teaching to biblical verification:

Now these [Bereans]were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

Why is this all so important? Paul doesn’t pull any punches, and we must take this seriously. He tersely warns the Ephesian elders:

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28–30)

How much more should this be true for us who have the NT Scriptures in addition to the OT? Paul’s charge later to Timothy (who was in Ephesus at the time of the letter) challenges all of us as well:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness … (2 Tim. 2:15–16)

We must not be distracted by the worldly chatter over politics and culture, as important as those things may be—in the end, winning political arguments or getting “our” candidate elected will not lead to godliness. We need to be all about the Word of God. After each message or sermon we hear, we are each responsible for going back to Scripture for ourselves. This is especially true for topical preaching, where the speaker pulls in selected passages from around the Scripture. We must make sure the preacher’s summaries of what Scripture says, based on various scattered verses, are not overlaying meaning into the verses that are taken out of their textual context or used in a way that is not faithful to the apostolic meaning in the broader passages from which the verses were taken. In other words, we need to check out what we are being taught and see for ourselves, like the Bereans.

A specific concern I have today about popular Christianity is when the framework of doctrine is left very broad, and the preacher presents a socially acceptable “Jesus” that is more palatable to the modern mind. That “Jesus” never talks about difficult things or brings up teaching offensive to the “woke” or “elite” or “enlightened” mind. It was the arrogant elite who controlled the first-century version of political correctness. They had a narrow but iron grip on Scripture that revealed God’s wonderful truth and turned it into a staid legalism. They were the influencers of the cancel culture of that day.

Today, the myth of Jesus does not tolerate doctrinal rigor because, after all, they say, such debates scare non-Christians away. The essential mantra is this: Evangelism trumps truth. However, this approach has been tried already, and we can see the disastrous results. The liberalism of the first half of the last century proved that when the church goes soft on doctrine, treats biblical truth as negotiable, and accuses those of taking the Bible literally and historically as being Pharisaic, church attendance dwindles. They have a mythical Jesus who has no power to change lives and does not attract converts. They have fallen prey to reducing Christianity to a spiritual fable, taking its place among the world religions.

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines a myth as “a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief.” Many liberal, mainline churches today refute the deity of Christ and much of the historicity of the NT documents and their content. Yet, they hold to a “Jesus myth” as a good, even an inspirational teacher figure, which is helpful for experiencing a very individualistic spiritual life—but wholly divorced from the Jesus of history or the Christ of the Bible.

But, Jesus Christ is way more than a self-help guru; He was and continues to be God in the flesh. He is alive today and will return in bodily form for believers. God will judge those who have rejected Him, whether through blatant atheism or the reductionism that effectively puts Jesus in a mythological category. The Word of God remains the same: inspired by God, authoritative, and inerrant. I praise God for the many who are faithful in preaching it.

My word to younger preachers: “Preach the Word,” not just your ideas about the Word or about the Christianized life. My word to the rest: Test the preaching you listen to. Don’t just go for the things that tickle your ears, make you feel good, or give you nothing more than tips for living life. Let the preaching of the Word be a catalyst to drive you to Scripture to see, “Thus saith the Lord.” Don’t settle for a myth!