Agglomeration

There are some good articles I come across in my daily feeds which I think need to be shared. There are some articles about the apostasy and heresy taking over the church and these alerts also need to be shared. So buckle up for a roller-coaster ride.

Beware of The Hidden Unchristian Belief of TOP Progressive Christian Influencers.

Why you should not consume bad Christian books/movies.

The False Gospel of the Enemies Within the Church. Sounds like a video I want to see!

The New Evangelical Latitudinarians, Emptying Christianity of All Meaning.

Why are so many kids rejecting Christianity? Look at their parents.

NO church or individual Christians should be listening to the shallow and theologically poor music/songs from Hillsong. Hillsong is an apostate, blasphemous, and often heretical organization with funding help coming from the sales and use of their music. The leadership has moral issues, just as every false church and cult has. Check out the latest from Brian Houston. I have quit a few copies of the PFO Journal with my article exposing Hillsong; if you would like one just ask and I’ll send you a copy.

Time to abandon AWANA!!!

A real kooky false teacher of whom I never heard—Kathryn Krick.

A perfect example of why I always called this magazine, “Christianity Astray.”

Michael Brown continues to endorse rank heretics — this time it’s Kevin Zadai.

Kenneth Copeland — as bad a false teacher as it gets.  Stay away from this voracious wolf!

Benny Hinn is still just as much a tool of Satan as he has always been. The man is not a Christian nor has he ever been.

When the emperor is naked, it isn’t hate speech to tell him he is naked. Just so, it isn’t hate speech to refuse to participate in the “transgender” delusion. This Christian band is obviously not really Christian.

Tim Keller helps promote the LGBT views of Revoice. 

First Baptist Church Orlando, FL, is definitely apostate and no Christians should associate with them. Thank you John MacArthur for rebuking them.

The Association of Related Churches is a hotbed of immorality and scandal.

Charismaniacs bring disgrace to the Church.

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Lots of stuff coming across my computer this week, so I need to get it out before it gets too overwhelming!

The Good:

Follow-up about watching “Game of Thrones.”  I can’t understand the mentality of those who responded to the previous post.

No, reading the Bible is NOT equivalent to watching “Game of Thrones.”

Sin is NOT all the same.

Loving your neighbor.

Did Jesus visit other parts of the world?

Questions for KJV Onlyers — part 1.  Parts 2 and 3 are linked to at the bottom of the article.

Why you shouldn’t wear a crucifix.

Same-sex attraction is sinful.

The Nashville Statement — you’ll need to read this to understand some “ugly” articles below.  A good commentary on how unbelievers are responding.

The Bad:

Another reason to avoid Michael Brown. He seems to have absolutely NO discernment.

A wee bit of humor about heretics Kenneth and Gloria Copeland not stopping Hurricane Harvey.

IHOP Warning — the place is a cult with lots of false teachers.

Awana is going farther down the road to apostasy.  

The Ugly:

Christianity in the U.K. is spiraling into total apostasy.

“Transgender” heresy.  There is no such thing as “transgender” — one is born either male or female and no amount of surgical mutilation or hormones will change that.  Parents pushing that agenda on their children should be charged with child abuse.

An example of all that is wrong with Jen Hatmaker.  She continues to prove she is not a real Christian.  A lot of people are like her in regards to this subject — I saw it on the Internet.

Perry Noble — need I say more?

Good, Bad, and Ugly

The Good:

Very good teaching about Islam — good for future reference — comes from Gary Gilley.  Part 1 is Islam and the Islamic People, while part 2 is The Modern Mindset of the Islamic People.

The importance of the Resurrection.

What did our founding fathers really think about God?

Exegetical Errors of the Day-Age Theory.

Problems with the Gap Theory

Avoid assemblies which don’t practice church discipline.

Teaching the Truth in our Hymns

How much should “associations” factor in whether or not someone is a false teacher?  Elizabeth Prata gives an excellent analysis.

The Bad:

AWANA is drifting more and more away from the Word of God.

“Christian” fads — leave them alone!

Jonathan Merritt, with the Religion News Service, has decided that Christians exposing Jen Hatmaker as a false teacher are wrong!  Denny Burke explodes this myth.

The Ugly:

The Pope continues to prove that he does not represent the Bible, Christ, or God.

Reasons why NO ONE should remain with the Seventh-day Adventist cult.

The Anointing of Ease — about as unbiblical as it gets.

Todd Bentley — I keep hoping he will disappear.  The man is obviously demon-possessed.

Awana Concerns, Part 2

This is an examination of the Awana 6th Grade Bible study book on Acts, Trek: His People.  As with the 3rd grade book, there are a lot of inane requests for the student to draw pictures and such busy work, including photographing things, which have nothing to do with the topic.  There is also a lot of focus on having the student to be serving the church in some way and making him feel guilty if he isn’t.  Due to the fact that our culture keeps children immature and childish until long after college, 6th-graders as a whole are not really equipped to do much service for the church, and it is unfair — and inappropriate — to put such pressures on them.  While a large percentage of the text of this book is just fine, the bad sections are like a drop of cyanide in a glass of water.

Here is my page-by-page analysis of problems with the 6th-grade text.

Page 3.  Discussing how God used numerous people to preach the gospel: He wouldn’t use a single person but rather teams and teams of people.  Fellowships would reach the world with His message.  This life that He created for us would only function best according to His original design when He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

This is a blatant abuse and misuse of Scripture.  This passage in Genesis has ONE meaning and that was to give the man Adam a “helpmeet” - a mate, a companion.  It is about giving man a woman, so that the entire human race would have men with women so as to not be alone, and it was in the context of the union of these two as a beginning of the institution of marriage.  Using this passage the way this “study” does teaches a horrible hermeneutic principle.

Page 3.  They would begin to establish the kingdom of God here on earth…

Luke 17:21 says that “the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (NIV)  

The apostles were not establishing what Christ already said was here.

Page 4.  As with the 3rd grade text, this one also has inane busy work to supposedly teach a lesson about the Church.  Page 4 gives three choices of a “mission” for the student to “complete an act of service” for someone.  The choices are to help someone in your home “like washing dishes and folding all the laundry,” or to help “Someone in your community (like donating clothing or food to a shelter),” or to help “Someone in the world (like sending a care package to a local missionary through your church).”

This is nothing more than the social gospel and has absolutely nothing to do with the study of the book of Acts.  The next page is about asking a leader or parent for other ideas, what you did, what abilities you used and what your “mission outcome” was.  The student was also told to “Think about how your mission would be accomplished differently if combined with the abilities of other people in your group.”  This is a total waste of the student’s time because it has noting to do with Acts.

Page 6.  [Luke] also tells us what Jesus said to His followers before He left: “Don’t go anywhere. This story is only just beginning. Wait till you see what happens next!”  

I’d really like to know where they find this in the Bible.  The book doesn’t say this is a paraphrase, rather the implication is that this is a quote.  Then it says, Specifically, Jesus gave them a mission: “Go and tell My story to the world.”  Again, implying this is a direct quote, especially with the use of the word “specifically.” This is very poor teaching, adding to what the Bible actually says.

Page 7.  Luke became one of those super-powered gospel tellers.  

Um, no.  He did not have super powers.  This is a childish way to explain the facts. 

Page 9.  What has God asked you to do with His power?  Why would we ever try to do what He asks without His power?  

Is the book suggesting that the students are receiving direct revelation from God asking them to do something?  How are they supposed to know what God has asked them to do, besides what the Bible says all Christians are to do?  This sounds very much like they are promoting charismatic beliefs.

Page 37.  A key part of church life is fellowship, especially eating and praying together.  

I don’t find anywhere in Scripture where it says eating together is a key part of fellowship life.  Perhaps the author misunderstood the communion as being “eating” together.  The Bible does point out that the N.T. believers did eat together, but that doesn’t mean it is a “key part.”

Work with one of your parents to help prepare a meal for your family.  You don’t have to do everything but you should participate in cooking, setting the table, and serving the food.  Also, before you begin eating, say a prayer of blessing over the food.  If possible, take a picture of the food and the table before you eat together. 

What has any of this to do with Christian fellowship?  Nothing.  They took the idea that eating together is an important part of fellowship and transferred it to helping with a meal at home.  This is teaching poor biblical hermeneutics.  And what about taking a photo of the food?!?!  Busy work to do what with — post on Facebook?

Page 38.  Remember J.R.R. Tolkiens’s first book in the Lord of the Rings series? It’s called “The Fellowship of the Ring,” and it’s the story of nine very different people on a journey together to accomplish a specific and dangerous mission.

Seriously? How many 6th graders have read the book?  Few, I’m guessing.  Possibly by this age they’ve seen the movie, but my guess is that most have not.  Using a worldly story with which they may not even be familiar is a poor example for an analogy about a “fellowship.”

Page 41.  The early Christians didn’t go to church. They did life together in all kinds of ways.  They thought of themselves as belonging to Christ and to each other.  They rearranged their schedules and their finances and their relationships to be there for each other.

Yes they did “go to church” in the same way we “go to church” — they assembled together in various places just as we do.  Did they “rearrange” their schedules to do so?  We have no evidence of this so this is just something the authors made up. 

Page 49.  A man unable to walk from the day he was born asks Peter for money.  Instead, Peter heals the man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  It’s no wonder all the people were filled with wonder and amazement.  Jesus might have walked past this man numerous times during His years on earth.  What are some possible reasons that He didn’t heal the man until this moment?

Now the author of this book speculates that Jesus walked by a cripple and ignored him.  There is absolutely no biblical warrant for this, let alone speculations as to why Jesus ignored Him!  This is horrendous teaching!

Page 50.  Peter and John got busted by the Jewish religious leaders for healing and teaching in the name of Jesus.

“Busted”?!?!  What sort of dumbing down language is this?!?!  All the leaders did was to bring Peter and John before them and challenge them to no longer teach or speak in Jesus’ name, and threatened them to stop.  No one was “busted.”

Page 53.  A couple weeks ago you helped make dinner for your family.  Now it’s time to make lunch for a friend. Contact a friend and tell him you want to make lunch for him tomorrow.  Ask him what he would like to eat (based on the food you have in your house).  Make the lunch and bring it to him.

You then need to record your experience and take a photo of your friend with the food, just like they had the student do with the family meal!!  What has this to do with learning about the Church?!?!?  What if the student is living in a home where they are doing good just to have food for themselves?!?!  Ostensibly the idea is to learn generosity, but you don’t contrive situations to teach that.  This is just more busy work which reeks of the social gospel.

Page 57.  In what way does your church serve the poor in your community?

The context of this is, of course, regarding how the early church shared resources among one another.  First, we have to remember that this is descriptive rather than prescriptive.  It was because the Christians had to stick together to survive where they were being quickly seen as outcasts.  Nevertheless, the poor in the local community shouldn’t be a focus of the Church unless they have already taken care of the poor IN THE CHURCH (Gal. 6:9-10).  Too often churches are all about helping the poor, but it is the social gospel they are preaching and they ignore the needy within their own or neighboring congregation.

Page 58.  What are you doing right now in your life to use what you have to meet the needs of others in the church?

What a load to put on a 6th-grader!!!  I don’t know how much a 6th-grader can meet the needs of other people in the assembly.  It really has no bearing in regards to Acts 4:36-37.  The forced analogies of this book are terrible!

Page 60.  This brand-new Church would be committed to the Word of God, spend their time eating and praying … 

What is with the authors of this book and eating?!?!  Of course everyone has to eat, but that is not what distinguished the Church — they did not spend their time eating!  

Page 87.  Make a list of ways you could use those skills or hobbies [in the previous section] to contribute to the needs of your church.

Sixth-graders should not be looking for how they can help their local assembly, rather they should be concentrating on how they can help their family.

Page 91.  How are you serving others in your church?  And if you’re not, what are you waiting for?

How about waiting to be older than a sixth-grader so as to have some discernment and understanding of the whole assembled community?  What if the parents attend but are not involved and the student has no transport to the church building?  This puts a load of unnecessary guilt on the student.

Page 92.  Don’t wait for the perfect job for you.  Start serving, and see what God does in your life. … In what ways could you free up your church leaders to be more effective?

As stated previously, this is a real burden to put on a 6th-grader.  Really, how does an 11- or 12-year-old student “free up…church leaders to be more effective”?!?

Page 95.  Find out what events had to have happened to make you part of your family.  Ask your parents/guardians: “What event in your past, if it never happened, would have changed the course of your life so much that I wouldn’t exist?”  Record the story below.

A perfect example of inane busy work.  There is only ONE event which would prevent the child from existing and that would be that his parents never met or married.  It is ridiculous to even ask such a question, and it has nothing to do with studying the book of Acts.

Page 99.  Why do you think people who claim to believe in and follow God so often reject and rebel against the leaders God gives them?

There are bad assumptions here.  Number one, who says the leaders were given by God rather than allowed by God?  Two, what if the leaders have become false teachers or are false teachers to begin with? What if the leaders get caught up in gross sin?  Shouldn’t these be causes for rejection and rebelling against their leadership?

Page 201.  Connecting with others is part of what humanity was created to do.  Remember back in the garden when God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone”?  We were created to live life with others….

This is abusing Scripture.  As noted when the same passage was abused on page 3, that passage has one meaning, and that is that man (Adam) needed a “helper suitable for him”; it was about making woman (Eve) as a companion for man.  Abusing this passage in this manner teaches students a poor way of interpreting Scripture.

Page 254.  If you have a brother or sister, then you probably realize that you’re never going to get rid of them.

What about families which have split and siblings never see each other again?  What about when, as adults, siblings cut off all contact for various reasons?  There may be students in such situations; the person writing this statement used very poor judgment when dealing with 6th-graders.

The Awana program is ostensibly for Christian children and children of Christian parents.  It is true that many unbelievers or those from unbelieving families attend, but that isn’t the focus — nor should it be.

Awana should not just be about Bible verse memorization, rather it should also be about teaching proper ways to interpret Scripture.  When the authors of these books abuse Scripture they teach the students to also make the Scripture say what they want it to say.  Awana should also teach discernment, but when the authors add to the teachings of Scripture their own ideas, then they are teaching the students to do the same.

Lastly, 11- and 12-year-olds are able to learn deeper understandings of the Bible and do not need “dumbed-down” lessons with games and drawings and taking photos (what if the student doesn’t even have a camera?), nor do they need feel-good self-focused exercises.

Awana needs to seriously consider cleaning up these textbooks and teach what the Bible says and how to understand it, and leaving out all the fluff and nonsense.

Awana Concerns

One reader of this blog alerted me to problems with Awana’s teaching booklets.  She ended up scanning the 3rd Grade, T&T Ultimate Adventure comic book, “Mission: Grace in Action.”  

This comic book’s story is inane and a waste of time for the child.  Make-work activities such as using three colors to write a Bible verse does nothing to aid in memorizing it.  Recording yourself saying the verse and listening to yourself is again make-work with little value.  So many of these types of exercises waste time.  Why Awana can’t just have the study part of this book without the ridiculous comic story is beyond me.

I read through this entire book and was dismayed over a lot of what I discovered is being taught to our children!  The text is often poorly written and confusing, but worse is that there is a lot of false teaching.

What follows is my analysis of bad teaching, false teaching, and poorly written items.  If you are in Awana, I suggest you use solid discernment when using their materials.  I’d also recommend you communicate through your channels to bring this to the attention of the Awana hierarchy.

Page 9.  “Our powerful God created the world and everything in it in six days.  God created all things for His own purposes.  God’s purpose for us it to have a relationship with Him.”

What does the Bible say about God’s purpose for creating mankind — was it for a relationship?

The entire Bible says that creating mankind was part of an eternal plan — essentially for His pleasure.  But first and foremost God created mankind for His glory (Isaiah 43:7).  1 Cor. 10:31 says that we are to do everything for the glory of God.  Revelation 4:11 says that because He created us He is “to receive glory, honor and power” from us.  The second purpose for creating mankind was so that mankind could enjoy creation (Ps. 16:11, 84:11, 103:5; Eccl. 2:24-25; Acts 14:17; 1 Tim. 6:17).  There is another purpose for those who are believers and that is the relationship aspect (1 Cor. 1:9).  But to say that “God’s purpose,” meaning the main reason God created us, was for us to have a relationship with Him, is a poor answer to the question.  (On pg. 11 it says, “The reason God created us in His image is so we can have a relationship with Him.”  I agree with this statement, in that if mankind was not made in God’s image, He couldn’t have a relationship with us any more than he can have a relationship with the animal kingdom.)

Pages 15, 16.  “God is holy, which means He is perfect, without sin, and always does what is right.”  

While the statement gives attributes of God, it errs by saying this is what “holy” means.  “Holy” means “set apart,” or “sacred.”  “Holy” can indeed include the attributes listed, but they do not define the word.  (This definition is used throughout the book.)

Page 16. This one gets sort of convoluted, so I’m going to quote everything.

“Do you think God sat up in heaven one day and made lists of things He thought should be good and bad?  Actually, that’s not what happened.  Good things are good because God does them.  God is truthful, so telling the truth is good and lying is wrong.  So if you copied you friend’s spelling test, you’d be making your teacher think you know how to spell the words and that’s a lie.  It’s wrong to lie because God does not lie.  Here’s another example:  God is just, so being fair to people is good and being unfair is wrong.”

Apparently this is supposed to be teaching about sin.  Doing what is wrong vs doing what is right may or may not be sin; after all, I can do the wrong way of building a car but that isn’t sinning!  The example says that if God doesn’t do something then neither should we — but as was pointed out to me by the person asking me to examine the text, since God doesn’t sleep then that means we shouldn’t sleep!  This just confuses the child!  Page 17 gives a better definition of sin: “Sin is anything we think, say, or do that disobeys God.”

Page 19.  “Ask your parent or another caring adult to write about or draw a time when he or she had trouble making the right (or good) choice, and what makes a choice right or wrong.”

If we are trying to teach the children about sin, then this task is ambiguous because a right or wrong choice may not necessarily be sinful, as noted above in my statement about wrong choices to build a car.  This needs to be rewritten to address sin, not right and wrong choices.

Pages 21, 22  "God always gives people what they deserve."  

Well, sorta kinda, in that we all deserve hell but in his mercy he gives grace to those who are saved.  I.e., he gives us what we don't deserve, or he doesn't give us what we deserve - whichever way you want to look at it.  What about David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband? David deserved the death penalty but God spared him.  This statement in the book needs clarification.

Page 22.  Reference Matt. 19:16-17.  “Commandments are what God tells us to DO or NOT TO DO in the Bible.  If the man obeyed all of God’s commandments, he would deserve the reward of eternal life, which is life forever with God in heaven.”

This makes it appear that it is possible for a man to obey all the commandments, while the Bible says in no uncertain terms that we all have a sin nature making us unable to obey all the commands.  The point of Jesus telling him what he needed to do was to demonstrate that the man in reality never kept all of the commandments, and the text should explain this.  The text here is dumbing down for simplification, but that just skews things.

Page 23.  “Because God is just, He has to give us the punishment of death we deserve for our sin.” 

This is a bit skewed.  God doesn’t have to give us the punishment — if He had to give us the punishment then there would be no need for Christ.  What it should say is that “He has to give the punishment of death for sin,” and then explain that said punishment is taken by Christ on our behalf.

Page 29.  “Jesus Christ never sinned, but He died for our sin and came alive again so that we can be alive together with Him and have what’s best for us.”

So the reason Christ died was so that we can “have what’s best for us”?!?  Where is this in the Bible?  What if it is best for me to have a nice house and a good car — did Christ die for this?  This needs to be re-written so as to give the real reason for His death— for us to have our sins forgiven and have eternal life.

Page 33.  “God is eternal, which means He has no beginning or end.  God has always been alive, and He will always be alive.”  God has always been “alive"?  That's really a bad choice of words!  "Existed" is the ONLY way to explain it.  If they don't think kids can understand "existed" they could say "He's always been there.”  This “alive” vs “existed” shows up again on p.35, p.40, et al.

Page 34.  “God created you and decided when your life would begin.”

Only two people were created by God: Adam and Eve.  Everyone else is the result of procreation, a process God created.  God KNOWS when our lives will begin, but nowhere in Scripture does it even intimate that God decides who is going to be born when (except for Jesus). 

Page 39.  “God…is always fair.  He must always give people what they deserve.”

This is much the same as the statement on page 23.  If God must give people what they deserve, then He would have had to kill King David, and he couldn’t have Christ pay for our sin!

What should be said is that God is always just, and justice demands that sin be punished.

Page 39.  Again, at the bottom of the page, it says Christ took our punishment so we can “have what’s best for us.”  That is NOT why Christ died!

Page 51.  “…we know that His Word, the Bible, was written down exactly the way He wanted it — true and without error.”

This should be corrected to say “when originally written.”  Otherwise when errors are shown to the student, they could be left confused and doubting.  It should be explained about mistakes in transmission and translation, albeit in simple terms, and noting that we do know that there is no important error in our current translations.

Page 57.  “The Bible also tells us how to have a relationship with Him [God] through believing in Jesus Christ.”

Really?  And where can I find this in Scripture? I can’t, because this is not a true statement.  The Bible tells us how to have salvation through believing in Christ — not how to have a relationship.

Page 58.  “God wrote a letter to you.”  The Bible is NOT God’s “letter to you.”  A letter is a personal correspondence.  God didn’t even write the Bible; He used men to write it.  The Bible is God’s word; it is a book of history (which includes all we need to know about God and salvation through Jesus) and not a personal letter.  Calling it a letter from God is all about feeling “warm fuzzies.”  This is a 100% wrong way to teach children about the Bible.

Page 59.  “God told John, one of Jesus’ apostles, to write the book of John so that we may believe.”  Nowhere are we told that God told John to write his gospel.  All we can be certain of is that when John decided to record the events, the Holy Spirit carried him along (2 Peter 1:21).

“God wrote the Bible…”  Again, God did NOT write the Bible.

Page 64.  “Timothy was probably a teenager when he started teaching God’s Word to others.”  There is absolutely no foundation for such a claim.  Teaching our youth assumptions of the author is very wrong-headed.  Nothing in Scripture substantiates this claim.  We have no idea as to Timothy’s age at any time.

Page 65.  “We cannot change God’s Word to say what we want it to say. We can’t add words to God’s words or take away His words”  Good teaching, but ironic considering that is what this book is doing.

Page 77.  In context of instructions God gives us in Scripture to help us in making good choices to obey God and not sin, it says this:  “You will be happier, because God knows what is best for you and your life!” 

So is being “happier” the reason we obey God?

Page 81.  Again with “The Bible was written by God.”  No it wasn’t!

Page 87.  “We should never try to change any of [what the Bible says] to say what we want it to say.”  Oh, the irony again.

Page 100.  “Jesus is called God’s Son because He has the job of representing God on earth and being in charge of earth for God, just like a son would do for a father.”  A problem with this statement is that Jesus is eternally the Son of God, and even before creation.  It is His role to be the Son whether or not creation took place.  So the reason given for Jesus being called the Son of God is wrong.

Page 104, in the comic itself (another reason this comic is useless).  “It makes me sad that Jesus, the king of the universe, came to earth to save us from our gross sin.” “Yeah, I know. It makes me sad too.”  WHAT?!?!?  So we are teaching our children to be sad that Jesus came to save us?!?!?!  This is a horrid teaching!

Page 105.  “But [Jesus] chose to limit his God powers and knowledge to become an man…”  There is a problem with the word “limit” being alone here.  This can get into some pretty deep theological discussion, but I think it would be more appropriate to say something like he “limited the use” of His powers.  This statement shows up again on page 107.

Page 108.  Under definitions, the word “Begotten” is defined as “one and only Son of God.”  This can be confusing for the child, since the word “Begotten” and “beget” is used throughout Scripture of human offspring.  This needs to be defined as what it is, but then explained how with Jesus it isn’t from the union of two people.  It would be nice if the authors used a newer Bible translation.

Page 153.  “The Old Testament says that anybody who keeps all of God’s laws will be saved.”  And where does it say this?  NOWHERE!!!  Throughout Scripture salvation is always by faith, and not by the keeping of the law (Rom. 3:20, Gal. 5:4).

Page 160.  “God gave the Israelites in the Old Testament the law and told them that if they obeyed it perfectly, they would be righteous.”  There is no where in the Bible that it says this, so would this be considered telling the children a lie?  This is again stated on page 183.

Page 172.  “[Jesus] didn’t explain how He saved people until He told Paul.”  If this was true, then how did the thousands become Christians prior to Paul?  Jesus continually stated that those who believed in him would be saved eternally (e.g., John 3, John 6, John 11:25; the last supper where he gives the analogy of his body and blood to the bread and wine, etc.).

“Jesus told Paul through the Holy Spirit that when He died on the cross He took everybody’s sins upon Himself.”  The Scripture says that Paul had a personal visit by Jesus in a vision (Acts 9:4-6, 26:15-18), and that he was personally taught by Jesus via revelation (Acts 26:16, Gal. 1:11-12), not that the Holy Spirit taught him.

“God gave Christ our sins, and He gives us Christ’s goodness and sinlessness.”  Wrong.  Christ took the punishment for our sins, and God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us.

Page 185.  “God … chose Paul to tell us about His grace.”  Not quite right. Jesus told us about His grace, as did all the apostles.  Paul was one of the apostles to tell us about His grace.

Page 205.  “When [Timothy] was a teenager, he met Paul…”  The Bible does not say how old Timothy was at this time — he may have been in his 20s and still be called “young.”

Page 208.  “The Bible is God’s instruction book for us.”  While the Bible certainly includes instructions for living and for salvation, etc, it is NOT an “instruction book.”  If it was to carry just one description, it would be a “history book.”  But it is more than that, so to call it an “instruction book” really reduces the purpose of God’s Word.

If the 3rd grade text has this many errors and problems, what are the rest like?  What is Awana becoming?!?!?