People don't set out to build their faith upon myths and spiritual urban legends. But somehow such falsehoods keep showing up in the way that many Christians think about life and God. These goofy ideas and beliefs are assumed by millions to be rock-solid truth . . . until life proves they're not. The sad result is often a spiritual disasterconfusion, feelings of betrayal, a distrust of Scripture, loss of faith, anger toward both the church and God. But it doesn't have to be so. In this delightfully personal and practical book, respected Bible teacher Larry Osborne confronts ten widely held beliefs that are both dumbanddangerous. Beliefs like these: Faith can fix anything God brings good luck Forgiving means forgetting Everything happens for a reason A godly home guarantees good kids ...and more. Get ready to be shocked, relieved, and inspired in the pages ofTen Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe. Because the truth is meant to set us free . . . not hurt us.

Larry Osborne is a teaching pastor at North Coast Church in Vista, California, a fellowship of more than seven thousand people that features multiple campuses and offers more than twenty worship services each weekend. Recognized as one of America’s most innovative pastors, Larry’s previous book with Multnomah is titled Spirituality for the Rest of Us: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Knowing God. He holds two advanced degrees from Talbot Theological Seminary and lives with his wife, Nancy, in Oceanside.

It is no news flash that smart people candosome pretty dumb things. But lots of times we forget that smart people can alsobelievesome pretty dumb things.


What possessed amilitary genius likeNapoleon to think that the harsh Russian winter would be no match for his troops? Sure, they were well trained and well equipped, but it’s not as if he had a shred of historical evidence to support his decision to march on.


What caused the leading scientists and thinkers of Galileo’s day to ignore evidence they could see with their own eyes and brand him as a heretic and a quack?


And why would an otherwise brilliant leadership team at IBM bet the farm on main frames and practically give away the PC, as well as the underlying operating system, to a young programmer named Bill Gates?


All of these, andmany other equally baffling decisions, were made by people far smarter than you or me. Yet, in hindsight, they all look like idiots.


What happened?



In each case, an otherwise intelligent person badly misinterpreted the facts, made an incorrect assumption, or relied upon information that we now know to be completely false—with disastrous consequences. Sometimes they were confused by cultural bias (which at times can be so strong that it literally blinds us to the truth). In other cases, their underlying assumptions were so widely believed and accepted that no one thought to question them. Sometimes they were done in by a bad case of wishful thinking. But whatever the cause, they weren’t alone. History is filled with examples of otherwise intelligent people who acted upon amazingly goofy assumptions—and paid a high price for doing so.


The High Price of Flawed Assumptions

We, as Christians, aren’t immune. Even a highly moral, deeply sincere, smart Christian, with the best theological pedigree, has no guarantee of protection from the consequences of a bad decision based on flawed assumptions. I like to put it this way: the wisdom of Solomon + inaccurate facts or faulty assumptions= a fool’s decision


And therein lies the reason for this book.


Over the years, I’ve counseled and worked with many people who have made life-altering decisions based on what they perceived to be biblical principles, only to discover too late that what they thought was biblical didn’t come from the Bible at all.


Most of the time, they were victims of a spiritual urban legend.


Aspiritual urban legendis just like a secular urban legend. It’s a belief, story, assumption, or truism that gets passed around as fact. In most cases the source is a friend, a Sunday-school class, a Bible study, a devotional, a book, or even a sermon. Because they sound so plausible and come from a reputable source, spiritual urban legends are often accepted without question and then quickly passed on. Once widely disseminated, they tend to take on a life of their own. They become almost impossible to refute because “everyone” knows they’re true. Anyone who dares to question their veracity gets written off as spiritually dull, lacking in faith, or liberal.


Admittedly, the consequences of some spiritual misconceptions aren’t particularly devastating. For instance, if someone mistakenly believes that the Bible says that “God helps those who help themselves” or “a penny saved is a penny earned” or that Jesus was some sort of soft-skinned Western European guy with blue eyes who walked from town to town in an old bathrobe saying profound things in a wispy voice—kind of a mystical hippy on Dramamine— it will throw them off a degree or two, but it will hardly destroy their faith.


But far too often the consequences are spiritually devastating.


Think of the disillusionment that sets in when someone writes

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Excerpted from Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe by Larry Osborne
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