Why is Bad Theology so dangerous?

Bad theology is bad for one spiritual, mentally, and physically. I personally believe biblical literacy is at all low within modern American culture. Between the health and wellness preachers and all the strange liberation theology that is around we have really turned a mockery into God's word. One may ask the implications of bad theology besides obviously damaging your relationship with God. The answer to bad Theology is not no theology but good Theology for we must study God's word as it is a lamp unto our feet and is where we meet God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (we meet them outside the word too but that is another topic). Their are layers of Gods Word- their is a divine level, allegorical, and when you go back about 200 years it was considered one needed a whole lifetime to live with scripture and let it permeate one's soul. To me they were right 200 years ago.

Anyways some of the most heart wrenching and atrocious events in history have been the result of bad understanding of God's word and the honest truth sometimes bad theology even kills people. From the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church, the burning of witches in England and America, to Adolf Hitler (admittedly not a Christian at all, just used a limited understanding to control and dictate people)who said just as Jesus cleanses the temple of the brute of vipers I am cleansing the world of Jews and doing Gods work in doing so, to the Spanish Inquisition, the crusades. Their is a lot of Bad theology admittedly some are not as violent as these extreme examples but a spiritually destructive.

Some of the modern garbage that is out their is America is the light of the world or as Bush thinks that America's ideals are the light of the world. Um their is a bible verse similar but quite different to that for sure, it goes or as Obama says that America is the last best hope of the planet. No that ain't true we know that we all the light of the world and the hope of the planet and it isn't America, but Jesus Christ the saviour of the world. I love my country but this is wrong. We like to think we are good and doing good but remember the bible us Nobody is good but God! God should be before all else.

So here is some advice about how to avoid such bad understanding of God's word: When reading God's word try and read at different levels. When reading at different levels it helps one to understand and dig deeper into his word. My way doing it is reading is as follows: I start with the face value or literal reading of the passage I am studying, next I look at the historical and social/political context of the passage, and then the deep reading where I try to discern God's will for my life. Another important thing to do is to find yourself a good teacher that is father along on the walk with Christ so that you may learn from them. However also you must remember to spend time on your own with prayer and his word.  If you want answers to anything your greatest tool is prayer to God-tell him what your confused about and ask him to reveal his truth to you and surely he will answer, don't go running for the opinions of people.

Now to leave with some scriptural basis:
Amplified bible 2 Timothy 2: 13-17

¹³ If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself. ¹⁴ Remind [the people] of these facts and [solemnly] charge them in the presence of the Lord to avoid petty controversy over words, which does no good but upsets and undermines the faith of the hearers. ¹⁵ Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.¹⁶ But avoid all empty (vain, useless, idle) talk, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness.¹⁷ And their teaching [will devour; it] will eat its way like cancer or spread like gangrene.

So one last word of advice: avoid and beware of loud mouth teachers who have something to prove and are trying to sell you DVD's on crazy teachings as we have more that enough proof in the Bible, which is the light to our feet. God Bless