Fact-Check

During a church visit the pastor used the illustration of the Denver football stadium holding 75,000 people and compared it to believers being on the field with 12 legions of angels (72,000) as spectators watching us (Heb 12:1). Unfortunately, the pastor mixed up his stories. In the wilderness Jesus could have called 12 legions of angels, but the Hebrew passage refers to a great crowd of witnesses, those pillars of faith who have gone on before us. I can correct the pastor’s narrative in my article; however, I’m reminded of the importance of fact-checking even those in our fellowship who are schooled and in authority. Luke reported, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11 NIV).