Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?"
John 21:21-23
This passage affords us a wonderful example of a “biblical rumor,” that some embraced, and that was thoroughly debunked. Let him who has ears, hear!
Jesus never said that the Apostle John would not die. He simply didn’t say it. Yet people read into Jesus’ words and it apparently became accepted as though it were true. Thankfully, John debunked this “biblical rumor” in (v.23). One might think this text would cause believers to be careful that what they believe as biblical, actually is biblical, and not a “biblical rumor.”
What is a “biblical rumor”? Generally it is something that is derived from what a person(s) has “read into” what the Bible does say, even though the Bible never said what people have read into it. Want an example? “John will never die.”
Sometimes a “biblical rumor” is something the Bible never even hinted at, but has become accepted as “gospel truth.” How does this happen? A teaching or practice (no matter how unbiblical) often becomes an accepted “biblical rumor” because it has been repeated so often and for so long. Before long people begin to insist: “It’s in the Bible!” Want an example? “God helps those who help themselves.” Or how about “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
The list of things that are not in the Bible that people insist are, is incredibly long. Examples include: >altar calls, >naming people as the anti-Christ, >the number 666 being tattooed on people in the “end times,” >there is a rapture of the church before a seven-year great tribulation, >that there is a seven-year great tribulation, >that the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues, >that sinful human beings are free moral agents, etc, etc, etc…*
By the way, how many of the aforementioned are you surprised to read are not what the Bible explicitly teaches?
A dear friend of mine once said of the Bible: “It’s right there in black and white. Read the black part!” Brilliantly stated. Read the Bible. We believe “biblical rumors” because too many of us do not know what the Bible actually says! We must read what the Bible says, not what someone says it says, or what we might like it to say.
* Did you happen to notice how many “biblical rumors” are about “end times” events? Beware!