The first time I heard the statement “garbage in, garbage out,” I was in middle school and my health class teacher was talking to us about junk food in our diets. His point was if you fill something with garbage, then you can only expect garbage to come out.
While I haven’t always applied this concept to my diet (although I have been much more successful lately), I have tried very hard to apply it to my walk of faith. Unfortunately, there are too many people who claim to be believers in the Bible who have never tried to apply this concept to their faith walks.
There are people who have never taken the time to actually read and study the Bible for themselves, people who simply accept whatever opinions are regurgitated into their minds and hearts like a baby bird eating from a mother bird. We are seeing the result of the mass consumption of garbage around us today, especially within those who proclaim faith in Yeshua.
“Garbage in, garbage out” has resulted in false doctrines entering the minds and hearts of people, and because they consumed a diet of garbage (false doctrines) instead of truth, what comes out of the people is also garbage (false doctrine).
We see the result of garbage in, garbage out when people who say they believe in the Bible try to use scriptures out of context to support abortion. We see the result of garbage in, garbage out when people who say they believe in the Bible cherry-pick biblical text to promote racism.
We see the result of garbage in, garbage out when people who say they believe in the Bible unhitch themselves from the Old Testament to promote ungodly sexual relations and unbiblical marriage. We see the result of garbage in, garbage out when we hear people teaching Replacement Theology and Dual Covenant theology.
It is interesting to note that many times it is the same people who are promoting each of the above false doctrines and beliefs. This garbage in, garbage out concept is not new and has been around ever since humanity walked the earth. However, just because it has a long history of existence, it doesn’t mean we should ignore it and hope it goes away.
It was because of garbage in, garbage out we saw riots and protests in support of Black Lives Matter, an organization that, according to their webpage, is anti-family, anti-fathers, and antisemitic.
Right now, we are seeing the results of garbage in, garbage out when pastors teach that the church replaced Israel in all of the promised covenants of G-D — the result of which is the lie that Israel doesn’t have a right to live in peace within their historical and biblical covenant homeland.
It is because of garbage in, garbage out that we see people who say they believe in the Bible protesting Israel and supporting Hamas terrorists in the streets around the world and on school campuses in the United States.
It is past time for rabbis and pastors to stand boldly in front of their people and teach them to change their diet. As good shepherds, they must bring their flocks to good pastures of biblical accuracy.
Yes, it is easier to serve junk food, prepackaged by internet celebrities, just as it is easier to serve literal prepackaged junk food. But it is our responsibility to make sure that our flocks are fed the good food of Scripture in context from both food groups: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
If we don’t, this destructive pattern of garbage in, garbage out will continue to divide G-D’s people and we will see more people dying of starvation while sitting at our tables.
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Eric Tokajer is the author of Overcoming Fearlessness, What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?, With Me in Paradise, Transient Singularity, OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry, #ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer, Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians and Galatians in Context. Visit his website at rabbierict.com.
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