Where There's No Vision, the People Perish?

Misusing Proverbs 29:18 to Promote Personal Vision

Proverbs 29 .18 says where there is no vision the people perish. This is why you need ambition for the future or you'll perish. This is why churches need to set goals or they'll perish. This is why those churches need to follow their pastor's vision or they will perish.

The Bible says so. Actually no it doesn't. That whole verse goes like this. Where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the law happy is he. Yeah, this verse isn't saying anything about having a goal or a dream or following the man with a plan.

Reading Proverbs 29:18 in Context

It's straight up saying that you need to know what's in the Bible and follow it faithfully. Wait what? Joyce Meyer, T .D. Jakes, Rick Warren, they all use this verse wrong? Yeah, they use a lot of verses wrong.

We can't stay on the bestseller list without telling you how you can have your best life now. A better verse to use would have been Proverbs 11 .14 which says where there is no guidance a people falls but in abundance of counselors there is safety.

Sound Doctrine Versus Twisting Scripture

But that one's not as popular because it can't be twisted to talk about ambiguous visions. And in seeking the counsel of others someone eventually is going to tell you to ignore any yahoo twisting the Bible to promote their vision.

First Timothy 1 .6 and 7 says that such teachers have wandered away from sound doctrine into vain discussion without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make their confident assertions.

Second Peter 3 .16 says that they're ignorant and unstable twisting the scriptures to their own destruction. Yeah, get it? The verse they use to cast vision would be the very passage that condemns their false teaching.

The True Word of God

We must be focused on the true Word of God when we understand the text.