Debunking the Circle Maker - Part 1

The Source of True Christian Doctrine

Have you read The Circle Maker? And having read it, do you feel like, well, your prayer life is just going in circles? Well, there's a reason for that, and that has to do with the fact that, well, the origin of the teaching for The Circle Maker isn't God's Word.

Not at all. And so, in fact, it has its origin somewhere completely different, which means that it's disqualified for teaching us sound doctrine, Christian doctrine, Christian teaching. The Circle Maker, unless it's teaching God's Word, which, well, you're going to find out that it isn't, isn't qualified.

It should be, well, shunned, kept out. I mean, there might be some nice hallmark moments that you can achieve or experience while listening to or reading that particular book. I listened on audiobooks.

But anyway, what we're going to do right now is I'm going to walk you through some of the things that Mark Batterson says in chapter number two. Over the next few weeks, we're going to have several segments that we're going to do debunking and biblically demonstrating that the core concepts within Mark Batterson's book, The Circle Maker, first of all, don't have their origin in Scripture.

As a result of not having their origin in Scripture, they are disqualified to teach us anything. In fact, what did I just read in 2 John, those who go beyond what is written, those who go beyond Scripture, they have neither God nor Christ.

That's not my opinion. That's the opinion of God, the Holy Spirit, who caused John the Apostle to write those words. So, we're going to take a look at The Circle Maker to basically see if it goes beyond Scripture, if it tries to smuggle into the Christian church dogmas and doctrines that are alien to Scripture.

This would be the equivalent of bringing weeds into the Christian church and saying, oh, look at this brilliant rose of Christian doctrine that we have here, when it isn't Christian doctrine. So, if you don't have a copy of the book, no worries, you don't need to get it.

I will actually be playing snippets from the unabridged audio version of the book to demonstrate to you and critique that this book, it ain't teaching biblical prayer, it's teaching something completely different.

The Legend of Honey the Circle Maker Is Not Scripture

Now, in chapter 1, he gives the story of Honey, the Circle Maker, which is a story he learned from a book called the Book of Legends. It's not biblical. Now, the reason why it has an air to it or a feeling that it might be somewhat biblical is because the story of Honey takes place between the Old and the New Testament, and he's a believer in the God of the Jews prior to Christ.

So, I mean, he believes in the same God, so isn't his life story on par with Scripture? No, it's not, because it's not found in Scripture. So, the idea is he tells the story of Honey, the Circle Maker, who drew a circle in the sand, got in it, and said, I'm not going to leave the circle God until you cause it to rain, because they were in the middle of a drought.

And of course, there was a little bit of interplay, back and forth, apparently between him and God, and then finally it rained properly, and he was credited with his prayer caused a miracle. And it's recorded for us in Jewish tradition, as well as a book called the, well, Mark Batterson read it from something called the Book of Legends.

But listen carefully to the opening section of chapter 2 of this book. After he gives us the story of Honey, the Circle Maker, he begins to draw doctrinal imperatives and.

Teaching from the story of Honey. Listen in. The earth has circled the sun more than 2 ,000 times since the day Honey drew his circle in the sand. But God is still looking for circle makers. And the timeless truth secreted within this ancient legend is as true now as it was then.

Okay, let.

Me pack this up. Listen to what he says. He's told the story of Honey, the Circle Maker. Listen.

Again. And the timeless truth secreted within this ancient legend is as true now as it was then.

Uh-huh. The timeless truth secreted within the story of this legend. Uh-huh. So, here's the thing, okay? At its core, the Zondervan book, the Circle Maker, written by, well, secret-driven rock star Mark Batterson, he's basically trying to create the impression that there's timeless truth, biblical principles, if you would, that we can draw from the story of Honey, the Circle Maker, that we as Christians need to apply to our life.

So, what's the source? It's outside of the Bible.

Bold Prayers and the Claim That God Is Offended by Less

Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers.

So, apparently, okay. So, here's the principle. Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold.

Prayers, he continues. God isn't offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is.

Offended by anything less. So, God is not offended by bold prayers. He's offended by anything less, okay? Think about that for a second. Where in Scripture does it say that God is offended by non-bold prayers?

Nowhere says that in Scripture. But he says that this is a clear inference, a timeless truth that we can get from the legend of the Circle Maker. But the legend of the Circle Maker is not biblical. We're not to go to the legend of the Circle Maker to teach us to pray or to give us a biblical doctrine or anything of the sort.

You see what's going on here? So, I mean, now here's the deal. I mean, so, anybody who believes this doctrine that doesn't have its origin in the Bible, but somewhere else, anyone who believes this doctrine comes to believe that God is offended by, well, small prayers, okay?

So, if God's offended by small prayers, well, that means you're sinning. And there's all kinds of biblical stories in the Old Testament of people who offended God through their disobedience and other things, and they paid serious prices, sometimes the ultimate price.

So, oh no, God's angry at me if I don't pray boldly. Wait a second. Did Jesus teach this? When the disciples came to Jesus and said, Lord, teach us to pray, what did Jesus say? You'll notice that Jesus said, when you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. So, Jesus instructs us to pray for daily bread, not just the bold and the big and the audacious, like His kingdom come, His will be done, but also the minute, minutiae, all the way down to daily bread.

And Jesus gives no hint or indication or doesn't say anything that says that when you're praying for daily bread, something as, well, insignificant as that, that God is offended by you asking for that.

Not at all. In fact, because Jesus taught us to pray the Lord's prayer, we can know that this is how God wants us to pray and that when we pray this way, God hears us. As far as, you know, trying to figure out how to pray from a legend outside of Scripture, yeah, I've got absolutely, in fact, what he's saying contradicts Scripture, so it's not, this isn't the Christian way of praying at all.

And it doesn't have its origin in the Bible.

Listen again. God isn't offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers aren't impossible to you, they are insulting to.

God. So, if your prayers aren't impossible to you, they're insulting to God. Well, praying for daily bread, is that possible or impossible? So, apparently, you know, the Lord taught us to pray a prayer, Jesus himself, that insults God.

Again, listen to this. If your prayers aren't.

Impossible to you, they are insulting to God. Why? Because they don't require divine intervention.

But ask God…. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's the thing. Praying for daily bread does require divine intervention. We are to understand that all good things come from God, small or great.

So, now, no, listen again to this. Why? Because they don't require divine intervention.

Nowhere in the Bible will you find a passage that says, if you don't pray in a bold, audacious way, that's impossible for you, that it dishonors God. And the reason why you got to pray this way is because if you prayed for the possible, it wouldn't give honor and glory to God.

There's no Bible passage that says this at all. This is a weed. This is a foreign plant inside of the Christian church. Where did he find this out? Where? I mean, you'll notice the other thing. He's making an extrapolation.

He begins in the legend of the circle maker, makes an inference from that, claims that it's a timeless principle, and then makes an assumption based upon that. We are completely outside of Scripture at this point.

We're not in the Bible. We're somewhere else. We're in human speculation drawn from or inferred from an extra biblical text.

You see the problem? Why? Because they don't require divine intervention. But ask God to part the Red Sea or make the sun stand still or float in iron axe head and God is moved to omnipotent.

Action. Again, there is no passage that says that. If you pray for the impossible, then God is moved to omnipotent action. Not a single verse. There is nothing God loves more than keeping.

Promises, answering prayers, performing miracles, and fulfilling dreams. And fulfilling dreams. Uh-huh. Okay. That is who he is. That is what he does. And the bigger the circle we draw, the better because God gets more glory.

Okay. Now, this sounds great. I mean,.

This is all about giving God more glory. But wait a second. It's not built on a biblical text. It's not built on a biblical doctrine. How can you glorify God with false doctrine? Second, John says that those who teach false doctrine and go beyond what is written, that their deeds are wicked.

Folks, we got to see this for what this is. Mark Batterson here is committing a wicked deed. He is teaching his own ideas and notions as if they are the very doctrines of God. And they're not. He's gone beyond what is written in scripture.

And making all of these declarations based upon his reading of a legend.

Human Impotence, Divine Omnipotence, and the Problem of Speculation

The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect. And they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible.

Situations in our lives and invite God to intervene. Now, by the way, we ought to be praying regarding the impossible situations in our lives. Must be. Pray that God would see us through them. But that's not what he's saying here, is it?

I promise you this.

God is ready and waiting. So while I have no idea what's... Operators are standing by. God is ready.

And waiting. He wants to help you, but you got to draw a big circle. God is ready and waiting.

So while I have no idea what circumstances you find yourself in, I'm confident that you are only one prayer away from a dream fulfilled, a promise kept, or a miracle performed. Boy,.

Talk about narcissism. Talk about... You're just one prayer away from a dream fulfilled. Wow. Wow. And all of this based on a weed. This is not based on scripture. It's based upon an alien plant that has no business being brought into the Christian church and treated as if it really is a true cultured, cultivated biblical doctrine.

It ain't. So now, we're going to stop there. I'm going to continue this in another segment of fighting for the faith on another day. But listen, folks, here's the deal. If you begin outside of God's word and try to draw inferences about God from those extra biblical sources, you've already jumped the track.

And then when you add your human speculations and what you think are logical, correct conclusions from the things that you're learning from that extra biblical source, we are far, far, far gone from any biblical teaching.

And that's the thing. The entire premise of The Circlemaker is faulty. The entire premise is false because it relies upon timeless truths that are taught from an extra biblical legend. The legend of The Circlemaker has nothing to teach us regarding how Christians are to pray.

I don't care if it invokes or mentions the God of the Bible, it's outside of scripture in his name.