What do you need to know about today's most popular false teachers?
Why should you personally be concerned about false teaching if you are already a devoted, Bible-believing Christian? I want to share with you what the Bible says to you about how you should view the proliferation of almost-right-but-not-quite-accurate teaching out there. Like expert counterfeit, today’s false teaching can appear to be the real thing, with deadly consequences.
Before beginning, however, I want to say that any time we talk to someone who is a fan of a false teacher or is listening receptively to incorrect theology, we must be equipped with two things: Truth and love. This article is packed with the Truth of God’s Word about how He feels about watering down the Bible or making it more pleasant in order to appeal to the unsaved or to draw more people to your church. Paul strongly states, “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.” (2 Cor 4:2.) But we are also urged to be loving when we speak the Truth (Ephesians 4:15.) We have been told to “ to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:2). Some Christians seem to pounce gleefully on error and take joy in clucking over those preachers and teachers who have swerved from the Bible as it was written (1 Cor 6:21.) But I Cor 13:6-7 says that love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing,” but “rejoices with the truth” and “hopes for all things.” Seeing misguided people alter what the Bible says in any way should break our hearts. It surely breaks our Father’s.
This departure from God’s Word was predicted in I Tim 4:1: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” We are told in 2 Timothy 3 that we should expect to see people who are “lovers of self,” “swollen with conceit,” and who have the “the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” We see this arrogance in the powerful personalities today who are influencing many to free themselves from the demand to believe in the Bible—all of it. II Timothy 3 goes on to warn us that these people may have advanced degrees and be very learned, but they are “ always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.”
If you have been taught to embrace the full counsel of God and nothing else, you are blessed. It is a gift that God has opened your eyes to the Truth and nothing you can boast of from your own doing. As I lay out for you what the concerns are in the Scripture, please know I am not using my own words and that any wisdom is not mine but His.
I Cor 3 says, “18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness.’”
So how do you identify these false teachers? Often, their ministry will be marked with sensuality. These teachers may be “bold and willful” (2 Peter 2:10) and draw people through their personalities and charisma as much as through the Bible. 2 Peter 2 says: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”
Today’s winsome false teachers are sensual in their music, their dramatic movement on stage, their focus only on Scriptures that are pleasing, and their protecting listeners from hearing anything that may feel unpleasant or uncomfortable. No wonder many younger Christians leave their gatherings feeling exhilarated and much better than when leaving a church where a word of conviction may have been spoken. No wonder their books are a such a pleasure to read because pleasure is more the goal than to convey God’s Truth—every single (and sometimes uncomfortable) word of it.
Gentle praise and worship that has as its sole focus to point to God loses out with weaker Christians against lyrics that are more about the singer or songwriter than about God. The deceptive music can result in a cathartic relief when it encourages listeners to think about their feelings and their emotions instead of contemplating God. Yes, there is truth and maybe Scripture in these songs, but the Lord is not #1 in the focus and design of these songs, the audience is. Emotion is. Sensuality is. I am a fan of many current praise and worship songs, but I have learned to read the lyrics carefully. Many start with sound theology but slip in a phrase or two of false teaching. Unless I intentionally read for falsehood, I can easily find myself singing a lilting, beautiful song that has lyrics that must grieve the Lord.
And performance is another issue. The performance of any song should send people out thinking more deeply about Who He is rather than commenting on the performer. The music should increase our sense of holiness and awareness of His attributes rather than stir up passions similar to those we experience during a secular concert. It should be different.
That same emotional appeal controls the content of sermons and teachings by these popular and very appealing people who have said with their words or actions that the Word is secondary to what people feel. The Holy Spirit has certainly blessed me with His presence, and sometimes that means an emotional response, but everything He has ever told me lines up with the Bible. Nothing in that experience can contradict the Word or it is not from the Lord. Comparing what you believe the Holy Spirit has told you to the Word of God and seeing if it lines up is a necessary part of hearing from the Lord.
Some emotional religious experiences can be deceptive. Satan can also conjure up deep emotional experiences, and that leads some to think that the false teaching is more accurate than the Biblical teaching. The Word of God is the plum line. If any part of a leader’s teaching does not reverence and honor the Bible as the ultimate Truth, you should flee before your ears are dulled to Truth.
If you are not already aware of it, you are in a battle to hold on to the Truth God means you to have. Satan and His very influential false teachers are filling minds of Christians all around you with doubt about the necessity of the Word of God. Paul warned Timothy about this when he exhorted him to “wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Don’t shipwreck your faith. Don’t be naive about the warfare going on right now to persuade you to see the Bible as secondary, not culturally relevant, or outdated. Do not listen. These words came from man. The Word is the inspired Word of God, recorded by His chosen scribes as a message from Him to you. Value it. Honor it. Do not tolerate insults or lies told about it. The Bible is clear:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. I Thessalonians 5:18
Who would want to risk the wrath of God?
Next month, I will share with you exactly what the strategies of these false teachers are and how to fight them. God is on your side, and Truth will eventually win. In the meantime, don’t let your soul, your prayer life, your witness or your friends be a casualty by straying from the Truths God has set down for you in His Holy Word.
And as I write this, God reminds me that I was once deceived by some of these teachers; I, too, was “once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slave(s) to various passions and pleasures …4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…“ (Titus 3:3-6.)
Final warning
He has given me this final warning, and it applies to us all, that we are to “avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” (Titus 3:9-11)
I do not write this to stir up division. I pray that just as Bible-believing friends, teachers, or preachers shared the Truth in love with us, that you and I will pass on the gift of real Truth to those who come into our lives.