Series Eleven: The Dangers of False Teachers

False teachers infiltrate with subtlety. The battle in the church is the battle for truth. Deceivers enter with subtlety, dressed attractively to appear more true than the truth itself. False teachers oppose the gospel and demean Christ.

1. Resources at Satan’s disposal
   1. Schemes and strategies designed to lead men astray
   2. Demonic hierarchies and spiritual forces
   3. False teachers disguised as “angels of light”
   4. Slight deviations that ultimately develop a massive divide from Scriptural truth
   5. Sincere men who become sincerely wrong
2. Vulnerable condition of the church
   1. Often asleep regarding the dangers of error
   2. Leaders not paying attention to the truth
   3. Lacking a biblical framework for exposing false teachers and doctrinal error
   4. The prevailing attitude is that love now means “to accept without question,” resulting in decades of refusing to face the implications of error and truth.
   5. Satan and false teachers are clever and devise crafty means of implementing his resources.
   6. The liberal church calling the true church too narrow
   7. The liberal church pandering to the fads of the culture and criticizing the true church for lack of love
   8. Many accept at face value people who say they love Jesus without inquiring what they mean and who they are talking about.
3. Defenses against false teachers and “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1)
   1. Love the truth. Our weapon is truth (2 Cor 10:5); it destroys false ideas and error (Eph 4:14).
   2. Error cannot survive in an environment where truth is exalted, taught, believed, and lived out.
   3. Learn to spot heresy early on. Expose the subtleties of the enemy. We are not “heresy hunters,” but lovers of the truth.
   4. Learn to filter everything through the grid of Scripture.
   5. “Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself.” ― Irenaeus of Lyons (d. AD 202), Against Heresies
   6. When our minds are filled with truth, we have the “biblical radar” to detect these errors and false teaching.
4. Difficulties in identifying false teachers
   1. They are not always easy to spot. They sound like sheep for a long time, before they expose themselves or are exposed.
   2. Paul warned that “savage wolves” would come disguised as sheep “from among your own selves” (Acts 20:29–30).
   3. “Be on guard” implies that we should hold our minds in an attitude of attentiveness.
   4. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15).
   5. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many” (by addition to or subtraction from the truth) (Matt 24:5).
   6. They disguise themselves as “an angel of light” and “servants of righteousness” (2 Cor 11:14–15).
5. Signs and methods of false teachers
   1. The rise of false teachers is inevitable and foretold (2 Pet 2:1).
   2. They teach things that oppose the gospel or introduce “a different gospel” (Gal 1:6).
   3. They demean Christ and His sacrifice by adding works to it.
   4. They put on a false front of religious activity and vocabulary.
   5. Their aim is to deceive, so they learn the language of God’s people so they can secretly introduce their false teaching.
   6. They seek the naïve and the ignorant, beguiling the unsuspecting and those in self-induced ignorance. Proverbs calls these naïve as “simple,” having no filter.
   7. They find one to lead astray, then another, gaining support among the sheep and adding to their ranks.
   8. They introduce their teachings secretly, behind the scenes, and with the right vocabulary among those who lack discernment.
   9. They question authority and come up with new ways to describe old truth; they devise subtle ways to question conventional orthodoxy and wisdom.
   10. They promote some new view that no one else has seen.
   11. E.g., N. T. Wright and his “new perspective” on Paul/Second Temple Judaism.
6. Biblical titles of false teachers
   1. “False prophets” (Matt 7:15; 24:11, 24; Acts 13:6; 2 Pet 2:1; 1 John 4:1)
      • They act the part of divinely-inspired prophets, but speak falsehoods under the name of divine prophesies.
      1. They come with messages beginning with “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
      2. In cessationist churches (which teach that the Scriptural canon is closed, and no new revelation is to be found outside the Scripture), there is no “Thus sayeth the Lord” outside of the Bible.
   2. “False Christs” (Matt 24:24; Mark 13:22; cf. Mark 13:6; Luke 21:8)
      • False Christs claim the office of Messiah. They are easier to spot and usually end up as a guru such as Jim Jones and David Koresh.
   3. “False apostles” (2 Cor 11:13)
      • False apostles preach “a different gospel” (Gal 1:6), seeking to control people with a claim to apostolic authority, to bring people under bondage. This can happen more easily in non-cessationist churches and in some charismatic bodies, as they allow for the continuation of apostolic authority in this age.
   4. “False brethren” (2 Cor 11:26; Gal 2:4)
      • False brethren come into congregations and seek to bring others into slavery to the externals.
   5. “False circumcision” (Phil 3:2)
      • Related to the false brothers above, they likewise seek to bring people under the law, worshiping the externals via circumcision or various forms of law-keeping. According to Paul, they are “dogs” and “evil workers” (Phil 3:2) and put their “confidence in the flesh” (Phil 3:3) rather than in Christ.
   6. “Antichrists” (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7)
      1. Antichrists strike at the Person, character, work, and nature of Christ.
      2. They speak in generic terms about the atonement.
      3. They use vague terms about His deity, and speak in generic phrases and generalizations.
      4. They deny the incarnation of Christ.
      5. They leave the church because they were never of the church (1 John 2:19).
      6. The current attack on the atonement and penal substitution is in the spirit of antichrist and by Satan himself.
7. Other descriptive titles
   1. “Savage wolves” (Acts 20:29)—They stalk, pounce, and run in packs, not sparing the flock.
   2. “Slaves … of their own appetites” (Rom 16:18)—They are driven by a craving to consume.
   3. “Dogs” and “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil 3:2, 18)
   4. “Deceitful workers” (2 Cor 11:13)—They use manipulative tactics to hone their subtleties.
   5. Apostates, liars, Christ-rejecters (1 Tim 4:1–2; cf. 2 Pet 2:1; 1 John 2:22)
   6. “Conceited and understands nothing” (1 Tim 6:4)
   7. “Men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth” (1 Tim 6:5)
   8. “Rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers” and false professors (Titus 1:10, 16)
   9. “Factious … perverted … self-condemned” (Titus 3:10–11)—Their thinking is twisted.
   10. “Unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct … reviling where they have no knowledge … stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions … having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray … springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved” (2 Pet 2:12–15, 17).
   11. “Mockers … untaught and unstable” (2 Pet 3:3, 16)
   12. “From the world … [of the] spirit of error” (1 John 4:5–6)
   13. “Deceivers” (2 John 7)
   14. “Hidden reefs … caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. … grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. … devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 12–13, 16, 19).
   15. These descriptions describe the tactics and results of false teachers. They are in every fellowship, without exception.
8. Some current or modern examples of false teaching
   1. Baptismal regeneration is a false gospel of the Mormon church, the Nazarene churches, the Church of Christ, and the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).
   2. Human works and “open theism” are heretical as they challenge the nature and attributes of God.