False Teachings in Today’s World - Part 1
What I am
about to write is probably a bit more academic that any of my previous postings. This is another topic that has been on my
heart, and I have been researching for some time, especially considering the
general belief that we are rapidly approaching the End Times. This a bit long for a typical blog post, so I
plan to post it as a series over 3-4 days.
Let’s begin by laying a foundation, and then looking at errors in the
understanding of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures by God on down to
denial of the need for Salvation. I will
try to keep this fairly simple.
Sadly, it
has the potential to offend some people. But that is not its purpose. Its purpose is:
1) To honor
and preserve God’s truth revealed in His written Word.
2) To
protect God’s children from the damaging impact of false teaching by alerting
them to non-biblical concepts being taught as God’s truth in churches today. Jesus Christ paid a great price to reveal the
Father to us, and to redeem us from sin and judgment. This precious gift must not be treated with
contempt; it must be honored, confirmed, and defended against error. This compels us to expose error and potential
error. And such exposure is commanded by
the Scripture.
“But there
were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers
among you. They will secretly introduce
destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing
swift destruction on themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1)
The term
“false teaching” is used to refer to teaching that is contrary to what the Bible
teaches.
In Matthew
16:6-12 we read Jesus’ warning the disciples to, “Be careful…Be on your guard
against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducee’s…Then Jesus’ disciples
understood that He was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in
bread, but against the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Why does
Jesus use such cautionary language like “be careful” and “be on guard” when
talking about false teaching? It’s
because false teaching generally has just enough truth in it to appeal to people.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were reading
from the same scriptures as Jesus, yet coming up with conclusions that were
contrary to the truth. False teachings
can be even more dangerous when they are close to the truth; and if you know
nothing, you will believe anything.
The enemy of
truth is subtle and shrewd. We should
not be surprised by the increase in lies and spiritual error as we near the
return of Christ. The Bible says, “…and
many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” (Matthew 24:11)
God wants us
to be aware of false teachings and teachers so we can stand firm in His Word.
We must be discerning and not simply accept what people say is true. Pastors are only human and can make
mistakes. Many false teachings come from
misinterpretation of the Word. When
scripture is taken out of its context its original meaning changes. Its meaning
and purpose end up being inaccurate or being in error. Once this takes place those who are taught the
inaccurate or erroneous interpretation are said to be receiving false teachings
and doctrines.
Reasonable
latitude, I believe, should also be given for various views of complex prophecy
(e.g. Daniel and Revelation), provided those interpretations don’t conflict
with plain Biblical teachings elsewhere, and are identified as conjecture and
men’s opinions when they are.
It’s
important to note that not everyone who teaches something wrong is a Biblically-defined
“false teacher.” Otherwise, we’d all
be excommunicated. As James said in
chapter 3:1-2a, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers,
because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble
in many ways…”
I have told
congregations many times in the past to hold up what I have taught to the light
of the scriptures. The Bible should
always be the standard and cause us to ask the question, “Is this teaching
compatible with or contradictory to the clear teaching of the entire Bible in a
number of key areas?”
I have
borrowed the following list of key areas in which false teachings occur from
Author, and Bible study teacher, Rosemary Bardsley:
1)
Contemporary teaching that is clearly different
from the teaching found in the Bible, and must be warned about.
2)
Contemporary teaching that appears to be different
from teaching found in the Bible, but we’re not sure why or how. This is teaching we should be very wary of,
and diligently search the scriptures to determine whether it is true or false. And asking ourselves “What are the
implications of this teaching?” And does
it detract from the clear revealed truth about who Jesus is and what Jesus did?
3) Teaching
where there are different and even conflicting
interpretations of what the Bible teaches regarding a specific
topic. This is teaching that has the
potential to be false, because not all the different interpretations can be
true at the same time. But because they
are not central issues we should not make them points of division between
believers, or, worse, reasons for exclusion from God’s kingdom.
We should, however, diligently study the
scriptures for insight and clarification even in these areas. When we come to a decision regarding our stand
on a teaching, it should be on the basis of the faithfulness of the teaching,
and its potential impact regarding who Jesus is and what Jesus did on the
cross.
It is not the purpose of this post
to name individuals or groups, but to identify teachings that vary from the
clear teaching of the Bible. It does not
contain quotes from the teaching or writings of individuals, but may make
general references to the kinds of errors that are being taught today as if
they were biblical truth. The reader is
left to make the connections between these errors and the individuals and
organizations that teach them.
Note: Almost all of the errors
listed below are found within
contemporary churches and under
the banner of the designation “Christian.”
These are ideas taught by people who identify as Christians. As such they have more potential to harm the
church and destroy the true gospel than any obviously godless ideas taught by
unbelievers outside the church.
Denial
of God’s inspiration of the Bible The Bible is
just one of many roads that lead to “god.” It is neither unique nor exclusive.
(2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16)
Discounting
the historical fact of the biblical record Some, while
accepting the concept of divine revelation, reject the historicity of some
parts of the Bible, particularly Genesis 1-11, and designate these as “myth”
rather than “history.” However, the New
Testament indicates that Jesus and the apostles referred to incidents in these
chapters as real historical facts. (Mark 10:6)
Treating
the Bible as incomplete
1) Church traditions are placed alongside
of the Bible as additional, authoritative word of God.
2)
Revelations given to individuals by way of dreams, visions, etc, and are
understood to be from God, and to communicate information and/or instructions
that God wants us to know. (Note: every false cult that I have researched, and
at least two major world religions, owes their origin in part or in whole to
this kind of supposed “revelation” from God as received by an individual.)
3) There are
popular preachers today who state that the Bible is not sufficient for
twenty-first century people, and that there are new, modern-day prophets and
apostles through whom God is providing this additional contemporary revelation.
Such teaching denies the completeness
and sufficiency of the Scripture, and undermines its authority. But the Bible is clear: There is nothing more
to know, the OT looked forward to Christ, the NT looked back to Christ. God’s
self-revelation is complete.
Treating
the Bible with contempt
The
following practices are a few examples of either ignorant or arrogant contempt
for the Bible. While seeming to uphold it as an authoritative source of divine
truth, they disregard its cohesive rationality and well-reasoned and systematic
presentation of the truth. They also, in
practice, despise the divine source and authority of the written Word, thinking
that they can interfere with its message, and/or interpret it anyway they
please.
1) Interpreting a verse or passage without respect for its
context
2) Interpreting a verse or passage without respect for its
meaning for its original readers
3) Changing the clear meaning of a verse or passage to fit
one’s own ideas and beliefs
4) Making a verse or passage tie in with or support a
particular sermon or message one wants to give, irrespective of its original
application or contextual meaning
5) Importing and imposing meaning onto the Bible or part
thereof
6) Disregarding the type of literature in which the verse or
passage is found
7) Failing to recognize the anticipation/fulfillment
perspective and thereby misinterpreting the message and purpose of either the
Old or New Testaments
8) Failing to recognize that the central focus of the
scripture is Jesus Christ
Trivializing
the Bible
The majestic,
deep, powerful, and eternal purpose and focus of the Bible is ignored. Its focus ceases to be Christ and becomes the
reader. Taken out of context,
reinterpreted, wrongly applied, biblical statements are robbed of their
eternal, absolute, Christ-centered meaning, and given trivial present, personal
application to the particular, present, personal problems of the person reading
them. The objective, absolute truth is
replaced by subjective and relative personal interpretations. In some
instances it is used as nothing more than a spurious means of divining one’s
future, a “dunking for guidance” were the reader pulls a “word from the Lord”
from a tub of heavenly knowledge; a short-cut method of finding supposed divine
guidance.
Syncretism
Evident in churches today are the following syncretistic
combinations which have resulted in the reduction and/or reinterpretation of
Biblical truth:
1) Biblical concepts with concepts and practices from pagan
religions
2) Biblical concepts with concepts and practices from the
New Age
3) Biblical concepts with concepts and practices from
eastern religions and/or eastern mysticism
4) Biblical concepts with practices from the occult and the
para-normal
5) Biblical concepts with practices pulled from secular
self-development and empowerment seminars.
Outsourcing “truth” then using
that “truth” to redefine biblical truth
The Understanding of God and spirituality is sourced from
and defined by subjective individual or group experiences rather than being
sourced from and defined by the objective written Word. That “truth” is then
imposed upon the Bible and used to redefine and reinterpret the meaning of the
Bible.
1) Denial of the historical
reality of Jesus Christ Usually outside the church, some people believe that Jesus
is merely a mythical figure.
2) Denial of the real humanity of
Jesus Christ Not as common today as in some periods of history. There are some quite subtle ideas still around
that do not believe in the real humanity of Christ, suggesting or teaching that
He did not feel the pressure of temptation in the same way that we do. (This is
discredited in Hebrews 2, 4 and 5, where it is pointed out that He was in all
points tempted as we are yet without sin.
3) Denial of the reality of the
Trinity Christ is seen merely as a manifestation of God, or an
emanation from God. He is not understood
as a distinct being or person within a triune godhead.
4) Denial of the full deity of
Christ (the worst error one can embrace) The teaching that Jesus is something less than, and inferior
to, God and not of the same nature or being as God, and not co-eternal with
God.
5) Denial of the virgin birth.
6) Denial of the resurrection of Christ.
7) Denial of the miracles performed by Christ during his
life on earth. (Each of these three are
found in churches where secular humanism has effectively removed all references
to anything “supernatural.” Some people
believe that Jesus was just a man—a good teacher, a good moral example.)
8) Worship or veneration of other beings, whether human or
angelic, alongside of worship of Christ.
9) Teaching
that lures a person on to more experience, fullness, knowledge, spirituality,
etc beyond Jesus Christ.
10) Teaching
that individual believers are just as much an incarnation of God as Jesus
Christ was.
11) A belief (Influenced
by eastern religion) that Christ is a man who found the ultimate union with the
“god within.”
Teaching that Jesus is a physical
savior
This error parallels the error of those Jews who wanted to
force Jesus to be a physical, political Messiah. It also parallels those who followed him
simply for his miracles. Today this
reduction of Jesus to a physical savior is evident in:
1) Prosperity doctrines (Christ wants you, or all Christians
should be, healthy and wealthy)
2) The teaching that present, physical healing is part of
the atonement
3) Much of the word-faith, positive confession mindset
Denial of the need for salvation
from sin and judgment
Those who, influenced by secular humanism and/or naturalism,
deny everything that is supernatural, and usually also deny the concepts of
heaven, hell, and life after death. Salvation
in the spiritual sense of being saved from God’s wrath and from hell, and given
eternal life is, therefore, viewed as a meaningless or a symbolic concept.
Redefinition
of salvation
1) Salvation is redefined in sociological, economic,
relational, or political terms. It is
applied to any liberating experience that occurs in any belief
system, even in the absence of a spiritual belief system. The gospel becomes, for example, purely a
social or political gospel, or some form of liberation theology.
Salvation by human merit This has always been a common error. It has several manifestations in contemporary
Christianity and contemporary cults:
1) Salvation by good works. Salvation, acceptance with God,
is understood to be on the basis of being “good enough.” You do your best, you’re not as bad as the
next guy, so God will let you in.
2) Salvation merited by keeping God’s law.
3) Salvation by performance of or submission to rituals. In the New Testament this specifically focused
on circumcision, and, to a lesser extent, ritual cleansing and keeping Sabbaths
and holy days. In modern time, this may
include Sabbath keeping (or going to church every Sunday), baptism (where it is
taught that it is mandatory for salvation), participation in Holy Communion,
confirmation, going down the aisle (responding to an altar call), or “praying
the prayer.” Most of these rituals are
obviously not wrong in themselves; it is the significance given to them that constitutes the error
4) If we ever, by word or action, communicate that those who
have practiced these acts are more accepted by God or better Christians than
those who have not, then we are communicating that we believe salvation is
conditional on participation in these rituals.
5) Salvation by membership of or identification with a
particular group or organization.
6) Salvation by submission to a spiritual leader, shepherd,
mentor, or pastor.
We live in a
day when people need God’s power working in them more than ever! The need for
Spirit empowered grace to take us to a life beyond our strength is imminent. We
are living in difficult times, the likes of which the world has never seen. Our
nation is disturbingly close to facing the horrors others nations have faced
for generations. The church in America isn’t ready! We are poised for a great
falling away! The only cure is a Gospel that works, a gospel which will require
leaders that have truly experience it.
