False Teachers
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2 Peter 2
2 Peter 2
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
The Holy Spirit repeatedly warns that there will be many false teachers within the churches.
The warnings concerning teachers and leaders who introduce destructive heresies among God’s people began with Jesus and were continued by the Spirit through Paul, Peter, John, Jude and Christ’s letters to the seven churches.
The false teachers within the church who were “denying the Sovereign Lord” had left the straight way.
These teachers were belittling the significance of Jesus.
Some claimed that Jesus couldn’t be God.
Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
Believers would do well to heed to Peter’s warnings against false teachers.
Peter warns of immoral and greedy false teachers who will use people as a means of reaching their own selfish goals.
The false teacher or false prophet is led by the flesh.
The Old Testament frequently mentions false prophets.
False prophets claimed to receive messages from God.
The NT indicates that deceptive teachers will characterize the church age and that their activities will increase “in latter times.”
Believers must be aware that one of the chief methods of false ministers is to use “stories they have made up,” or to give exaggerated statistics in order to inspire God’s people to give money.
“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.
“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
“Behold, I have told you in advance.
for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
Jesus had told the disciples that false teachers would come.
Jesus’ warnings about false teachers still hold true.
Believers today must be aware that within the churches there may be ministers of God’s Word who are of the same spirit and life as the corrupt teachers of God’s law in Jesus’ day.
Jesus warns that not everyone who professes Christ is a true believer, nor are all Christian writers, teachers, pastors and workers what they claim to be.
These people find their spiritual ancestors in the false prophets of the OT and in the Pharisees of the NT.
Just as false prophets had contradicted the true prophets in the Old Testament times, false teachers were twisting Christ’s teachings and the words of the apostles.
Some false teachers/preachers begin their ministry in sincerity.
Other false teachers/preachers have never been genuine believers in Christ.
The unpopularity of unbiblical teaching will be primarily the result of satan’s directing his demonic hosts in a more intensified opposition to God’s work.
Such people tolerate, allow and even encourage immorality within their churches and teach that a person may practice sin and still inherit eternal life.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
John warns that many deceivers and false teachers are perverting God’s Word and attempting to persuade Christians to accept their views.
Their false teaching concerns the person of Jesus Christ.
Many false teachers were saying that spirit was good and matter was evil.
In strong terms John warns against this kind of teaching.
Many false teachers still promote an unbiblical understanding of Jesus today.
These teachers are dangerous because they distort the truth and undermine the foundations of the Christian faith.
2 John 1:9
Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
The false teachers claimed superior knowledge that contradicted apostolic doctrine and teaching in the earliest days of the church.
Although they may claim to know God, they are deceived if they do not continue in the teaching of Christ; those who forsake Christ’s doctrine forsake Christ.
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
There are crafty false teachers who have infiltrated the church and disguise.
They have “crept in unnoticed” and are twisting the Bible’s teachings to justify their own opinions.
Many first-century false teachers were teaching that Christians could do whatever they liked without fear of God’s punishment.
Jude denounces certain persons who teach that salvation by grace allows professed believers to indulge in serious sin and yet not be condemned by God.
They may have taught that God will freely forgive those who continually engage in sin and that they are eternally secure if they have trusted in Christ at some time in the past.
They preach pardon for sin but not the importance of holiness.
With false teachings and loose morals comes a particularly destructive disease—the loss of true love for God and others.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
We must be careful to avoid false teachers today.
Many messages may contain elements of truth but overall have a false image and emphasis.
Protection against being deceived is found in an enduring faith and love for Christ, in a commitment to the absolute authority for His Word, and in a thorough knowledge of that Word.
Only a sound foundation in God’s Word can equip us to discern the errors and distortions in false teaching.
God warns true believers to recognize the marks of false teachers and guard against accepting false teaching.
Christians are commanded to test all professed Christian teachers and in fact any individual who claims his or her work or message comes from the Holy Spirit.
Initially, his message may not be false.
We are to critically examine the claims of teachers to see if they are false.
All teaching must be tested against the revelation of God’s truth in Scripture.
Each of us must use the Word of God to measure the words any preacher speaks, and any variation or imbalance in what is taught must be questioned.
There are several ways to test teachers to see if their teachings truly come from the Lord.
Do their teachings contradict what the Bible says about God?
Do they teach that Jesus is fully God and fully man?
Do they believe and teach that the original writings of both the OT and NT are fully inspired by God, and that we are to submit to all its moral teachings?
Do any of their teachings utilize a small section of the Bile to the neglect of the whole?
Reject any teacher who teaches things one cannot apply or always teaches “some new thing.”
Beware of any teaching that a person claims to have received from the Holy Spirit or an angel that cannot be supported by sound Biblical interpretation.
Teachers’ lives must be tested as to their relation to the ungodly world and to Christ’s lordship.
Do the teacher’s live contain or condone immoral practices?
The way your teachers live shows a lot about what they believe about Christ.
Teachers have a right to financial support, but has money become the primary motivation for this teacher or group?
Does the teacher or preacher clearly serve God or merely promote his or her own interests?
Are the practices they promote meant to glorify the teacher or Jesus Christ?
Do their teachings promote hostility toward other Christians?
The fruit of false preachers will often consist in converts not totally committed to all of God’s Word.
Beware of teaching that sounds good but profits nothing.
Reject any teaching that denies the lordship of Jesus or teaches that grace is “God’s permission to sin.”
Understand that such teaching is godlessness.
We are to judge only the words of every teaching.
God will judge the teacher.
These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
The apostate false teachers are “twice dead”.
They were once believers in Christ who had “crossed over from death to life” but had sometime afterward severed their union with Christ and gone out of life back into death.
‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
One of the major concerns Christ expresses in His final message to the seven churches was that they not fall away by tolerating false teachers, prophets or apostles who were distorting His Word or weakening its power and authority.
God hates the heresy that teaches that we can be saved and at the same time.
There will always be false teachers within the churches who remain undetected until God determines to expose those persons for what they are.
Know that the false teacher brings about distrust of true ministers of God.
The teaching given the believers in the earliest days of the church has been perverted and Christians must contend for it.
‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
In the battle to maintain sound teaching and moral and doctrinal purity, it is possible to lose a loving and caring spirit.
The corruption of “the faith” is found not only in distorted or deceitful teachings.
It is also found in unloving behavior.