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.   

This is only the beginning.  Please check back on Wednesday for Part 2 of “False Teachings in Today’s World.”  And I look forward to your comments!


Don't miss out on the complete series on False Teachings in Today's World:
False Teachings in Today's World - Part 3   
False Teachings in Today's World - Part 2