False Teachers among You

 

2 Peter 2:1-3

“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 brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.  And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.  Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

Have you experienced this?  Would you know a false teaching if you were exposed to one?  I’m of the opinion that many who sit in church pews on Sunday would not and do not know, and that is why the Scripture states, “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will give me the insight to form words in this document that will awaken those who have bought into destructive heresies.  “The United States Secret Service, one of the nation's oldest federal investigative law enforcement agencies, was founded in 1865 as a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department. It was originally created to combat the counterfeiting of U.S. currency - a serious problem at the time. In fact, following the Civil War, it was estimated that one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit.”  It may astonish you that the Secret Service is trained to detect counterfeit U.S. currency by studying and spending time with that currency, hours on hours with the currency and so they become so familiar with it that a counterfeit is easily discovered. 

When Christians awaken to this truth that John 10:10 is true, and that we are in a war, and that war will take anyone who is not trained in truth captive.  Everyone who claims the name Christian is commanded to study the word of God, and to apply these truths and promises to daily living.  Nowhere does it tell us to take the words of any person as truth, without putting them to the test of what the Bible says on that subject.   In Colossians chapter three the Holy Spirit gives clear instructions on key doctrine about what should be put out of our lives and what should be put into our lives, and how is that done?  “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”   The Bible is the source of that knowledge, and as a Christian you are ordered to study and seek the Holy Spirit’s leadership.

The Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to seek an audience with Jesus and ask why he put up with his disciples breaking the tradition of the elders?  These Pharisees and scribes were the elite of the religious people of that time, and this was Jesus reply in Matthew 15:7-9, “You hypocrites!  Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.”

I am very fearful that we are experiencing what the apostle Paul testified to in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listing to the truth and wander off into myths.”  Some two thousand years ago a governor named Pilate ask Jesus if he was king of the Jews, and this was his answer: “You say that I am a king.  For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  Jesus did not reply to Pilate but he did tell some Jews who believed in him these words; “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  It matters where we look for truth!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice