Our glorious Jesus is such a prize that satan tries constantly to snatch Him away from us. He is glorious, perfect, beautiful and wondrous. Our most excellent Holy Spirit always points to Him. (John 15:26). The Spirit dwelling inside believers will guide us into all truth. Not just some truth. All truth. (John 14:26.
However, satan and his minions hate the truth. They try to confuse the brethren, cause division, add false teachings, preach a different Jesus, and divert the people from the narrow road of Jesus. (Romans 15:16-18; Matthew 15:9; 2 Corinthians 11:4; Colossians 2:4; 1 Timothy 1:3; Galatians 5:10…and so on.) The number of verses in the New Testament regarding false teachers and false doctrines abound.
Yet many Christians today don’t heed the warning. If they do, they allow the warnings to remain abstract and never diligently be a Berean to check if what they are learning on the ground is consistent with what the bible says.
Think about it this way. Jesus spent much of His time cleansing the Land from demons, puncturing false teachings, condemning false teachers (from the Pharisees) and instructing the people in truth. When He ascended, the land was clean spiritually and physically.
Yet right away, satan came back in. Paul, Peter, Timothy, James, Titus, Paul, well, most of the Apostles mentioned some kind of false teaching or teacher to watch out for. (Judaizers, Nicolaitans, Legalism). False teachers were named (Hymenaeus, Alexander). If the vacuum of the Presence of Jesus on earth allowed all the falsity to return within months to a few years, what do we think the level of falsity 2000 years later is like? Satan is having a field day.
“It is possible for real Christians to be taken in by false prophets. When believers are careless about study of and obedience to the Word, lazy about prayer, and uncritical about the things of God, it is easy for them to be deceived by someone who pretends to be orthodox-especially if he is pleasant, positive, and permissive. … Judging the fruit of false prophets, of course, is not nearly so easy as judging fruit in an orchard. But from Scripture we discover at least three primary tests we can apply in order to know. They are in the areas of character, creed, and converts.” (source). I recommend the source material to learn further how to spot false teachers.
He is so wonderful. He teaches us about falsity and gives us the bible and the holy spirit to help us so we won’t be taken in by them. “After warning about false prophets, Jesus tells us what to watch for in identifying them. Because they are so extremely deceptive and dangerous ravenous spiritual and moral wolves in sheep’s clothing-the Lord would hardly have left us without means of determining who they are. Jesus assures us that we will know them by their fruits.” (source)
We usually focus on the fruits part of the verse, but look at the assurance. “You will know them.” You will.
The best way to spot false teachers is to keep your eyes on the ONLY real teacher, God/Jesus/Holy Spirit. I hope you think He is altogether lovely, too:
the-end-time.org 