Category: discernment

By Elizabeth Prata

A dear reader emailed me, dispirited. She said that she had tried to reason with a major Christian publishing company as to the fact that they sell so many books of false teachers, and thus they promote false doctrine. She became discouraged when the Publishing Rep countered her concerns with scripture and dismissed them, politely of course.

She said she felt like “a drop of water against a tsunami.”

I empathized heavily. I think we all feel like that from time to time.

When I was first saved, I remember the headiness of my new worldview. Now everything made sense! I knew why people were evil, why things always went wrong in government, why hope died, why nothing fulfilled my heart! I looked at the church as a glowing city on a hill, the resolution to everything, and a happily ever after.

Then I remember learning that more danger is within the church than out. That every NT book except Philemon warns severely of false teachers, of wolves after lambs, of lions devouring. I learned that I needed to be even more vigilant than I’d thought would have been necessary inside of a church. Actually church didn’t mean safety, it meant danger! I was flabbergasted when I learned just how many false teachers there are, and not just TV preachers, but ones in the church down the street, or even inside my own church! What I thought would be a time of ease after the restlessness of 4 decades of searching for peace, turned into a never-ending battle against my own flesh and against waves of false teaching trying to sweep me away.

Sigh.

Sometimes standing for Jesus means we sometimes do feel like a drop of water against a tsunami, especially when a monolith like a panel of pastors, or a major publishing company, or a mega-church are against your concerns.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

I agree, sometimes our work for Jesus to withstand the evil waves of false teaching seem hopeless and pointless. I’ve had my share of difficult conversations too. The same day my reader contacted me, someone came onto a thread I’d done on Beth Moore and asking seemingly harmless questions. I offered scripture, she ignored it. I offered topics of heresies, with scripture, she ignored it. Finally she flatly said “You don’t know what you’re talking about”. All righty then.

Why, oh why, don’t they see the truth through scripture? Because they don’t submit to scripture as authority. At root, false teaching appeals to people because they are making their own gods. The flavor of false teaching they choose matches the sin they refuse to slay inside them. (2 Peter 2:18). If they are greedy, they will like prosperity preaching. If they are prideful, they will like the renown they will receive from Charismatics by giving false prophecies and speaking babbling tongues. And so on.

When we stand for truth, the hearer may or may not listen at that time. She may or may not repent later. In any case, our stand is a tribute to Jesus, demonstrating our own obedience and faith for which He will richly reward. Oh, but how powerful a drop of water can be, when it’s energized by the Spirit.

The listener’s failure to engage along biblical lines or respond to scripture will be on her own head. And that’s out of our hands. Did we try when our conscience was pressed by the Holy Spirit? Good, then we have not committed a sin of omission. (James 4:17).

Either way, they will be judged according to the amount of faith they have been given (Rev 2:23; Romans 12:3); and according to the position they hold. (James 3:1).

It reminds me of Paul, in Acts 18:6,

And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’

In Ezekiel 2:4-5 God told Ezekiel to speak His words to the rebellious House of Israel.

The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Not that we are prophets, but the point is, when we speak God’s truth we do so whether they will hear or won’t hear. On the Day when they try to argue, they will have no excuse. (Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 1:20).

Barnes’ Notes says of Paul’s declaration in Acts 18:6-

I am clean – I am not to blame for your destruction. I have done my duty. The gospel had been fairly offered and deliberately rejected; and Paul was not to blame for their ruin, which he saw was coming upon them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says of v 18:5,

What that pressure was we happen to know, with singular minuteness and vividness of description, from the apostle himself, in his first Epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians (1Co 2:1-5; 1Th 3:1-10). He had come away from Athens, as he remained there, in a depressed and anxious state of mind, having there met, for the first time, with unwilling Gentile ears.

But he kept going. He knew when to cut off a conversation, sometimes we turn to more fertile soils when the Gospel has been rejected, and I mean to include discernment work among the Gospel umbrella. You’re making known ‘this same Jesus’ as in Acts 1:11 who ascended and will return, and letting hearers know they are clinging to a different Jesus.

I know how hard it is to go into a place where more than likely your heartfelt message will be rejected and perhaps you will even be slandered, marginalized, or cut off completely from fellowship, as has happened to some. It’s like knowing you’ll put your face into a buzz saw.

I know the dispiriting feeling when you come up against a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. While the wall may seem tall (or the tsunami wave high) it will fall like the walls at Jericho, either sooner or later.

Persevering honors the Lord in your obedience, it hones your own discernment, it establishes a prayer focus, but it also reveals how deep someone may be in sin.

Take heart. Even Elijah, John the Baptist, Thomas, Moses, and Jeremiah as a few examples, struggled in their ministry, at times saying, ‘what’s the point? They won’t hear me anyway…’

Either way the Lord can say to you, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Sure, it feels like a drop of water against a tsunami.

Ovid said, “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”

By Elizabeth Prata

Is this teacher good? Is this Bible study credible? Is this book safe with good doctrine? I’m frequently asked these are normal and good questions, and I know that other ministries that offer discernment teachings are asked also.

We all should be practicing discernment, all the time. (Philippians 1:9). Hebrews 5:14 says discernment comes with training and maturity-

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Sometimes ladies don’t have time to pre-read a study to determine if it’s acceptable, they barely have time between the kids, husband, church, and home to read the study itself. Other times sisters just need a second opinion before setting up the appointment with the Ladies Minister or the Pastor. Other times a person just needs a jog or a jig into a direction, a framework that sparks their own thoughts.

So we’re asked. I’m grateful when I am asked, because I know there are women out there who care about good doctrine and only want to study with credible materials or people. Discernment as a tool or a skill (or in some cases, the gift) isn’t just for calling out false teachers or spotting poor doctrine melded with the true. It’s a book or a movie review. It’s oftentimes a lesson in itself teaching how to compare materials with scripture. It’s honing of the mind as it conforms to Christ. It’s all that and more.

Here are some resources I use for my own reasons, which include all of the above. I offer these resources to you as an additional tool in your discernment toolbox.

Phil Johnson. Phil is Executive Director of Grace To You, the online ministry of Grace Community Church. (GCC). He is also editor of John MacArthur’s books, and a pastor in the GraceLife Pulpit, Sunday School Ministry of GCC. He has the gift of discernment, and often speaks on topics such as current fads and their impact in Christendom, false teachers, and other discernment issues. You can find his sermons at the GraceLife Pulpit. Phil also speaks at various conferences, including the well-known Strange Fire conference, which examined and evaluated the doctrines, claims, and practices of the modern charismatic movement. As a matter of fact,t he entire conference itself is a lesson in discernment and well worth your while. Phil also ran a blog for many years that dealt with discernment issues, Pyromaniacs, which has recently been revived with other writers contributing. You can search its archives. He also has a wealth of material here. He’s been online for over 20 years.

Justin Peters. Justin is an itinerant pastor with several specialties. He preaches expositionally, and also has an interest in teaching discernment matters via his series Clouds Without Water. Justin has written a book called Do Not Hinder Them, about evangelizing children, and has spoken out about the fad of ‘heaven tourism‘, examining the claims of those who allege they have traveled to heaven and back. He preaches and teaches extensively at conferences, for example, the Judge Not Conference, the Strange Fire conference here, and here, and here in an extensive interview about Lying Signs and Wonders, as well as many other places that can be found on Youtube.

Bob DeWaay. Critical Issues Commentary is a treasure trove of discernment works and other topics, led by Pastor Bob DeWaay. Critical Issues Commentary was founded to help people find their way out of unbiblical teachings that confused their understanding of the faith. There is so much at the site, you can take an entire course for free on Hermeneutics, or Systematic Theology, watch the video, How to Discern a True Work of the Spirit, learn from a five-video series on How Do We Really Hear From God, read articles reviewing Jesus Calling, Bill Johnson’s book, or Ann Voskamp’s book, and so on. His About page says in part, “Critical Issues Commentary is… a series of carefully researched essays on important theological issues. Since 1992 more than 80 articles covering more than 60 specific “critical issues” have been published. Each article contains Biblical exegesis as well as interaction with famous teachers and teachings. Our prayer is that God uses this effort to help readers grow in their faith and be strong in their witness.”

Michelle Lesley. Michelle runs a discipleship ministry, online here, and has written articles on various false teachers. She also travels and will speak at your church or organization. If you go to her site, there is a link at the top called Popular False teachers. You can also search her archives for specifically what you’re looking for. Michelle graduated from LSU with a degree in child and adolescent psychology, and earned her master’s family counseling.  She is a married mother of six. She loves being a stay at home, home schooling mom and enjoys reading, staying active at church and in women’s ministry…

Sharon Lareau. Mrs. Lareau at Chapter 3 Ministries is another treasure trove of biblical information, reviews, women’s issues, marriage, apologetics, and more. She is a 30-plus years married mom who homeschooled for 18 years. She says, “It is my prayer that Chapter 3 Ministries is a blessing to other women. It is my desire to encourage greater understanding about the biblical role of the Christian wife and to offer support for living it. It is also my desire to support my sisters in Christ in their efforts to be ready in the defense of our great hope. This defense can be given through our testimony and through the work of apologetics.” She has recently written a review of Tim Keller’s book “Prayer” as well as reviewed several of Beth Moore’s Living Proof Conferences. There’s a lot at the site, check it out.

Abandoned to Christ. Sunny Shell of Abandoned to Christ also ministers to women via her website and of course in real life as all of the above people do. She writes “about living abandoned to Christ in marriage, biblical submission, parenting, friendships, evangelism, and my often debilitating and very painful health issues for the past 13 years—all with the eternal, rich, and hope-filled perspective of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” She is a married mother of two adult children who also volunteers at church, blogs, is writing her first book, and disciples younger women. She has a list of recommended books, resources to follow and stay away from,  and reviews, such as The Shack, the movie Son of God, Ann Voskamp/Beth Moore/Sarah Young, and much more.

Wretched. Todd Friel of Wretched Radio & TV also delves into apologetics and discernment issues. He has a wonderful series called Drive By, thus called because you can listen to the short lectures as you drive to work. They are generally between 7-15 minutes each. The series includes Drive By Discernment– 70 short lectures on the topic of discernment. There is also a DVD called Judge Not, about true biblical judging, or discernment. There is a wealth of short clips on Youtube under the Wretched Channel also. Don’ miss Too Wretched for Radio, short interviews with Phil Johnson on various fads, discernment topics and apologetics in current time.

Challies. Tim Challies has been blogging, reviewing books, and offering up discernment resources for ten years.  His website is a treasure trove of archived book reviews, to the good and the bad, plus lots of other resources.

Chapel Library: a Ministry of Mt. Zion Bible Church. This resource is not specifically aimed at discernment or apologetics but it is just too good not to include here. It’s often overlooked or amazingly, fairly unknown widely. It is another rich, full site of lots to choose for free. The Bunyan Archive, courses for free, studies in scripture, 850 books, tracts, and pamphlets to read online or download for free, including Adoniram Judson and the Missionary Call by Erroll Hulse, Advice for Seekers by Charles H. Spurgeon, Am I Really a Christian? by Thomas Boston, Anxiety by Arthur W. Pink, and so MUCH more. The whole site offers over 1100 resources for free.

I hope these resources suit you, there are many men and women out there, who labor for Christ and the common good.

By Elizabeth Prata

Discussions about false teachers makes many people feel uncomfortable. It isn’t my favorite topic of conversation, either. For someone who might be saved but is teaching an errant doctrine, it’s a tragedy, because they are laboring under an incorrect interpretive method, or delusional thinking, or whatever it is that is making them believe something falsely. This means there is a significant stumbling block in their relationship with Christ. Over time that block may be removed by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, or it may linger for a long while, hindering the Christian’s full effectiveness for Jesus’s name.

If a person is unsaved and is teaching falsely, it’s worse. Their eternal destination will be hell, (Jude 1:4) and that, of course, is a matter of grave concern.

However, it is important to have these discussions. There is danger in not having them. John MacArthur, from his commentary on Matthew 1-7,

There is danger, however, even for the truly humble and repentant believer. The first danger is of concluding that we have no right to oppose wrong doctrine or wrong practices in the church, lest we fall into judgmental self-righteousness. We will then not be willing to confront a sinning brother as the Bible clearly calls us to do. The second danger is closely related to the first. If we are afraid to confront falsehood and sin in the church, we will be inclined to become undiscriminating and undiscerning. The church, and our own lives, will become in more and more danger of corruption. Realizing the impact of sin in the assembly, (1 Peter 4:15), Peter made a powerful call for a confrontive church when he said, “For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God.” (v. 17). Believers must be discerning and make proper judgments when it is required.

One way that people deflect their discomfort in discussing about false teachers or false doctrine, is that when the topic arises, they use this familiar phrase-

“We’ve always had false teachers.”

The phrase is used as a subtle way to shift our attention away from the danger of false teachers. As if their presence all along is normal. This is a sort of Uniformitarian stance. John MacArthur on The Fallacy of the Uniformitarian stance

It is the theory that natural and geological phenomena are for the most part the results of forces that have operated continuously, with uniformity, and without interruption, over billions and billions of years. Uniformitarians assume that the forces at work in nature are essentially fixed and constant. Scientists who hold this view explain nearly all geological phenomena in terms of processes that are still occurring.

I’m extrapolating here from the Uniformitarianism in Geology and ecology but it’s the same kind of thinking. Peter said this about scoffers, which is in fact a uniformitarian stance:

They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4).

False teachers have been around since the beginning. I also agree that each generation tends to think it’s got it worst. Except, sometimes that generation is right. It IS the worst. For example, the generation living right before the flood was the worst ever up until then. (Genesis 6:5)

The generation living while Jesus was incarnated was the most hypocritical up until then. (Luke 3:7, for example)

In Matthew 24:12 Jesus warned that in the days between His first and second coming the love of many will grow cold. This indicates that the flood of falsity against the church will not remain static, but will grow and grow and grow. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:13,

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 

“Worse and worse.” So while yes, I agree “there have always been false teachers”, there will be an increase in their evil doctrines during the intermediate period between the two comings. Ergo, as time goes on, “there will be MORE false teachers.” I don’t know if this particular generation is the worst, but it certainly is worse than the one before it, and the next one will be worse still. It will be thus until He comes again to put an end to it.

And besides, so what if false teachers have always been with us?. Is that a reason to ignore them? Do we say that about murderers? ‘Ach, killers have always been with us, so…’

We speak up about false teachers because we are discerning and we care about the souls of those people false teachers are trying to seduce. We are discerning because we put into training our discernment, by speaking up.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14).

We train in discernment but it’s not an academic exercise. After we train, we use what we’ve trained for. As Dr MacArthur said, “If we are afraid to confront falsehood and sin in the church, we will be inclined to become undiscriminating and undiscerning.” In other words,we’ll become theologically flabby.  We train, we hone our skill,s and we put them to use, just like any good muscle.

That’s not to say that we as ladies go all around pointing our every minor difference in theology, that’s not discernment, anyway. If we find something truly startling or errant, we go to our husbands, we see the pastor (not on Sunday, please), we pray, we study more, we wait, we do lots of things besides running around crying wolf. There is a time and a way to confront.

Even though it’s not a favorite topic, (confronting false doctrine/false teachers in church), we do cling to the promise of future purity for the Church. Someday, we will not have to confront anything or anyone. We will worship in perfect peace and accord with the Savior. What a day that will be.

By Elizabeth Prata

“The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.” Leonard Ravenhill.

We are living in a plague now. It is a plague of false teachers. False teachers bring a different Gospel, or meld the true Gospel with a false one, and they try to make the people forget the True and Living God. Jeremiah had complained to God about the false prophets and their message.

“But I said, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! The prophets keep telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.'” (Jeremiah 14:13)

Jeremiah was concerned that the falsely positive messages would dampen their fervor and alertness of the people. Any message that a person accepts that is not from God is inherently damaging in some way, and ultimately damaging in every way. Paul referred to this process as gangrene. (2 Timothy 1:7). False teaching spreads and it kills as it goes.

This is why we must insist on proper interpretation of biblical messages from our pulpits, read books that have proper representations of the Gospel and God, it is why we must study for ourselves so when a TRUE message of peace does come, we can rely on it.

Later God answered Jeremiah,

“They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship.” (Jeremiah 23:27).

Has the United States forgotten God’s name? From my vantage point and in my opinion, yes.

Jeremiah was broken by the false prophets’ falsehoods and treachery upon the people and against our Holy God. Do we have that same attitude today? Do we simply say, “Meh” when learning this one or that one is a false teacher, or say “Well, let’s be loving and not say anything negative about it”? Let it not be so! Were Jeremiah’s tears in vain?

Matthew Henry’s explanation of Jeremiah’s concern:

“Because of the prophets and their sin, the false doctrine they preached, the wicked lives they lived; especially it filled him with horror to hear them making use of God’s name and pretending to have their instruction from him. Never was the Lord so abused, and the words of his holiness, as by these men. Note, The dishonour done to God’s name, and the profanation of his holy word, are the greatest grief imaginable to a gracious soul.”

There will come a day when Jesus will take care of the false teachers. We will shout hallelujah! Until then, do not forget the Lord’s name. Do not seek after false messages brought in another’s name. Do not ignore messages that the false ones bring, but reject them!

Matthew Henry continues:

“He charges it all upon the prophets and priests, especially the prophets. They are both profane (v. 11); the priests profane the ordinances of God they pretend to administer; the prophets profane the word of God they pretend to deliver;” … “God threatens to punish these prophets for their wickedness. They promised the people peace; and to show them the folly of that God tells them that they should have no peace themselves. They were very unfit to warrant the people, and pass their word to them that no evil shall come upon them, when all evil is coming upon themselves and they are not aware of it,”

Honor God’s name by studying His word. Encourage your pastor and teachers. Speak highly of Jesus and lift up fellow Christians, encouraging each other. Reject even the smallest amount of leaven, for it is dishonoring to His mighty name. Most importantly, do not let false messages creep in, for their design is to make you forget the name of God, and so instead, say,

“I will proclaim Thy name to My brethren, In the midst of the congregation I will sing Thy praise.” (Hebrews 2:12).

Some day the visible Bride will be spotless.