Tag: discernment

By Elizabeth Prata

“Beware of supposing that a teacher of religion is to be trusted, because although he holds some unsound views, he yet ‘teaches a great deal of truth.’ Such a teacher is precisely the man to do you harm: poison is always most dangerous when it is given in small doses and mixed with wholesome food”. JC Ryle

Wolf Week Intro: or, We DO know the heart
Wolf Week # 1: My two “starter false teachers”
Wolf Week # 2: Why Wolves?
Wolf Week # 3: Types of false teachers and their different methods
Wolf Week # 4: Has that false teacher REALLY ‘helped’ you?

I’ve spent the last 5 days discussing from the Bible the fact of false teachers, their methods, their characteristics, and their traits. False teachers are destructive to the individual, to the local church body, and to the faith in general.

and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:30)

So that leaves one last important question. Why does God allow false teachers? Why does He allow them to destroy? Why does He use false teachers to pollute the faith, draw away the unwary, and make shipwrecks of whole churches? (Revelation 2:20[Thyatira], 3:1 [Sardis], 3:16 [Laodicea]). What good can a false teacher possibly do in God’s Economy?

For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19).

That’s the reason. False teachers are a magnet for the sinner, the unsaved, the fleshly. If these people are drawn to a false teacher, and especially if they stay with a false teacher after evidence is presented, a schism forms between the redeemed and the person who prefers falsity.

God uses the false teacher as a magnet to show which side people are on. And don’t think we the forgiven sinner, is immune to following a false teacher. We have sin in us and are drawn just as the false professing believer is. In fact, we should be grateful for the false teacher’s existence if we follow one for a time, because we can then repent and ask God to help us. And then praise Him for his help, patience, and forgiveness. False teachers show us our blind spots of sin.

In Matthew 7:15 Jesus had warned the disciples that false teachers are like wolves that wear sheep’s clothing. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus said He was sending them as sheep out to where the wolves were. In Acts 20:20 Paul said he knew that after his departure savage wolves will come. Wolves are quite the theme in the New Testament. Wolfish false teachers cause division. And that is a good thing, noting the verse again,

For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19).

He did send us a measuring tool to allow us to determine with evidence some who are professors and who actually possesses the Spirit, and that is the wolf. The wolf is a test.

In the verse above, we see the word factions. The word has been translated in different translations as divisions, differences, and even heresies.  It is from the Greek word haireomai; properly, a choice, i.e. a party or disunion. It means a self-chosen opinion, a personal (decisive) choice. The term stresses the personal aspect of choice. Sources- Strong’s Greek and NASB Lexicon.

If you ever wondered why a person would defend a false teacher even after having been given evidence of their falsity, this is why. They CHOOSE it. It is a strongly decisive choice according to the word use in the original language.

Now we read this verse,

Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to the person through whom the stumbling block comes! (Matthew 18:7).

The world has various and ingenious ways of tempting the Christian to stumble. One of the most direct ways is through a false teacher. How?

By doing like Jezebel, by teaching doctrine that isn’t biblical. I think you commit the most heinous of all crimes. That’s why the Bible speaks so forcefully against false teachers, because they lead God’s people into the worse kind of sin, and that is a misrepresentation of who God is. And that’s the severest of all, because if your God isn’t right, you can’t settle anything. And so false teachers are the ultimate who are guilty in this regard. John MacArthur, The Danger of Causing a Christian to Sin sermon on Matthew 18:5–9.

The false teacher is used by God as a magnet, a curse, and a crowbar to make a separation between the true believer and the false believer. For his part, the true believer/false believer goes along with it by his choice. It is a test.

 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2).

So ultimately the answer to the question, Why does God allow false teachers? As John Piper says, “The result is that we learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin by how we more easily embrace false teaching rather than biblical truth.” So the answer is, to test us.

Secondly, everything He does is for His glory, and our good. So while it is a trial for us to endure false teachers, it is for our good and His glory that they should exist. False teachers test our sinfulness, and they display Gods patience. What we do is pray to stay strong in the faith, trust God, and repent early and often. God is good, all the time.

By Elizabeth Prata

Wolf Week Intro: or, We DO know the heart
Wolf Week # 1: My two “starter false teachers”
Wolf Week # 2: Why Wolves?
Wolf Week # 4: Has that false teacher REALLY ‘helped’ you?
Wolf Week # 5: Why does God allow false teachers?

When we read directions telling us to quiet ourselves, to ‘be still’ so we can hear God because too many distractions dampen our ability to hear Him – it says something important about God:

1. It says that God can’t cut through ambient noise to make Himself heard.
2. It says that He created the creation, but can’t control it enough to get His message to the ears of the person to whom He intends to speak.

For years I have written discernment articles about discerning certain movements, trends, and this or that particular false teacher. One of my earliest was a series on Beth Moore, who became one of my ‘starter false teachers’ thirteen years ago. (Joel Osteen was the other). I wrote about that the other day.

2 Timothy 4:3 says, For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,

Thus, one way the symbolism of the wolf differs from the actual false teacher, is that the animal wolf preys on mammals who are minding their own business. The false teacher wolf has a partnership with its prey. The ‘victims’ of the false teacher deliberately prop up the teacher. ‘They accumulate for themselves’ teachers who teach something that satisfies an unrepented-of lust in their flesh. It may be sensuality, greed, health, or whatever. But people who cling to false teachers even after being shown how dangerous she is, have culpability for perpetuating the problem.

Repent early and often so the wolf does not smell out your sin and nurse it for you.

So, discernment is more than pointing out this or that false teacher. False teachers also exhibit certain characteristics. As is written at The Masters University, false teachers exhibit a “pathology.” We need to be “spiritual pathologists” to detect them.

To that end, below are some excellent articles outlining the characteristics of false teachers describing the types of things they do to deceive. If you are reading an author’s Christian book or listening to a podcast or sermon, and you begin to wonder if the person is solid or if he or she is a wolf, these are good articles to start ‘testing the fruit’ of their teaching or behavior.

The Pathology of False Teachers

Here is The Masters University with their article The Pathology of False Teachers“, well worth a read. Here’s a gem-

“It takes careful discernment to see that the light is really darkness. Paul taught Timothy how to diagnose satanic darkness masquerading as divine light. Here’s how he described the key symptoms that identify those infected with the spiritual disease of false teaching:”

The article then goes on to describe each symptom of the false teacher disease.

10 Characteristics of False Teachers

Here is Noah Adams, lead pastor of City Park Church in CO, with a list of 10 Characteristics of False Teachers. It’s at Linkedin but you don’t have to sign in to read it, just press the X and the pop-up goes away. He matched each type of false teacher with scripture, then explains.

1.They creep in unnoticed (Jude 1:4)
2. They operate in secret (2 Peter 2:1-3)
3. They have many followers (2 Peter 2:1-3)
4. They create division and obstacles (Romans 16:17)
5. No matter what it seems like, they do not have God (2 John 1:7-11)
6. Some began in sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1-5)
7. Their words seem intelligent (1 Timothy 6:20-21, Colossians 2:8)
8. They look like legitimate apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Matthew 7:15)
9. They target the spiritually naive (Romans 16:17-18)
10. They twist Scripture (1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 Timothy 4:3-4)

7 Traits of False Teachers

Here is Colin Smith with “7 Traits of False Teachers” from The Gospel Coalition (in 2013, back when they were pretty OK). This is a different article from the similarly named article below. Smith explains why these false teachers are different, with a short answer from the Bible for each question.

1.Different Source—Where does the message come from?
2. Different Message—What is the substance of the message?
3. Different Position—In what position will the message leave you?
4. Different Character—What kind of people does the message produce?
5. Different Appeal—Why should you listen to the message?
6. Different Fruit—What result does the message have in people’s lives?
7. Different End—Where does the message ultimately lead you?

7 Traits of False Teachers

Here is Tim Challies with 7 Traits of False Teachers, which include The Heretic, The Charlatan, The Prophet, The Abuser, The Divider, The Tickler, The Speculator.

If you are thinking of a particular false teacher right now, go to Challies’ article and see if you can match your false teacher with one of his certain 7 traits.

False Teachings and How to Battle Them

Kim Sorgius Jones at Not Consumed has an essay outlining several steps to guarding your kids from false teaching. I am not familiar with this blog or this author, but I liked her approach in this one essay. She identifies 7 false teaching messages that kids are likely to fall prey to in our culture today, including:

Follow your heart,
Godly living brings prosperity,
Right choices will get you the perfect life,
God will never give you more than you can handle,
If you try harder, you can be right with God,
I deserve better,
I need ME time.
More at “7 False Teaching Messages & How to Battle Them“.

Further Reading

Tim Challies “The Spiritual Gift of Discernment” book.
Far too often the gift of discernment is said to be little more than a gift for making good decisions–for knowing God’s will when we need to turn to the left or the right. Yet the Bible tells us that it is more.

Sinclair Ferguson, “What is Discernment?” article.
True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the primary from the secondary, the essential from the indifferent, and the permanent from the transient. And, yes, it means distinguishing between the good and the better, and even between the better and the best.