Ep 23: False Teaching and False Teachers

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In our previous episode (episode 22), Amy and I shared about a time in each of our lives when Bible answers didn’t come so quickly. 

Sometimes, you’ll have nagging questions about God or the Bible. This may be a short or a long season of searching for answers. We hope that episode was encouraging to you!

Today, we’re spring boarding to a topic that’s very much related.

As we search for answers, we must be careful who we read and follow. False teaching and false teachers abound. Some are just a mouse click away!

Often, false teachers will take these difficult questions and create their own doctrines or teachings that may seem compelling. False teachers often tug at our heartstrings, appealing to our emotions. We must practice discernment as we search for answers, especially as AI becomes more and more common!

Previous Episodes Related to this Topic:

• When Bible Questions Aren't Answered {Episode 22}

Books Mentioned in this Episode: (Links to purchase these books can be found on my blog.)

• Another Gospel?  by Alisa Childers
• Counterfeit Kingdom  by Holly Pivec & Doug Geivett

Let's Connect!

• Read, Do, & Tell Podcast
• My Website: Raising Rooted Disciples
• Instagram: @raisingrooteddisciples
• Email: becky@raisingrooteddisciples.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome back to this Reading Mamas Podcast. I am Becky. This is Amy. Thank you all for joining us again. It feels like forever, because Becky's been in an intensive course with CIA.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

With the CIA, not the FBI, but the CIA. So it's cross-examined instructors academy. I did the online version and it was really good. I really enjoyed it. It was a mix of apologetics and presentation. Presentations. As you can tell, I learned a lot. She really did.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

If you are a mom, a grandparent, uh Sunday school teacher, and you would like to have some really neat Bible reading plans that you could show your students that would help them get through the Bible in a year without such intensive reading plans as you find online. You can access the podcast plus membership at $5 a month. That will also give you access to the different resources that we show during the podcast, such as charts and other visuals that kind of take you through what we're teaching as well as the guided notes, so that you can create additional notes along with what we are teaching. If you have any questions or you have any requests about what you would like to hear on this show, then you can email Becky at Becky at this readingmama.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yes, you can. So we want to do a few episodes on false teaching, false teachers to just help you beware of those things. So today we're just going to start with an overview of what it is and what the Bible has to say about teachers and false teaching.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

So first we'll look at false teaching. That is a teaching that intentionally distorts or contradicts God, or the pure gospel is revealed in Scripture. So it's important to note the word intentionally. This is not a mistake. This is not something that a teacher may have learned through their years of study, and then all of a sudden realized, hmm, I don't think that's exactly what the text is saying. Or Becky has a good one of an analogy that maybe you've used in teaching.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, like when you're trying to explain the Trinity to kids and you might say it's like water or it's like an egg or whatever you might say, and you're accidentally teaching modalism or teaching something else that you don't, then you realize, oh, and you're, I'm not going to use that illustration anymore. So if that's false teaching, false teachers are the people who intentionally teach these false doctrines. These are false doctrine doctrines that distort or contradict God or the pure gospel, again, as revealed in scripture.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

So to sum it up, false teaching and false teachers teach a false God, a false Jesus, and a false gospel.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

I love Elisa Childers' book, Another Gospel on page 100. I remember that number. It says the topic of false teachers and false teaching is addressed directly in 22 of 27 New Testament books, and that's a lot, a lot percentage. Encouragement to keep the true faith and to practice discernment is mentioned in every single book.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yes, and I love how the Bible not only gives you the warnings of things to be cautious of, but it also tells you what you need to do to protect yourself. What to look for.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

We just wanted to go through what false teachers are really quick. And we have some all the words that start with D, because we're like preachers here. Just kidding, we're not. But you know how they have the same, what's that called? Um alliteration or alliteration. That's not really alliteration. It's where they start with the same letter, but we're going to start with the same letter. So the first thing scripture says about false teachers is that they're deceptive. Matthew 7, 15 is where Jesus basically says these false teachers are like sheep, but they're actually, they're dressed like sheep, but they're actually wolves. And that's the thing about false teachers. Jude talks about this, how they can come in by stealth. They don't come in wearing a name tag that's like, hey, everybody, I'm a false teacher. Don't follow me. It's actually the opposite. They're deceptive. They they look and sometimes even maybe smell like a sheep, but they're really a wolf.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Exactly. And 2 Timothy 3:13 tells us that they are deceiving you, but they are also deceived themselves. And so what that means is if we go to, so if we go to James 1, verse 22, it tells us how not to be deceived ourselves. It says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. And a really good example of this in the Bible are the Pharisees. They are not doers of the law. They are, they just they study it and they teach it, but they don't do it themselves. And so what they end up doing is setting themselves up to be this super righteous person and they look down on everyone else and they are deceiving others and they themselves are also deceived. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

And there are a passage where Jesus says to the people, it might have been Matthew 23, but I can't exactly remember where he says, do um, do as they say, not as they do. He tells them that. So they're deceptive. Another thing that false teachers are is divisive. And oftentimes when there are people calling out false teachers, those people will be called divisive. But scripture doesn't say that's the those are the divisive people. The divisive people are the false teachers themselves. First Timothy 6, 3 through 5 says that they are interested in disputes and arguments. And 2 Timothy 4, 3 says that they lead people to turn away from true and sound teaching. So they're causing people to divide based on the false teaching.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And another thing, false teachers are destructive. 2 Peter 2, 1 through 3 says that they are false prophets or teachers that introduce false doctrines. And they do this with the intention of destroying your faith. But the Bible says that they are on a road to destruction themselves.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

And after we had worked on these slides a bit, we thought of another D word. They are depraved. Scripture talks about that one too. They are corrupt, they are perverse in their thinking, but also in their actions. And as I listen to Mike Winger and others who have exposed some of these false teachers, I mean, their behavior is bleh yucky. And they're depraved. So what are we supposed to do with false teachers? Well, first we're called in scripture, or one of the things we're called to do is to fight. And in Jude 1, 3, really it's just Jude verse 3, talks about contending for the faith. And I think of that, that word contend to me has a connotation of there's a struggle there. And in 1 Timothy 6, 11 through 12, it tells us to flee from them, but it says to fight the good fight. And something Amy had said earlier when we were talking was that it's a good fight. You're not, you're not um just being nitpicky. It's not like I don't like the color of the carpet. It's it's a you're fighting for truth, and it's a righteous kind of fight that we're in.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

And as Becky said, we're also called to flee. So Romans 16, 17 through 18 says, watch out and turn away. Because these teachers look to not only create division amongst the believers, but they also put things in your way. So different obstacles or temptations that may lead you away from the truth, may lead you into sin or to act in ways that are contrary to what God's word is telling us to do. And then in 2 John 9 through 10, um, it says, anyone with a teaching that is not of Christ, don't take that person in your house or welcome that person in. And that's really important because sometimes we want to be um more passive than we should because we want to be kind. You know, the agenda of always be kind. But when you're standing on God's truth, sometimes the truth means not allowing those lies to continue to creep in. It's standing your ground and saying no.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

And I'm gonna say that would be including if you know someone's a false teacher, you're not going to pay them or platform them. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

So what can you do, or what can we do? So we have an individual responsibility as a believer, as a member of the body of Christ. So we need to be prepared. And what does it look like to be prepared? My question would be: do you know what structures or processes, policies are in place at the church where you go? Um, and if and and what those structures are for are number one, to protect the members of the church from false teaching, the leaders from being led into false teaching so that they don't distribute that out into their classes, um, and how they protect the head pastor of the church. So if you don't know what those are, then it is a good idea to request a meeting, reach out to your leaders, reach out to your pastor and say, hey, I have some questions I'd really like to know. And possibly you're not the only one with that question. So maybe request a church meeting where everyone is clear on what the church has put into place to protect everyone from false teaching and false teachers. Um, and then the other thing is you have to step up. You need to know what you're gonna do before it happens. So the first thing you need to know or you have to have the conviction of is do I honor the Lord more than I like my pastor? So are you gonna stand on his truth and stand up and fight back when false teaching is coming in? Or are you gonna be passive and say, I don't want to cause conflict in my church? Right. Yeah, right. And then do you know what steps to take? So back to number one, do you know what your church allows you to do? When you write when you raise a question or you have a concern, do you know how that how your church body or your leadership should respond back to you?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

So definitely. So if your pastor ends up being a bad guy or does something wrong in a in a pretty serious way, is there accountability for him? Is there a a procedure you go through to say, um, he needs to step down? That's good to have that in place.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah, and it may not even be your head pastor, it could be he's on vacation, they have a visiting pastor come in, and you could be sitting there going, they trusted this pastor that's here, but maybe he's been led astray. Yeah. So always be ready.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, it could be it could be a deacon, it could be a Sunday school teacher, it could be a music pastor. Yep, it sure could. One of the things people tend to do is to pit Philippians 1 against Galatians 1. And we want to kind of clarify the differences here. Paul wrote both, okay? So he in Philippians, he is in prison, and as he's in prison, people are still preaching the gospel. And he, I guess he gets word of this, and he basically says, some people are preaching with good motives, and that's wonderful and all. But then in verse 17 of chapter one, he begins to say that some people are preaching from a selfish ambition, but he says, but they're still proclaiming Christ. And he says, for that he rejoices. So even though their motives might be wrong, Christ is still being proclaimed. You still have the real Jesus being proclaimed and the real gospel being proclaimed. And that was more important to Paul than the motives. The motives are important. He's not saying that, but but it's not compromising who Jesus is and the real gospel in this situation.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

So Galatians is when the pure gospel is being distorted. So it's being changed and it's creating a false gospel and it's turning people away from what God's word is saying. That's the big difference, is then not only are they distorting it, but more than likely they do this for their own gain as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

And he even says, even if an angel from heaven, hello, Joseph Smith, were to appear to you and give you a different gospel, and then he has some strong words. He says, I pray God's cur God's curse would fall on you. You would be cursed. That's pretty strong words. When I was at a former church, the the music, I had done some research on N-A-R, NAR, New Apostolic Reformation. A lot of us were doing research on this. We had read Holly Pivot's book that was Counterfeit Kingdom. Great book to read, very practical, and gives great examples, well, really sad examples. So I went to our worship pastor with my concerns, and he basically said, I think you're dealing with a Philippians one issue. And I said, Actually, I don't. I believe we're dealing with a Galatians one issue. I don't know how he, I don't know that he really took that very well, but I just wanted him to understand, I'm not there complaining about the music's too loud. I'm complaining that we are we are platforming a false movement and we are paying these this false movement. And the purpose, I really do think. I mean, I can't read people's motives, but my and my interpretation, or if you want to say it that way, of what was happening at that church was potentially that they were using the music to grow the church because it's also I mean, the music is good.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

The music is is encouraging uplifting, and it has the change in the rhythms that kind of tug at your emotions.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, and I'm a my undergrab is music. So I mean the music is good, and a lot of the lyrics seem safe, but you're you can't detach, you really can't detach the songs from the movement. They're it's baked right in, it's one and the same. So it's not what we would call the genetic fallacy. It's it's all baked in because when when you sing these songs, you're paying these false teachers.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah. And you were saying that you were teaching the youth. Yes. And this was attracting them. Yes. And so when you go to these concerts or you look them up online, it really does turn you away from the real Jesus and what his message is to us to making it really about yourself. Yeah. So let's be determined, like Ezra, to read, do, and tell the word of the Lord. Amen. Is it my turn? No, it's mine. Oh no, it's yours.