False Preachers/Teachings

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me (John 10:27)." Those who delight in reading God's word, and have heard His voice could easily discern false teachings from those that are sound and biblical. There is too much self exaltation, egocentrism, powerlessness, and covetousness in false preachers. Preachers such as these attract crowds that want to hear a motivating message that will make them feel good, encourage their sin and promote carnality. Sadly a great majority of the body of Christ does not have discernment because they do not read their bibles, or have a personal prayer life. I do not judge these men, I simply put their teachings in comparison to the light of scripture. Any "new revelation" or "encouraging words" should be weighed with the word of God. Our church was birthed from another church that was completely destroyed by false preachers and teachings. Right before we left people were throwing money at the pastors feet (literally) and worshiping him. God had mercy on us and spared us. The infallible word of God showed us that Christ was to receive glory and not men! I now occupy myself in preaching the truth instead of focusing and name calling, and pinpointing false preachers. Those that are of Christ know who these preachers are even without having to mention them. Nevertheless, if someone was to approach me with a sincere heart asking me about a particular false preacher I would humbly tell him the truth. If I see that a person approaches me and asks questions just to be contentious I will not waste my time in arguing with him or her.

Very true. We should focus our lives around drawing near to God and hunger for the truth to the point that we develop an insatiable appetite for the Word and covet earnestly the direction of the Holy Spirit to help us rightly divide.

One thing I might add to the topic. I have at one time or another qualified to be considered, in the eyes of some, a false teacher. I did not always walk in the revelation that I now walk in, and so I taught some things that today I recognize as not being right in light of scripture. If I keep my heart right before the Lord I will no doubt at some point in the future look back at today and recognize some error that I am now teaching. The point is that we are all growing in grace and truth. We really must keep that in perspective.

Second, we sometimes label men as false teachers who do not hold to our particular take on doctrinal issues. i.e., a Word of Faith teacher and a very orthodox Baptist teacher may be tempted to label one another as false teachers. We must resist this tendency and instead turn to honest and prayerful study of the Word out of heart and desire for relationship and truth in our own inward life. Men who do such are little concerned with who might be the latest false teacher on the loose.