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24HourForums.com > The Top 10 Supported Forums > The Christian's Straight and Narrow Path > Exposing False Doctrines |
| Moderated by: JustifiedByFaith, 1jester |
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JustifiedByFaith Pioneer100© Member Jesus...above every other name
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Posted: 03:43 pm |
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Exposing False Doctrine Written by J.R.Hall Exposing False Doctrine Standing Firm Against the Promised Apostasy Introduction On the subject of bible prophecy there is one part that is often ignored. The sad thing is that often times it leads so many down the wrong paths. The Devils deception is great. And we the body of Christ are many times left unprepared by modern teachers, preachers and churches. The bible says this about the 'End'. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" 1Ti 4:1In fact the deception will be so great, that many that either think they are Christians, or those that are Christians will be fooled by this deception. You see the devil is very sly. There are many warnings about our adversary that we would all be wise to remember. One of Satan's most powerful deceptions is to make a mock copy of all that is good. There is another gospel... another Christ.... another spirit. In the study of things to come, we see that the one called Antichrist will wield power so convincing the Saints might fall for it. And we know from 1 John 4:3 that the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work. So what should we ministers of Lord's work do about it? What are we the 'body of Christ' supposed to do in the wake of this promised apostasy? Are we supposed to ignore it, and preach truth along side of error and hope our voice is LOUDER than the voice of the adversary? Contrary to what many modern Christians believe the answer to this question is a definite NO! This Post Modern era that we live in would have us believe that truth is only but a social convention. That the truth of is merely what we ourselves, or a group of us believe to be true. We live in a time of conformity. We believe that extremism of any form is an absolute sin to society, even if it an extreme belief in things that are actually true. As truth is defined as whatever our social constructs deem it to be at the time, we are left in a soup of muddied waters with no hope of clarity. We believe in live and let live, and that in merely suggest our beliefs to another we have violated that person's right to their own version of truth. There are no absolutes. Truth, I mean good, honest and God Given absolute truth is dead in the minds of the philosophers. This same mindset is just as prevalent in the churches today as it is in the rest of society. There are many persons and Ministries out there that believe that we are not to address what we feel to be false doctrine and unsound biblical teachings. They cry out that we are not judge others - That we are not to name names - That we are to simply pray for them and leave them be. They claim that if we do speak out we are tearing down the body of Christ. They vehemently are against those that would expose false doctrine. In a "why can't we all get along?" mentality they forsake the safeguarding of the truth. I am here today telling you that this is not one of those persons, nor is this one of those Ministries. Why should 'God Fearing' Christians name names when dealing with those in public ministry? Because of precedence. So what about Matthew 7:1?
I believe we have been misled into a wrong understanding of this verse and therefore failing to do our duty for the body of Christ. Read in context we can see that Matt 7:2-5 clarifies that v. 1 is referring to hypocritical judgment. A brother who has a beam in his own eye should not be judging the brother who may have a mote in his eye. The lesson is plain, you cannot judge another for his sin if you are guilty of the same sin. And that we shouldn't judge others unless we are prepared to be held to the same set of standards. Those who cling to "Judge not, that ye be not judged" to condemn those who expose error should read the entire chapter. Jesus said, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing... " (v. 15). How can we know false prophets unless we judge them by what is written in the Word of God? If we know of false teachings, and those who teach them, how can we fail to warn the sheep of these "ravening wolves?" All through the Bible we find proof that they should be identified and exposed. Righteous judgment is based upon the solid word of God for our foundation. We can judge others based upon the Word of God. Using the Word as our guide, we judge others. Look how Paul Judged in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 A person who is able to discern between good and evil, has at least one of the major marks of spiritual maturity. Let's look at Hebrews 5:14 The very word 'discern' means to judge. If we are to be fully equipped with discernment as this passage says, should we not then point out issues contrary to what scriptures teach? The answer is an invariable YES. So is it right for us to expose false teachers? If we sit idly by we are in essence encouraging false doctrine to be spread. Wolves in sheep's clothing are thus enabled to ravage the flock, thereby destroying many. Remember John the Baptist? He called the Pharisees and Sadducees (the religious leaders of his day) "a generation of Vipers". Today would we dare tell him to "your too harsh, be kind to our brethren and don't judge"?? We must always remember that the scripture admonishes us if we do not expose error in the flock. What are we to do when we know of 'false' teachers? We are to TRY them. All doctrine and teachers are to be tried according to the Word of God. Every sermon, every message, pastor, preacher, so called prophet or any methodology it to be judged through the looking glass of God's Word. On that note, I hope that right now your bibles are open, and you're verifying this talk with scripture. Have a look at what Christ says to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:2. Christ commends them on what? We are to therefore do the same. Never is it to be acceptable to us to 'tolerate' false teachers within our midst. We are to MARK them and AVOID them. Those whose conduct and teaching contradicts the Word of God are to be marked and to be avoided. How can we mark them? We need a standard in which to compare them to. In other words we require discernment and judgment in light of God's Word. These are not my words. I am merely quoting scripture. We cannot mark and avoid, unless their words and deeds are judged according to the Word of God. We are to REBUKE them. Look at the surrounding passages of Titus 1:10-16. To whom was Paul referring when he wrote this to Titus? For money's sake - unruly, vain talkers and deceivers were fooling whole houses, and leading them astray. Teaching them things that they should not teach. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Just watch a couple of hours of the so-called Christian broadcasting and you'll bear witness to on the television stations today. Many high profile preachers and evangelists are subverting whole houses with their false doctrine today. Are we to sit silently by, while they do this, without rebuking and admonishing people to avoid their teaching? I say NOT! Sound doctrine is supposed to be too precious to us. We are to have NO FELLOWSHIP with them. This one is very important and one of the most often overlooked commands on this subject. Reprove means to show disapproval, condemn, find fault, rebuke, and to refute. How can we obey Ephesians 5:11 unless we try them by the Word of God? You may be wondering, "Well that verse says 'works of darkness'; certainly a fellow Christian who is only slightly off doctrine is not involved in works of darkness?" John said this: We are to WITHDRAW from them. If we have rebuked them. If we have shown them the error of their ways through scripture, and they still refuse to turn away from their sinful practice, we are to withdraw from them. Concerning the last days, Paul says that some will have "a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. from such turn away." How can we turn away from them if we do not identify them? We are NOT to RECEIVE them into our house. This should be an easy one right? But what about Radio, TV, music, etc? Once we have marked someone as a false teacher we are to NOT receive them into our house. We are to look out for those who preach another gospel. I mentioned in the opening lines of this talk that Paul warned about those who preached "another Jesus ... another spirit ... or another gospel" - 2 Cor. 11:4. How can we identify them unless we judge their Jesus, their spirit, and their gospel by the Word of God? Paul goes on to call such preachers, false apostles who transform themselves into apostles of Christ. He also hints at who their master is and refers to Satan himself as an 'Angel of Light'. Paul reiterates some of this in Galatians: 'Let him be accursed'. Let those words echo in your head for a minute or two. Now think of how many 'perversions' of the gospel there are today. Those who teach salvation by baptism, or by works, are teaching a perverted gospel. The hyper charismatic, the Roman Catholic Church, many once evangelical and Christian fundamentalists are preaching a perverted gospel. Albeit, perhaps unknowingly, but they are doing it just the same. Yet according to many in the church today, we are supposed to cooperate with them in evangelism and Christian work and cast aside our differences for the sake of the Gospel. Yet I must ask you that if we fail to expose these falsities and errors, have we not betrayed the very Gospel we believe we're furthering? Is it right to name names? Many mistakenly believe that it is wrong to name the teachers who proclaim false teachings. Again I believe that scripture tells us that they are wrong. Mark these passages in your own bibles and see.
Now doesn't that stand in stark contrast to how the popular ministries and churches are run today? My friends. It is certainly proper and our duty to expose error and to name those who are in error. It is right and our duty to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" as commanded of us in Jude 3. Faithful messengers will indeed warn the sheep of these heretics, and identify them by name. It is not enough to broadly hint of their identity, for the young lambs will not understand and will be destroyed by the wolves. In this time of End Times apostasy, now more than ever before it's time to expose, warn, and prepare the flock for the onslaught of false teachers, the spirit of the antichrist that's already in the world. You will note that this very thing is in our ministries mission statement, and always has been. "…to equip and strengthen believers with sound apologetics and warnings against the false teachings in the world..." Our very motto is 'Safeguarding the Truth' as we pledge to do all we can to that effect. A Careful Caveat to Exposing False Doctrine Over the years I have recognized a few things with many Christian leaders who are dubbed as 'false teachers', 'false prophets' and sometimes called 'workers for Satan'. In many instances if you research them, they are not really bad people. Although I do personally believe that some are knowingly working iniquity and deceiving, others many times, believe that they are doing the Lord's work and are merely deceived or working iniquity through ignorance of scripture. Usually this is evident through dumb choices the ministry or individual has made, but then who of us hasn't made a dumb choice? The difference is for most of us that our Dumb choices don't potentially effect thousands of people, which is why high profile preachers and leaders should be more careful and be held to a higher standard of accountability. And they should at least be ready and open, if required, to a loving rebuke from brethren in the body of Christ. In fact they should, for the sake of integrity, welcome it. On this point I have noted a disturbing trend. A trend that, thanks to the internet and our lightning fast means of communication has done a lot of damage to the process of accountability in the body of Christ. I have seen many misquotes, and misrepresentations of many preachers that it's just maddening. In attempts to expose them as false teachers, sometimes people are misquoting, or misapplying quoted words to suit their own agenda or premise. Perhaps to add shock value to their own sermons, talks, books, etc. There is a danger in exposing error that we may end up being over critical. And I see too much of this as can be evident by any who research the claims of what I would call the 'heresy hunters'. I read what they say... and then I look it up, and realize that the preacher said no SUCH thing. Or that the quote was taken completely out of context with the implications of the author's, speaker's, or preacher's main premise. Sometimes they pour through every word, spoken or otherwise, of the individual in hopes to criticize. They go into each review with the presupposition of finding something wrong and not really giving a 'fair' chance. This is downright dirty pool, and is nothing but a cheap attempt at shock value. Nitpicking everything that someone says and tearing it apart is foolish. It's not being berean, it's being stupid. We're not, any of us, perfect human beings. To expect perfection, is a fruitless and exasperating mission. We need to balance rebuke, with the love and respect it deserves. We need to look at each new issue with a neutral mindset, and allow our conclusions to be scripture based. If we don't, unfortunately what ends up happening is that the 'heresy' hunter mentality actually ends up creating a preacher/teacher/leader who now ignores claims against them because of the so many times that the 'little boy cried wolf' when being over critical. When honest rebuke is required and relayed, the preacher now ignores it because he simply brushes it away as another unwarranted 'persecution'. My friends, research both sides of the story. Don't accept someone else's word for anything… including mine. Gain your knowledge from first hand sources, and then make your biblical judgment on the issue. Now that's 'rightly dividing', and 'earnestly contending' for the faith as required of us by 2 Timothy 2:15 and Jude 1:3 -- J.R.Hall
![]() Jesus said, "Take heed that no one deceives you." Matthew 24:4 |
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DesertRat Forum-Blogger© Pioneer100© Member
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Posted: 04:21 pm |
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Excellent post JBF!
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sumnom Original500© Member
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Posted: 06:27 pm |
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"Over the years I have recognized a few things with many Christian leaders who are dubbed as 'false teachers', 'false prophets' and sometimes called 'workers for Satan'. In many instances if you research them, they are not really bad people." Well, that's reassuring.
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JustifiedByFaith Pioneer100© Member Jesus...above every other name
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Posted: 04:52 am |
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Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Act 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Act 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Attachment: (Downloaded times)
![]() Jesus said, "Take heed that no one deceives you." Matthew 24:4 |
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shirohniichan Original500© Member Obscurius per obscurum
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Posted: 08:47 pm |
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The most dangerous heretic is the teacher who looks squeaky clean, acts politely, dresses neatly, and looks like the nicest guy in the world but who teaches another gospel. Usually they teach the gospel plus the works of the law (or their own laws) as the means to salvation. Any time they stray from salvation being graciously given by God alone because of the accomplished work of Jesus Christ alone and accepted through faith alone, they are teaching another gospel.
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JustifiedByFaith Pioneer100© Member Jesus...above every other name
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Posted: 03:12 am |
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shirohniichan wrote: The most dangerous heretic is the teacher who looks squeaky clean, acts politely, dresses neatly, and looks like the nicest guy in the world but who teaches another gospel. Usually they teach the gospel plus the works of the law (or their own laws) as the means to salvation. Any time they stray from salvation being graciously given by God alone because of the accomplished work of Jesus Christ alone and accepted through faith alone, they are teaching another gospel.
![]() Jesus said, "Take heed that no one deceives you." Matthew 24:4 |
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24HourForums.com > The Top 10 Supported Forums > The Christian's Straight and Narrow Path > Exposing False Doctrines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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