What does the Bible teach us about discerning false teaching?

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But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. -- 2Peter 2: 1-3 (ESV)

In the course of running a discernment ministry it is sometimes asked why more of the focus is not on prevention of people falling into false teaching as opposed to convincing them the need to come out. While it is a fair enough question it does miss that when pointing out what is false there is always an inherent pointing to the truth. The reality is that we are all called to do the work of a Berean in our own walk and ensure that everything we hear is truth. We do this not with an open mind but with an open Bible. You should not trust me anymore than you should trust Joel Osteen. I am human and my heart is wickedly deceitful above anything ever created. My intentions matter not. Only my doctrine does. That said, when I saw this question recently asked again I thought maybe it was time to do another devotional strictly about prevention. How do we spot false teaching while we are hearing it? We will look at five key warning signs God has given us from Scripture, which are found in the key verses for today.

Before getting into the five areas it is important to note what we learn when Peter opens this discourse. He makes a direct comparison between what falseness meant in the Old Testament and what it will be in the new and in doing so draws a clear distinction about the often abused gift of prophecy. The comparison in verse one is simple. Just as false prophets arose among the people in the past -- false teachers will arise among you. Why the distinction? In the past the word of God came only through the prophets but in the new covenant we have the final revealed will of God. So in the old way, someone was a false prophet who claimed to say thus sayeth the Lord but never actually heard from Him. In the new it will be a false teacher. Someone who takes the word of God and twists it. So modern day prophecy is not this mush of clairvoyance and psychic parlor tricks. It isn't cold readings and fake words of knowledge. It is directly attributed to the word of God or it is false by definition. God did not forget to add something to His Word that He is now revealing only to your dime-store huckster prophet.

The first lesson from the key verses for discerning false teaching is to recognize that false teachers will be among us. They will be known. They will be friendly. They will be people that were possibly respected in the church. When Paul leaves the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 he says they will arise directly from among you. This may seem obvious but I cannot tell you how many times the defense of false teachers begins with -- but I know him. When I was on the Michael Brown radio program discussing Bill Johnson that was his defense of Johnson. That he knew him and I did not. To which I say -- who cares? I know his teaching. When you read the New Testament, the false teachers discussed were all from the inside. The Assemblies of God produced the likes of Benny Hinn and Jim Baker. They still currently have the likes of Mark Batterson in their camp. Sometimes it seems that those lacking in discernment think wolves come into church snarling with a neon wolf sign around their neck. Not at all beloved. They come as your friend. Your mentor. Even your pastor. That is why we are not to succumb to the purpose driven cult of personality pastor system. I love my pastor dearly but he did not die for my sins. It is because I love him that I will be the first to tell him if his theology goes off course. Sincerity is irrelevant. You can be sincere and sincerely wrong.

The second facet of false teaching is that it centers on heresy. This is a word that is sorely misunderstood and possibly overused to the point that people are become numb to it. Simply put, heresy is teaching that is contrary to sound doctrine. In this age of blurred lines and shades of grey we are supposed to stand on the absolute truth of Scripture. Things are black and white but only if we approach the word looking to hear what God has to say -- not confirm our worldview. I was saved in a Charismatic church. It was not easy when confronted by the truths of Scripture that showed me what portions I believed that were false. That there was no such thing as slain in the spirit. That Jeremiah 29:11 was not written to me. That the head and not the tail verse has caveats attached to it that I could never meet. Heresy must also be consistent. Anyone can mistakenly say something while preaching. Grace says we give them time to correct their record but if they persist in heresy then we mark them as such and we are not to have anything to do with them. I remember a few years back Brian Houston said in a sermon that we serve the same God as Muslims. There was no question he said because I heard it. Now Houston may be one of the worst false teachers on the planet but he had never espoused Chrislam before so I waited a week and sure enough he said he made a mistake in what he said. Good enough for me.

From the key verse we can also determine two qualities of these heresies. They are secretive and destructive. Just like false teachers do not announce they are false (and many may not even realize they are at all) they do not announce their heresies. Sometimes they are real subtle and wrapped around so much truth that it is easy to get suckered in. One time I was watching Joel Osteen (so you don't have to) and he was preaching about how we needed to expand our imaginations. This is typical word faith fare that believes we need to speak better about ourselves and tries to usurp the creation power of God. His preaching here though seemed relatively benign. While not challenging it was not heretical until he said, "because God says in Genesis I will do it because of their imaginations." I thought this was odd because I remembered no such verse. After a search I found the verse Osteen was referencing:

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. -- Genesis 11: 6 (KJV)

Beloved this verse is from the story of the Tower of Babel. Osteen used it to teach that God somehow is encouraging us to expand our imaginations when the reality of the truth is the opposite! God was so upset He scattered all of the people and confounded their languages! Mind you this is how Osteen preaches. He does not read verses -- he references them. You walk away thinking he used the Bible but unless you go home and check, you will never know if you were actually lied to or not. Another common trick to watch out for is the claim of direct revelation. Joseph Prince for example claims every sermon he preaches is divinely spoken to him by God. False teachers claim direct revelation so that no one will question their unbiblical teachings. God will never give a direct revelation that is contrary to His written word. He reveals things in His Word.

Besides secretive these heresies are destructive. They destroy lives beloved. I know many people who have been so damaged by church that they will never go back. The enemy has them right where he wants them. Alone and unguarded. I have people ask me all the time what the big deal is? So what if Osteen references a Genesis verse that is not exactly accurate? The overall message is positive! First of all, God is not Machiavellian. The ends do not justify the means. Secondly, it matters greatly if we teach someone that God said something He did not. Why? Because when it goes south the person will in all likelihood blame God. So often we hear the lament from people that discernment is somehow dividing the body but that is not what the Bible says:

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. -- Romans 16: 17-18 (ESV)

Division is cause by those who bring in heresies contrary to the doctrine we have been taught in the Gospel. Notice that their talk is smooth and even flattering. It scratches our itching ears. There is always damage and victims involved with false teaching beloved. Always. There is a reason why God calls them wolves. They are not pets. We are not supposed to coddle them, stroke them, or even pray for them. That is right beloved. Read the last verse of the key verses today and you will discover that their condemnation is from long ago, that condemnation is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. I know that is a hard lesson but we need to learn it. We ought to be concerned about the bloody sheep not the ravenous wolves.

The third thing to watch out for is the denial of Christ. This does not merely mean the literal denial of Christ, which many obvious heresies claim. It can be more subtle than that. Do you know Joyce Meyer teaches that Jesus went to hell? Or that the entire word faith movement believes Jesus was born again, which would nullify His sinless life? Do you know TD Jakes denies the trinity? Do you know that John Hagee does not believe the Jews need to be converted to Christ followers? These are all ways false teachers deny the Master that bought them. Jesus is His Word according to the Gospel of John so even the manipulation and twisting of Scripture alone denies Christ.

Here however is one of the more obvious ways someone denies Christ through false teaching -- they make the Bible about you. This may be a shock to us beloved but the Bible is not about us. It is about Jesus. We are not David awaiting our Ziklag moment. We are not facing our giants. Paul and Silas were literally chained in a dungeon. It is not some metaphor for us to figure out how to praise our way out of our metaphysical bondage. Now certainly we can learn things from every story in the Bible but if we go to a church where the Bible is presented to be about us, we ought to run as fast as we can. When a false teacher makes every sermon to be about you who are they not making it about? Who are they withholding from you? Who are they denying? The answer is Jesus Christ. Never let some hireling rob you of Jesus beloved. His story is so much better than anything about us.

Fourth, a false teaching will be sensual in nature. Now we often think of sensual as somehow being sexual but there is a more accurate definition and that is simply carnal. Sensuality is carnality. It is flesh driven and focused on this life and this world. Focused on what can be experienced through our senses. False teachings are easier to spot when we look for which life the preacher is focusing on. Our reward is in heaven beloved. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are supposed to be pilgrims and sojourners through this world. This false facet goes hand in hand with discerning if the Bible is being presented to be about Christ or about me. When the focus is on Christ alone the teachings are about overcoming this world, not trying to find some relevance to it. The focus is on the eternal life. Not so in false teaching circles. The entire purpose driven church model is based upon preaching to the unmet needs of the lost, except for salvation. When advising pastors a few years back, Rick Warren said that if they wanted to give their Easter visitors a reason to come back they needed to NOT preach the Gospel! Instead he recommended they always start a series on Easter that speaks to unmet needs such as improving relationships or finding significance. Beloved that is utter carnality. I do not need seven steps to a better me. I need one step to Jesus. Ask yourself next time you listen to a preacher what is he selling? Is it about this life? Is it how I can have more blessing in this life? I remember once Kenneth Copeland was preaching and defending being given two luxury automobiles by congregants. He claimed he was a little uncomfortable until he read the following verse:

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. -- Deuteronomy 28: 2 (ESV)

This is the anatomy of a false teaching. There is so much a preacher could do with Deuteronomy 28. This is the culmination of the law. Verse one, which Copeland conveniently left out is the qualifier for verse two. It says if you obey all of the law I have given you, then the blessings will overtake you. That means all 613 Mosaic laws which no man was able to keep except Jesus Christ. There are in fact over 50 verses of curses in this chapter for disobedience! We could preach about God's great plan of redemption. We could preach on How He always keeps His word and show how these curses came true for Israel. Their captivity in Babylon is warned in Deuteronomy 28! I hope you get the point. The Bible is about Jesus and the Gospel is about the eternal life, not this carnal shell that is passing away. Those are two obvious and easy ways to practice discernment of preachers.

Just two more facets to examine. The fifth is that there will be some level of greed as a motivator for the false teacher. It is not always money. It could be fame, power or control. It is something they are getting from the false teaching. A vast majority of them however are financially motivated. The aforementioned Copeland is worth over 600 million dollars. Take these words to heart beloved. They are exploiting you. They are taking advantage of you. The Bible says they make merchandise of you. I often hear Joel Osteen defenders point to the fact that he does not take a salary from Lakewood Church and I give him credit for that but where did he make his 30 million dollars? Book sales. Who do you think his books are marketed to and bought by? He is still making merchandise of you. He is just nicer about it.

The final point is perhaps the most obvious but often overlooked. They are lying beloved. Their words are false. They prey on our gullibility, ignorance, and laziness. Ignorance is one thing but willful ignorance is quite another. The vast amount of people who go to church every Sunday do not care what God has actually said. They like their church. They like their pastor. They like their ministry. They like the sense of community and belonging. They like the sheer and utter carnality they get to be a part of wile being assured they are saved and going to heaven. Then that fateful day comes beloved and thankfully Jesus has given us a picture of what it may be like if we do not come out from among the false teachers we follow:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV)

How terrifying! These are churched people beloved. They spent their lives thinking they were serving God only to discover He never knew them! They are the victims of false teachers! Do not minimize this for a minute. False teaching is a poison that will eternally kill millions of people. Review these signs of false teaching and start to examine what you are being taught. You can do the work of a Berean and discern for yourselves. Do not be deceived just because everyone likes them. Todd Bentley was packing in 15,000 people a night to watch him kick people in the face to impart "healing." Stop using carnal metrics to measure spiritual success. What they teach will be heretical -- it will run contrary to accepted doctrine. They will deny Christ on some level, even if it just by twisting His Word. There will be an underlying greed to their motivation and in the end, they are lying. If all of this is too confusing right now, start with the two simplest ways to determine if you are listening to a false teaching. Is it about me or Jesus and is it about this life or the eternal life. Build upon that through reliance upon the Holy Spirit being reassured that their condemnation is not idle and their destruction is not asleep.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- September 20, 2017

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.