- Aug 9, 2015
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And I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30).
It didn’t take long for Paul’s warning to the elders of the Church in Ephesus to come true. Within the lifetimes of the original apostles false teachers had invaded the Church and were spewing their doctrines around wherever they went.
Paul called such people false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. He said they are servants of Satan whose end will be what their actions deserve (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
John said they have the spirit of anti-Christ. He said, “They went out from us but they didn’t really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19). In other words they may attend a church but they are not part of the Church.
And, as we saw in a previous study, Jude said,
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever (Jude 12-13).
Peter was the most aggressive in his condemnation of the false teachers. Here are some excerpts from 2 Peter 2, a chapter devoted entirely and exclusively to false teachers.
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping (2 Peter 2:1-3).
He said it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then to have known it and then turned their backs on the sacred command that was passed onto them (2 Peter 2:21).
And the Lord said even though they will claim to have prophesied in His name, and in His name driven out demons and performed many miracles, He will deny them entry into the kingdom saying, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers” (Matt. 7:22-23).
You would think with the advent of the written word, all this false teaching would have stopped, because believers could check what they were hearing against what the Bible says to see if they were being told the truth or not. But the reality is that even in countries where the Bible is readily available most believers simply don’t take the time to read and understand it. A great majority seems to be content with having someone else read it for them and then tell them what it says. These believers have always been fair game for the false teachers.
Even today, when information abounds, average Christians know very little about what the Bible really says. Many are more familiar with what false teachers tell them it says than what they know from their own study.
It didn’t take long for Paul’s warning to the elders of the Church in Ephesus to come true. Within the lifetimes of the original apostles false teachers had invaded the Church and were spewing their doctrines around wherever they went.
Paul called such people false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. He said they are servants of Satan whose end will be what their actions deserve (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
John said they have the spirit of anti-Christ. He said, “They went out from us but they didn’t really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19). In other words they may attend a church but they are not part of the Church.
And, as we saw in a previous study, Jude said,
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever (Jude 12-13).
Peter was the most aggressive in his condemnation of the false teachers. Here are some excerpts from 2 Peter 2, a chapter devoted entirely and exclusively to false teachers.
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping (2 Peter 2:1-3).
He said it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then to have known it and then turned their backs on the sacred command that was passed onto them (2 Peter 2:21).
And the Lord said even though they will claim to have prophesied in His name, and in His name driven out demons and performed many miracles, He will deny them entry into the kingdom saying, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers” (Matt. 7:22-23).
You would think with the advent of the written word, all this false teaching would have stopped, because believers could check what they were hearing against what the Bible says to see if they were being told the truth or not. But the reality is that even in countries where the Bible is readily available most believers simply don’t take the time to read and understand it. A great majority seems to be content with having someone else read it for them and then tell them what it says. These believers have always been fair game for the false teachers.
Even today, when information abounds, average Christians know very little about what the Bible really says. Many are more familiar with what false teachers tell them it says than what they know from their own study.