Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Test for a False Teacher

When John told us to test the spirits in 1st John 4:1, the point of John’s warning is false church doctrine. What are we to do about false teachers that invade the church? And they will!

Paul warned the Ephesians about that in: Acts 20:27-31
“For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”

Do you see the problem? It’s not easy to detect who the false teachers are. They don’t come in looking like savage wolves, but, instead, they wear sheep’s clothing. They look and sound like one of us. And they don’t make frontal attacks on truth, or we’d escort them out. Rather, they shade the truth. Like Jude said, Jude 4 , “for there were certain men who crept in unnoticed.” Literally, they entered in by the side door while we weren’t looking.

Like in the parable of the Tares of Matthew 13, Satan sows them in our midst while we are distracted. And we don’t have a clue they are there until after they have taken root. They come in, looking just like us, and they seem to love the fellowship, and make themselves right at home. But then, once they are entrenched, they try to change us from the inside out into something different, something less, something false and dead with no life. Remember, an apostate is one who turned away from what they once professed. So at one time, they would have even sounded like us. But not any more.

But, wouldn’t that be why Paul would pray for the Philippians in: Philippians 1:9, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment?” People like to concentrate on the first part. Yes, we want to be a loving church where people are warmly received and welcomed, but we have to have “knowledge and all discernment.” We don’t want to be so gullible we’ll be taken in by every false teacher who would lead us astray.

Well, here is the answer: Paul tells us to “test the spirits.” Historically, that’s always been necessary. Wouldn’t Eve in the Garden have been wise to test the Serpent who was tempting her? It has never gotten any less important.
Throughout Israel’s history, they were plagued with false prophets, so much so God gave them criteria to tell which ones were genuine.

The criteria is listed in: Deuteronomy 18:22:
“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” And God specified the penalty for a false prophet. It was death. But it’s not always that easy. What about when the teaching sounds kind of right?

The answer is found in Deuteronomy 13:1-3:
“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Wow! He actually got a prediction right. Just so you are aware, false teachers can often make great eloquent appeals; they can build huge, successful churches; they can do signs and wonders, or miracles. Satan can duplicate much of what we consider miraculous or sensational. But the true test is whether or not they are leading you to God, to truth; or away from it. It’s directional. And as Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” So the test has to be whether or not the teacher is leading us to Christ, or away from Him.

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