Beware False Teachers
Posted by:
Bible Blogger on
November 16, 2007 at
12:31AM EST
We live in a world today where anyone can put themselves in the place
of a teacher of the Word of God. They will get up and start to suck
you in with their knowledge of Scriptures and before you know it you'll
find they are teaching you things that do not line up with the Word of
God including completely other religions like Buddhism or Islam.
They'll find parallels between the religions and try to make you
believe that all religions are just as valid even if they do not
profess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior.
"False christs and false prophets will arise
and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect." - Mark 13:22 (ESV)
The Word clearly shows us that we will have people who look good, seem
to say all the right things and then at the very core are not followers
of Jesus Christ. Some are easy to see and some can be very subtle and
will go for years or even decades misleading people into thinking
they're teaching based on God's word when in reality they're just using
God's word to try and obscure their true meaning.
A good rule of thumb I use when looking at someone who is professing
themselves as a teacher of Christians is how often they base their
teachings from the Word and not off of some other source. I'm not
saying that God can't work through a book or a song or a movie. I am
saying that if someone does a teaching mentioning a source that is not
connected to Christ without tying it back into God's word then you need
to beware that this person is possibly a false teacher.
Let's say you have someone who says they're trying to share Jesus with
others but ninety percent or more of the things they talk about come
from Buddhist teachings. It doesn't matter how much that teaching may
line up with a Christian concept...it matters that instead of using
God's word as part of their teaching they only use a source from a
religion that rejects Jesus as the Son of God. If you are a Christian
then you better be ready to pull the concept you're taking from some
other source and be able to say "Jesus said" or "God said" or "The Word
says" and tie it into scripture.
If you have someone teaching you who is not doing that then you need to
seriously consider if you are in the presence of a false teacher.
Remember, the Bible tells us clearly they can even be appearing to you as a pastor or evangelist or teacher:
"For such men are false apostles, deceitful
workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ." - 2 Corinthians 11:13 (ESV)
Of course, the best way to make sure you are on guard against false
teachers is to read the word daily and if you hear someone teaching
hold what they're saying up against the Word of God itself. And, if
they're teaching in a Christian church or Bible study or even message
board, ask them why they openly talk about other religions to guide
Christians and not God's word itself. If you're talking to Christians
then there should be no source that is more credible than God's word
itself.
