False Teachers
A Lesson on False Teachers in the Last Days
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" ---2 Peter 2
This doesn't mean the teacher who speaks false things is not saved. A person can be saved and be in error on a subject. Just because we are saved doesn't mean we have it all straight in our minds.
Pray and ask the Lord to show us what's up. (1 John 2:27, James 1:5) We want to judge rightly and respond rightly. We want to be Spirit led, but we need to learn what that means. It takes time and a relationship with God to hear His voice. "My sheep know my voice" Do you know Him? (John 10:1-19)
The scriptures give us an easy way to determine false teachers.
They will not say that Jesus is THE Lord. They might admit he is God, but not confess Him as Lord.
It says that "No one can say Jesus is the Lord without the Holy Spirit and no believer will say anything bad about Jesus. (1 Cor 12:3)
If they do not have the Holy Spirit, then they are not saved.
It also says to test the spirits to see if they are of God. The test is whether they claim that Jesus came in the flesh. Basically, do they teach that Jesus is God, became human and died to save us rising from the dead.
Realize that there are false teachers who aren't saved, and false teachings or doctrines that can come from saved people.
Rejecting Jesus as Lord is major. Believing in infant baptism, or a pre-trib rapture or some other doctrines is not. Understand the difference between salvation issues, and doctrinal differences. Rejecting Christ, is a salvation issue. Going trick or treating is not.
Every religion on earth teaches some kind of works based doctrine. That humans need to do this or that in order to reach God and be saved.
Paul fought the works based doctrine his whole ministry. People want to add some work to salvation. To either obtain it or maintain it.
The demons of hell will gladly keep us struggling with worrying about our sin. Trying to do better while attacking others who disobey. They love nothing more than a bunch of pharisees who burn people at the stake of judgment.
You are saved by grace through faith. Let the Holy Spirit guide and work on you. Give others love, grace and mercy as well.
We are not saved by Works. (Eph. 2:8-10)
This one is difficult. Jesus said that in this world we will have tribulation. We will have times of trouble.
He promises to be with us through it. And there are things we can do to make those times better like prayer, faith, spiritual warfare, praise, thanks, abiding, dying to self, giving and serving.
There are things we can do to make it worse, like running from God, turning to fleshly remedies like booze, drugs and sex, turning to false beliefs, bitterness and anger, among other things.
In Jeremiah, God told Jeremiah that He was going to judge Israel His people.
Jeremiah taught that God was going to let the King of Babylon take over Israel. And if the people trusted Him, God would be with them.
The false teachers taught that God would not let them suffer tribulation. They taught that they were not going to face wrath. That God would deliver them, OUT OF TROUBLE. They stood in the pulpit and taught that God would deliver them from Great Tribulation.
This is done to weed out the saved and unsaved. To cleanse the temple or body. He allows tribulation to come on His people. Even if it's great tribulation, to weed out the tares.
Realize, that yes God delivers us from trouble. But, sometimes He allows trouble for a higher purpose.
Our response to both, is the same. Realize He is with us, trust Him, and draw closer to Him.
Realize that Tribulation, even great tribulation is not God's Wrath. God's wrath is Hell and the Lake of Fire. God's wrath is poured out in one day.
Understand that I am not saying that God kills babies or gives us cancer to teach us a lesson. Those things exist because of death, the fall, a corrupted world, and Satan. The enemy wants us to blame God for these things. That gets us to be angry at God and turn away from Him. It keeps us from praying and drawing close to God if we think he did it to us. That is Satan's plan. To keep us away from God.
The solution is always the same, turn to God and draw closer to Him. We will learn from the trouble, and we can use it to help others.
5. Not building the kingdom.
False teachers, will keep you in your pew singing pretty songs and scratching your itching ears with some new teaching. For what?
A true teacher teaches what the Holy Spirit leads them to teach. He readies the saints for the battle and growing the kingdom. We all have our part, in different ways, but we will be led to go and build the kingdom.
A church sitting in pews doing nothing is not a threat to the enemy.
Pray the Lord will help you to escape this deadness. And show you what to do and where to go.
Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger from Southern Illinois. He has published in several magazines, and has written a poetry eBook called “Against the Man” and an Addiction Recovery eBook called “Made Free: Overcoming Addiction“ His newest book is called “The Future is Coming” and is a collection of dystopian short stories.
Follow Him on Medium: https://chris-bunton.medium.com/
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