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“There will be false teachers among you” (2 Peter 2:1).
Jeremiah lived 600 years before Christ. Jacob’s descendants had
divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
The people worshipped idols and were immoral.
God called Jeremiah to make His message known. He was a true
prophet of God. There were also many false prophets in the land, who
told the people what they wanted to hear. In Jeremiah, chapter 23,
God warns the people not to listen to the false prophets. And He warns
the false prophets, that they will be punished. From this chapter we
learn important truths to help us avoid false teachers today.
God’s word contains many warnings against false teachers!
Peter warns Christians: “But there were also false prophets
among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you,
who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord
who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And
many will follow their destructive ways” (2 Peter 2:1, 2).
In our time, false teachers abound.
Jesus warned: “Then many false prophets will rise up and
deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). The fact that there are many false
teachers among us and that many people listen to them is a
fulfillment of the prediction of Christ.
He also said: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in
sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew
7:15). False teachers are false not only in doctrine but also in their
appearance. They pretend to be something they are not. On the
inside they are vicious wolves who kill and scatter the sheep. But they
present themselves as innocent and harmless. They wear a sheepskin
to trick the sheep. Yet, discerning eyes can tell the difference. As
Little Red Riding Hood said, “But grandmother! What big teeth you
have!”
John warned: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have
gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
Paul told the elders at Ephesus: “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” (Acts
20:29, 30).
How can we recognize false teachers?
These warnings of Christ and His apostles would be meaningless
if there were no way to distinguish between those who speak the
truth and those who teach error.
When one considers the thousands of preachers and priests in
the world, it is obvious that most of them are not speaking for God
because they teach conflicting things.
One man I baptized started reading the Bible because different
priests in his own church were teaching contradictory things.
His reaction was: “Since the priests say different things, I will
read the Bible for myself. What it says will certainly be right.” The
first time I met him he said: “I don’t know where it will lead me, but I
have decided to do what the Bible says.” I thought, “If he really
means that, he will become a Christian.” And he did. Have we decided
to do what the Bible says?
God’s word enables us to distinguish truth from error.
What does God think about false teachers?
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My
pasture!” (Jeremiah 23:1). They will be punished for their evil deeds:
“You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to
them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings”
(Jeremiah 23:2).
In verses 9 and 10 Jeremiah laments the terrible state of the
land “because of the prophets.” “For both prophet and priest are
profane” (Jeremiah 23:11). Profane means ‘secular’, ‘not holy’. The
prophets and priests were supposed to be spiritual and holy. Instead,
they were secular, they were worldly.
A tourist visiting a monastery hospital in Italy was astounded by
a sign in botched English: “We harbor all kinds of diseases and have
no respect for religion. Please donate some small arms for our
hospital.”
False teachers do indeed harbor all kinds of spiritual diseases
and have no respect for true religion.
Beware of false prophets, preachers and priests. They are more
concerned about worldly things than spiritual values. Jesus said to
religious leaders: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of
extortion and self-indulgence.” ... “Even so you also outwardly appear
righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness” (Matthew 23:25 and 28).
In Jeremiah 23, God says that He will bring disaster on the false
prophets. The prophets of the northern kingdom caused Israel to err
through idol worship. (Do some religious leaders today encourage
people to bow down before images?)
Of the prophets in the southern kingdom, God says: “Also I have seen
a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: they commit adultery
and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that
no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to
Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:14).
False teachers want to be popular with the people of the world.
But whoever “wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an
enemy of God” (James 4:4).
False teachers strengthen the hands of evildoers: “They
continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You
shall have peace”’; and to everyone who walks according to the
dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you’”
(Jeremiah 23:17).
This explains why false teachers are popular! They are politically
correct. They go along with the times. They adapt their message so it
will not be offensive. They tell people what they want to hear.
Are people who follow their own heart in our time told by some
religious leaders that no evil will come upon them? Do some religious
leaders condone the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah? Do some
preachers say that no evil will come upon those who Jesus says
commit adultery because of unscriptural divorce and remarriage
(Matthew 5:31, 32; 19:9)?
Beware of false prophets, preachers and priests who tickle the
itching ears of evildoers (2 Timothy 4:3, 4).
“For from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has gone out
into all the land” (Jeremiah 23:15). They were profane themselves,
and profaneness spread from them to the whole country.
We live in a secular society, a society that wants freedom from
religion rather than freedom of religion. We must be careful that we
do not become a secular church by listening to bootlicking false
teachers.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the
prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak
a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord’”
(Jeremiah 23:16). False teachers tell you what they think, rather than
what God says.
Because of the neglect of the false prophets, the people did not
repent: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not
spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My
counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they
would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their
doings” (Jeremiah 23:21, 22).
We have been warned.
We must distinguish between what comes from God and what
comes from man: “‘The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a
dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat?’ says the Lord. ‘Is not My word like a
fire?’ says the Lord, ‘and like a hammer that breaks the rock in
pieces?’” (Jeremiah 23:28, 29).
If a man has a dream and wants to tell it, ok, but he should not
claim that it came from God. Man’s word is chaff. God’s word is
nutritious grain. They who have God’s word must speak it faithfully. It
is powerful, like a burning fire and a hammer that pulverizes rocks.
Peter said: “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of
God” (1 Peter 4:11).
How can we distinguish between the word of man and the word
of God? Through Isaiah, God commanded the people: “To the law and
to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). We recognize false
teachers by comparing what they say with the word of God.
There are false teachers among us, just like there were false
prophets in the Old Testament. Do not listen to them. False teachers
are secular, more concerned about popularity than purity. Their
profaneness spreads like cancer. False teachers strengthen the hands
of evildoers, comforting them in their sin rather than calling them to
repentance. God has given us the Scriptures so we can know the
difference between the word of man and the word of God. “To the law
and to the testimony!”
“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and
offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their
own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the
hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17, 18). Beware of false teachers!
Amen.
Roy Davison
The Scripture quotations in this article are from The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982, Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers unless indicated otherwise. Permission for reference use has been granted.
Published in The Old Paths Archive
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