Beware of False Teachers
David smith
In Acts 20:28-30 the apostle Paul called the elders of the church at Ephesus together so that he might give them his farewell address. He issued this warning: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” The term in the Greek translated “twisted things” had been used earlier by Luke in Acts 13 to identify Elymas for having tried to “turn” Sergius Paulus, the proconsul from the faith. Paul called Elymas a “son of the devil, an enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy” and asked him, “will you not stop making crooked (same term as in Acts 20:30) the straight paths of the Lord?” The New Testament reveals this to have been a constant concern of all the apostles. Titus 1:5-15; 2Timothy 3:1-9; 2Peter 2; 2John 9-11 are a few representative examples. Do ministers and elders today have this same heightened concern for this kind of destructive teaching?
In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus warned his disciples to, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” Jesus reinforced his point with some illustrations from nature, all of which made the point that what a thing is determines what it does. “Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits” (v. 20). You see, their confusion and crookedness cannot help but come out.
The apostle James asked in 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” Christians need to ask this of the men who lead the church or are in preparation to lead it. James answered his own question. “By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” James would go on to say that those who have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition demonstrate that they do not have wisdom from heaven but that which is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” Notice this. This is not about a slight doctrinal mistake or theological error. Like Paul, James did not hesitate to say that what he was addressing was demonic. James went on to say (v. 16) that this jealousy and selfish ambition produces “disorder and every vile practice.” You know, the kind that upsets the orderliness of congregations and leaves carnage behind that’s quite visible. Meanwhile, the wisdom from above is “peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (v. 18). Contending for the Christian faith does not mean splitting congregations as a result of your sense of moral superiority wielded by what you think is pure doctrine. Scripture’s pure doctrine doesn’t yield that kind of fruit.
When you identify a man as a Christian brother and co-belligerent in your fight against Liberalism and Judaism and this man has identified Adolf Hitler as a man who proved his faithfulness to Jesus by his killing of Jews, you are seriously confused about what constitutes Christianity. Keep in mind that the Judaizers that Paul said could go to hell (yes, that is the import of what he said) spoke of faith in Jesus, good works and salvation, only they presented them in the wrong relationship.
There are some men who call themselves Christians and are even in the pastorate, and the only way they know how to live is by identifying some enemy to fight against by which they think they will prove their faithfulness to God. They measure their courage by how much attention they draw to themselves by the outlandishness of their "courageous" behavior, because this becomes the source of how they are both "persecuted" and gain a following. They have, as Paul wrote, “the appearance of godliness, but they deny its power” (2Tim. 3:5).
Pray for such men. They are seriously lost. Pray for the people attracted to their pseudo-courage & pseudo-humility, and for the men God has called to protect the church from them.