Each of us bears the responsibility of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone we meet (Matthew 28:19-20; Romans 10:14). Today, there is no shortage of voices claiming to speak the truth of God’s Word. On the surface, that is wonderful news. The more voices, the more the message spreads. The frightening truth is many of those voices are not teaching the gospel we find in scripture.
For every faithful adherent to God’s Word, it seems there are ten who are twisting, distorting, and abusing the simple truth of the Bible. Given the warnings in scripture against such things (2 Peter 2:1-3; Galatians 1:8-9), it amazes me how many will eschew the commands of God and dare to live in the path of His holy and consuming wrath (Hebrews 10:26-27; Romans 1:18-19). False teachers flaunt their arrogance and will reap their just reward (Jude 12-13; Matthew 7:21-23).
The New Testament is replete with warnings against false teachers, which tells us this is not a recent phenomenon. What is new is, thanks to television, radio, and the internet, the reach and proliferation of their teaching is greater than ever. So serious does the New Testament take false teachers that 23 out of its 27 books address the topic. Even more telling, every New Testament author tackles the subject. While we shouldn’t obsess over looking for false teaching wherever we can find it, we must not ignore how important it is to recognize it when we hear it.
False teachers these days fall into a few broad camps. There are those who preach what is often called the prosperity gospel. These practitioners promise health, wealth, and success for giving to their ministries. Another camp is the one promising you can be just like Jesus, doing all the same miracles and commanding angels and demons. A third camp is the most subtle of all, proclaiming much Biblical truth but deviating into heretical concepts like Modalism (which denies the trinity) or Universalism (which teaches all people will find salvation in the end). This is painting with a broad brush. There are others, of course, and all of them overlap with each other.
With so many voices, how do you discern which are speaking truth and which are perverting the gospel? There’s no shortcut here; you are going to have to know your Bible. If you are a follower of Christ, studying His Word should be the deep longing of your heart (Psalm 119:11; Psalm 119:47-48; Matthew 4:4). You’ve got to dig in.
Paul writes that anyone proclaiming a different gospel than what was given to the Apostles is a false teacher because a different gospel is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-9). Jude warns against those who proclaim God’s Word to get rich (Jude 11). John teaches us to stay far away from anyone who adds their opinions or so-called “revelations” to scripture (2 John 7-11; Revelation 22:18-19). Peter tells us to be on guard against those who bring destructive heresies into the Church (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Time and again, the Bible warns us against false teachers. They are often slick, amazing speakers, and almost always weave some actual truth into their teaching. Their goal is to entice you to listen to them, but don’t fall for their lies. Listen long enough and you will believe teaching that has no basis in scripture.
We have no authority other than God, and He reveals Himself in the pages of His Word. Anything anyone adds or takes away from scripture is a sure sign of a false teacher. Run as fast as you can from them, no matter how much you like what they say. The more popular the speaker, the more careful you should be (2 Timothy 4:3). Remember, the road to God is not popular (Matthew 7:13-14). It is the narrow way, and few will find it (Luke 13:24-25). As false teachers proliferate, we all need to double down in our study of scripture so we can rightly divide the word of truth and discern error when we hear it (2 Timothy 2:15; Acts 17:11).