BE A BEREAN TO STAND AGAINST

FALSE TEACHERS

Part Two

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Acts 17:11

“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

 

Luke here commends the Bereans for their dedication to the Holy Scriptures and how they tested all teaching they received by the standard of God’s Word. Berea was located in Greece and in this area of the ancient world people worshipped numerous gods and goddesses. False teachers and worldly philosophies were prolific and very influential. Some things never change. Today we still have a plethora of world religions, false teachings, man-made philosophies that attempt to pull us away from the God of the Bible. We should follow in the footsteps of the Bereans and search the scriptures on a regular basis to make sure what we hear and see fall in line with what is in the Holy Bible.

 

The PERVERSIONS of the PRETENDERS

 

In the last part of this series we discovered that today, as in the first century, we battle the influence of false teachers. We learned that the apostles warned followers of Christ about their false doctrine and to have nothing to do with it. I call such false teachers “Pretenders” for they pretend to be submitted to God when actually they promote themselves for selfish purposes. Now we will discover some of the “perversions” or false teachings that they preach. I will only cover a few topics briefly. There is such a variety of distorted doctrines, spiritual lies and strange teachings it would take numerous books to explain them all.

 

Paul in 1 Timothy 6:3-5 warned Timothy of false teachers by saying, “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” Here Paul lays down the foundation for true doctrine. Our Christian belief stands on the foundation of “sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ” and “godly teaching” based on scripture. Paul also shares that when these false teachers rebel against sound doctrine of the Bible they have a hidden agenda of evil intentions, sinful pursuits and malicious actions. So what are some of these false teachings?

 

First, they will attack the Christian source for truth: God’s Word.

 

One organized group of false teachers state, “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.” By this they mean that the Bible can only be accurately understood if it is evaluated and interpreted using their additional religious writings written by members of their organization. The follower of Christ believes the Bible is divinely inspired and does not need to be analyzed by extra-Biblical documents to be understood, especially by documents that are created by men who have teachings and interpretations that are contrary to the Bible. The Bible stands alone and is self-authenticating. There are more original transcripts for the Bible than any other ancient book to verify its reliability. The documents these individuals have created within their organization have no such archeological and textual evidence to verify their truth or reliability. The history of development and creation of this organization’s books and writings have dubious validity and are in contradiction to the Word of God. They attempt to alter scripture so that their man-made doctrines dictate what to believe rather than the Bible setting the standard for belief.

 

Another group accomplishes the same doctrinal diversion by changing words in the Bible to suit their fancy and calling their Bible the truly inspired version by renaming it according to their organizational printing company. They develop their own version of the Bible changing words and verses to agree with their own doctrine. In essence they develop their doctrine, and then reword the Bible to fit their false doctrine. Again this is tampering with God’s Word to suit their tastes and desires. Scripture tells us to come to the Bible and let it change us, not for us to come to the Bible to change it so it suits our belief system. Holy Scripture tells us that it is from God because God inspired and used men to write it.

 

2 Timothy 3:16-17

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

2 Peter 1:20-21

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

 

Secondly, these false teachers will attack the Deity and Sufficiency of Christ Jesus.

 

The false teachers will deny that Jesus was fully God and man at the same time or they will confuse the issue by saying He gave up His divinity to some degree as He walked on the earth. Here are some quotes stating such false beliefs.

 

“Jesus Christ … had NO supernatural capabilities whatsoever! While He is 100 percent God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man would face once He was redeemed…He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God…not as God.”

 

Here this false teacher is saying that while Jesus was God, He was not fully God because He had no supernatural capabilities! In Philippians Chapter 2 it states that Jesus became a servant by emptying Himself and giving up His glory, but it does NOT say He gave up His deity and supernatural abilities as God. Jesus was both God and man and all miracles He performed were done as God in the flesh.

 

Another quote by the same false teacher is as follows,

 

“He became sin so I might become the righteousness of God.”

 

This is blasphemy! Jesus did not become sin, He was sinless. Jesus was perfect, pure and holy and was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He died on the cross for our sins, but He did not become sin.

 

Yet another quotation from the same false teacher states,

 

“It was not sufficient that Jesus be sent from heaven to earth with a title. He had to receive the anointing in an experience to accomplish what the Father desired.”

 

Here the false teacher is attempting to promote mystical driven religious experiences as a basis for faith and living the Christian life. We will have religious and spiritual experiences as we live the Christian life, but they are not the basis for our faith. The basis for our faith is the Word of God. We read and understand with our mind and through the knowledge of the Bible, applying faith and gaining wisdom we live the Christian life with the power of the Spirit. We are not to seek experiences or a special anointing as the basis for our faith. Experiences must be tested by God’s Word or who knows what evil doctrinal ideas will invade our spiritual thoughts and lives. Seeking a special anointing appeals to our pride and seeks to foster a desire to gain more and more such anointings to grow spiritually when we should be growing in our faith, knowledge and wisdom. While there is danger in growing only in knowledge because it can puff up our pride, if we make experience and a quest for yet another anointing the foundation of our faith we falter in knowing and living out the truth of scripture. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and the verification of His call to ministry at His baptism, His anointing you might say, was a sign to those who witnessed it that He was so called. The voice of God speaking and the descending of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at His Baptism (Luke 3:22) was not necessary for Him to carry out His ministry, but it validated His call for those present and is still a witness of this fact to us today.

 

A different organization states that Jesus was, “The First Creation of God.” Again, this is blasphemy. Jesus is not a created being. He is God and has always existed. He had no beginning and will have no end. He is eternal. Scripture calls Him the “Alpha and Omega” Revelation 1:8.

 

The same organization above also states the following regarding Jesus. “Michael the archangel is no other than the only-begotten Son of God, now Jesus Christ.” So according to this organization that teaches falsehood, not only is Jesus a created being he was actually Michael the archangel who transformed himself into Jesus. These are lies from the devil who wishes to twist truth and promote falsehood, especially about Jesus Christ.

 

Numerous scripture describe and support the deity of Christ.

 

Philippians 2:5-8

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!”

 

In verse 6 of this passage it states that Jesus was in His very nature God. The phrase, “being in the very nature God” is critical here. The Greek word “huparcho” for “being” denotes that which a person is in their very nature or essence. This nature or essence cannot be altered or changed. It is what they are and always will be. This nature is unalterable and cannot be removed or modified. Now the word “nature” or “form” in verse 6 is best interpreted by looking at the original Greek word used here. This Greek word is “morphe” and it has to do with a deep inner essential abiding nature of something that never changes. It is not the “external” form. This phrase is saying that Christ was and is God completely and absolutely and He will always be God. This has always been an important basic doctrine of the Christian faith, the established and substantiated belief in the deity of Jesus Christ, and it is a cornerstone upon which His universal church is based. Now at the end of verse 6 it says, Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” What does that mean? In Heaven the angel Satan who was a created being attempted to grasp equality with God for himself. But He could not because this was not His essence or nature. This verse tells us that Jesus didn’t attempt to grasp a God nature because He was already equal to God. There was nothing for Him to seek. There was nothing for Him to grasp, because He was already God. This is a classic statement affirming that Jesus was and always will be God in His inner nature. So much so that He didn’t seek it and He never feared He’d lose it. He’s God. This is a basic doctrine of Christianity. Other verses which speak of Jesus’ divinity are as follows.

 

Hebrews 1:3

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,”

 

Colossians 1:15

“He is the image of the invisible God.”

 

Colossians 2:9-10

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,”

 

In the next part of this series we will cover two more “perversions” that false teachers promote in their teachings. We will cover in more detail the mystical experiences that these “pretenders” promote in their books, lectures and studies. We will also cover their distortions concerning how a person is saved.