The Threat of False Teaching is in the Church

The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), clearly states the purpose of the Church.  Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church, said: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  As a result, the Church has always made great efforts to teach the Bible.  But efforts do not always bring about results.  Interaction with culture, difficult passages in the Bible, and the power of sin to affect the mind have contributed to the formulation and dissemination of false or incorrect teaching.  Churches and individual believers make a serious mistake if they think they are immune to error.  That is exactly what the enemy wants — for Christians to be unaware of his efforts to attack believers through false teaching.

We must recognize that false teaching is a real threat because the Bible continually warns us.  Jesus warns us that false teachers will come from outside the community of believers, trying to hide their true intentions (Matt. 7:15-20).  Peter tells us that false teachers can also arise from within the community of believers, bringing doctrine that is destructive and poisonous (2 Peter 2:1).  The Apostle Paul continually warned the churches that he served that if false teachers in their midst were left unchecked, the results would be disastrous (Gal. 1:6-9; 2 Cor. 11:1-21; 1 Tim. 6:3-5).  Simply put, false teaching is not just a problem for other people and churches out there; it is a problem about which all believers must be vigilant and against which they must be on guard.

Since we are called to be alert to the threat of false teaching in our midst, for what should we be looking?  

If we expect that a sudden and dramatic falsehood will enter the Church, we will not be looking in the right place.  It is true that great falsehoods have been found in the Church, but not typically in a sudden fashion.  The enemy of our souls prefers a subtler approach – sowing doubts and twisting the truth to make falsehood acceptable.

Another thing we need to remember is that false teaching does not always come into the Church as a result of deliberate attempts to deceive Christians and trick them into denying the faith.  Such tactics certainly are possible, for the New Testament does record instances of “the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 2:4) and those who “crept in unnoticed … ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).  We should not be naive and ignore signs of such attacks.  But more often, the danger of false teaching comes from other avenues.

Three avenues to which we must be especially alert are the desire to find some new and interesting teaching or doctrine, an overreaction to other teaching errors in the church, and a desire to avoid criticism, particularly criticism from the world around us.

THE DESIRE FOR NEW TEACHING

Perhaps the most “innocent” way that false teaching can come into the Church is when someone attempts to find a new and innovative way to understand the Bible.  The Bible is an ancient book that pastors, elders, and scholars have studied for millennia.  It is hard to think of a biblical topic about which hundreds of books have not been written.

OVERREACTION TO ERROR

A second way that false teaching can enter the Church is when teachers try overzealously to protect the Church from error.  The greatest and most precious truths of the Bible have been explained and understood with great care throughout the centuries.  Doctrines such as the Trinity, the person of Christ, and the relationship between faith and works have been developed from an understanding of the totality of Scripture and with the knowledge that there are equal and opposite errors that someone can fall into.  An example is when various false teachers throughout history have sought to deal with the supposed problem of tritheism in the doctrine of the Trinity (that the doctrine appears to teach there are three Gods).  From Sabellius in the third century, to Michael Servetus during the Reformation, to oneness theologians today, attempts to “ensure” that the Church teaches monotheism have often resulted in false teaching about the Trinity.

THE DESIRE TO AVOID CRITICISM

A third way that false teaching enters the Church is when teachers are overly desirous to avoid criticism, especially when that criticism comes from the surrounding culture.  This is where human nature, especially our sinful pride, comes in.  People do not like to be thought of as ignorant, uncultured, or uneducated.  They do not enjoy being looked down on by others for things they believe or say.  And yet this is a fundamental part of being a Christian.  To be a Christian means to believe that what God says in His Word is true even if everyone around you disagrees.  It was this way of thinking that led to a departure from the biblical truth about the atonement and Christ’s sacrifice.  Cries against “cosmic child abuse” and a “harsh, vengeful Father” have led some to teach against the substitutionary atonement of Christ.  This, in turn, has led to the redefinition of sin, repentance, and holiness.  Once the thread starts to unravel, the whole cloth begins to tear.

We have seen some of the ways that false teaching arises in the Church.  How, then, does it take root and continue, despite being contrary to the truth of God’s Word and the mission of the Church?  If we can see how false teaching spreads and becomes accepted, we will be more prepared to confront it.  There are a variety of factors involved here.  Let us look at three.

EDUCATIONAL

One of the most common contributors to the spread of false teaching in the Church is a general lack of Bible knowledge and discernment among the people.  A problem arises when believers do not have the willingness or the ability to search the Scriptures for themselves.  This leads to a dependence on human authority and allows false teaching to take root and spread.  The educational goal of the Church should be not just to transmit knowledge of the Bible, but also to transmit a love for the Bible and an eagerness to study it.

INSTITUTIONAL

A second contributor to the spread of false teaching is institutional — the failure to hold people accountable for their false teaching.  It has often been noted that there are three marks of the true Church: the right preaching of the Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline.  When the Church turns a blind eye to false teaching because its proponents are popular or have “successful ministries” (one thinks of more people or more money), or simply to avoid conflict in the Church, it allows false teaching to spread and to be the source of further division and conflict.  Church discipline exists to uphold the glory of Christ and His truth and also to protect the people of God from error and its consequences.

LEADERSHIP

There is a third contributor to the advance of false teaching in the Church, and it is related to leadership.  Even when the people of God are eager to study His Word and the Church is prepared to exercise discipline, false teaching can flourish when the leadership of the Church is ill prepared and poorly trained.  The lower we set our standards for training pastors and elders for the ministry, the less prepared they will be to recognize false teaching.  Pastors and elders who are untrained in historical theology will miss the reappearance of ancient false teaching in modern clothing.  Those who have not been trained well in the Bible, its languages, and principles of its sound interpretation may fall prey to novel teachings that seem to explain away problems or contradictions. To combat false teaching, the Church needs pastors, elders, and teachers who are both willing and able to confront falsehood.

False teaching is a danger to the Church of Jesus Christ, and it can arise from different quarters and flourish if not confronted.  How does knowing the origin and presence of false teaching help us combat it?  Briefly put, such knowledge keeps us from being complacent about false teaching and the danger it presents.  Being aware of where false teaching comes from keeps us alert.  And perhaps most importantly, if we are mindful of false teaching, we will be driven to study our Bibles more and more, to be prepared to stand for the truth that the Lord has given to us and impresses on our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel