False Doctrines
I recently saw a post by someone I once knew about a hotly debated topic in theology. I won’t give his stance a platform here, because I believe he took a dangerous view on the issue, but suffice it to say, it got me to thinking about false doctrines — a topic not taken lightly in the Bible, and one that we should not take lightly either.
“Doctrine” means “teaching,” and when we use it in the church, we usually mean “something the Bible teaches”. Some doctrines of the Bible are concepts, like that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Others might be moral doctrines, like that we ought to be humble and think of others as better than ourselves.
So, if a doctrine is something that the Bible teaches us, what is a false doctrine? I would define it as something unbiblical, being labeled as something that the Bible teaches. For instance, if somebody began saying, “The Bible says do unto others as they do unto you,” we could call that a false doctrine. What Jesus has actually said is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is not a license to be unkind to people who have hurt us. It is exactly the opposite! You begin to see how easily someone can begin to spread one of these false doctrines. And how, if we believe them, they can drastically affect the way we live our lives! In our example above, it’s the difference between loving forbearance and outright revenge!
So what must we do to protect ourselves from the influence of false doctrines? I think there are a few steps we can take, and the first is to know the truth to begin with. My dad always used to say that people who are trained to spot counterfeit money don’t learn by studying counterfeits. They learn by studying the real thing, so they can tell a fake when they see it! We must approach false doctrines this way. Go to the source. Read the scriptures, and know them well. The Apostle Paul said “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse!” (Gal. 1:8, NIV) There will be other twisted “gospels” preached in this world. There has been since the beginning. But the same one Paul preached 2,000 years ago is just as true today, and that is the one we must know and familiarize ourselves with.
The second thing we can do is to humble ourselves and accept God’s word. You see, scripture tells us that false teachers will take advantage of our sinful desires to gain credibility in our minds. Paul told Timothy that there would be a day when people with “itching ears” would only listen to preachers that told them what they wanted to hear. Not all false teaching is scary and occult. Some of it is subtle, and it validates our sinful desires. Such teachings might actually make us feel good, and we cannot leave it up to our own hearts to decide what is right and wrong in those situations. The Prophet Jeremiah said that the heart is deceitful, irreversibly sick! There is sin living in our hearts, and it will latch on to preaching that validates our sinful lifestyles if we are not careful. But scripture tells us what to do. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote this: “Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (Jas. 1:21, CSB) The gist is this: no matter how we feel about it, we need to be humble enough to take God at his word. It feels good when someone says of your sin, “It’s okay, that’s just who you are. Embrace it. Enjoy it.” But that is a sure path to destruction. (Prov. 14:12) Instead, look to God’s word, and say to Him, “God, my sinful heart would have me ignore you, but I know you know what’s best. Help me to humbly trust you, because I know your ways are wonderful, and that you work out all things for the good of those that love you.”
In this age of information, where everybody has the internet as a platform, and a ready opinion to wield, I pray that you will not leave it up to the “winds of doctrine” to guide what you believe, but that you will go to the source — God’s inspired revelation, the Bible — and humbly accept what it says. It will not always be popular, but it will always be right. And the path it leads you down is the pathway to life.
