What is the Best Way to Protect Yourself against False Teaching?

Some Christians can easily come up with a list of dangerous pastors, speakers, or books…but there are others who are not able to tell the difference as easily. Aaron Armstrong, blogger and speaker, has written a blog piece titled How do we protect ourselves against false teaching? on his website, Blogging Theologically. He relays,

“As a new Christian—and worse, a new Christian developing doctrinal convictions—I tended to wield my lofty opinions (some of which were even right) as a mighty hammer with which to smash my perceived foes. So I would do stupid things like blurt out, “Why would you read that—don’t you know it’s heretical nonsense?” And let me tell you, that does not win friends or influence people.”

Armstrong expresses that sometimes our “mighty theological hammer of justice” does not always have the effect we intend. Instead we should be asking, why are so many Christians prey to these false teachers? How can we address the real problem? Armstrong says the root of the problem is biblical illiteracy among many Christians today. If Christians don’t know that what they’re hearing is wrong, they won’t question it. So how do we protect ourselves from false teaching and encourage others to do the same? Armstrong writes,

“I’ve really come to appreciate the simple truth that the best way to protect ourselves against false teaching (and protect others from it as well) is not always with lofty arguments, but with the consistent study of Scripture.”

I once heard a pastor ask his congregation, what’s the best way to spot counterfeits—do you study as many counterfeits as you can or do you study the real thing? The answer is the real thing…there will always be counterfeits, and new ones will pop up every day. But while counterfeits may change, Scripture stays the same.

 

 

The solution is to know what Scriptures says and compare everything else against it. If you’re not sure ask yourself, “What do the Scriptures say?” Then seek it out. God gifted us with his Spirit for a reason; He’s ready and willing to help us with our understanding. Armstrong explains,

“When we read a book, even by a generally trustworthy source, we need to ask this. When we listen to our pastors’ sermons, we ought to do likewise. When we read blogs and tweets and other such things, we must always ask this question. When we do this, when we are committed to, with the help of the Holy Spirit, seeking to understand the Scriptures to the best of our ability, and when we hold all teaching—even good teaching—up to its light, there is no place for false teaching to hide.”

To read Aaron Armstrong’s full article please visit BloggingTheologically.com.

In 3 Ways to Handle False Teaching and False Teachers Crosswalk.com Contributor Matthew Harmon states, “… every believer is responsible for being so familiar with the true gospel that false teaching is immediately obvious. The gospel is the only way that we can be made pure, because it points us to the only one who is truly pure-Jesus Christ.”

For Christians it is important to spend time in the Word each day because the more we know Scripture the easier it will be to spot false truths. Not only will we be able to spot false teaching, but our relationship with God will be so much richer. We have nothing to lose when it comes to spending time in God’s Word!

Related article:
7 Sure-Fire Ways to Recognize False Teachers

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Prosperity preachers claim private planes prevent flying with ‘demons’ on commercial airlines

FORT WORTH, Texas (Christian Examiner) – Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis – both multi-millionaire preachers of the “name it and claim it” prosperity gospel – have taken to the air to explain their need for private luxury jets, in part because they travel to so many locations weekly, but also so they won’t have to fly with “demons.”

Duplantis said in a five minute video clip Dec. 30 (begin at 2:08) that God revealed to him the need for the private jet in the midst of a flight in his plane, just after a meeting with fellow prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar – the minister who this summer produced a slick marketing video asking his followers to donate $60 million for a new jet.

The board of directors for Dollar’s ministry later apologized for the video, but insisted the luxury aircraft was a legitimate need for the minister.

Duplantis said in the segment, which originally aired on the Kenneth Copeland Ministries website, that God asked him if he liked his plane.

“As I was going home, the Lord, real quickly, he said, ‘Jesse, do you like your plane?'” Duplantis said. “I thought, ‘That’s an odd statement.’ I said, ‘Well, certainly, Lord.’ He said, ‘Do you really like it?’ And I thought, ‘Well, yes, Lord.’ Then he said this: ‘So that’s it? You gonna let your faith stagnate?'”

Duplantis said the comment shocked him, causing him to unbuckle his seatbelt and stand up in the plane. The pilots, he then said, asked him if he needed something.

“I said, ‘No, no, I’m talking to God right now.'”

The message, Duplantis began to explain, was that God wanted him to have more. Copeland then interrupted Duplantis, saying, “You can’t do that [talk to God] on an [commercial] airplane.”

“The world is in such a shape that we can’t get there without this. We’ve got to have this [private jet],” Copeland said. “That’s why we’re on that [private] airplane. We can talk to God.”

Copeland said when he first started as a minister, he often flew with Oral Roberts. He said Roberts, who founded Oral Roberts University, viewed his private plane as a sanctuary. He expected everyone to be quiet on the plane. No one was allowed to speak to Roberts unless he spoke first, Copeland said.

“Now Oral [Roberts] used to fly airlines,” Copeland said. “But even back then it got to the place where it was agitating his spirit, people coming up to him; he had become famous, and they wanted him to pray for them and all that. You can’t manage that today, this dope-filled world, and get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. It’s deadly.”

Copeland concluded that he and Duplantis, along with a litany of other prosperity preachers, were in the “soul business.”

“We got a dying world around us. We got a dying nation around us. And we can’t even get there on an airline,” Copeland said.

Read Original Article Here

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Note from GoodFishBadFish:

We are commanded to test those that claim to be teachers and prophets. Measure them against scripture and see where they stand.

1 John 4:1 – Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 Peter 2:1 – But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Matthew 7:15 – Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Matthew 24:24 – For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Deuteronomy 18:20 – But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

1 Corinthians 14:33 – For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

Jeremiah 23:26 – How long shall [this] be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, [they are] prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

Romans 16:18 – For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Matthew 7:21 – Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Revelation 2:2 – I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

John 8:44 – Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.