false teachers
The term “false teachers” isn’t one I use very often. It seems like a term that one of those “holier-than-thou” type Christians would always be using and I spend a great deal of time working on not being one of those folks. The truth though, is that I haven’t been able to get away from the term this last week. I read a good chunk of the new testament of the Bible in the last few weeks and I’m absolutely astonished as to how many references there are to false teachers. In fact, there are a few books like Jude or 2 John, that basically contain nothing but warnings against false teachers. Yup, entire books of the Bible dedicated to telling us to watch out for people who sound like they know the Bible but really aren’t on point at all.
If we subscribe to the common tennet of Christianity that God’s word is not only what God said 2000 years ago, but what he is saying today…well, its pretty hard to imagine that now in 2009, we suddenly don’t have to worry about this problem. So what does this mean?
I guess it means that we are needing to be wise in what we accept as good teaching. Perhaps it means that we need to study the Bible on our own and discern whether or not what we are being taught is true. I am no expert in this…in fact, over the course of my life I’ve been pretty bad at studying the Bible on my own. But I work on it. I’m just thinking out loud here.
I’d love to take the next few years and study the teachings of all the preachers on TV and radio and examine their doctrines…but I’m hardly qualified. I can tell you though, if your teacher tells you that Jesus wants you to have a life without suffering, or perhaps a life of financial prosperity…well, he isn’t reading the same Bible that I do :)
But seriously, I was just amazed at the frequency with which the net testament exhorts us to be careful about false teachers. I’m going to be thinking about that this week.
