Why
Give False Teachers an Audience?
False teachers are historical
constants according to II Peter 2:1-2.
Just as Old Covenant believers had to deal with their “false prophets,”
New Covenant believers must deal with our “false teachers.” The phrase “false teachers” is only used once
in the New Testament and that is in II Peter 2:1. The words “false teachers” are translated
from the Greek word pseudodidaskalos (psyoo-dod-id-as’-kal-os). The
prefix pseudes (psyoo-dace’) refers to something fake and
untrue. Therefore, the “false teacher”
is both deceitful and wicked in his objectives even though he may not even know
he is a “false teacher.” False teaching
leads people into false practices which leads them out of the light and into
the darkness of corruption.
“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. 2
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with
feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth
not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 4 For if God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared
not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them
with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should
live ungodly; 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy
conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among
them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day
with their unlawful deeds;) 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of
judgment to be punished: 10 But chiefly them that walk after the
flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are
they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities” (II Peter
2:1-10).
II Peter 2:1-10 is a powerful text
defining the operations of the false teacher.
I find six statements by Peter warning believers about how false
teachers operate. These six statements
also detail God’s view of how easily people are led astray by false
teachers. Not every teacher is
trustworthy. The answer to the warning
is serious Bible study and spiritual discernment.
1. The
false teacher’s work of deception is often done covertly – “privily” (II Peter
2:1). Your God appointed teacher in your
pastor. He cannot control everything you
read or hear from the many false teachers broadcasting their deception over the
airways. These false teachers cannot be
confronted or exposed. In most cases,
the pastor does not even know what you are reading, to whom you are listening,
or in what way you may have been deceived.
Be careful and listen to your pastor’s warnings.
2. The
false teacher’s teaching leads to the denial of the Lordship of Jesus (II Peter
2:1). The denial of the Lordship of
Christ involves lowering God’s standards of holiness, His directives for
separation from worldliness, and from those teaching false doctrine. The false teacher’s message does not ask for
discernment, but instead asks for tolerance.
Rebuke and reproof should be the
proper response to the false teacher.
The false teacher holds the one being deceived by appealing for
tolerance until he is fully understood.
The Lordship of Christ is defined as absolute submission to the
authority of the teachings of Jesus Christ in the inspired Words of God. Peter denied the Lordship of Jesus at first
when he denied knowing Jesus and being one of His disciples (Matthew
26:69-75). Although Peter wept bitterly
upon recognizing his failure, Peter continued to deny the Lordship of Jesus
when he return to his previous profession as a fisherman after having committed
himself to Jesus to make disciples (John 21:15-19). He denied the Lordship of Jesus again at
Galatia when he tolerated the false teaching of the Judaizers (Galatians
2:11-21).
3. The
false teacher’s “ways” are “pernicious” and they result in giving Christianity
a bad reputation (II Peter 2:2). The
word “damnable” and the words “pernicious ways” are both translated from the
Greek word apoleia (ap-o'-li-a). The intent is that the false teachings of the
false teacher ruin or destroy the lives of people. False teachings give believers permission to
involve themselves in practices that God’s Word says will defile them. This is the distortion and perversion of
God’s requirement in sanctification for His enabling grace. Paul warns of this is Romans 12:2. When someone is “conformed to this world,” he
is made worldly, defiled, and cannot be enabled to be used of God. “Pernicious” is a good translation in II
Peter 2:2 because it means a harmful effect coming from a gradual and subtle
methodology. The outcome of any degree
of corruption of the doctrine of separation provides an equal degree of entrance
into these “pernicious ways.”
4. False
teacher’s use artificial, man-made doctrines to capture souls to follow their
leadership for their own personal gains (II Peter 2:3). One central corruption of doctrine is to
emphasize love while sacrificing doctrinal purity for the purpose of false unity. The false teacher is motivated by
“covetousness.” “Covetousness” is
translated from the Greek word pleonexia (pleh-on-ex-ee'-ah). The word
means fraudulent and greedy. In other
words, the false teacher’s teaching is intent to promote him and gain him
followers. The second descriptor is the
word “feigned words.” The word “feigned”
is from the Greek word plastos
(plas-tos'), which refers to molded or
shaped in order to get a determined outcome.
The intended outcome of their corrupted methodology is to “make
merchandise” of people. The intent is
that the false teacher wants to make a profit out of people’s giving for the
false teacher’s own personal gain. The
false teacher is greedy of “filthy lucre” as well as a desire for fame and
power.
5. False
teachers will not be spared from God’s judgment and are destined for a special
day of reckoning reserved just for them (II Peter 2:4-10). Up to this point, the warnings have been
about following false teachers. Now the
warning is extended to the false teacher’s themselves. Even in these warning to the false teachers,
there is a continued warning to those will to accept their false teaching in
that those who accept the false teachings will share in the judgment of the
false teachers. Christ commissioned the
men He called to preach with feeding His sheep.
Clearly His intent was that His under-shepherds would teach believers
correct doctrine. These under-shepherds
were responsible for maintaining purity of doctrine. They certainly would not allow someone to
teach who held to any kind of false doctrine.
Therefore, pastors will be held responsible for the preachers they allow
to teach from their pulpits.
6. False
teachers are not afraid to speak critically and accusingly of “dignities” - the
truly sanctified in the Body of Christ (II Peter 2:10). A subtle tactic of false teachers is to
ridicule and diminish those with which they disagree. A pastor’s integrity and trustworthiness is
very fragile. Most people want to believe
the worst about others. Therefore, it is
a very easy thing to destroy men in spiritual leadership if those men do not
meticulously guard their integrity.
Clearly II Peter 2:1-10
is a text that defines separating false teachers from influencing believers
away from “the faith.” False teachers
should not be given an opportunity to influence others with their false
doctrines. When it comes to Bible
teachers we are unfamiliar with, it is important to differentiate between
giving someone a hearing and giving someone an audience to which
he might speak. A hearing is
usually private amongst a few involved in a discussion. Giving someone an audience is to
present the speaker to a larger group as an authority with an assumed degree of
credibility. When a speaker is given an audience,
he is also given some degree of credibility.
Recently, in the last decade, some have sought to justify giving false
teachers an audience, and thereby minimizing their compromise, by calling such
compromise platform fellowship or academic fellowship. Such practices, and those that condone such
practices, are trifling with truth.
For centuries, Reformed
theologians (clergy) and Roman Catholic theologians (popes and priests)
practiced some radical separation to keep their various sectarian and state
churches pure. They imprisoned,
tortured, and murdered the citizens of their states to force them to comply with
their doctrines. The Anabaptists were
persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by both the Roman Catholic Theonomists and the Protestant Theonomists.
The Anabaptists were willing to suffer and die rather than allow for the
corruption of the Gospel and their Ecclesiology. They suffered and died for BOTH the Gospel
and a free church Ecclesiology of individual soul liberty and congregational
polity.
The Anabaptists never went to war with the Theonomists. They never tried to establish their own state
church. Instead, they wrote their
doctrinal statements with their own blood and manifested a coalescence of their
beliefs with thousands of their own deaths.
This is what defines militant separation. They certainly would not have given those
seeking to kill them an audience for their false gospel, and their false
doctrines of Theonomy and Kingdom Constructionism.
The present day discussions about the
practice of separation are really nothing more than a new Ecumenicism, only
this new Ecumenicism excludes theological liberals. This is kum-bay-ya philosophy within
some undefined mystical entity called Christianity in a broad ecumenical
definition of the Church. The failure is
both a Gospel issue and an Ecclesiological issue. False beliefs regarding either the Gospel or
the Church make a mess of how one practices separation. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ
are really not the issue. All within
this broad spectrum of mystical Churchianity believe in the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. They
do not agree on what defines a biblical response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and will not even discuss these beliefs because when they do discuss these
issues, their pseudo-unity dissolves like salt in water.
II Peter 2:7 tells us that God “delivered just
Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” Lot was a saved man. The word “vexed” means he was worn down by
social harassment from his chosen peer group.
This is what happens when people who know better continue in dialogue
with those they know to be disobedient. They
may not be fully convinced by the dissenters, but they will be softened toward them. They will become sympathetic towards the
dissenters and tolerant of their views.
This should not happen. The
dialogue should be private and the conversation about doctrine should be
unbending and dogmatic. There should be
no compromise. The false teacher must be
reproved, rebuked, and rejected. Then,
the false teacher should be publicly marked
as a false teacher with public warnings
issued about him (Romans 16:17-18).
God delivered Lot and his two daughters
from death in the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, but God did not deliver him
from the consequences of his own corruption.
In drunken depression from the loss of his wife and property, Lot is
seduced by the desperation of both his surviving daughters. Lot fathers to sons from the incest with his
daughters. These two sons would become
the patriarchs of the nations of Moab and Ammon. These two nations and their descendants would
provide continual strife, oppression, and war for the nation of Israel until
the second coming of Jesus Christ. We
cannot escape the consequences of
compromise. Although God forgives,
the consequences of compromise flow
forward in time effecting thousands and millions.
“6 Wherefore
I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee
by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8 Be
not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his
prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to
the power of God; 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath
abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel: 11 Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and
a teacher of the Gentiles. 12 For the which cause I also suffer
these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day. 13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou
hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 14 That
good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth
in us” (II Timothy 1:6-14).
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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