Not Religion.com – False Prophets, False Movements, False Teachings
In today’s daily insight email from NotReligion.com they had a topic I just had to share.
December 21, 2006
Key Passage: Matthew 7:15-20
Topic: Bible Study/Theories“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves” (Matthew 7:15, NLT). J
Jesus is speaking about prophets whose messages were not from God. They sounded like the real thing but their words were false. And Jesus warned His followers to take care that they didn’t believe them.
Today we still deal with false prophets and false teachings: people or movements that promote something that’s not true according to God’s Word.
One false truth is that Christianity is too exclusive. Those who propagate this say there are many ways to God, not just one.
But the truth is only Jesus is the way. In the Bible, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NLT).
Some false teachers tell us that Jesus would expect us to be tolerant and accept all kinds of lifestyles. For example, they’d say that Christianity can’t say an activity such as sexual relationships between individuals of the same gender is unacceptable–they claim such criticalness would displease Jesus.
In Romans 1:26-27, the apostle Paul tells us the truth about God’s attitude toward those “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”: “That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other.”
Another recent teaching is that the verses recording Jesus’ death on the cross should be changed so God is seen as more nurturing. In this version Jesus’ death wouldn’t be presented from a typically violent, male approach. This “rewording” would add a softer, more feminine element to our God and so appeal to the feminist movement.
The truth: God hates sin. And Jesus had to die a tortuous death to rescue us from the result of sinful lives–eternal death in hell. The Bible says, “He [God] sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins” (Romans 8:3, NLT).
The dangerous thing about these false teachings is that they come disguised, just as Jesus said. They look logical or kinder or more tolerant than we would expect…and so they appeal to us. But they’re wolves. And they will destroy us.
