“There is no substitute for reading the Bible;
it sheds a great deal of light on the commentaries!”
– Anonymous
From the very moment Jesus left to return home to His heavenly Father, the gospel began being distorted. In less then 20 years false teachers were appearing virtually everywhere. The flock was quickly deserting and was turning to a different gospel. Paul warned the Church that false prophets and teachers had come preaching “another Jesus” and “another gospel”. “Grievous wolves” had entered among the flock. Satan’s “ministers of righteousness” had been raised up from within the very church itself.
The threat wasn’t an invader from the outside. Far worse, it was deception from within. The devil had engaged his agents from within the body of believers. Their message sounded good, in fact it sounded better than truth. To many it was more attractive than truth itself, but it was in fact clever deception. Perverted truth was doing far more damage then outright lies and distortion. Paul and his peers were deeply concerned for they knew that much damage would be done through this clever assault on the Church.
2 Peter 3:16 … ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. NIV
Yet, in nearly 2,000 years nothing has improved. In fact, if anything the deception has worsened. Jesus warned that as we approach the end of time, that Satan and his army would step up their activity to infiltrate and deceive the Church. Over the years a body of false doctrine has been incorporated into the very essence of church doctrine; it has become an old tradition of the church passed on from generation to generation. We are admonished in Scripture to test everything and hold fast to that which is true. So, how do we recognize Satan’s tactics? How can we prepare ourselves to spot distorted truth?
Actually the answer is simple; it is the application that is difficult. We must carefully arm ourselves with truth. Just as bank-tellers study good money in order to recognize counterfeit, so we should study God’s Word to enable us to detect error and deception. The bottom line is that we will never recognize abuse and misuse of scripture if we don’t use scripture – and, especially, accept God’s word just as it was written and intended.
“For every ten men willing to die for the Bible, only one is willing to actually read it.” – Charles Spurgeon
Many may say this volume carries a decidedly negative tone. If it does, I apologize, for it is not written as an accusation. It is meant to be an exposé of misinformation damaging our walk and relationship with Jesus Christ. Satan, the father of lies, has distorted God’s most important truths to undermine the power God intended the church to wield in this world over the powers of darkness.
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. KJV
Others will say we are not to judge. I contend that this is a perversion of scripture. We have to judge; we are called to judge especially where truth is concerned. I am not to judge your motives and intentions of the heart; that I am to leave to God. But, as watchmen on the wall, God called us to divide error from truth and to sound the alarm when the enemy is at work.
Anything less is a tacit endorsement of false doctrine. It is to confuse Christian love with passivity, or outright apathy; in fact, what could be more loving than to expose a lie that is undermining our faith?
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
We are to judge mistruth and half-truth, in light of God’s real truth. We must all judge and “rightly divide” God’s word.
“Of course we must judge. That is what thinking people do. We make decisions based on distinctions every day. In the church, the pastors must care enough for the sheep to teach them the truth about God … Truth about God and his gospel is essential to our living in this present age and preparing for what is to come. Let us seek to know the truth that honors God and liberates mankind.” – Dudley Hall
We must study to “show ourselves approved”, to be able to “rightly divide” truth from error. Only those who do God’s will, can be counted on to truly recognize God’s word. Only they will see the subtle counterfeit for what it is.
John 7:17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
Sadly, so much of what is spoken in the church is simply not of God. It is high time to weed out false doctrine, so that it no longer saps the power from God’s truth.