Contending For The Faith

False Teachings in the New Testament

Ephesians 4:13-15
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--
NKJV

Error is nothing new. Consider this quote of Oswald Chambers:

The error of the past on the part of religious teaches has been to present God as a great sovereign power who utilizes humanity without rhyme or reasons.

The present error is the opposite, namely, that God is a great aimless, loving tendency that humanity utilizes to forgive itself, to cleanse itself, and to justify itself.

The quote is very accurate, but the real point is that there has always been error and false teachers. All false teachers strip God of His glory, majesty, dominion, authority, justice, and holiness. There is nothing new about any of Jude&s warnings and concerns. They applied before Christ, during the time of Christ, during the time of the writing of the New Testament, and continue right to the present time.

The Gospels present the concern of Christ over false teachers and prophets on several occasions. As an example, note His warning about who actively oppose Christ (Matt 17:11; 24:24; Mark 13:22).
Acts deals with a variety of philosophical and religious groups, including the issues of Paul&s dealings with the Jews. The Epicureans and Stoics are both ancient philosophical religions which combated Paul. Further, Paul faced a plethora of foreign gods, as evidenced, for example, by his experiences on Mars Hill.
Romans is sometimes viewed as the exception. Paul has the time to write to a church seemingly without problems. So, in Romans Paul sets forth in clear fashion purity of doctrine. This is the great exposition of faith.
1 Corinthians deals with "in-house issues." But, there are hints of false teachings even here. Chapter 14 on the proper use of Spiritual gifts is one such example where the church was wandering down a false trail. Earlier Paul discusses idols and the proper view of a Christian to pagan religion. Further, the in-house issues show the need for purity of conduct. Indeed, much of the letter is concerned with the issue of purity of doctrine and may suggest that many in the church are following after false teachers.
2 Corinthians is, in many ways, the opposite end of the spectrum from 1 Corinthians. It is one of Paul&s most personal letters and is designed to defend both his apostolic ministry and the doctrine which he taught. The clear implication of this need is that there exists at Corinth those who say the doctrine taught by Paul was false and, thus, the doctrine being promoted by these others was correct! The lesson of this letter is that the Christian community needs to learn discernment in order to distinguish between right and wrong doctrine.
Galatians deals with Judaizers, the legalists of the religious community. They want to enforce the law. They want to enforce "extras" to the Gospel of grace. Paul calls the teachings of these legalists "another gospel," meaning that it is not the Gospel of Christ (Gal 1:6-9)!
Ephesians deals with purity of doctrine, much like Romans. But note the specific warning about why we must learn proper doctrine (Eph 4:13-15 above). Notice the reference to the trickery of men? These are the false teachers. These are the ones who speak against the Gospel of love and truth. Here then is the example of the need for the purity of doctrine and the purity of conduct.
Philippians deals with the joy of Christian conduct and the need to follow Christ as our example. The word "sin" is not mentioned in this letter. Joy is a major theme of the letter. But, one must ask, with the emphasis on following the mind of Christ, were there those in Philippi who were preaching a Christ who was not Lord and Ruler of the universe?
Colossians deals with what modern scholars view as an early form of Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a dualism which found, in general terms, matter to be evil and spirit to be good. One way or another, in its various forms, this trend would separate Jesus the man from Christ the deity. Included in these false practices are the worship of angels, vain or empty philosophies, and man-made disciplines. Does this sound at all familiar in today&s society? Angels receive much more "air time" than Jesus!
1 Thessalonians deals with multiple issues involving correct Christian conduct. In addition, Paul corrects false teachings about the timing of Christ&s Second Coming and the Resurrection from the dead.
2 Thessalonians again deals with the Second Coming, with emphasis on the place of the Antichrist, the great false teacher and prophet.
1 & 2 Timothy deal with false teachers as will be developed more fully.
Titus contains an extensive description of false teachers (1:10-16)
Philemon does not speak about false teachings but it does paint a vivid picture of true forgiveness. Philemon is purity of conduct in action!
Hebrews presents the superiority of Christ, to Judaism in particular and by inference to any other religious system. This means that Hebrews speaks against any religious system preached by any teacher when the system involved is not centered on the Jesus Christ of the Bible!
James speaks against the things we battle, the flesh, the world, the devil. Chapter 4 of this extremely practical book moves to the conclusion that anything that is not from God is from the Devil and is hated by God. The false teachings presented by many men through the centuries is clearly not from God and is hated by God.
1 & 2 Peter deal with the practicalities of purity of conduct and the existence of those who would teach, preach, and practice a different doctrine. First Peter deals with the consequences of suffering for one&s faith at the hands of nonbelievers, while chapter 2 of 2 Peter contains another of those detailed descriptions of false teachers. In fact, 2 Peter 2:1 is the only place in Scripture where the Greek word pseudodidaskalos, false teacher, appears! Notice the growth of this word into English - didaskalos is Greek for teacher. The prefix applied translates into false, but transliterates into the English prefix pseudo! In 2 Peter&s context, both the teachers themselves and their teachings are "pseudo!"
1, 2, & 3 John again deals with those who have rejected the Biblical teachings from and about Christ. Many scholars see the false teachers of 1 & 2 John as being from the group which will become known as the Gnostics. This may or may not be true. The concept arises from tradition as much or more so than from the Biblical text. What is clear is that those against whom John writes have left the church and commenced preaching a doctrine which is not in line with the teachings of Christ. John describes these false teachers (1 John 2:18; 2 John 7) as antichrists, false Christs! Remember what Jesus said about false Christs? And consider that in 1 Corinthians, the false teachers appear to have remained in the church. In 1 John the moved out into the community at large. Is one worse than the other?
Jude clearly sets forth the concept of defending yourself against false teachers. Jude&s letter and description of the false teachers closely parallels 2 Peter 2. There is one main difference. At the time of writing, Peter appears to see the false teachers as still being in the future. Jude says they have arrived! Reflect again on Jude 3 & 4, this time from J.B. Phillips: 3 I fully intended , dear friends, to write to you about our common salvation, but I feel compelled to make my letter to you an earnest appeal to put up a real fight for the faith which has been once and for all committed to those who belong to Christ. 4 For there are men who have surreptitiously entered the Church but who have for a long time been heading straight for the condemnation I shall plainly give them.
Revelation is the capstone of the New Testament. The primary thrust of the book is the final vindication of God and the punishment of nonbelievers. But, along the way we run into several forms of false teachers. The key figure here will be the false prophet, the beast from the earth (13:11). He will deceive unbelievers with many signs and wonders, turning them from God (13:13-15). He is second in command to the Antichrist, the beast from the sea (13:1). In turn, the beast from the sea is second in command to Satan Himself.

(1) Oswald Chambers, Biblical Ethics, The Moral Foundations of Life, with The Philosophy of Sin, Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 1936, 1937, 1947

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