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Marks of a False Teacher

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The Bible warns many times of false teachers.  Here is a good list of hot to spot them:7 Marks of a False Teacher | Challies Dot Com.  I would add that false teachers will downplay, mock or reject any passages you mention about false teachers.  Hat tip: Pastor Timothy.

Here are a few:

False teachers miss what is of central importance and focus instead on the small details. Jesus diagnosed this very tendency in the false teachers of his day, warning them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matt. 23:23). False teachers place great emphasis on their adherence to the smaller commands even as they ignore the greater ones. Paul warned Timothy of the one who “is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim. 6:4-5).

False teachers obscure their false doctrine behind eloquent speech and what appears to be impressive logic. Just as a prostitute paints and perfumes herself to appear more attractive and more alluring, the false teacher hides his blasphemies and dangerous doctrine behind powerful arguments and eloquent use of language. He offers to his listeners the spiritual equivalent of a poisonous pill coated in gold; though it may appear beautiful and valuable, it is still deadly.

False teachers are more concerned with winning others to their opinions than in helping and bettering them. This was another of Jesus’ diagnoses as he considered the religious rulers of his day. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matt 23:15). False teachers are ultimately not in the business of bettering lives and saving souls, but of convincing minds and winning followers.

 

Bible

An interesting response by Jesus. Was He being loving here?

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bible.jpgI was listening to Luke 11 and noticed something.  Sometimes you catch things when hearing it that you don’t observe when reading, and vice verse.

Jesus was in the middle of dishing out some “woes” on the Pharisees when a lawyer says, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

In our politically correct world people would start freaking out and apologizing for causing offense.  But how did Jesus respond?  Did He take it all back, so as not to cause offense?  Was He like Sir Lancelot from Monty Python and the Holy Grail?  (“Sorry, sorry, sorry . . .”)

Not exactly.  Read and enjoy:

“Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers . . .

That’s just one of the many, many reasons I love Jesus.  Instead of apologizing for speaking the truth He lays more truth on them — and even more directly than before.  That’s going to leave a mark.

Here’s more of the passage:

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” 45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers . . .

I asked in the title if Jesus was being loving here.  The answer, of course, is yes, because Jesus was always loving.  But too many people equate loving with nice/patronizing/indulging/etc., so whenever I come across these verses I like to add them to the “Was Jesus being loving when He said _____?” list.

We aren’t Jesus, of course, but we are called to speak the truth.  Political correctness, where you speak lies in order to maintain your popularity, isn’t loving.  We should sow the seed generously — the seed being the word of God.

Christian worldview

Scary Bible verses

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Yesterday our Sunday School teacher said that he found this to be the scariest verse in the Bible:

Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

As I noted in They wouldn’t like the Sermon on the Mount if they understood it, Liberal theologians and even some skeptics claim to revere the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), but that is just because they don’t really understand it.  If they read it properly they would hate it.  That verse is one of the reasons why.

The first hearers of Jesus’ message would have considered the scribes and the Pharisees to be the most righteous people going.  They worked very, very hard to follow the law.  If they had to be better than that there was no hope for them . . . unless . . . they could attain that righteousness another way.  Say, through Jesus.

I find this to be a rather scary verse as well, and it should also point you to Jesus:

Matthew 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

If those verses don’t make you squirm, you aren’t paying attention.  Sadly, the Liberal theologians are too busy abusing the rest of the Sermon on the Mount to notice those passages.

Here’s a message by Charles Spurgeon pointing out how our inability to be perfect or to have a righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees doesn’t give us an excuse:

If responsibility began and ended with ability, a man would be out of debt as soon as he was unable to pay; and if a man felt that he could not keep his temper he would not be blamable for being angry. A man may be bound to do what he cannot do: the habitual liar is bound to speak the truth, though his habit of falsehood renders him incapable of it. Every sin renders the sinner less able to do right, but the standard of his duty is not lowered in proportion to the lowering of his capacity to come up to it, or it would follow that the more a man is depraved by sin the less guilty his actions become, which is absurd.

Every Christian will confess that it is his duty to be perfect, and yet he mourns over his inability to be so. It never enters into the Christian’s head to excuse his failings by pleading the incapacity of his nature; nay, this is another cause for lamentation.

Charles Spurgeon, via Pyromaniacs: On the Inability/Responsibility Conundrum.

Remember, you either are Jesus or you need Jesus.  Despite what the lies of the world say, your “righteousness” will not make you right with God.

Bible, Christian worldview

Casting stones

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As nearly every Bible translation points out in the footnotes, the passage in John 8 about the woman caught in adultery isn’t found in the earliest manuscripts.  Therefore, it may not have been in the original writings of the Bible.*

It is a memorable passage and doesn’t contradict other doctrines, but neither does it add anything that isn’t taught elsewhere.  The problems start when people twist the passage to say things that aren’t there.  Here’s the text:

The Woman Caught in Adultery — John 8:2 – 11

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst  they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.  Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”  This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.  And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.  But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus stood up and said to her,”Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

If someone drew the conclusion that Jesus was once again clever and outwitted the Pharisees who were trying to trap him, that would be fine. Or that He upheld the law on capital punishment (you must have two witnesses). Or that He outed their hypocrisy in not bringing the man. Those would all be good.

The main misuse of the passage is by those who exclaim, “He who is without sin can cast the first stone!,” when trying to shut up anyone making a judgment they disagree with.  But as you may have noticed, that objection is self-refuting and ironically hypocritical: They imply that all judging is wrong, but they are judging you for judging.  But there is more.

Jesus was referring to real stones that would kill the person. Real stones thrown at a real person until he or she was really dead.  Criticizing someone else hardly rises to the level of killing him by stoning. Flippantly equating death by stoning with mere criticism is beyond hyperbole.

And even if Jesus said the part about not casting the first stone, it wouldn’t have meant, “Never say adultery is wrong!”  Note that the passage also says, “Go and sin no more.”

Those advocating the “judging = casting stones” view typically make all sorts of judgments, including advocating hate speech / hate crime laws.  But shouldn’t they be consistent and not judge anyone for anything, ever?

The passage is also misused to oppose capital punishment in principle.  But again, Jesus upheld the law: If there had been two witnesses present, stoning would have been appropriate at that time.

Keep in mind that any criticisms of this post will be considered stone-casting on your part.  And you know how wrong that is!

* Skeptics like Bart Ehrman like to say that this passage and the “long ending” of the Gospel of Mark reduce our confidence that the original writings were the word of God, but they are really proof that the system works.  Based on the work of textual critics on literally thousands of ancient manuscripts, we can be very confident about what the original writings said.

Giving, Politics

Worse than Pharisees.

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In one of the “seven woes” Jesus blasts the Pharisees for being so precise with their giving that they even tithe their garden spices while simultaneously neglecting much more important issues.

Matthew 23:23 (ESV) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Theologically liberal Christians (picture Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis and race-baiting Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie) are worse than Pharisees.  For one, their giving patterns are less than conservatives (perhaps Jim and Chuck are big givers, but as a group they are not).  The hypocritically low giving of Liberal politicians is well documented.

But that doesn’t stop them from calling on Caesar (i.e., the Federal government) to take from neighbor A by threat of force or imprisonment to “give” to neighbor B.  Their endless divisiveness and class warfare are un-biblical and unproductive.  Didn’t coveting used to be a sin?

The theological Left wants to take from your garden and call it charity on their part, and they do it while ignoring weightier matters of justice such as abortion.  And they’ll defend the destruction of innocent-but-“unwanted” human beings while they prattle on about “social justice.”

They don’t give enough themselves, they do take from others and consider it charity on their parts and they do ignore weightier matters of justice.

Hypocrites!

Worse. Than. Pharisees.