How To Discern False Teachers14 min read

     There are teachers within Christendom that you do not want to be listening to or watching as a born-again Christian—their teachings will destroy your faith and will lead you down a spiral of unbiblical doctrines and beliefs. These are called false teachers, and Jesus warned us about them. It would behoove you to be able to discern these false preachers of destruction.

     In this article we will aim to pinpoint the specific problems with the teachings of popular false teachers, specifically with the problems found in theological camps. Although this article will not cover every false teaching, you will certainly have a broad enough understanding to better know of what to look for when listening to preachers. This article will help you to better discern the "wolves in sheep's clothes," and not be deceived by them like the "fool's gold" (Pyrite), pictured above, fools many.

Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

     In Matthew 7:15-16, Jesus warns His followers about false teachers; He knew they would come, and were already among them. Even today, His words ring truer than ever, and we would all do well to heed His words. The Lord said, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits." 

     There may be some false teachers that we are able to recognize without a problem, such as Benny Hinn, for example; but sometimes their tactics are so cunning, and their speech so eloquent, that even fairly strong Christians may fall prey to their evil ways—these are wolves in sheep's clothing. They pose as messengers of God, but are truly the devil's workers. Discerning the false teachers is something that we as Christians need to be doing all the time, for the devil takes no breaks.

     Are you on your guard against the false teachers of today? Or are you, like many in the Church today, being led astray by the latest up-and-coming young pastor or speaker you like? How do you discern false prophets and their teachings? Have you ever even thought of doing so, or do you think you are automatically immune from their teachings? If we as Christians were immune to false teachings, there wouldn't be so many warnings in the Bible about them.

     Consider the following verses concerning false prophets and teachers"

"Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord." - Jeremiah 23:16

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." - Matthew 24:24

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

"You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." - 2 Peter 3:17-18

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." - 1 John 4:1-6

All of 2 Peter 2

     There are other verses we could cite, but these should prove to you that the Lord wants us to beware and vigilant of false prophets, outside and inside the Church. Many Christians today are uncritically following teachers and pastors that are flat-out heretics, or have questionable teachings and beliefs. All of these teachers use the Bible to fit their agenda, and not God's.

The Main Camps

     Among false teachers, there exists various camps where each could be more-or-less placed into. Although some of these teachers may not perfectly fit into one of the following molds (or may fit into more than one category), grouping them helps to pinpoint their core beliefs and teachings so as to better combat them. However, each teacher borrows false teachings from the other, so in the end it becomes difficult to categorize them after all.

     The main ideological camps that false teachers are associated with include: 

• Word Of Faith (name it and claim it) 
• Prosperity Gospel (health and wealth) 
• New Apostolic Reformation (apostolic succession)
• Emergent Church (experience and feelings over truth)
• Ecumenical Movement (uniting all believers/unbelievers).

     There are many more categories from which to choose, which could help in learning what the false teachings could be, but the best way to spot false teachers is still to know the truth really well. As you know your Bible, and are abiding in Christ, you will be protected by God from error.

 The Word of Faith Movement (Name It & Claim It)

     The false teachings you will find in this camp, the Word of Faith movement (a.k.a the Name It & Claim It gospel), stem from the belief that our words have supernatural powers. Basically, if we speak with the "force of faith" and exercise positive thinking, whatever is claimed in our life will come to pass. This unavoidably makes God our servant, giving us what we will and want through our words. It is one thing to ask of our Father the things we need or want, but quite another to claim it for our lives, using—or, more accurately, thinking we're using—God Almighty.

     This movement essentially turns humans into little gods; and, actually, that is what many of the proponents of this camp teach or secretly believe—that we are little gods in control of our lives and destinies, instead of God. These teachers reach that conclusion from a twisted interpretation of Genesis. The Word of Faith movement gives a false hope and a fictitious sense of power to the one who practices it. The Word of Faith movement exalts man and dethrones God Almighty. 

     Preachers from this camp will usually say things like: "God is waiting on you to act; you must have faith"; "put your faith into action and speak out your blessings every day"; "believe and say that you will receive God's blessings, and you will"; "without faith it is impossible to please God, so have faith, because God is working in you for you to achieve your dreams"; "God has a wonderful plan for your life, but you have to go out and speak it into existence, you have to go and get it for yourself...with His help." 

     To be sure, there is nothing wrong with lifting people up and encouraging them, which is why these preachers have such huge followings: they encourage others. But it is one thing to admonish and edify others in the Lord Jesus Christ and with proper theology, and it is quite another to encourage them with the false hope of fallen mankind and his feeble ways. Our hope is to be in God, not on ourselves or our futile words.

     Where orthodox Christianity says that God alone is true and powerful, the WOF movement believes we are true and powerful. Where orthodox Christianity declares God (Jesus) as the object of our faith, the WOF movement asserts that we, and our words, are the objects of faith. Nothing could be further from the truth!

The Prosperity Gospel (Health & Wealth)

     Related to the Word of Faith movement, the Prosperity Gospel (a.k.a. the Health & Wealth gospel) is another false belief system that is rampant throughout the world. The predominant doctrine of this camp is that God is especially concerned with our physical wellbeing, regarding material and worldly possessions. God wants to "prosper us" (i.e., give us things) so that we're happy, or so they claim.

     The favorite verse of prosperity preachers is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Although we could here dismantle these teachers' incorrect interpretations and applications of this verse, we'll do that in another article; but suffice it to say that using this verse in the way they do creates a false hope in people's lives—and makes God look bad when He apparently does not follow through on His "promises."

     Prosperity Gospel preachers do also believe in the Word of Faith teachings, and so the two labels are oftentimes used interchangeably. But where Word of Faith focuses on health, healing, and supernatural acts, the Prosperity Gospel tends to focus more on attaining material worldly possessions and wealth. Prosperity teachers will, however, use much of the same lingo as Word of Faith preachers, which aids us in discerning them.

     The teachers associated with either the Word of Faith or the Prosperity Gospel are charlatans merely telling people what they want to hear. A charlatan, according to the dictionary, is "a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill," in this case, the skill of "receiving a word from the Lord." Charlatans are frauds, quacks, imposters, and cheats; they are skilled at one thing: conning or swindling people with their smooth talk and ways. Paul warned about people like these in 1 Timothy 6:3-5:

"If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he 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."

New Apostolic Reformation (Apostolic Succession)

     Somewhat connected to the WOF & Prosperity Gospel is what has been termed the New Apostolic Reformation. According to GotQuestions.org, the NAF is a camp of "Christianity" that believes that "God’s intended form of church governance is apostles and prophets, holding leadership over evangelists, pastors, and teachers." In other words, they believe that the offices of Apostle and Prophet are still available, even for women, and that they are over the pastors.

     This interpretation of Scripture leads to blatant abuses of power and false teachings. In the NAF, the highest office in the church is an "apostle," who is specially empowered by God for their position. The maturity of any believer, then, is measured by how well he or she submits to the apostle of their church. Consequently, the apostle, according to the NAF, will gain greater supernatural powers as his followers unify behind him or her. In contrast, however, apostles must have seen and walked with Jesus—according to the Bible (1 Corinthians 9:1)!

     Almost as important as "apostles" are the "prophets" to the NAF. These people are the ones called upon for "new" revelation from "God" for the church. They guide the church in establishing dominion in this world through their prophecies and revelations, so they claim. But according to orthodox Christianity, the Canon (the Bible) is closed, and all of the revelation we need has already been given to us by God in His Word—we are not to go outside of it (Revelation 22:18-19). Besides, these prophets' "prophecies" always fail...read Deuteronomy 18:22.

     The New Apostolic Reformation is nothing "new," for false teachings and claims of "special revelations" have tainted true Christianity for hundreds of years—among those are Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Although some of the NAF's teachings are acceptable, they stretch interpretations and applications beyond what Scripture allows, and thereby are considered false teachers by orthodox evangelical Christians and biblical, conservative theologians.

The Emergent Church (Experience > Truth)

     One of the newest fads in the Christian Church is the Emerging/Emergent Church. The basic premise and teaching of this camp is that as culture changes, so should the Church—including its teachings. As GotQuestions.org states, the emergent church is "about experience over reason, subjectivity over objectivity, spirituality over religion, images over words, outward over inward, feelings over truth."

     The Emergent Church Movement is relatively new in the scene, and so a solid collection of its teachings is hard to find. But most of its proponents embrace post-modern thinking, which leads to loose interpretations and applications of the Bible, and very liberal doctrines and theology. Of course, not all emergent groups practice Christianity like this, but most do, so be vigilant.

     One of the dangerous teachings of this camp is that truth is relative; there is no absolute or objective truth, perhaps including the Bible! In a religion where its founder says that He Himself is the Truth, it should be interesting to see how the Emergent Church views Jesus Christ—but it may not even be worth researching. Truth is essential in life; without truth, one is left to constant skepticism and hopelessness. The Emergent Church is void of any true hope.

The Ecumenical Movement (Uniting All Believers/Unbelievers)

     Ecumenism is the principle or aim of promoting unity among the world's Christian churches or groups. A broader definition of ecumenism could be "a movement that promotes worldwide unity among all religions through greater cooperation." There is certainly a noble desire in those who wish to unite all Christians, but at what cost?

     There are times when uniting with other Christians is not wise nor beneficial. For example, Baptists uniting with Catholics for a Holy Mass—when their beliefs of the ordinance are opposed to each other—is not good practice, and may even be sinful. Paul says, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ."

     There are irreconcilable doctrinal differences between Protestantism/Evangelicalism and Catholicism, and, although it is great to want to "change the world" with others, pairing up with Catholics unavoidably unites or ties both groups together, which is not biblical. Uniting with any group that does not hold to the same major doctrines of orthodox Christianity concerning salvation, the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of believers, the nature of man, the work of Christ on the cross, etc., is not wise.

     But the Ecumenical Movement nowadays is even more dangerous than its predecessor. Today's Ecumenical movement is focusing on finding common ground among all major world religions in order to unite them and "fix the world" together. This is wholly unbiblical. Paul sates in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God." Case closed.

     Wanting to change the world and reach it for Christ is an honorable aspiration, but we must be careful not to obscure Christ and His message while we're at it. The Ecumenical Movement sets the stage for the introduction of heresies and false doctrines in the true Church; it is already hard enough to sift through questionable teachings within the Church. If, therefore, we must be cautious of uniting with even other believers, we must be extremely wary of uniting with unbelievers (including cults like Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons), lest God counts us to be working with Satan. 

Discern Common Traits Among False Teachers 

     Among all false teachers, there are certain traits and characteristics that help us identify them and their ministries. Upon close inspection, we can easily spot these traits and steer clear of them in order not to be deceived. The Gospel Coalition lists 7 traits of false teachers to help us identify them; although it is not all we need to look for, it is a good start. The 7 things that false teachers exhibit are:

• A Different Source (they speak by their own authority; their message is theirs, not God's)
• A Different Message (they secretly deny Jesus and teach anti-Christian doctrines)
• A Different Position (they promise "freedom," but are themselves slaves to sin)
• A Different Character (they produce counterfeit, shallow Christians)
• A Different Appeal (they give people what they want to hear)
• A Different Fruit (they produce bad fruit; no true disciples of Christ are developed)
• A Different End (their message leads people away from Christ)

     * Visit the full article for more information.

 * As a precaution, we recommend to stay away from anyone who gives himself or herself the title of: Apostle, Prophet/Prophetess, or Bishop. Although not all who prefix their names with these titles are false teachers, most of them are. Also, any and every woman who regularly preaches and teaches to a congregation is to be avoided; they are in violation of 1 Timothy 2:11-14, and are likely to have false doctrines.

* If you would like a list of popular teachers we believe to be false, please write us at TruthInformed@gmail.com.