Christian Apologetics & Bible Doctrine
Defending The
Faith Once For All Delivered To The Saints For
the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead,
to suit their own desires, they will
gather around them a great number
of
teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. II
Timothy 4:3
Many
will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and
in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will
declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU
WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ Matthew 7:22-23
Any time you discuss the
subject of false teachers and false doctrine, you get people
who like and or have followed the teacher and teachings of
these people. They will say, "I have watched Benny
Hinn for years and he has lead many people to the Lord and he
preaches and teaches Jesus Christ." There are many
Bible teachers including Benny Hinn who have been in ministry
for years and many may have come to the Lord thru their
ministry. However, this doesn't change the fact that some of
the things they teach are wrong and not from the Bible. Many
false teachers are teaching their listeners that we are
"little gods." This is a LIE!!! There is only one,
who is by nature God!
and it is not us, because we don't have a divine
nature, we have a fallen sin nature. As a fan of
classic movies, I have seen many films where someone
used poison to kill someone else. Did they sit the
victim down and offer them a cup of arsenic?
No, they put a few drops of poison in a cup of tea or as the case was in the Cary Grant
film "Arsenic and old lace" Grant's two maiden aunts
added a small amount of arsenic to a decanter of elderberry
wine.
The reason is that it's almost impossible to detect the
poison if it is hidden in something as innocent as tea or
wine. Just the same it is harder to detect false doctrine if
you mask it in the middle of true Bible teachings. It is the
same way with false teaching. If you are telling the listener
several things that are true and then teach something
that is false doctrine it may not be detected as easily
when mixed in with true Bible doctrine. How many false doctrines,
false teachings or
false prophecies are needed to lead someone away from the true
gospel of Jesus Christ and down the wide path that leads to
Hell and destruction? Not Many!
One powerful example is the "Lakeland
Revival" in Florida with Todd Bentley. This
movement came on the scene just this Summer. People were
watching on GodTV and flocking to Lakeland in person
because of the "powerful anointing of God" as
it was being called, that was being shown by Mr.
Bentley. But many ministries including ours had deep
concerns about many things he was saying and doing that
were not in line with the Bible and sound doctrine. The
Jesus he was saying was leading him was a different Jesus
then we see in the Bible. Some
of the more
outlandish stories he told were where he said Jesus told
him to kick an old lady "in the face with my biker
boot." The audience just seemed to accept that and
any outlandish thing he said Jesus told him to do. It
seemed after a while the stories would get wilder and
wilder as if he was trying to see how crazy a story he
could tell and have the listeners still believe it came
from God. Well, as of August 2008, they stopped
believing the stories, when Todd Bentley was found to be
having an affair with a staff member and he filed for
divorce from his wife. He has been forced to step down from
his ministry and many people are seeing him in a
different light now.
There are many
signs to watch for that are warnings that the teacher
your listening to is teaching false doctrine. These
signs are a warning that false doctrine is being
preached. Many false teachers do have true doctrine they
preach also. Just like we said above, the poison of
false teachings have to be mixed in with the true
doctrine to make it look like it is true. But if you see
or hear false teaching in the messages you're hearing,
you should "run for your life" cause these are clear warnings of
the presence of the poison of a false teacher who can
lead you away from the true doctrine of the Bible. "Run
for your life" from teachers who leave out of their
message, the need for repentance from sin, the blood of
Christ shed on the cross, that point to a man and not to
Jesus Christ. Run from teaching that is aimed at self
improvement and not from Christ improvement by turning
your life over to Jesus Christ.