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The stricter the church the more the talk about false doctrine, false teachers, and heresy. But few churches consistently apply the apostolic principles for how to determine if something is a false doctrine or if it is merely a matter of conscience or a matter of growth. Below is a list of all the scriptures that describe false teaching, false doctrine and heresy and the context of each scripture. There is a unifying theme to all of these scriptures that makes it simple and easy to determine if a doctrine falls into the category of false doctrine.

What these passages do not say:

What is conspicuously lacking in these passages is any reference to labeling anyone a false teacher who worships incorrectly in the congregational worship service or anyone who organizes the local congregation incorrectly. There is no authority in the scriptures for splitting and dividing over how to sing, how to take the Lord's Supper, how to appoint leaders, how to collect and spend the offering, etc.

The Scriptures:

A. Selfish False Teachers:

1. Jesus said to "beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees which is hypocrisy."

2. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 6 not to be yoked with unbelievers. And in chapter 11 he described false apostles again as selfish and authoritarian:

you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face.

3. In I Timothy chapter one the apostle Paul urges Timothy to beware of false teachers who focus on myths and endless genealogies (perhaps a reference to the gnostic heresy that promoted secret passwords to get to the next level of spirituality, instead of depending on God's forgiveness), and then Paul warned against:

lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine...

4. Later in chapter 6 of I Timothy Paul warns against false teachers who love to argue about the definitions of words, who love to debate, and those who love to make money off the gospel.

5. In Paul's letter to Titus Paul warns against false teachers who are selfish, gluttonous and money-hungry. In chapter two Paul continues to exhort Titus to teach sound doctrine by teaching men to be temperate, women not to be drunkards, etc.

6. In II John John warns against those who do not abide in the teaching of Christ. The only teaching of Christ he refers to in this short letter is to walk in love.

7. Jesus rebuked the church of Thyatira in John's Revelation by saying they tolerated a prophetess who taught sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols.

8. John wrote a warning about

Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

B. Denying the work of Jesus to save us:

1. Jesus warned

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Jesus goes on to say that in the Judgement Day He will say to them that he never knew them. Jesus says it is fairly easy to recognize a false teacher, not by talking to them face to face, but by looking at the results of their teaching. Do they leave pain and brokenness behind them, or do they minister healing and joy?

2. Paul warned the Romans:

to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

Paul's message in Romans was that all were sinners and in need of Christ's forgiveness, that they were not under law, but under grace, and that their faith in God's promise was credited to them as righteousness. That was the teaching they had learned.

3. Paul wrote to the Galatians warning them that if they went back to trying to earn their salvation they would be lost.

4. In II Timothy 3 and 4 Paul warns

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Paul referred to Hymenaeus and Philetus in chapter 2 who taught that the resurrection had already happened and if they had missed it then they were up a creek.

In chapter one Paul wrote:

This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Then he said, "What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus." Paul was referring to the forgiveness of our sins through the death of Jesus.

5. In II Thessalonians chapter 2 Paul warned against those who taught against the resurrection of the dead in Christ.

6. Jude warned against false teachers:

They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

That's about it. That's all the scriptures about false teachers. When I asked respected preachers and relatives in the Churches of Christ what their basis of deciding what items rise to the level of false doctrines I was told: the Churches of Christ have fought these battles for 200 years and have come up with what causes division and what does not. In other words: we don't have scripture for it, we only have church tradition.

All of these passages can be summed up quite succinctly:

A. Do not tolerate anyone who denies that Christ came in the flesh, that he was sent by God the Father to save us from our sins, that he performed miracles, that he died for our sins, that he rose from the dead and we will one day rise from the dead.

B. False teachers are easy to recognize because they love to argue and debate, they are selfish and gluttonous, they demand lots of money, like to commit sexual immorality and are lying drunkards.

What these passages do not say:

What is conspicuously lacking in these passages is any reference to labeling anyone a false teacher who worships incorrectly in the congregational worship service or anyone who organizes the local congregation incorrectly. There is no authority in the scriptures for splitting and dividing over how to sing, how to take the Lord's Supper, how to appoint leaders, how to collect and spend the offering, etc.

Currently Florida College has been accused of taking a step in the direction of Abilene Christian University, which switched from teaching seven twenty-four hour days of Creation to theistic evolution in the 1980s. A lecturer at Florida College has been accused of teaching that the earth is billions of years old, though life was created in less than a week. The accusers believe they need to break fellowship with the false teachers of such a doctrine, and break fellowship with those who support that teaching. The responses to the accusation are hamstrung because Florida College opposed the teaching of "Unity in Diversity" back in the 1970s. "Unity in Diversity" was a doctrine that we can disagree on many issues and still be one in Christ. Florida College and its detractors find themselves in a tight spot because they have never had an apostolic understanding of what constitutes the doctrine of Christ and have never understood what is described as false teaching in the scriptures. They have taught that anything that contradicts their own interpretation of the scriptures is false doctrine. Thus they laid the foundation for several dozen preachers who signed a document expressing alarm over "false teaching" about the first few days of creation.

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