Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Don't Tolerate False Teaching


“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

 (2 Peter 2:1-3 ESV)



When it comes to false teaching, we tend to be very dismissive. We think of it as no big deal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, after all. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. And we certainly don’t have to agree with him.



This causes us to be very tolerant of teaching that contradicts the Word of God. It causes us to remain silent when we encounter it. We say and do nothing when we encounter it in society.  And, worse yet, we say and do nothing when we encounter it in the church.



However, false teaching is a very big deal. It’s a big deal because many are led astray by it. We are told, in the above passage, that many will follow the sensuality of these false teachers. We’re told that, because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.



Because of these false teachers, people will be led away from a saving faith in Christ and they will embrace their sinful desires. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be vilified and regarded as evil.  Because of their desire to lure people from the gospel to themselves, they will manipulate others with their false message.



We also see, very clearly, that it’s a big deal to God. He does not sit idly by and tolerate it. These false teachers stand condemned by God, and their destruction will soon come.



Knowing this, we must not tolerate false teaching. We see in Revelation 2 that the church at Thyatira was reprimanded by Jesus for doing so. We must ensure that only the pure gospel is proclaimed.



We are limited in what we can do in society. We live in a nation where the freedom of religion is guaranteed. It’s guaranteed to Christian and non-Christian alike. And, for this reason, all faiths are able to share their message. We can only expose the false teaching being proclaimed and share the truth.



In the church, however, we can do much more. We must insist that only the truth is proclaimed. We can refrain from giving false teachers a pulpit and an audience. And we can remove from our congregation those seeking to lead others astray.


Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Be on the Lookout!


“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

(2 Peter 2:1-3 ESV)



We live in a society where many messages are given to us. We live in a time when many people claim to speak for God. They have their holy book, which they present to us. They have their book, which they have written, interpreting the Bible. They have their “truth” which they seek to proclaim.



Many of these messengers profess to be Christian. And they claim that their messages come from the Bible. However, as we evaluate their words, we see that nothing could be further from the truth.



This is not unique to us, nor is it unique to our time. As we see above, the same was true even in the time of the apostles.



Peter had reminded the people of the truth of his message. He had reminded them of the reason they knew it to be true. And, now, he unpacks for them why this is so important.



Just as there were false prophets among the people in the past, there would also be false prophets among them. And the messages, brought by these false prophets, would not be insignificant. They would contain destructive heresies. They would even deny Christ himself.



Yet, even though their message would be very different than the one given by the apostles, many would follow them. Many would be deceived by their words. And this would lead to the truth being blasphemed.



These messengers would be self-serving. They would be greedy. They would be seeking to exploit the people for their own gain.



This is very different than the apostles, who had nothing to gain from their ministry. They sought the gain of others. They desired only that those who heard the message would receive it in faith, that they might receive the salvation of the Lord.



Peter is warning his readers that they might be on the look out for these false teachers. They were to remember the truth, and those who had brought it to them, that they might not be deceived. He did not want them to be led astray from the gospel, causing them to miss out on the blessing of God.



We, too, must heed his warning. We must be on the lookout for these false teachers who will come, not only into society, but the church as well. We must do so that we might not be deceived. We must remember the Word which has been proclaimed to us. And we must do so, knowing its truth and those who delivered it to us.

Monday, September 10, 2018

The Truth of the Gospel, Part 2


“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

(2 Peter 1:19-21 ESV)



As I mentioned in my prior post, many people now view the gospel as nothing more than myth. They believe the account of Jesus to be nothing more than a man-made story. They believe it to be a story that was propagated to either comfort the distraught or to gain control of society.



However, as we saw, the account of Jesus was attested to by eyewitnesses. Men who were there, who saw and heard what had taken place, shared this message. In fact, they even went to their death for this message.



And, as we see above, there is something even more compelling that reveals to us the truth of the gospel. In addition to eyewitness testimony, we have the prophetic word. We have the message of the prophets, which spoke of the coming Savior. In fact, these prophets spoke of the Savior long before he was born into the world.



As we look to Scripture, we see the Savior foretold from the very beginning. The first promise of the Savior was given in Genesis 3, immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve and the entrance of sin into the world. And these promises continue to come throughout the Old Testament.



God also pointed the people to the coming Savior through his acts of salvation performed on behalf of his people. He pointed them to the Savior through his law. And he pointed the people to the Savior through the sacrificial system and the holidays he ordained. Everything in Scripture, from beginning to end, points us to Jesus.



This word, Peter tells us, was not produced by the will of man. It’s not something that men decided to write. Nor is it a message produced in the mind of men. This message is the very Word of God. It’s the Word of God because these men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In other words, they recorded for us a Word given to them by God himself.



Many people, today, downplay this truth. They downplay it, knowing men to be imperfect and sinful. And for this reason, they tell us, their message contains mistakes. Imperfect men are incapable of bringing to us a perfect word.



In saying this, they discount the inspiration of God. Apart from him, their message was sure to be flawed. But because this message was given by the perfect, omniscient, omnipotent God, it is flawless.



We, then, can take comfort in this Word knowing it to be true. We can take comfort in the gospel knowing that it was delivered to us by eyewitnesses.  And we can take comfort in it knowing that it’s confirmed through the prophetic Word, which was inspired by God himself.




Tuesday, September 04, 2018

The Truth of the Gospel, Part 1


“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

(2 Peter 1:16-18 ESV)



Eyewitness testimony is crucial in the court system. When someone is being tried, circumstantial evidence is typically not enough to convict. What’s needed is the testimony of one who was there, who saw and heard what had taken place.



The same was true in Old Testament times. In order to convict someone of a crime, they needed the testimony of at least two people. They needed multiple witnesses who were able to attest to what had taken place.



There are many, today, who equate the gospel with myth. They put it at the level of the accounts of the Greek gods. It’s just a story, they say, with no confirmation of its truth.



What they fail to realize is that the accounts, recorded in Scripture, are given by eyewitness testimony. It’s recorded by those who were actually there. They had seen for themselves the events that had taken place.



This is what Peter tells us in the above passage. What they were teaching to the people were not myths. They were proclaiming what they had seen and heard.



He goes on to describe the events that took place on the Mount of Transfiguration. He recalls how the voice of God rang out from heaven, telling them of Jesus’ identity. They heard him proclaim that Jesus is his beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased.



History tells us, in fact, that Peter went to his death for his testimony. The early Christian writer Hegesippus tells us that, when Peter was old, Emperor Nero planned to put him to death.  And although the believers in Rome begged him to leave the city, he remained and was crucified. At his request, he was crucified upside down, because he did not count himself worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.



It was men like this who recorded the words and actions of Jesus. It was men like this who continued to proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom. They were not men greedy for wealth and power. They were not men looking to their own interests. They were not men looking to upset the system. These were men who were so convinced of the truth that they were willing to testify to it no matter the cost.



As we read Scripture, this is how we must read it. We must read it not as a story, but as eyewitness testimony. We must understand their words as those of men who are passing along what they had received from the Lord himself.