False Teachers/Prophets Part 3

One thing we have to be careful of is how false teachers and prophets define their words.  They will use Christian words and terms but apply different meanings to them.  This way you can make you think their teachings are orthodox when they are merely covering their false teaching with deceptive words.  The Apostle Peter warns us, "By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words..." (2 Peter 2:3).  The Apostle Paul also warns of deception by false teacher when he wrote the the Corinthian church, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:13).  More importantly, Jesus Christ Himself tells us to not let anyone deceive us (See Matthew 24:4-5).

I found it interesting how John Calvin wrote about false teachers trying to pass themselves off as orthodox teachers.  They used deceptive words to mask their heresy.  Let me share some of his observations from his Institutes of the Christian Religion.  Please note I've highlighted some key parts to draw attention to them.

"These slippery snakes escape by their swift and tortuous windings, if not strenuously pursued, and when caught, firmly held. Thus the early Christians, when harassed with the disputes which heresies produced, were forced to declare their sentiments in terms most scrupulously exact in order that no indirect subterfuges might remain to ungodly men, to whom ambiguity of expression was a kind of hiding-place."  Calvin is saying that the false teachers had to be pinned down and words had to be clearly defined otherwise they would twist their meaning to sound like they were teaching truth.

Calvin gives the example of Arius.  Arius was a heretic that taught Jesus was a created being.  Notice how Calvin describes his deception.  "Arius confessed that Christ was God, and the Son of God; because the passages of Scripture to this effect were too clear to be resisted, and then, as if he had done well, pretended to concur with others. But, meanwhile, he ceased not to give out that Christ was created, and had a beginning like other creatures. To drag this man of wiles out of his lurking-places, the ancient Church took a further step, and declared that Christ is the eternal Son of the Father, and

consubstantial with the Father."

As a final example, let's look at the example of the heretic Sabellius who denied the doctrine of the Trinity.  "Next Sabellius arose, who counted the names of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as almost nonentities; maintaining that they were not used to mark out some distinction, but that they were different attributes of God, like many others of a similar kind. When the matter was debated, he acknowledged his belief that the Father was God, the Son God, the Spirit God; but then he had the evasion ready, that he had said nothing more than if he had called God powerful, and just, and wise. Accordingly, he sung another note—viz. that the Father was the Son, and the Holy Spirit the Father, without order or distinction.  The worthy doctors who then had the interests of piety at heart, in order to defeat it is man’s dishonesty, proclaimed that three subsistence were to be truly acknowledged in the one God. That they might protect themselves against tortuous craftiness by the simple open truth, they affirmed that a Trinity of Persons subsisted in the one God, or (which is the same thing) in the unity of God."

Notice that the heretics Arius and Sabellius were purposefully deceptive to hide their heresy.  Modern day false teachers and false prophets are no different.  That's why we need to ensure we clearly define the words we use and they use.  We need to make sure that what they say and what they teach are in line with the truth by not settling for simple answers.  An example of this can be seen when T. D. Jakes seemed to confess that he believed in the Trinity.  However, when you dig a little deeper into what he said and how he said it, you can't be too sure that he holds to an orthodox belief in the Trinity.  You can read an extended article here.  I will have a little bit more to say on Jake's teachings in a future article.

Let me sum up this article by bringing the warnings back to our mind.  False teachers and prophets are in our world today just as they had been among the early church.  We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by them.