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150 | Protect Your Faith: Learn to Discern False Teachers
63 Plays5 minutes ago
In this episode, we kick off a series that will teach us how to discern false teachings within Christianity.
Discover the key scriptural principles and practical strategies to identify deception, focusing on the character of teachers and the truth of Jesus Christ.
Join us this week as we emphasize the importance of humility, prayer, and a deep reliance on scripture. Equip yourself with the tools to protect your faith and navigate the complexities of modern Christian teaching.
Mentioned in this episode:
🎧 How to Discern Core Doctrine (Podcast Episode): https://zencastr.com/z/GZnYA1s6
📙 Every Woman A Theologian: https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/product/every-woman-a-theologian-hardcover/
📘 Freedom from Legalism: https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/product/freedom-from-legalism/
📗 Interpreting the Bible Correctly: https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/product/interpreting-the-bible-correctly-quick-theology-paperback/
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👩💻 Watch the entire Series on How to Discern False Teaching:
➡️ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLybB3dkK5l8kNmt90OhxUDmJ0uoFQ5NXV
Subscribe to Verity Podcast:
➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/verity-by-phylicia-masonheimer/id1495210734
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Verity Podcast is an Every Woman a Theologian company. We believe every woman should be a theologian. Every woman should be a student of the heart of God.
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Transcript
Introduction to Ideologies and Christ's Protection
00:00:00
Speaker
And that doesn't mean that when you see that idea that suddenly this you know demonic spirit is like latching onto you. If you're a believer, you have the protection of Christ over you. You have his authority. But you do need to be aware that ideologies are not neutral. They all have something driving them. And the question is, is this driving you to an awe and worship and love for God? Or is this driving you to an awe and worship and love of self?
New Series on False Teachings by Felicia Mason-Heimer
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello friends, my name is Felicia Mason-Heimer, founder of Every Woman a Theologian and host of the Verity Podcast. And this is the first episode of a brand new series on discerning false teaching. This is a topic that we talk about in different episodes throughout the history of Verity Podcast and certainly on social media, in blogs and books that we produce through Verity Press.
00:00:57
Speaker
But I thought building on the beginner believer series with this series may be helpful to so many of you who are walking out your faith in a very confusing time.
Challenges in Discerning Doctrine in Legalistic Contexts
00:01:09
Speaker
We have many people in our community who are coming out of legalistic settings, even spiritually abusive settings. And when you are growing up in those spaces or you're spending time in those church spaces for years on end, it can be very, very difficult to discern what is true from what is false.
00:01:26
Speaker
Because so often when false doctrine is presented to us, it is just slightly twisted. It's never going to just come out of thin air. They're always going to use scripture to support this falsehood. Because only then would we believe it. Only when they can take that doctrine and support it with some outside authority by saying that God said it,
00:01:48
Speaker
Will we believe it? And this goes all the way back to Genesis 3 and the enemy of humankind who took God's words and twisted them just enough to make them believable. That is what happens with false teaching. And as we're going to explore in this series, false teaching comes in many different forms.
Reappearance of False Teachings
00:02:07
Speaker
it's often repackaged in the way that is most palatable to the person it's being marketed to. And so you have conservative false teaching, you have progressive false teaching, you have heretical ancient ideas like Arianism and Gnosticism that have been repackaged today in a new framework. We even have things like polygamy, which One might think nobody's practicing that anymore, but it's actually on the rise again. People trying to normalize polygamy and using the Bible to make a case for it. These are false doctrines that are being peddled to people who don't know better. And so we're going to look at these one by one in this series.
00:02:50
Speaker
And I hope that this will be helpful to you. Of course, we can't cover every single, you know, world religion or cult or anything like that, but we'll try to address different issues that I hope will be helpful to you as you are navigating this journey yourself.
Support for Cult Survivors like 'The Way'
00:03:05
Speaker
I also want to say we have a group of people who have been joining the every woman, the theologian community and coming out of a tradition that is called the way also known as the two by two cult. And if that's you, you are not alone. We have many people from the two by twos who are joining the every woman, a theologian community and who are seeking to find freedom and rebuild a theology based on the truth of scripture and Jesus Christ instead of the form that they were taught.
00:03:34
Speaker
So I'm so glad you're here if that's you and we will be addressing some of the tenets of the two by two cult in one of our episodes upcoming.
Understanding False Teachings through Theological Triage
00:03:45
Speaker
So as we get ready to begin this series, I simply want to address what false teaching is, how it shows up,
00:03:54
Speaker
and talk a little bit about the tiers of theology, the theological triage, as Dr. Albert Mohler calls it. This is not only Mohler's methodology. Gavin Ortland also uses a similar methodology and other scholars like John Wesley back in the 1700s developed something called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which allows us to filter through information and see Does something line up with scripture, church tradition, our history, our legacy? Does it line up with intimacy with God, so our experience of God? And does it line up with reason, with our rational understanding of the world, the logical common grace systems that God has set up? And so when we look at false teaching, we're utilizing everything available to us, all of our discerning resources,
00:04:47
Speaker
to sift what we're learning and to figure out is this something that God taught or is this something that man has twisted. This is always going to be a challenge. There's so many voices, so many voices and as always I am not the only voice you should be listening to. I hope that you are checking things against scripture. I hope you're listening from multiple points of view And I hope that ultimately you are asking God for wisdom, which He loves to give. He willingly and abundantly gives wisdom to those who ask. We know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So our experience of God's affection and our love for Him is the beginning of the discernment that we need when it comes to false teaching.
Approaching False Teachings with Love and Humility
00:05:31
Speaker
If we come to false teaching, trying to figure it out from a posture of arrogance, from a posture of winning the argument, or from a posture of testing God, we will lack the wisdom we need to know what is true and what is false. And so come at this from the standpoint of God's love for you, and you will have what you need to understand the truth of scripture, the historic Christian faith, and the moral behavior that proceeds from it.
00:06:01
Speaker
So let's start with a couple of passages. We're actually going to look first at 1 John 4. 1 John 4 is part of an epistle written by the Apostle John. And in the first three chapters, he's really talking about the love of God and accepting the love of God, believing his love for you. And then he shifts into A statement, a short paragraph where he talks about discernment and false teaching specifically focused on one very important issue. Here's what he says, Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. I want to pause after verse one. He says here, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. What's he talking about?
00:06:49
Speaker
Well, behind every ideology, every philosophy, every new idea, new concept in an Instagram reel that comes up in your feed is a spirit. Now, I don't mean like those little blue demons from the movie Hercules, but I mean that there is either the spirit of God behind an ideology or the spirit of the enemy.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yes, a evil spirit seeking to deceive. And that doesn't mean that when you see that idea that suddenly this you know demonic spirit is like latching onto you. If you're a believer, you have the protection of Christ over you. You have his authority. But you do need to be aware that ideologies are not neutral.
00:07:35
Speaker
They all have something driving them. And the question is, is this driving you to an awe and worship and love for God? Or is this driving you to an awe and worship and love of self? Is this driving you to greater holiness?
00:07:52
Speaker
not legalism holiness purity a sound strong mind authority in christ is it moving you that direction or is it moving you to license don't tell me what to do i can do what i want with my body i'm gonna prove to the world that i don't owe anything to anyone These two attitudes are opposed to one another. And we're gonna talk about this in a second when we get to Matthew seven. But the fruit of an ideology reveals what spirit it comes from.
Women in Prophecy and the Threat of False Prophets
00:08:24
Speaker
And here he says you should test the spirit of these ideas to see if it's from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. A prophet is someone who is speaking the words of God. So they're speaking
00:08:41
Speaker
on behalf of God or they're extrapolating the words of God for the building of the church. It's a very powerful spiritual gift. In fact, it's the spiritual gift in the Bible that is mostly held by women.
00:08:56
Speaker
Yes, women most often had the prophetic gift. Examples of these would be Miriam, Hulda, Isaiah's wife, Anna, Philip's daughters, and more. In fact, there's even instructions in the book of 1 Corinthians for women who are prophesying. It was that normal.
00:09:15
Speaker
And so this is a gift that, particularly for those who are listening who are women, I want you to pay close attention because there are many false prophets in the world, and in today's day and age, many of those false prophets are women.
00:09:28
Speaker
Oftentimes we immediately go to male false prophets and they do exist, but it's fascinating to see how many are female. In fact, I would say in my experience, there are more false shepherds, more deceptive shepherds who are male, and there are more false prophets who are female, which is an interesting observation.
00:09:53
Speaker
So verse two says, this is how you can recognize the spirit of God behind an idea. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. So let's pause there after verses two through three.
00:10:17
Speaker
So this is one criteria for recognizing false teaching. It is not exhaustive. This is not the only criteria for recognizing false teaching. John is dealing with just one piece of it because at this time in history, there was a rising idea, an ideology called Gnosticism. And we're gonna do a whole episode on Gnosticism because it's actually quite popular today as well.
00:10:40
Speaker
And so at this time, this Gnostic idea was was growing and Arianism was also growing at the time, saying that Jesus didn't actually come in the flesh. So either Jesus was not in an actual human body, but he was he was kind of like a spirit who looked like he was in a human body. So it was just like this, um like a holograph almost. Other ideal ideologies would say that he he came in a human body, but he wasn't fully divine.
00:11:06
Speaker
So he's either not fully divine or not fully human, one or the other. And he's saying, listen, if an idea doesn't line up that Jesus is in the flesh and from God, then that is the spirit of the Antichrist. Let's talk about what he means here. The Antichrist is not just a person. Those of you who grew up in an evangelical culture, i'm left behind culture, you are used to thinking that the Antichrist is just one individual, but it's not. There are many Antichrists. Anybody who is Antichrist is an Antichrist. So yes, there in in the end of days,
00:11:43
Speaker
there may be one chief Antichrist, which is just the enemy manifested it in a specific way. But there also are many, many Antichrists. Anybody who hates Christ and hates what he stands for is Antichrist. And so that's what he's talking about. So this is the spirit of that. And it shows up in Gnosticism. It shows up in Arianism. And it's showing up even now. He says that even now, it's already in the world. Now here's where the comfort comes in.
00:12:12
Speaker
John isn't going to leave us with this. He's going to say, you, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. That's the good news here. That's the good news because when it comes to discerning false teaching, we should never, ever live in fear. You do not need to be afraid.
00:12:38
Speaker
I deal with all kinds of false teachings on a regular basis from every different angle, every different color, shape, texture. And at the end of the day, Christ is king. He's not afraid of it because truth is not afraid of lies.
00:12:54
Speaker
It knows itself. It's secure in itself. And so you can be secure in yourself too.
Core Christian Doctrines as Foundations
00:13:00
Speaker
And we're going to talk about this throughout the series, but as long as you are foundationally rooted in the core, the essential doctrines, G.K. Chesterton's called this the creeds and the historic behavior of those who hold such a creed.
00:13:14
Speaker
So, you know, Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, these statements of faith that say this is what it means to be a Christian and the Ten Commandments, which give us the moral basis that Jesus held to.
00:13:29
Speaker
Do not commit sexual immorality. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not murder. Worship only your God. No idols. These are the things that are are underlying the Christian ethic. And that is the foundation. And that's where you return when you start to feel like there are so many ideas out there I'm overwhelmed. Now let's look at Matthew 7.
00:13:50
Speaker
So this is part of the Sermon on the Mount. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is talking about a variety of things. In this passage in particular, he talks about hypocritical judgment. So do not judge or you too will be judged. This passage is often taken out of context um by people who say, well, this means you can't make any judgment at all, which is ironic because they're making a judgment against people who make judgments when they say that.
00:14:15
Speaker
But in this passage, Jesus is not saying you should never cast judgment. Like you should never say, that's wrong. That's right. What Jesus is saying is don't be a hypocrite because in verse three, right after he says, and do not judge it or you two will be judged in verse three, he says, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye, but pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? He's saying like, if you're going to go and point out the sin of another person, have an eye on your own sin first.
00:14:41
Speaker
So you need to be first aware of your own sin and then you can judge righteously. He's not saying we should not judge at all. And that's important because we then go to verse 15 where Jesus says, 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.
00:15:01
Speaker
Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes 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.
00:15:21
Speaker
I found this fantastic article ah on the website pastor theologian and it's called what makes a false teacher false and one of the things he points out in this article is that in Matthew 7 there is this litmus test for determining a false prophet and unlike John's test this is actually not doctrinal it's related to character So Jesus later on talks about doctrinal failings and you talk talk he gives theology all the time. Jesus is not anti-theology, but here he's specifically talking about their fruit, their character, and I think this is fascinating because
00:16:03
Speaker
In some church cultures, people will look at an abusive leader or a false teacher and they'll say, well, look, the ministry's growing or look at how much you know gospel work they did or how many books and Bibles they sent around the world and how many people heard heard the good news. So the fruit is good, therefore he's not bad.
00:16:24
Speaker
And that's not what is being said here. And this is where the author says it's worth taking a moment to clarify what Jesus means by fruit. So he's not talking about in the in Matthew seven, he's not saying like the fruit is just expansion. Tons of people came to Christ, that's the fruit. No, he's talking about the fruit of the spirit.
00:16:45
Speaker
He's talking about their moral character. And notice that in the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit is is um limited in the sense that the fruit of the spirit tells us, you know, we would have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. You have all those things. But also, the fruit of the spirit didn't negate the Ten Commandments. It's just a given. It's just understood that you would also be um sexually restrained. You'd be sexually holy. that you would be observing the Old Testament sexual ethic, which is, sex is between a man and a woman in a covenant for marriage. And that's it. That's the only place for it. That you shall not murder. You shall not murder image bearers of any kind. You shall not murder image bearers of a different race. You shall not murder image bearers who are unborn. You shall not lie to gain money, to gain prestige.
00:17:38
Speaker
to cover up for your sins, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not envy what others have or try to keep up with the Joneses. All of these things are expected. And so the fruit is both the moral obligation of the Old Testament, which Jesus affirmed, and then also the fruit of the spirit, those heart attitudes of love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
Character as a Marker of False Prophets
00:18:03
Speaker
So that means that if a false prophet is in the world and they come in sheep's clothing, but they inwardly their wolves, their fruit is telling us what they are. So if they are impatient, unloving, they're rude, envious, greedy, bossy,
00:18:22
Speaker
if they are sexually immoral, if they're addicted to pornography, if they are pro-abortion, any of these things disqualify them because they are being revealed by their fruit. So when we look at something like this, we have to immediately step back and say, am I discerning rightly according to what Jesus said, according to what John said. Sometimes a false teacher can be exposed by his character. Sometimes he's exposed by his doctrine. Sometimes it's both. Sometimes it'll be one of your favorite teachers and they have just great doctrine, but they have horrible character. And that character has now disqualified them and made them a false teacher.
00:19:12
Speaker
I know, isn't that like a little disconcerting? But that's what Jesus is saying, that you just cannot be a good tree if you have bad fruit. So as we move forward into discerning such things, we're warned over and over again in 2 Corinthians 11, in 4, in 2 Peter 2, in Matthew 24, in Colossians 2.8, over and over and over again,
00:19:41
Speaker
All of the apostles, Peter, Paul, and Jesus, even Jude, they all warn us there will come liars, false teachers, and deceivers. Why? Because the enemy doesn't want the truth to go out. And he knows that by twisting the truth just a little,
00:20:01
Speaker
That's the way to convince people. Work the first time. And it continues to work today. So we don't live in fear. We've been given a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and sound mind. So we don't need to live in fear because we have authority, we have affection, and we have self-control. So we have all these things to discern. At the same time, we sometimes need the criteria to
Distinguishing Core and Disputable Theological Issues
00:20:26
Speaker
discern.
00:20:26
Speaker
and that requires the whole of scripture and the counsel of the Holy Spirit. Between those two things, you'll have what it takes to understand what is false and what is true and be able to graciously communicate with those who are being deceived. The very last thing I would say is in regard to the tears of theology. And I'll redo an episode on this. I do have an older episode if you go back to, um I think it's called the the discerning core doctrine, is the name of the episode.
00:20:57
Speaker
In that episode I talk about theological triage and how there are core essential doctrines which I've talked about here. The creeds and the historic conduct of those who held to such a creed aka the Ten Commandments as expressed in the New Testament ethic. You have those but then you have secondary issues and secondary issues are important. You should understand them but they don't cause someone to be a non-Christian they don't like if somebody believes in infant baptism and you believe in believers baptism we cannot say that this person who believes in infant baptism is not a believer because all throughout history people Christians in the church have infant baptized Martin Luther infant baptized
00:21:41
Speaker
And when we say like these people aren't Christians because of this issue, we are taking the scriptures and those this is this is an important issue. We're taking it and work we're we're going further than scripture does. We know that scripture says to baptize and there are different ways that people arrive at how to do that.
00:22:00
Speaker
Same thing goes with communion. People have different perspectives on what communion is for, what happens in communion, whether Jesus is present physically, present spiritually, or it's just symbolic. You have a wide range of views on this. And yet we still are within the Christian faith because we know that this is a sacrament or an ordinance that is essential to our faith. And that's what we unite
Embracing Diversity in Christianity
00:22:25
Speaker
around. So these are issues.
00:22:27
Speaker
where you have major differences of Christian opinion, but it doesn't negate the trunk of the tree. It's just a branch of the tree still united around those central core doctrines. And what's beautiful about this is that these expressions of the faith have allowed the church to thrive and to reach a wide variety of people in a wide variety of ways, drawing them to Jesus himself. People who are extremely black and white and raised in extremely black and white spaces really struggle with this because some are told that they're in the only church. You wouldn't believe how many denominations claim to be the only church or Christ's first church, the original church. There's quite a few of them. There's quite a few original churches. To be honest, it's actually quite shocking. So if
00:23:17
Speaker
You are in one of those spaces. You really struggle when you come out of them because nuance is very hard. You are not taught to understand that God could be big enough to allow the freedom of expression within his truth. Now remember, there still is a truth. There still is a black and white, but there are some areas where God has allowed freedom.
00:23:39
Speaker
God is amazing in the sense that he is not this rigid, stiff, distant parent, but he is like that loving parent who says, okay, here's the fence. Now run and play.
00:23:53
Speaker
and enjoy and build a life with your friends and imagine what it could be with me living here with you. The fence is a good thing. The fence tells us where destruction is and it's on the other side. And even if we were to climb over the fence and participate in it and think like the enemy said, oh, I haven't been destroyed. We don't realize the damage that's being done to our relationship with God and our relationship with others.
00:24:19
Speaker
So yes, when we cross those boundaries, the boundaries he's given when it comes to character and when it comes to sexuality and when it comes to life and the ethic of life and when it comes to honor and justice, when we cross those lines and we no longer honor his intent, then well, we do reap the consequences. Thankfully, he's a God who redeems them.
00:24:43
Speaker
God's boundaries are good. And within those boundaries, there's freedom. And those are your secondary issues. And then you're your tertiary issues, those are the the issues of personal conviction. So when the Holy Spirit convicts you, this would be like where you send your kids to school, whether there you homeschool them, republic school them, how you dress, what clothes you wear.
00:25:01
Speaker
um maybe what books you read and you might be able to read a book that another person can't read just because of how you grew up or your past history or past addictions things like that things like alcohol some people can't drink it some can drink it in moderation the absolute boundary is no drunkenness but then the tertiary tertiary issue is um is this building for me and is it a good witness to those around me and people will be convicted differently and so as you see there are still the boundaries the fence line the core trunk of the tree and then there are the branches the freedom within the boundaries.
Recommended Resources for Theological Education
00:25:38
Speaker
So hopefully this is helpful to you.
00:25:41
Speaker
I hope that you found this a building, that you're ready for this series, that you're excited for this series. I know I am. We're going to be diving into very specific ideologies and how those are impacting um people and our ideas and our culture and then what scripture says about them. If you want to learn more,
00:25:59
Speaker
about how to discern theology. If you feel like you just don't know Christian theology on your own, like you need a good foundation, my book Every Woman a Theologian is designed to to help you. So but we'll walk through eight of the basic Christian theologies, bibliology, cosmology, marshality, soteriology,
00:26:18
Speaker
so the theologies of the bible and sin and salvation and jesus all of that from beginning to end and then at the very last chapter we'll talk about the tiers of theology and what the core is what are the essential doctrines and then what are the secondary doctrines This can be found on Amazon or in the Every Woman a Theologian shop, and in hardcover or in paperback, and there's also a companion workbook with eight videos. Then if you want something smaller and really quick, we have our Quick Theology series. This is our Freedom from Legalism booklet. This is our Interpreting the Bible Correctly booklet. We have 28 other booklets like this. These are in the Every Woman a Theologian shop, and those may be a helpful resource as well on your journey.
Engaging with the Verity Podcast Community
00:27:01
Speaker
As always, I'm so thankful that you are joining me on Verity podcast, whether you are learning along with me on iTunes or Spotify or here on YouTube. Thank you for listening. It's so helpful if you leave a comment, if you subscribe, if you leave a review on iTunes, it helps other people find Verity podcasts. I'm excited for this series. I hope you are too. And I'll see you next time on Verity.