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When False Teachings Come: Four Warning Signs
You might remember the verse in Galatians where they're warning us that if even an angel from heaven comes to us and preaches a gospel different from what the apostles were preaching, don't listen to them. Let them be an anathema. Let them be cursed. So, how do you know if you're listening to a different gospel? I've got four keys to share with you.
False gospels are coming. Jesus warned us about that. We've talked about that a lot and we're seeing that a lot and it can be so subtle. Anything that's a different gospel is a false gospel. That's what Paul means when he says, 'Even if an angel comes and tries to tell you something else, then double check that street cred of the angel.' Even if it's just tweaked a little bit. You know what I mean? It doesn't have to be way off base. Be very, very careful.
Think about this disgusting analogy: You can have something that's just slightly off. What if I make this big pot of chili, and everybody in the family loves when Emily makes the chili. It's really sustaining, and it literally brings a tear to our eye, and our heart beats a little bit faster when we're about to eat it because it's so good. But what if I just go out and just get one small dog feces out of the yard and just stir it in? It's only like 1% of the whole pot. Are you still going to eat it? No one in their right mind would want to eat that.
It's all subtle and it's called a different gospel. Same words moved around. It doesn't take very much. Just like it only takes a little bit of rat poison surrounded by a whole bunch of good cheese and that's how you kill the mouse. It doesn't take very much and we need to be on our guard because Jesus told us to be on our guard, watch for this stuff.
The Four Warning Signs
1. Same Words, Different Arrangement
The very first one we actually talked about a little bit a couple shows ago, and that is they'll take a verse or they'll take a story in the Bible and they'll just move the words around ever so slightly to give it a different meaning.
We saw this around Easter time when we saw some memes out there floating around saying that, you know, if Jesus can kiss Judas and forgive him, then you can... and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Jesus never kissed Judas. Let's get that straight. Somebody doesn't know their garden of Gethsemane. And Judas did not receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ either. And so it's just ever so skewed.
They take these passages or stories and they use all the Christian language, all the words. They're telling about the last supper and the garden of Gethsemane and Judas and kissing, and they're saying all the same words but they just move them around ever so slightly. So it sounds really close to the scriptures but it's really not.
There was an article that came out not that long ago in Christianity Today or as I like to call it Christianity Hardly... hardly Christianity but anyway, they had an article where the author puts forth the idea that Jesus may not really have been crucified with nails. If that title doesn't pique your curiosity, I don't know what would.
But he goes on to explain how the scriptures like the gospels don't actually say the word nails. Therefore, we can't conclude that he actually had nails pierced into his hands and into his feet. And he did a lot of research on crucifixions and how they were hung up there and sometimes they were just tied up with rope and not very often but on occasion.
The Romans were absolute experts in crucifying people. These were military detachments. They didn't have Xboxes. They didn't have distractions. They only knew what they knew their job was to be. And so because they would use ropes sometimes, because they would do different things in his research does not mean that Jesus wasn't nailed to the cross.
The goal—what's the dude's goal? To create doubt. To create doubt in the word of God.
What's even crazier, they'll cite scripture. And this author actually did that. He took us to John 20 verse 27 where Jesus tells Thomas: "Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." The author cites that passage saying, "See, there's no mention of nails." Then why is he telling Thomas to put his finger on rope burns? What?
The important thing is context. If I didn't know better, I would probably be very persuaded by this article. I mean, he quotes scripture. He does all this stuff. And I would probably be persuaded.
But context, context, context. It means everything. Let's take that verse that he quoted, but let's widen it out a little bit so we can see a little bit before, a little bit after, and we don't even have to go very far. Let's back up three verses: "Now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So, the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.'"
Back up three verses and it's right there. We see the nails in the hands and the nails in the feet. We know that this is what happened to our Lord.
What difference does it make? But Chris, you touched on it. That's where division starts and that's where "well that person must be ignorant" and division grows and people then begin disbelieving what the scriptures said. "Oh, all these years I've been taught there were nails in his hands and there's not. So everybody's lying to me." No, no. The author of that article was lying to you because he was only showing you things in part.
This is what is meant by a different gospel. He's sharing something with you. He's even using scripture, but he's not giving you the whole picture to lead you to a different story that is not the actual event of Jesus's crucifixion and atonement for our sins.
And if you go back to the Garden of Eden, you see the serpent asking, "Did God say? Did God really say?" And it's not just doubting God's word that happens, but another thing happens, and that is as you continue to try to unveil and chip away here and there. What people start to do is they start to look for secret revelation that will identify with their own selfish feelings where they're still on the throne of their life and they haven't surrendered to Christ. And that's where our consumer, you know, customer Christians are all over the place in Christianity today.
That's why we started Fresh Road Media with the idea that we're going, my sermons at Fresh Encounter Church are all about just standing true on the word of God. It says what it means. It means what it says. And God will unveil it to you. Give you eyes to see and ears to hear.
He was nailed to the cross regardless of what, you know, you don't need to deconstruct your faith. There's certain things. There's a lot of things we just know that we know that we know. Are there mysteries of God that have not been totally revealed yet? Absolutely. And we can point those out to you as well. But there is so much subtle truth to deconstruct your faith, to deconstruct, to throw everything out with the bathwater. It's silly. Take what you know and build on it. Even if Po Dexter McNoit All says different, you can trust God's word.
2. All Religions Lead to God
Point number two. We can learn things from all the different religions. There's good everywhere and we can just pull from the good things from each and every religion as though we're equating them all with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is a different gospel all together.
We've seen this increase recently and we saw that they did choose a new pope today. In fact, the white smoke blew out of the chimney. But let's go back to the previous pope because it wasn't that long ago. He was in Singapore. This is Pope Francis. He was in Singapore in September of 2024. This is what he said. He said, quote, "Every religion is a way to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, they are different paths. He goes on to say all religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy. They are like the different languages that express the divine and that we are all God's children."
Totally different gospel because Jesus has said he is the way, the truth, and the life. No other way. No Sikh, no Hindu, no Buddha. No.
Let me give the analogy that makes the most sense, that's the easiest to really understand. All religions, all religions are trying to work their way up to God. And you can say and in your flesh nature, your fallen spirit, it'll feel correct that everything has something good to say about the divine and the creation and the goodness of man and stuff. The Bible says man is fallen and without hope and that cannot save itself. And so they're all trying to work their way up to God. And they have various levels of performance and various levels of success with traditions and effort and things like that.
Especially the Catholic Church, which we've talked about in the past, authentic historical Christianity. And that's what we got to start referring to it as now. We got to refer to it as authentic historical Christianity, right? Because that's what the deconstruction and the progressives and the charismatics are starting to throttle against.
Authentic historical Christianity is the only religion where God works his way down to us. While we were yet sinners, he chose to save us. And when we submit our lives to him and we ask for forgiveness and we confess our sins, we don't get a changed heart. We don't get a new outlook on life. We get a brand new heart. We get new life in Christ that lasts for eternity. While we're still in those flesh bodies, we're going to have trouble. But Jesus said we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. That means that we're always victorious. We're always moving forward in victory in Christ. And that's a whole different gospel than what Pope Franny said.
The very last statement that he said, I want to talk about that a little bit because we've talked about it in the past where he says that we're all God's children, which is very very misleading. It's a wonderful thought. We want to think that particularly because the world and everything in it God created. But here's the thing. There is a difference between being created by God and being one of God's children. Those are two very different things. And God does desire that all of his creation come to him for adoption as his children, but not everybody is his child. We're all his creation. We're not all his children.
That goes back to the scripture verse that says you must be born again. Like there's no wiggle room there. You, which would be everyone. You must be born again. And that is only done through his son Jesus Christ. And so no, we are not all God's children. We are all God's creation. And that in and of itself means that there is a respect due, there is a view due whether you're a believer or not whether you are a Sikh, Hindu, atheist, whatever, you're another human being and you're to be viewed as a human being and respected as a human being. However, if you are not a Christian, you are not born again, and if you are not born again, you do not become a child of God. That's the way it is.
Even if you have a rudimentary understanding of the gospel, you can recall what Jesus says in John 14:6. Most of us have heard it. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. What does that mean? Does that mean no one? I think no one still means no one. And if God himself came in the flesh in the form of Jesus Christ as a member of the trinity, I think we should take it very very seriously.
He is the way and he offers it as a free gift to everyone. It's offered to all but many want to stay on the Broadway because narrow and hard is the way that leads to life. Because once you accept this truth, it's an exclusive thing. And it's not exclusive in like a VIP pass backstage with all the trimmings in the green room. You can't buy your way in. It is an exclusivity that leads to suffering. It leads to being excluded, being frowned upon, being scoffed at. But it leads to a contentment and a joy because you've been given this new heart, this new life, and you can't run from that. You know it because you know it because he is the way, the truth, and the life.
I think that's one of the fundamental changes when it comes to being born again. Those types of things, being ridiculed, being scoffed at or whatever, those things no longer bother you. They're actually, you look at them as a privilege that you're joining in the suffering of Christ. Not that you want those things to happen to you, but you just know that when they come, it's all good because you're joining in the suffering of Christ.
And there is today really no lack of new thought and progressive teachers and preachers out there. And I use that term teacher and preacher very loosely that are more than willing to forsake biblical doctrine in order to make the masses feel good and to lure them into their church and into their seats.
It's just very common to hear progressive people talk about the fact that they'll set biblical truth aside in order to have fellowship, in order to, you know, be—let's just call it what it is—in order to be liked by the world. And Jesus and the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John, they've all talked throughout the New Testament that if you need to have handshakes and friendship with the world more than you need Jesus Christ, that you don't have either.
Because this fellowship is fleeting. People who don't know Jesus will turn on you in a heartbeat. We've seen that our whole life. And even people who know Jesus can stumble. They're flawed and have problems. We all are.
The reality is that what happens then is they set themselves up as if they're their own God. I always say it like this. You're trying to add Jesus to what you got going on. And it's not going to work. It's not going to hold. It's not going to be something that's going to last. And the reason is because the only thing that lasts for eternity is new life in Christ, which you can't earn no matter what you do.
It's such subtle twists and mind fits is what people have and they just get into this mode and there's nothing wrong with seeking—God says seek me with all your heart and you'll find me, ask, seek, knock and it'll all be added on to you—but in the middle of that to have it have to line up with your understanding? No, there's one understanding you need to know: you're a loser. Now you won't find the word loser in the scripture talking directly about you, but you will if you look into it. You're a sinner. This doesn't sell. This is not, you know, "find your best you now today."
But you are a sinner and so am I. And so is Emily. Especially Emily to be honest with you. But we find the salvation in Christ. He created a new life in us. So out of sanctification, we start working our way towards a sainthood. If we die today, we're already saints. Does that mean we're perfect? Does that mean we're, you know, just this awesome? Not necessarily. But you start doing things not out of obligation, but out of gratitude. Your heart is changed.
And I always say it like this. If you have Jesus change your life, and you're not doing anything for the kingdom, like nothing. You don't serve in your church at all. You really need to ask yourself, are you fully converted? Because we can't help but want to do things once we're saved.
3. Power Comes From Within
Number three. This is probably one of my favorites to really focus on. Anything that says power and circumstances originate from within us, we decide. We have the power to decide our own reality. That the power is within us.
Run for your life. You are about to hear a false gospel. That's new age and new thought theology.
If you listen for a long time, because I know there's preachers out there, they're false teachers, they talk and talk and talk and you have to listen to them for a long time. And you will hear things like "we're all little gods because we're supposed to become like Christ, right? That means the way Christ is, we're going to be exactly the same way and we're going to be able to do the things that he does. We will have the power that he had and we become basically little gods created in his image" taken out of context. The pinnacle of his creation, not a little god creation.
Not only is this a false gospel, I think this is the most cruel of all the false gospels because then why do you say when things go wrong and things just aren't working out and this happens to everybody, okay? But when things just feel like they're in a downward spiral, you really don't know what to do and it doesn't get better. Guess whose fault it is if you're a little God? Guess whose fault it is if you have the same power that Jesus had? Guess whose fault it is if the power comes from within you? It's your fault. How cruel.
There are lots of things that can be our own fault. We do things, we make wrong decisions, we live through those things and so on. But I'm talking about things like you've been diagnosed with a terminal illness or finances are really tough because your business failed. Well, did you steal? No. Did you plant the seed? Yes. But I mean, did you steal? No. Were you trying to do everything fair and square? Yes. And it still failed? Well, then that's just that's just life. Those types of things happen. It's not your fault. You still have a God that you can rely on. And even if the business never comes back, there's another day tomorrow with the Lord. It's not because there was something wrong with you spiritually.
You called that a different gospel and you said it was the cruelest of all the false gospels. And the reason is that then as you're trying to seek the authentic Jesus Christ who's the way, the truth, and the life, if you bought into this lie, you're going to look at your own performance. You're going to look at your own, just like, "well, it's always God's will to heal you if you only had enough faith." That is a lie. I can destroy that in four words. Consider my servant Job.
What happens is that if you're not healed, then you question your own faith. And it's like, "well, then I must not have the faith. I must not be good enough." And then either you start doing one of two things. You start trying really harder, another failure thing, or you give up and just say, "Well, I guess I'm just not going to be good enough." And then you go away. Either way, it's cruel and it's dangerous because the love of Jesus Christ gets washed away in this mumbo jumbo.
So, anytime someone's telling you like one of the phrases you might hear is somehow your reaction or like your actions or your faith or your mindset is going to quote "release God's power." No, it doesn't. Because if you're releasing God's power, then who's God? You are. You're not God.
Chris Vallotton, one of the most obnoxious false teachers out there. You want to know why he's one of the most obnoxious to me? I think if he was my neighbor, I'd invite him over for, you know, to barbecue. Let's hang out at the fire pit and talk about Jesus. I think he's that kind of good guy. But he's awful because he's constantly prophesying things that don't mean anything.
And Bethel Church, if you're involved in it in any way, run from it. Run from it. (I have said something about Phil Johnson from Grace to You and sometimes I don't enunciate and people have thought I said Bill Johnson. Two totally different guys. If you ever can get any kind of sermon or message or insight from Phil Johnson, do so. He's one of my dudes. I just think this dude's the best.)
But Bill Johnson in Bethel with Chris Vallotton that you know, I guess apparently God spoke to him and there's going to—the shaking has started. That was last week. The shaking—it doesn't mean anything. It means that they're going to continue to try to manipulate people with this false gospel that is the cruelest cut of all and that if you're not like Jesus and you don't do these things then you're nothing. And by the way when they fail it's no big deal, right?
Somebody coined the phrase, "never trust a faith healer that wears glasses." And a lot of them do.
So then they're saying if you're not seeing miracles and you're not seeing healings and you're not speaking in tongues and you're not releasing, leave that church. There's no power in that church. That is a false gospel. Think of how exhausting that must be for people who are trying. They keep trying. "Oh, if I could just, if I could just latch on to that." It's just Jesus. That's all it is. "Hey, come to our healing service where nobody really gets healed."
The psychosomatic mind over matter thing is a very real thing, but it's a temporary "I feel better for a moment." That's all it is. There's no actual healing going on.
Look, God's power is all around you and it's released in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no secret words to uncork God's power. There is no little behavior modification you can do to increase God's power in your life. It's a narrow road. Get rid of all the fluff. Get down to the narrow road. And it's that you're a sinner in need of a savior who loves you so much that he gives you a new life. And once you have that new life in him, you start to walk and grow with him. And that's called the sanctification process.
Bad things happen. So, what do we do with that? How about if we go to God's word? John 16:33, Jesus said this himself, "In this world, you will have trials. You will have tribulation." How many will you have? Many. You will have many. "Oh, I want to sign up for that. Let me sign up for trials and tribulations." That's no different than the lost world. He's saying your life is still your life. You don't now have this supernatural power to escape every bad thing that you just don't want to happen in your life. That's not how faith in Christ works.
What are we supposed to do with that, though? When those trials and tribulations come, he answers that question in Philippians chapter 4 where he says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God."
So the answer is you take it to the Lord in prayer because he has the final say. He knows what's going on in your life. He knows how you feel about it. And hopefully whether it's good or whether it's bad, what that thing does is it keeps us turned to him and in fellowship with him and communication with him and learning and growing in our knowledge and understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about. Whether it's good or bad, whether it's hard or easy. So that's your solution. Be anxious of nothing and go to him in prayer with thanksgiving.
What about Philippians 4:13? "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." What does that mean? Actually, what is Paul actually telling the believer in that statement? I could put that plaque up in my business, my sales-oriented business, and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So, I'm going to just get up and I'm just going to do great things." No, that's not what that means.
It means that when all the trials and tribulations and persecution comes, you'll be able to stand for God, stand for Christ in your sanctification process, in your justification that he's given you, knowing you're eternally secure. He's going to give you the strength to do that. That's what all things that you can do through Christ who strengthens you. That's a different animal than what sometimes, you know, that's why I want that mug that says "I can do all things through a verse taken out of context."
That verse has nothing to do with higher achieving. It has to do with enduring suffering like a saint should. Well, you can have higher achieving, but always your achieving has got to have one person... you can have higher achievement, but that higher achievement will always have one thing attached to it if you are sold out to Jesus and you're doing it for his will. And that is God will get the glory.
There's things that we want to do for our benefit. There's nothing wrong with looking to Christ strength to be better at your job, better as a parent, better as a church member, better as a leader, whatever you're called to do. Absolutely. But understand that that verse is really about standing strong in Jesus in the face of difficulties.
4. New Revelations and Denied Foundations
Number four. Anything that denies either denies core foundational Christian truths or says that there's some new revelation that somehow the church forgot like centuries ago. When you start hearing that, run for your life. You are about to hear a false gospel.
Things the church forgot. There's lots of people out there teaching that, you know, we're going to do things different because this is what they did in the early church and we just forgot that and we're going to start doing it again. Things like supernatural gifting. That does not happen anymore. Do supernatural events still happen? Yes. Is God still doing supernatural work in this world? Absolutely. Do we wield it at our discretion? No, we don't.
There's no new apostles. There's no new prophets. There's nothing like that. The church didn't forget anything for 2,000 years. And now we're just remembering it. Not at all. This is what the church has believed from the very beginning.
The smugness is overwhelming, especially with the NAR and other people that are coming in because they're basically saying, "well, you know, maybe the apostles got it wrong and with our modern understanding, we can really dig in and we can figure out what's what" and guess what that means? That means we're now your authority. No, the Bible is still our authority.
But that's what's going down. They want to put themselves in the place of authority. That's the desire of mankind. We all have that tendency. We all have that desire. But the authentic born-again believer is fighting that. They are crucifying that. They are putting that to death because it is Christ himself who deserves all honor, all glory because he is all powerful.
They find these secret things. And there's other stuff. By the way, the Mahdi, which is our antichrist, and it's actually the Muslims' Messiah, when he comes back, he's going to find some hidden scrolls near the Sea of Galilee. That's what their eschatology actually teaches. That's what they're saying. Why? Because the human condition, our sinful nature, we love hidden teachings. We love the hidden messages, you know? We love finding out these little cool little things that only we know. And it's like that's not what the narrow road is in Christ. It's for everybody. It's just so simple and so narrow.
So you mean that even uneducated Billy Bob Ray Jim Tim over there, he's going to be able to get the same salvation I can get in my smugness? Yes. That's why when Jesus said the publicans and the harlots will enter heaven before you to all the religious stuffy smuggers. Smuggy in their smuggy smugness.
Do you realize how bad the tax collectors were hated in that society and yet they're going to get salvation first? Again, just the people that he appeared to and the people that God talked to, you know, the shepherds in the field, the women at the tomb, and Mary the Virgin. These were not the influencers of their culture.
So, here's what you have to remember. God has perfectly preserved his word. So, when someone comes to you and says, "Hey, this is a true story, by the way. They found they unearthed this old Bible in Ethiopia and therefore now we know that Jesus isn't like really a person. It's just a myth out of Ethiopia." And it's like, wait, no. Historians can actually follow and track how the Bible made its way into Ethiopia. But people want to twist that as though there's this newfound revelation and this means it's new.
And the problem with that is then you can trust nothing. You can't trust anything. If there's new revelation continuing to come out and if the original Christian foundational truths are wrong, then you have nothing to put your trust in at all and you should run from Christianity basically. But that's not what it is. That's not what it is.
How about another true story? This was about the time that the movie Bible Idiots was being produced when we were traveling around talking to people on the street and it's all in the film Bible Idiots which is 10 years old now. The story about the camels came up. There was a news article that came out that said archaeologists have found that there are no camels in the Middle East. There are no camels. They haven't unearthed any in Israel. So that the fact that there is no camels found shows that the Bible is a lie.
Do you realize there were two dig sites? Each dig site was about a half square mile and they were 12 miles apart and they didn't find camel bones in those dig sites. So now you're going to make that claim and you're going to try to trash the word of God that can stand up against any scrutiny and you can trust it word for word, cover to cover. That's the kind of nonsense that permeates us who get our little sound bites and take our little truth from news headlines without the time or energy to look into them.
And so it goes right back to, you know, some secret message, pointing to this and the Ethiopian Bible or what you thought it was or Jesus in the lost years, because from 12 to 30, he went to India and talked to the Hindu folks and really learned how to really talk the talk. I saw something online. I was doing some shopping online and I came across this thing that was "the chosen find out Jesus forgotten teachings" and it's like what? We've had Jesus's teachings faithfully preserved for us by God himself. Nothing's been forgotten. There's still stuff we don't we can't wrap our minds around because they're so mysterious, they're so big or they're events that haven't taken place yet. But there's nothing lost. God doesn't lose stuff. He just doesn't.
So, if you want to find some truth, I'm going to give you three names. One is Mattie H, the other is Funky Chuck, and the third is Johnny Mack. If you go to these three guys, no, they're not rappers. If you go to just these three guys, Matthew Henry from the 1600s, Charles Spurgeon from the 1800s, and John MacArthur from modern times, and you read their teachings, they are in such harmony. So sound and it's just so basic.
It comes back to what does the Bible say? What does it mean? What happens in that culture? How do we apply that to our culture? You know the old phrase when you're in a Bible study, "what does that verse mean to you?" The proper way to say that, by the way, and because of the way that everything we're talking about gets so twisted into "my thought doesn't have to be your thought, your truth doesn't have to be my truth"—the proper way to say this is "how do you apply this verse in your life?" How does that apply your authentic historical Christianity surrender to Jesus life? How do you apply that verse? That's the right way to say it because "what this verse means to you," then now we've got all kinds of different things. Now, we are the interpreter and scripture interprets scripture.
Final Thoughts
Let's go over them again for all of you who are taking notes. There's a test next week. No, I'm just kidding.
So number one, same words, but they just slightly move them around. So, be on the watch for that. Be in God's word so that you know what it says.
Number two, we can learn things from all the different religions. That's way off.
Number three, you could be about to hear a false gospel if it's anyone that says power or your circumstances originate from within you and that we get to decide our reality and how it's going to be just it's our own mind, it's our own power, it's our own thought that makes the world around us. That is new age. It's new thought and it goes in the garbage.
And then number four, the very last one, anything that denies those core foundational Christian truths or says that there is some new revelation that the church just forgot about centuries ago. Run, run, run, run for your life.
Let me just shake down the foundational truth for you. You've got the virgin birth. Jesus is fully God, fully man. Jesus's death on the cross was the full payment for our sin. Hell is real. The Bible is God inspired and inerrant. And I'll go one more off the list. The resurrection gives him victory over death, hell, and the grave. And he offers it to us freely. And we accept that new life. And we start looking for the eternity. We live for eternity for the kingdom. Not this one here that's like a vapor, that's like a wisp that's here today and gone tomorrow.
And although that's just a short list, there's a lot of them and they're all under attack today. And so be in God's word because God's word as you read it and drink it in and just absorb it, it is like a cold glass of water after walking through the desert. It is so life-giving. It is so refreshing and it's absolutely life-giving. So get into God's word and know it for yourself.