Abundant Joy

“There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.”

Originally, I was going to cover the first three verses of chapter two in this post, but as I wrote out verse one, I realized that there was so much here that I needed to slow down and focus on just this one. As I move on, I will be referring to the whole section, but for today, we will start here. 

Peter starts in chapter 2 on the subject for the rest of his letter- warning his readers about false teachers. In this first verse, he connects false teachers to the false prophets of the Old Testament. He writes, “There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” It wasn’t until I read the commentaries that I noticed that Peter changed the word prophet to teacher. Peter is comparing the false teachers to the false prophets of the Old Testament. Before we move on, let’s look at what the Old Testament has to say about false prophets.

^“But the Lord said to me, ‘These prophets are prophesying a lie in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them, and who say, ‘There will never be sword or famine in this land.’ By sword and famine these prophets will meet their end.’”  Jeremiah 14:14-15

“My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations. They will not be present in the council of my people or be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, and they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.”  Ezekiel 13:9

These are harsh words. Peter is comparing the false teachers that will come to the church to these false prophets. He goes on to say, “They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.” We will see in later verses that some of Peter’s concerns are their denial of the return of Christ and God’s judgment (chapter 3), and immorality, which I will discuss in the next blog post. We are still dealing with these heresies today, among others. There is nothing new under the sun!

One of the things that we need to be aware of is that the false prophets usually rose from within Israel (not from the outside) and in the same way, false teachers come from within the church. Jesus warned of this. “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20). Jesus warns us about the false teachers and how to recognize them.

There are so many false teachers in the church today. And Christians today know so little about what the Bible teaches, that they follow willingly. Based on surveys I have seen lately, I am inclined to think that there are more false teachers than there are teachers teaching the truth. In Natasha Crain’s book Faithfully Different, she lists statistics from several of these. The results are staggering. Her final take-away- “Those with a biblical worldview are not only a minority in America, but a small minority. Furthermore, the American Worldview Inventory and Barna Research both show that those with a biblical worldview are a small minority even among Christians.”

One of the statements that Barna used for its survey on its research was “absolute moral truth exists.” That idea is under attack today. In our postmodern world, no one wants to say that there is only one way to God. That there are absolute rights and wrongs. That sin exists. And we increasingly see these ideas popping up in the church. The Progressive Church teaches that there are many ways to God. It embraces people just the way they are- no need to repent of their sin-indeed there is no mention of sin. And if you are not a sinner, there is no need for the atonement. These are just some of the false teachings of the Progressive Church.

Sometimes this idea of “no absolute truth” is more subtle. This idea has been so indoctrinated into our youth, that although they are attending church, a Barna study from a couple of years ago shows that almost half of practicing Christian Millennials feel that sharing their faith with others is wrong. Their faith might be true for them, but they feel that they shouldn’t impose their beliefs on others. Their faith is subjective, not objective. Greg Koukl is a Christian apologist who has written several excellent books on defending the faith. He explains how this thinking works in his excellent book Street Smarts. “Once again, in relativism, the subject-a person’s beliefs, tastes, or preferences- is the “truth maker.” Moral beliefs are only “true” for the person who holds them. They might not be “true” for others who have other moral convictions.” This has taken root in Christianity. Greg Koukl goes on to explain, “If the “truth maker,” the condition that makes a statement true, is something about the object itself- something outside of us, so to speak, unrelated to our own thoughts, desires, feelings, or beliefs- then the truth is an objective truth.” If we know the object is true, and it is true for everyone, we should be willing to share it. And Jesus Himself teaches that He is the only way. “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). He also tells us where all lies come from, including the lie of relativism. When he was confronting the Pharisees, he said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). He is still lying today and infecting the church with his lies.

There is one last thing I want to cover before I end this post. There are those who feel that we should not call out false teachers by name, that we should be unified at all costs. But that is not what the Bible teaches. Just about every book of the New Testament has a warning about false teachers. Paul calls several out by name. We are told to avoid these teachers (Romans 16:17-18), rebuke them in the presence of all (1 Timothy 5:20), and to not receive them into our house or give them greeting (2 John 1:10). There are so many verses that talk about false teachers, and I will be sharing many in the next several posts. But I will leave you with this one. “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

We will continue with verse one and the two that follow in the next post.

Grace be with you!