False Teachers/Prophets

[tsth]

Mods, forgive me for what seems like a duplicated topic. I did not want to hijack the other thread, as I was not sure that the focus of that one is the same as this one. I am not speaking of "prophets" as in those who tell what is to come. This thread is regarding today's preachers/teachers/prophets. What has crept in to the body and how to identify.

Here is what I heard and understood from the Word this morning.

There are now current day teachers/preachers, who are leading the flock astray by NEW teachings, that are not of Christ and the Word. These are the current day trends of false teachings:

It is any teaching that will make mankind feel better about his relationship/standing with God, while at the same time, omitting the examination of self and acknowledgement of sin. If the message of the cross and Christ is given without the acknowledgement of sin, then it is NOT a WHOLE message. It is a half truth. A half truth, is a LIE.

We have a whole nation and church full of people who have been sold a partial message of the gospel. If a people are given a gospel without realizing their sin state, then they have not received the message in full, they have been deceived.

If a people are buying up doctrines that are void of the reality of our sin, it is merely because they do not want to see what is within themselves/ourselves. Our sinful state MUST be revealed in order for us to be saved. It is foundational to Christianity. If we are willing to look at the majority of today's new wave of teachings, we would see that it has nothing to do with the discomfort and contrition that the TRUE WORD of the Gospel brings. There must be brokenness and turning from sin in order for a people to be saved!

There MUST be a return to the preaching of the WHOLE GOSPEL again!!!

Ezekiel 33

"So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die!' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

10 "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: 'Thus you say, "If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?" ' 11 Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'

Acts 20

20 I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21 as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus.

26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Beware a prophet or teacher who goes past the teachings of Christ in order to omit the focus on sin. It must be revealed to man about himself, lest he cannot be saved.

2 John 9

9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.

Matthew 6:16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned." 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

And the disciples themselves were taught by Christ to preach repentance.

Mark 6:11 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!" 12 So they went out and preached that people should repent.

The state of todays teachings and what will come of us:

Jeremiah 8:6 I listened and heard, But they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle. 7 "Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord. 8 "How can you say, 'We are wise, And the law of the Lord is with us'? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. 9 The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; So what wisdom do they have? 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others, And their fields to those who will inherit them; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is given to covetousness; From the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. 11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace. 12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; In the time of their punishment They shall be cast down," says the Lord.

9:5 Everyone will deceive his neighbor, And will not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves to commit iniquity. 6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me," says the Lord. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and try them; For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

Jeremiah 23

14 Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah. 15 "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,

17 They continually say to those who despise Me, 'The Lord has said, "You shall have peace" '; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, 'No evil shall come upon you.' " 18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, And has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? 19 Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury-- A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly. 21 "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.

Jeremiah 35:15 I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Turn now everyone from his evil way, amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them; then you will dwell in the land which I have given you and your fathers.' But you have not inclined your ear, nor obeyed Me.

Daniel 9:13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

Malachi 2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, And injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, And turned many away from iniquity.

Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

Acts 26:20 19 "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. 21 For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

This is what happens when people become strangers to the teachings on repentance, they become violent and angry towards the messengers.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:

Are the new teachings of today embracing the truth of repentance? Are the messengers preaching repentance? Or another gospel? Examine the messengers, examine yourselves lest the following be your outcome:

The Words of Jesus Christ Himself:

Luke 13:2 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

We must refrain from embracing doctrines that are not embracing TRUTH. We cannot depart from the teachings of Christ. Any message void of repentance, that deceives the flock, is a false message. We cannot go to heaven if we HAVE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED OUR SIN. If one comes to you teaching another gospel, another Jesus, run! He is not a shepherd of the flock.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Christ's Free Servant]

Here is what I heard and understood from the Word this morning.

There are now current day teachers/preachers, who are leading the flock astray by NEW teachings, that are not of Christ and the Word.  These are the current day trends of false teachings:

It is any teaching that will make mankind feel better about his relationship/standing with God, while at the same time, omitting the examination of self and acknowledgement of sin.  If the message of the cross and Christ is given without the acknowledgement of sin, then it is NOT a WHOLE message.  It is a half truth.  A half truth, is a LIE.

We have a whole nation and church full of people who have been sold a partial message of the gospel.  If a people are given a gospel without realizing their sin state, then they have not received the message in full, they have been deceived.

If a people are buying up doctrines that are void of the reality of our sin, it is merely because they do not want to see what is within themselves/ourselves.  Our sinful state MUST be revealed in order for us to be saved.  It is foundational to Christianity.  If we are willing to look at the majority of today's new wave of teachings, we would see that it has nothing to do with the discomfort and contrition that the TRUE WORD of the Gospel brings.  There must be brokenness and turning from sin in order for a people to be saved!

There MUST be a return to the preaching of the WHOLE GOSPEL again!!!

We must refrain from embracing doctrines that are not embracing TRUTH.  We cannot depart from the teachings of Christ.  Any message void of repentance, that deceives the flock, is a false message.  We cannot go to heaven if we HAVE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED OUR SIN.  If one comes to you teaching another gospel, another Jesus, run!  He is not a shepherd of the flock.

In His Love,

Suzanne

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My point exactly!! Remember that prophets or people with a gift of prophecy are not just future tellers. I have had the gift of prophecy for 40 years and never foretold anything to come in the future until recently. A prophet is a spokesman for God who says what God tells him/her to say to the people, and the gist of what they say is pretty much what you just stated in this post. True prophets of God preach repentance and the crucified life. False prophets teach whatever people want to hear, and there is a lot of that going on out there, I know.

[Christ's Free Servant]

The truth is, it really isn't the Message of the Cross at all if it doesn't call the hearer to repentance and expose sin. Listen to the words of Christ.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are right on! I've been preaching/teaching this for years, but this is not the message most people want to hear. Try planting a church with the true message of the cross and see how many people show up. We began as a ministry to college-age adults and as long as we were providing them with free food, entertainment and the teaching/preaching of the word, they were cool. But, once we began to see that this recent crop of students God has given us are so bound up in sin it is not even funny and we tried to teach them to forsake their sin and how they could be set free and how to live godly lives, our attendance began to drop. We were not being mean to them. We were loving them just as much as we always did and more, because we were trying to help them be free. They just don't want to be free from sin. They want God on their terms and I'm afraid that speaks of the condition of many of our churches in America.

But, I believe with all my heart that God is going to judge the church for their false teaching and that when he does we are going to see a revival unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime, and I have seen true revival in the early 70's. And, I believe this is not far away. The Lord has been showing me this for the past four months. There is a time coming soon when Jesus is going to provide so many fish that our boats will not be able to hold them all. Won't that be fantastic! Oh, how I long to see the day when people hunger after God and his word and they want to follow him and not their own fleshly desires. I know it will not be perfect even then. It won't be perfect until Christ frees us from these earthly bodies. But, he has promised me that he has created me for such a time as this and when this revival comes he is going to use me to lead many people to him. Hooray!! Hallelujah!!

[tsth]

Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Jesus spoke to every church in Revelation, except for two, calling "them" to repentance! Why? Because just as spoken above, they forgot, and needed to remember the message of repentance (the whole gospel), lest He come upon them as a thief.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest Bro David™]

Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Jesus spoke to every church in Revelation, except for two, calling "them" to repentance!

Edited April 3, 2005 by Bro David

[tsth]

The genuine ones do NOT depart from the TRUTH OF THE WORD OF GOD, for THAT IS LOVE! GOD IS LOVE.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[eric]

This is indeed an encouraging thread Thank you Suzanne for starting it. There is nothing I can add. Between all who have contibuted I can only add..... AMEN.!

IHL,

eric.