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by Charlie Wolcott

Earlier in this series on false teachers, I warned that a false teaching will always seek the glory of man over the glory of God. That is another tactic of a false teacher: seeking the praise of his/her audience. When the Institute for Creation Research came to El Paso just over a year ago, speaker Randy Guiluzza closed out the conference with this statement in a Q&A session that I’ll never forget. He said this: “If I were on a pastoral selection committee, I would not ask about his stance on the Virgin Birth. I would ask about how he handles the fear of man. If he gets the fear of man part right, he’ll get the Virgin Birth part right.” I was like, AMEN!

But that gives another clue to the tactics and tips that false teachers use to sneak in and give themselves away. I had a PhD geology scientist approach me on this issue. This one was so good at showing me these tactics in this series. He started out by berating me for actually believing the Bible over secular scientific models (which are hardly scientific). I didn’t believe him, and then he started telling me he was a Christian and we were brothers in Christ. I have seen this man in secular groups talking just like an atheist and mocking his “brothers” right along with the God-haters. Then he wonders why I don’t believe a word he says.

He asked me this: “Do you know what the secular scientists think about you?” I knew his claim to be a Christian at that time. My response was, “Yes, I know what they think. I don’t care either. Welcome to Christianity.” He never responded to that and has reverted back to the same tactics and same game plan as though I never said a word. That’s typical of false teachers. They have a bag of tools they use to promote their false teaching. When they are refuted, they don’t toss the tool away. They just put it back in their bag and sometimes pull it out again in the same conversation. That’s the key with lies: you can’t be very creative and the story keeps changing. When you speak the truth, you have one story to work with and that’s all you need.

Here is the point though: false teachers need the approval of their audience. It does them no good if no one believes them. False teachers need followers. It helps them justify what they are teaching. A cult leader is a particular type of false teacher in which EVERYTHING must go through the leader as though he were God Himself or His representative. Every cult also has a tendency of having a sexually immoral practice. In a number of them, the cult leader will claim to have the right to annul marriages so he can have the brides. A false teacher, let alone a cult leader, cannot afford to have anyone challenge him/her because they lose their power over their followers. That is why it is a severe thing for someone to leave the Mormon church or the Roman Catholic church; it’s total rejection by the entire society that person knew. That’s not easy to walk away from.

False teachers go after the praise of man. They seek approval for what they believe. That is why I find so many atheists, Old Earthers, and Theistic Evolutionists coming to Young Earth groups and so few of us going to theirs. It’s as though they need to validate their own beliefs. Some have told me they come to “correct us.” If we were half as crazy and in denial of reality as they claim, they’d have no reason to come do that, because all we’d need to do is keep speaking and we’d be killing ourselves in doing so. Yet, they obviously think we are a legitimate threat if they have to come to us to “challenge us.”

Jesus faced the same thing, as did every true teacher. Those who hold to false teachings will come to challenge the true teachers on their turf. And because everything they do depends upon the reception of those they teach, they consider themselves colossal failures if someone under their tutelage gets away from them. This is no different than the Pharisees when Jesus and the Apostles came around. Wolves don’t like it when their dinner is stolen from them, yet we are sent as sheep to rescue other sheep from them.

True teachers are not concerned about who receives their message other than that they weep for the souls who reject it who will be going to hell. True teachers are not in it for a popularity contest. False teachers are. True teachers are only concerned about preaching the correct message and grieving over those who reject the message. False teachers need the praise of men and get angry when their message is rejected. True teachers get mad when the truth is distorted and false teachings are proclaimed as true teachings. This is not for their own sake, but because they love the True God so much as to not allow His name to be blasphemed.

Do we love God more than we love the approval of men, even if those men are our bosses, our politicians, or an officer with a gun to our head? I myself am far more inclined to believe those who give their lives for what they believe no matter the cost than people-pleasers. False teachers and politicians speak what they think their audience wants to hear, and then they turn around and do whatever they want to do when others aren’t watching. They truly care nothing for the well-being of their followers, only for what their followers can give them. That is one of the reasons John told an elderly woman to not house a false teacher, despite the charge for Christians to offer hospitality. If she housed him, she would give a message that she approved his message and would be held guilty of his sins as well. And when he left, she would be just another victim of his Ponzi scheme as he sought out another person to rip off.

Next week, I’ll wrap up this series with a summary of the tactics described here as well as what should we do when we encounter false teachings. It’s one thing to identify them, but what to do with those presenting these teachings is another issue.

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