False Teachers

3) Christ-Deniers

Although you really do not have to read these teachings in the order in which I am preparing them, it is recommended that you do so. This is part three on the topic of false teachers. You may want to go back and read part one and part two pertaining to the topic of false teachers. Go back to the category of Basics and you will see the first two parts. Each part of this series of teachings will cover a different characteristic of false teachers. When we are finished with this series, you will be much sharper spiritually and more able to identify a counterfeit teacher.

God spells out and lays the complete foundation for this teaching in II Peter.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who [bring in privily] privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. – II Peter 2: 1

Have you ever heard of a word study? I believe that God wrote this Scripture to help me with this teaching. We are going to do what I am calling a Scripture study. We are going to work this dynamic Scripture inside and out. This one Scripture practically teaches everything I want you to know. Let us begin.

We are going to use a Lexicon to study many words and phrases that are in this Scripture. In the first place I ask you to understand that when I can, I will give you the literal translation of a verse or a part of a verse. Some of you who have followed these teachings understand this completely. That is why I have placed in the verse [bring in privily]. Now that is the first phrase in this verse that we are going to study completely.

The words “bring in privily” means to be lead in by one’s side. What I want you to focus on is the second part of this same phrase which means to “introduce secretly.” That’s what these counterfeit teachers will do to you unless you are spiritually sharp. It has been said that the enemy moves in secret. He does not spell out his principles and devices in a book. Where God Almighty – the true God – spells out every detail in His Word for us to understand and apply in our life. I have said to you many times that the secret to the devil’s success is the secrecy of his moves. It has been noted in correct spiritual writings that every so often the devil goes into hiding. If you have someone to witness to, you can mention to him or her about the god of this world and many people will deny that he even exists. Satan just loves to see people believe such a lie. I went out with a girl in college whose father was the captain of the State Police in a large city. Somehow the topic came up about the devil and you know what he said to me. “Aww, there is no devil.” He was a devout member of the Catholic Church along with his wife. When my girlfriend was taking a Biblical class that taught the rightly divided Word of God, her mother got her hands on one of the books that came with the class. She just blew her mind because she just had the Word of God wrongly dividing to a great extent. Her parents went to no end of trouble to see that this girl and I could not stay together. I knew this was a price I had to pay for standing for the true God. But nothing was going to move me and we parted our ways. Woe unto these people for what they have done. Everyone has free will. Even God Almighty will never overstep your free will.

Why I told you that story is so that you can see what happened to these people who had such wrong believing. Someone – a false teacher – taught them what they knew. They really were denying Christ and they thought he was God which is even worse. It’s a mess out there and God is depending on us to shine some light and to teach people the Word rightly divided to those who will listen.

I found it interesting that in the Lexicon the word ‘privily’ is mentioned a second time by itself. The definition is very similar to the one we already went over. It is defined as “secretly, by stealth”. Satan will influence these teachers in secret. He’s not going to come right out and tell them that what he is teaching them is a lie. It is interesting that the archaic meaning of stealth is the act of stealing. What is Satan’s ministry? He knows that if people believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God and that he is coming back to get us. This shows Satan he has no power over the born again believer. All the born again believers are going to have one big party. This is going to happen while the devil burns for all eternity in the lake of brimstone and fire. I bet my life on it, how about you? Do you really believe, but yet you do not act upon the Word of God? This is a major principle for another teaching. I’m going to let God speak to you now about the ministry of the devil.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: ... – John 10: 10a

Those are the three things that the devil does. That’s all he does are these three things – he steals – he kills – and he destroys. There is so much that can be said here, but I want you to see that when he gets all of these people who deny that Christ even exists, he steals their thoughts and he destroys their mind and if he can he will kill them. Anyone that denies that Christ came on the face of this earth, you should get away from those people as soon as possible. Do not have any fellowship with them whatsoever. There are people out there that will hurt you and try to kill, steal and destroy you.

Okay, let’s not forget the verse we are studying. Here it is again:

Now we understand that these false teachers are secretly and privately bringing to people the wrongly divided Word of God. Let us keep examining the rest of this verse. We are next going to study the terms “damnable and heresies”.

Damnable means “the losing or loss”. It also means “perdition or ruin”. It is referring to what has been lost and ruined. Now let’s tie this in with the next word which is “heresies”. Heresies is referring to a choice or an option. It is a preference or a chosen way or plan. Now this is quite simple and amazing the way God put this together. In the first place, you are losing or you are at a loss – you are dealing with perdition or ruin. The word heresies means that you have made this choice by your free will to practice perdition or ruin. This is obviously the reason that most people are unhappy. They have chosen the wrong way. Overall, there are very few people who run across this website. Those people who do are very special to God. Finally, they have found the truth and they have a way out. They are not going to take the option which leads them to ruin.

It is simple to see why their life is destroyed by looking at the next section of the verse we are studying. It says “even denying the Lord that bought them”. There are false teachers who are so deceptive that they will teach you that Jesus Christ never came or that Jesus Christ is God. How in the world can Jesus Christ be God? I have done a teaching on this if you would like to delve into the subject even further. It causes quite the controversy and when I was accepting emails, a few people wanted to argue with me. You see, you cannot argue truth – you can only witness to it. I told these people that I did not write the book and then I politely excused myself from them.

And take notice of that phrase which is highlighted in the previous paragraph. It says that we were bought and we were bought with a price. That was the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross for us. He gave his life for us so that we can live more than abundantly as it clearly states in John 10: 10b. I am not going to get into the Scripture that clarifies this because I do not want you to lose your attention on the subject of this teaching. But I will tell you that the Bible clearly says that by the man Adam, we lost it all. But by the man Jesus Christ, we got it all back. So what happens to these people who are influenced and deceived by false teachers? Just take a look at the last part of our verse in II Peter 2: 1.

. . . . and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

You see, people, we, by our own free can bring swift destruction upon ourselves. It is not God’s fault. God is all love and in Him is no darkness at all. The enemy will get a hold of your life and your mind and you will bring this destruction upon yourself. You cannot blame God. There are two gods and you better have learned that by now.

In conclusion, let us put together a literal translation of II Peter 2: 1. In fact, we are going to elaborate on this verse even more so than a literal translation. I would like to put together for you everything we have learned about this verse into one paragraph. Let us repeat the verse as it appears in the King James Version one more time.

Before we start, we need to go over the 21^st verse in chapter 1 of II Peter. I want you to be able to understand the first word in II Peter 2: 1. This is important if you want to fully understand the Word of God.

The first word in the Scripture that we are studying is the word “But”. That connective means “that which sets in contrast that which is said before”. Verse 1: 21 talks about how we got the Word of God which was as holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now in chapter 2 we are completely shifting gears into a subject unlike verse 21 in chapter 1 and the contrast is set apart. Can you see that? You should be able to see it. The verse we are studying begins with the word “But”. That word prepares us for a change in the subject matter. We are changing from holy men of God who spoke the Word of God by Revelation. This is of course a very positive subject. But in chapter 2 verse one, the subject matter changes completely in contrast to what was said before. That is the reason for the word “But”. Now we are going to move on to our simplified translation.

“But even though there are great men of God who spoke the Will of God, there are also false prophets among all the people which means that there will be false prophets among you. They secretly and privately bringing in to you the wrongly divided Word of God. This will result in you being a loser and your life will be a complete ruination. These false teachers will even go so far as to deny that Christ even came upon the earth. They do not believe in the first coming of Jesus Christ and will teach this to you. These false teachers will eventually have to face destruction and it will come swiftly upon them. They will also go so far as to teach you that Jesus Christ is God. There are four Scriptures that are slightly difficult which appear to say that Jesus Christ is God. There are 50 Scriptures that clearly state that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Even devil spirits called Jesus Christ the son of God! This perdition and ruin (referred to as damnable) will come upon these false teachers because they are teaching error and they are doing it by their own free will. Now in final conclusion, I must tell you that if you decide to follow the teachings of these false teachers, you, by your own free will, will experience the same fate.”

Those of us who know the rightly divided word of God are responsible to God to share this Word with others. It says in Corinthians that the ministry of reconciliation has been committed to believers. We are God’s hands and his legs and his mouth. We must speak the Word to others to give them a chance to learn and to be delivered from all the power of darkness. I understand that many of us may have some shyness concerning speaking to strangers. I have someone quite close to me that is like that. But you can also witness with your example in your life. People will see the light that you walk in and they may even ask you: “How do you do it? You seem so happy all of the time and everything seems to work out for you.” What these people see is the Christ in you and many times they will not read the book, they will read you. I told you in one of my teachings quite a while ago that after I got a number of people involved in a biblical research and teaching class in the 70’s, I asked them why they signed up for that class. They said to me “Because I wanted to be like you.” It just blew my mind. I never thought this was the case because I was just being myself.

You now can understand completely and fully the first verse in II Peter chapter 2, verse one. You have now renewed your mind to a great extent concerning the subject of false teachers. This will help you in the future to identify the counterfeit and exposing the adversary for what he really is. For me, this is one of the greatest thrills of knowing the Word of God. Let me close with two final verses about something that we just discussed. I would like you to see it in writing from the Bible.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; -- II Corinthians 5: 18 [emphasis added]

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation; -- II Corinthians 5: 19 [emphasis added]

When something is completely established in the Word of God, it will always be repeated for the second time. God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. We must get people, by our own free will, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in their life and to do our best to get them to continue to study and renew their mind to what the Word says. If we do not move the Word, the Word will not move at all. This is a great responsibility that we have as born again believers who can rightly divide what the Bible says. The Bible also states that when you speak the Word of God with the love of God, that Word will never come back void. Believe it or not, even if a drunk is laying in the corner of some alley and he speaks to you the rightly divided Word of God, there will always be profit in what is spoken. I know that example seems to be an extreme, but I want to get this in your head as much as I can. Take another look at verses 18 and 19 of II Corinthians in chapter 5. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are not to be a false teacher. We are to be one of God’s children who studies and respects the Word of God and holds it forth.

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***** Watch for part four of this teaching which will discuss a different characteristic of false teachers. God bless you.