Home

About

Reviews

News

Commentary

CCM

The Plan

Links

Store

Search

RSS Feed

The Subtle and Insidious Nature of False Doctrine
(9/22/2005)

Ecclesiastes 1:9 there is nothing new under the sun

Matthew 15:9 'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires

1 Timothy 1:3 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines

Sometimes I wish I were a monk. I wish I could just hideaway in some monastery some where. I hate confrontation and conflict and I find it extremely ironic that I seem to find myself time and time again in this position. The position of having to choose between just keeping my mouth shut so as to avoid offending my brothers (allowing false doctrine to go unchallenged) or of speaking out about it and causing conflict. I would much rather do the former but I am compelled by a love of God and the truth to do otherwise.

At this writing I find myself grieved beyond measure at all the false doctrines spreading like so many rapidly mutating viruses. Some are blatant and (one would think) obvious…others are less so. It’s been one of those days where it seems like everywhere I look I find obstinate error and more concern with defending existing positions than with discerning the truth.

One the one hand, someone believes that all disease is caused by un-confessed sin in your life. On the other, I find someone who believes that the Bible isn’t the final authority concerning the gifts of the Spirit and that He is working in new ways through phenomena such as the “Toronto Blessing” and “Pensacola Outpouring” where new gifts were manifested such as holy laughing and making animal noises. I see Pastors who know the Bible and love the Lord and seek to spread the Gospel but believe that the gifts of the Spirit delineated in the New Testament stopped for some reason. I find denominations where they focus on the gifts of the Spirit (even if they have to fake them) but refuse to apply the filter of God’s Word to those experiences. Many churches claim to love the Lord but substitute “relationship evangelism” for preaching the Gospel. I see Christian bands who are rife with bickering and bitterness between band members but who are unwilling to do what it takes to change and truly become one in the Spirit. I see bitter words exchanged between those who consider themselves Calvinist and Arminians and who lose all perspective on the issues of predestination, God’s sovereignty, and free will. Television evangelists try to rally the troops for this or that political cause in the belief that there is some other way than the Gospel of Christ to change people and the society in which they live. And all of this is just from the people who I believe truly are Christians.

It seems that even among the most sincere and dedicated of Christians that we have invested so much of ourselves in our misconceptions that we are unwilling to even consider the possibility of change. It would require admitting and repenting of things said and done in God’s name and a humbleness which our culture views as weakness. And I find the same stupidity and pride within myself. We’re like a bunch of children who are slow to learn and we bounce off one thing and then the next learning nothing. Sometimes I wonder if any of us have got anything right. What a miracle God’s grace is…

Two Extremes

Most of the strange doctrines we have within Christianity today seem to fall into one of two general categories; a blatant disregard of God’s Word or going beyond God’s Word. In the first category, you’ll find doctrines which accept more ways to God than through Christ, accepts homosexuality as something which God endorses, and teaches that the Bible is not to be taken literally but only as a metaphorical guide. In the second category is where you will find doctrines created by passionate and sincere Christians who (for whatever reason) have taken one or more Biblical concepts and interpolated them into something which goes beyond what God intended; doctrines such as the bread and wine in communion becoming the literal body and blood of Christ, seeing all technology as evil, and limiting what you can wear or eat. This is part of the “leaven of the Pharisees” which consists of hypocrisy (in that they insist on obeying certain commands of God while ignoring others) combined with legalism (conformity to the letter of the law rather than its spirit). All of these doctrines started with one man who thought that the church wasn’t going far enough in following God’s Word.

These thoughts have forced me to reevaluate myself and what I have been teaching concerning Christian and secular music. Have I gone too far and stepped into the realm of false doctrine? Going beyond what God has said? I don’t believe I have but I have and will continue to re-visit my beliefs on a regular basis and I pray that I will always be humble and open enough to God’s Spirit to change when I have been wrong.

Catalyst

The catalyst that sparked my current state of pain came from a set of doctrines which a friend of mine espouses. He is a great man of God and it grieves me to differ from him on these issues. I do not doubt his sincerity or his integrity. However, these issues are not new and they were debated during the first years of the church. Each of these issues was specifically addressed in the New Testament. If they were not, then I would brush it off as a doctrinally “grey” area and consider it simply a matter of personal interpretation.

An issue may be simply a matter of personal interpretation where you apply the general principles found throughout God’s Word if it is not specifically addressed in the Bible. But if your position is that it is something which God’s Word commands, then it is no longer a matter of personal preference but an issue of obedience or sin. If the issue is spoken to both in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, then the New Testament takes precedence (i.e., the essence of the New Covenant and the Old Covenant concepts). To ignore this distinction is to illustrate a fundamental misconception about the fulfillment by the work of Christ of the things foreshadowed symbolically in the Old Covenant.

Three Issues

These three issues have popped up in other areas within the public arena and it is important to address them before they become defacto doctrine. In the first century some of the Jewish Christians sought to impose these behaviors on Gentile Christians and they were addressed in several places in the New Testament (most notably in Acts 15). They are the doctrinal view that all Christians should worship on Saturday (as opposed to Sunday), should abstain from non-kosher foods, and that the Jewish holidays and festivals should still be observed. Adherence to these behaviors were explicitly commanded by God of the Hebrews in the Old Testament and most were from the book of Leviticus.

However, when Christ came He fulfilled the law (Matthew 5:17-20) and “things which were a mere shadow of what was to come” were no longer applicable.

Here are verses which specifically address the Sabbath and Jewish holidays and festivals:

Colossians 2:16,17 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Romans 14:5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.

John 9:16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath " But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them.

Mark 2:27 Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”

Here are verses which specifically address food (in addition to Colossians 2:16,17):

Mark 7:18-20 And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.”

1 Timothy 4:3-5 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

Romans 14:14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself…

Colossians 2:20-23 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)--in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

1 Corinthians 8:8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.

How Is It That You Compel The Gentiles To Live like Jews?

In Acts 15, Jewish Christians tried to get the Gentiles to follow their traditions. However, after a heated discussion between those who advocated having them observe Jewish customs and the Apostles (including Paul), they only advised them to keep a minimal set of rules. There was no mention of having them observe the Sabbath, restricting their diet to kosher foods, or observing Jewish holidays. In addition, in all of Paul’s epistles to the Gentiles, there is no mention of it. In fact, I can find no indication in the New Testament or in historical records of the early church of any time where Christian Gentiles were instructed to do so. If it is not mentioned much less commanded in the New Testament, why is it important for us to reinstitute it now?

Looking at these three issues brings to mind Galatians 2 where some Jews had secretly infiltrated the Gentile Christians in order to “spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.” When Paul met with the Apostles, Peter began to refuse to sit or speak with the Gentiles (which he would normally and which was against Jewish tradition) because he was trying to keep from offending the Jewish Christians who were present. But Paul wouldn’t let it slide:

Galatians 2:13-16 The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Causing A Brother To Stumble

However, there is clear guidance concerning not offending someone by what you eat or by what days you worship in Romans 14:

Romans 14:2-4 One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Romans 14:5,6 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.

Romans 14:14-17 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14:20-23 Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

How should we interpret Romans 14 in light of the other scriptures we find in the New Testament concerning food? Should we allow doctrines such as we are discussing to be taught and promoted without challenging them? If so, where does the deviation from sound doctrine end? Hasn’t history taught us that error uncorrected only increases in magnitude over time?

I think the key is in the phrase “one person.” Romans 14 is talking about how to interact with a Christian brother who has made a personal choice concerning diet or observance of one day over another. If someone chooses to eat only vegetables or restrict their diet in some other way because they believe it is better for them, or they feel God leading them to do so for a time, or any other personal reason then we should respect that. To try and get them to eat something which they don’t want to (for whatever reason) would be to try and cause your brother to stumble or sin because they would be doing something that they believe is wrong. The same goes for religious observances on certain days. If they feel God leading them to pray, or study the Bible, or worship on a certain day or days then we should respect that.

However, it is entirely another matter when someone begins to teach their fellow brethren that God has commanded these behaviors and to do otherwise is to disobey God. It then is no longer a matter of respecting personal choice but a matter of legalism and the “leaven of the Pharisees” creeping in to restrict our liberty in Christ and begin to put us back into the bondage of the law. Although its initial effects may be innocuous, such thinking inevitably leads to further restrictions until at last we find ourselves back trying to earn God’s favor through works.

All Things To All Men

One reason put forth as justification for such restrictions is that our liberty gives offense to Jews and Muslims who still adhere to these sorts of doctrines. Granted, it is entirely scriptural to avoid giving offense to those of another culture or religion where it is possible without disobeying God when trying to minister to that group:

1 Corinthians 9:20-22 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

What Does Christ-Like Mean?

Another rationalization given for these doctrines is that they make you more “Christ-like” since these were behaviors that we believe Jesus observed since he was, after all, Jewish. However, if that is the reason for doing these things then where does it end? There are many rituals and customs which were commanded by God in the Old Testament and which were observed by the Jews of Jesus’ time. Are we now to say that God commands all Christians to observe the following:

Christians are to be considered unclean and untouchable for period of time after having had contact with a dead non-kosher animal (for instance, touching bacon), during menstruation, after giving birth, and after a seminal emission (Leviticus 11,12 and 15)

• Women can’t wear men’s clothing and vice-versa (Deuteronomy 22:5)
• It is forbidden to wear a garment where wool and linen are mixed (Deuteronomy 22:11)
• You can’t eat the fruit of a tree for the first three years after you plant it (Leviticus 19:23)
• Anyone who works on the Sabbath shall be put to death (Exodus 35:2)
• Anyone who curses their mother or father, commits adultery, or has sexual relations with someone in their immediate family or of the same sex will be put to death (Levitius 20:9-13)
• If you’re in fulltime ministry, then you can’t shave your head or trim your beard (Leviticus 21:5)
• If you have a garden or are a farmer, then every seventh year you are forbidden from sowing any seed, gathering any crops, or weeding and trimming (Leviticus 25:4,5)

There are many aspects of Jesus’ life which differs from most people today. Unlike Jesus, most of us drive when going long distances, have homes and mortgages, bathe daily, and use deodorant. It is obvious to even a casual student of the Bible that trying to be “Christ-like” means to emulate His character and not his cultural customs.

The Appearance of Wisdom

There is something in our “old self” (Colossians 3:9) which longs for religious ritual and self-abasement. It has to do with the same reason that Christ and salvation by grace is a stumbling block to those of other religions and non-Christians. We have trouble accepting the fact that there isn’t something which we can do to earn our own salvation. If we can do things to show how pious we are, then we can feel better about ourselves. It’s all part of a “works” mentality (Ephesians 2:8,9) and helps to feed the most common of sins…pride.

The pride we take in how devout we are is something which all the other religions of the world can relate to. Those who sincerely seek to follow those religions must by nature focus on discipline and what they can outwardly achieve. When your spiritual future is entirely up to what you can accomplish by the force of your own will then you can count on many tasks and rituals being required so that you have a means of measuring your success. Again, this is one of the reasons that followers of other religions hold much of Christianity in such contempt because we insist that we are saved by grace alone and that there is nothing we can do to merit it.

Within Christianity, the concept of being saved by grace alone often causes people to stumble into extremes at both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, you find those who believe they have their “fire insurance” so they can pretty much do what they feel is right (often phrased as “being led by the Spirit” in order to make it sound spiritual). On the other, there are those who set out to offset that very perception and go right past sanctification and wind up in the same techniques used by other religions to curry God’s favor. Of course, we should be led by the Spirit but the Holy Spirit will never lead you to ignore the Word of God. And we should seek sanctification as we continue in the process of repentance and maturity but that doesn’t mean seeking to revive restrictions from the Old Testament which the New Testament has removed. Doing so may have the “appearance of wisdom” (Colossians 2:23 ) but is actually just a step towards putting yourself back into the bondage of the Law.

Conclusion

There appears to be a wider (and more bizarre) variety of false doctrines among Pentecostals and Charismatics (which I consider myself a member of). I think the reason for this is that we have swung more towards the experiential in our efforts to know God and have begun to neglect the Word of God. The Word of God should be our standard against which we measure any experience or compulsion which we believe is from the Spirit. If we did so, then many of these aberrations could be avoided.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Galatians 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

Galatians 5:1-4 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Romans 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.