“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many,” Matthew 24:11.

Without a doubt, we are now in the times of deception as described by Jesus in Matthew 24:11.

We live in the beginnings of a digital age where there is an overwhelming mountain of information available to us on any subject — all at the touch of a button and from anywhere we find convenient to sit and be fed.

How much of the information at our fingertips is true and worthy, is of course the question we must ask ourselves.

Rather than inventing our own personal means of filtering all the available dross, let us instead start with the guide for living which God has given us, His Holy Bible.

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, is a good place to begin, for Romans 16:17 was written for this very purpose:

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them.” (KJV)

Or as the Easy-to-Read Version says:

“Brothers and sisters, I want you to be very careful of those who cause arguments and hurt people’s faith by teaching things that are against what you learned. Stay away from them.”

The KJV warns to “mark” them, or in Greek “skopeō,” meaning to look at, observe, contemplate; to mark; to fix one’s eyes upon, direct one’s attention to, any one; to look to, take heed to thyself. It means to take aim at, to spy upon.

Paul is asking us here to be very careful, to be alert and discerning and to watch very carefully whose who cause division in the Church or promote contrary doctrine to that which he taught.

At the time Paul wrote Romans, the Church was suffering, if that is the correct work, for a dearth, a scarcity of written documentation. In essence, the problem was the opposite to that which we now face.

The Church of Paul’s time had so little written documentation that it was hard for them to know for sure that new teachings and information were genuine and Godly.

Our problem today, conversely, is that there is so much commentary and expository information available on the Bible, doctrine, theology and Christian life, that it is hard for us to know for sure that new teachings and information are genuine and Godly.

Even so, in both cases, Paul’s words are appropriate and the teachings from the Bible are as apt today as they were when Paul first penned them.

There are 10 easily discernable marks of false teachers in the New Testament which all Christians, as Paul said, ought to mark.

As the Bible states, it can be said of all false teachers that:

1 They cause divisions among Christians:

Romans 16:17 “And I exhort you, brothers, to watch those making divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them.”

2 They cause offenses against truth:

Romans 16:17 “And I exhort you, brothers, to watch those making divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them.”

3 They do not serve God:

Romans 16:17-18 “And I exhort you, brothers, to watch those making divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple. “

4 They serve their own belly [themselves, their own appetites]:

Romans 16:18 “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”

Philippians 3:19 “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.”

5 They use slick tongues to deceive:

Romans 16:18 “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”

6 They are enemies of the Cross:

Philippians 3:18 “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.”

7 They walk contrary to the Gospel:

Philippians 3:17 “Brothers and sisters, join together in following my example. Also, learn by watching those who are living the way we showed you.”

8 They glory in their shame:

Philippians 3:19 “The way they live is leading them to destruction. They have replaced God with their own desires. They do shameful things, and they are proud of what they do. They think only about earthly things.”

9 The care for earthly things:

Philippians 3:19 “The way they live is leading them to destruction. They have replaced God with their own desires. They do shameful things, and they are proud of what they do. They think only about earthly things.”

10 They bring in Heresies:

Second Peter 2:1 “In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong – ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves.”

As we look at bringing in heresies – old and new – to the Church, we can widen the scope of false teachers here a little as we include other relevant biblical warnings:

Matthew 7:15 “Be careful of false prophets. They come to you and look gentle like sheep. But they are really dangerous like wolves.”

First John 4:4 “My dear friends, many false prophets are in the world now. So don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.”

Matthew 24:4-5 “Jesus answered, “Be careful! Don’t let anyone fool you. Many people will come and use my name. They will say, ‘I am the Messiah.’ And they will fool many people.”

Indeed, Matthew 24, the great Olivet Prophecy, was given to us such that we will not be deceived about the end time such as we are certainly now living.

Similarly, in Romans 16:19 we find a description of how we can detect true and Godly leaders:

“Everyone has heard that you do what you were taught, and I am very happy about that. But I want you to be wise about what is good and to know nothing about what is evil.”

In other words, we can detect true leaders from the false by godliness, unselfishness and faithfulness.

Thus, we must look to the fruit of the Spirit to judge the nature of the roots, for as Galatians 5:22 says,

“the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

If this fruit is not being produced in abundance in that person’s life, we ought not to be listening to the person.

Amen and Amen.

 

~ Angus MacKillop

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