False Teachings in the Church: A Necessary Warning for Believers

Alarm Bells in the Church

Have you ever had your smoke alarm go off? It is very, very irritatingly loud but if it goes off for the right reason it will save your life. No one wants to hear that sound, no one wants the warning, but still if it's that or death I will put up with it, wouldn't you?

Well today we have alarm bells going off in our churches but too often we have the same response. We shut them off, we ignore them, we think we have time to act, but soon it will be too late to ignore them. Scripture does not leave us guessing about these dangers; Peter, writing near the end of his life, sounds one of the clearest alarm bells in the New Testament on false teachings in the church.

Peter’s Warning About False Teachers

In 2 Peter, the disciple has some serious warnings to give about false teachers. They don't announce their arrival, but if we are seeking God's truth and are discerning, we should be able to recognize them. These warnings are not abstract or confined to the first century; we understand their influence clearly when we examine what many professing Christians believe today.

False Doctrine Revealed in Modern Beliefs

We know there is a rise in the number of false teachers when we look at what people in the United States say they believe. These are people who call themselves evangelicals, and say they believe the Bible is inerrant. Let's look at just a couple of the things they say are true in a 2020 survey.

• That Jesus was created by God (65%).

• Close to 50% believe that the Holy Spirit is a 'force' but not a real being; that small sins don't deserve eternal punishment; and that most people are good by nature.

These are not minor misunderstandings but foundational errors that strike at the heart of who God is and what it means to be saved.

False Teachings in the Church

Those who believe that Jesus was created by God might have skipped past John 1:1-14. The Word (Jesus) was eternal with God and was God. The Holy Spirit is not just a force that acts on the hearts of man but is co-eternal with the Father and the Son. They are one.

Why did Jesus die for us? Because we have all sinned. The degree to which we sin may differ but we are all worthy of damnation without the saving grace and blood of Jesus Christ. It is this fact that forces us to acknowledge that none of us are good. We have a sin nature that must be changed to have fellowship with God. No amount of doing good can save us. Only Jesus can do that.

False beliefs like those we highlighted in the survey do not arise in a vacuum; they are shaped by what people are taught and by those they trust to teach them. These beliefs are a direct result of a lack of spiritual knowledge or being taught by false teachers, but most likely both. How do we discern false teachers? Discerning spiritual fruit helps us see the marks of false teachers.

The Marks of False Teachers

They are arrogant individuals (2 Peter 2:10-12). They are people who can't acknowledge they are wrong or do not have a teachable spirit. Believers are called to be humble above all things. Pride is the root cause of a multitude of sins.

False teaching does not remain confined to words; it inevitably reshapes behavior, particularly in the area of sexual morality. They are frequently involved in sexual sins (2 Peter 2:13-14). They hide them well, but of course they are often exposed for who they really are. Perhaps they feel they are so superior to others they think that the rules don't apply to them.

These false teachers are greedy (2 Peter 2:14-16). Maybe they don't start out that way but they see what gain can be had from telling people what they want to hear instead of proclaiming truth. We see this regularly today among some of the more famous tele-evangelists.

Peter doesn't go into the details of the false teachings that were taught in the church of his day. However, we are told in 2 Peter 2:18 that their words are "great swelling words of emptiness." They sound great, even perhaps profound, but in the end they mean nothing. In verse 19, Peter says they promise new Christians "liberty." This is sexual liberty Peter is referencing. It is as though Peter time-traveled 2,000 years into the future and heard some modern day ministers saying things like "love is love" or "all that matters is if you love someone."

False Converts and the Church’s Witness

Today, sexual purity is something that sounds almost quaint. We live in a time when some churches condone, or at least never say anything about, people having sex before marriage, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, or divorce. The sexual sins that are plainly called out over and over in Scripture are ignored or accepted. However, not everyone causing damage in the church is a teacher; some are false converts whose lives reveal that truth never took root.

Peter tells us that those pretend believers will always return to what they truly were (2 Peter 2:22). They may have confessed a faith but it did not result in a transformed life. They did not put on the new man as Paul explains. The old ways were hidden under a thin veneer of pretend. They were the seeds that sprouted but quickly died (Matthew 13:5-6). They had no true foundation in Christ.

These false converts can be sprinkled throughout our churches. They are the wolves in sheep's clothing. They may be seemingly nice people but their lives bear no true fruit. They know the words to say but their lives seem to be speaking another language. We can be blind to the damage they can do by presenting themselves to others as Christians, but living like they are not.

The consequences of this inconsistency between our words and our deeds extend beyond the individual and affect the entire witness of the church. Those outside of the church are watching. Are we what we say we are? Do we act like what we say we are? Those new converts in the church are also watching. If someone is in church, but not living for Christ they will notice. Spiritually young Christians may decide that all these restrictions on sexual behavior really aren't necessary because they see the rules, so to speak, routinely flaunted by some who claim to be believers.

How Biblical Discernment Protects the Church

Biblical discernment does not happen by chance alone; it must grow through deliberate study of God’s Word. The biggest way to stop the spread of false teachings and heresy in the church is to study your Bible. Scripture may be difficult to understand, but first we pray that God will help us to grow in knowledge and understanding of His Word, Next we turn to resources. There are so many good places online, good study guides, and books that can be used to help us understand Scripture. But be careful of your sources.

Some of the best-selling Bible devotionals and study guides are full of questionable doctrine.

Buy yourself a good Bible dictionary or find one online. Get a physical or online concordance. A concordance is an alphabetical index of biblical words, listing every instance a word appears, with its context and where to find it in your Bible. It helps you to locate specific verses, study word usage across different contexts, and follow themes throughout Scripture.

If you aren't sure what you should read then ask a trusted pastor or someone you look up to as a spiritual guide. Look up explanations for what your denomination says it believes and why. Try to become firm in knowing the basics of what it is to be a Christian. Diligence is called for in many places in the Scriptures. Diligence is hard work, but nonetheless we are called to it.

Then, when someone is teaching or preaching you will be aware of those alarm bells. You can gently question that person. We will always have areas of Scripture which we interpret differently, but you can discern the ones that are the most significant. This is because not all doctrinal differences are equal. You will be able to detect heresy when you hear it.

At the most serious end of false teaching lies heresy—errors so severe that they distort or deny the core truths of Christianity.

Not every doctrinal disagreement rises to the level of heresy. For example, faithful, Bible-believing Christians differ on important matters such as baptism—specifically who should be baptized and when. Some baptize infants, viewing baptism as a sign of the covenant, while others baptize only professing believers as a public confession of faith. This difference matters because it affects church practice and teaching, but it is not heresy. Both views accept the same core truths: salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, the full deity of Christ, the Trinity, and the authority of Scripture. These are disagreements over application and understanding, not over the gospel itself.

Throughout church history, not just disagreements, but outright heresies have repeatedly arisen, often appearing spiritually or intellectually persuasive while undermining the gospel itself. Heresy is not just a small or wrong belief but is a deliberate and persistent teaching contrary to the very core beliefs of Christianity. 2 Peter 2:1 says they are "destructive" and "deny the Lord."

In times past, there have been several destructive heresies such as Gnosticism which claimed to have secret knowledge that was superior to others. Docetism was the belief that Jesus only seemed to have a physical body, but didn't really. Arianism was known for denying the full deity of Christ. Marcionism was a belief that the Old Testament was unnecessary. Discerning teachers allows us to spot destructive heresies.

Heresies are where the Devil does some of his most destructive work in the body of Christ. So many, especially young and immature Christians, are led astray by them. If you as a lay person, detect this in your church, speak to the pastor or those in authority about the best way to deal with it. Perhaps you may have misunderstood what was said or taught. We always need to remain teachable ourselves. Whatever we do should be done in humility and love, and the Holy Spirit, through God's Word, equips us to do that.

Just make sure you are prepared to listen for alarm bells and act. If we don't act, we may be setting ourselves up to lose not just our life but our soul, not because discernment saves us, but because refusal to hear the truth may reveal a faith that was never genuine.

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Scripture references: 2 Corinthians 11:13–15; 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 5:12–14; Matthew 18:15–17; Galatians 6:1; James 1:19; Ephesians 4:15.