False Teachers

by G. Jarvie | Category: General | Jan 1953

"Their word will eat as doth a gangrene" (2 Timothy 2.17).

When the British army came back to Burma during the war, some of the Burmese people were amazed to find that many of the British soldiers did not believe in God or in the Bible, and that the Lord's day was the same to them as any other day. Some of the Burmese and Karen people were God-fearing, and they had imagined that Britain was a Christian country, where most of the people were Christians. They wondered how it was that the country which sent out so many Bibles, should send out so few Christians!

How comes it that in some great nations, among whom Bibles are so plentiful, there should be so much sin, and spiritual darkness, darkness well-nigh as great as in some lands where Bibles are very scarce? The reason can be given in two words-" False teachers." Most people believe what they are taught, without really thinking for themselves, and false teaching has done its deadly work.

False teachers are of two kinds. Firstly, there are those who are openly non-Christian, and then there are those who profess to be Christians, but who deny the truths of the Bible. Without doubt the latter are the most dangerous. It is to these that Paul refers in 2 Timothy 2.17. "Their word," he says, "will eat as doth a gangrene." Gangrene is a creeping death, and wherever the words of these false teachers are believed, spiritual death follows. How awful this is and how terrible will be their condemnation!

The non-Christian false teachers can be easily recognized. They arc found in the ranks of the free-thinkers, and pseudo-scientists, and evolutionists, and though the everlasting power and divinity of God can be seen in His creation, yet such men refuse to glorify Him as God, or to give Him thanks (Romans 1.20, 21).

Paul writes about them tersely when he says, "Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools." How true! The theory of evolution has suited many false teachers, and they proclaim it everywhere. But some eminent scientists have declared that evolution is not science. It is unproved and unprovable, therefore it cannot be science.

Young disciples will read in school-books and other books, about the evolution of men from monkeys, etc. Do not believe it, it is false, and it has come from false teachers. Those who say they believe this are only following these false teachers, the blind following the blind. Do not be alarmed, young disciple, the mythical theory of evolution has not shaken the truth of creation as it is written in the book of Genesis. No, not one little bit! True science can be demonstrated and proved. Evolution is a myth I But it has had a terribly damaging effect on the minds of the common people, many of whom like to think that they believe what is "scientific." The false teaching of the supposed Christians is very much more dangerous than that of the non-Christian teachers. Most of these men also have imbibed the teaching of evolution. It suits their pride! They say they believe in the teachings of Jesus, but do they? Can a man be a Christian and not believe in the writings of Moses? Moses wrote the book of Genesis, which declares that God made man in His own likeness. Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ "if ye believed Moses, ye would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" (John 5.46, 47).

So a man cannot believe on Christ who does not believe what Moses wrote!

But some men say that they do believe on the teachings of Christ, but not in the writings of Moses! What is the explanation? They are dishonest, both with themselves and with others! Their teaching is false teaching, and their words eat like a gangrene. Spiritual death follows these men wherever they go. They do not believe in the God who is described in the Old Testament as "The LORD, the LORD, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation" (Exodus 34.6, 7).

The Bible which these men use is often limited to what they call "The Sermon on the Mount." Those who follow these false teachers live and die without any certain hope of eternal life. Their God is a god of their own imagination. He is not the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Young disciple, do not be deceived by the writings of any false teachers. These men are easily known by their attitude to the Person and the word of Christ.

"Abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, ... Every Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete." (2 Timothy 3.14-17, R.V.M.).

False teachers and men of God What a difference! Because of the false teachers, millions of people are living in spiritual darkness with Bibles in their homes. How awful! Men of God are few! Will you be a torch-bearer in the deepening gloom, holding to the faithful word and preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ? Make it your aim to be a man or a woman of God.

G. Jarvie | Jan 1953
General