The prevalence of false teachers and false doctrines

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

A while back I was involved in a discussion regarding the prevalence of false teachers and false doctrines abounding in our world. The tone of this discussion seemed to suggest that these sorts of teachers and doctrines were of a recent arrival to society. Let me just say that this isn't the case. They have been around through all the ages of man on earth. And this is true whether we're talking about the temporal world or the religious.

In offering my opinion, as it regards the temporal aspects of our lesson today, it just seems to me that whenever any law or statute is enacted, someone is always available to not only disregard or figure a way around it, but to also entice others to do the same. As an example of this, during my past law enforcement career I had occasion to investigate some who claimed to have figured out how NOT to pay taxes and were holding seminars to teach others their system. (Read: doctrine) Of course, there was a "slight" fee attached to the edification of this doctrine.

Now these people were just out and out crooks, swindlers. They got caught and prosecuted for their endeavors, and sadly, so did their disciples. They committed an offense and lead others into doing the same. They knew what they were doing and knew that their methods were against the law.

However, when it comes to the world of religion, I don't think that all of the false teachers we see and hear in the various types of media believe that they're teaching a false doctrine. I think that they actually believe what they are saying but, as far as God and His Word is concerned, that does not excuse them nor does it excuse their followers. I'm sure that they are teaching and preaching their doctrines with "all good intentions."

And that brings us to the gist of our lesson today - intentions. We all know what the pavement of heaven's street consists of, don't we? "Pure gold" it tells us in Rev. 21:21. Well, an author by the name of Samuel Johnson, who lived back the 1700's once made the statement: "Hell is paved with good intentions." I thought this to be an interesting concept presented by contrast in paving materials found in the eternal homes of the saved and the damned.

Here's another one I like, written by author/playwright, Oscar Wilde. He offered us his take on this subject by saying: "It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done."

I go back to what I said earlier, that I believe many false teachers promote their doctrines with "all good intentions." Sad to say, I'm of the opinion that they actually believe what they're professing and therein lies the rub, so to speak. They are doing the absolute "worst work" someone can do in this life, destroying another's soul along with their own, all the while believing that they're doing good.

How many times in our secular world have we witnessed our elected leaders doing something that they thought would be a good thing, be of good service to society, and then have it turn out to be not so beneficial. Too many, to my way of thinking. In the realm of religious doctrine, one false teacher is too many.

We can even look in the Bible and see some examples of people doing things that they believed were good and would be pleasing to God and yet their endeavors turned out to be 180 degrees wrong. But, remember, they had good intentions.

Before he was the apostle Paul, he was "Saul, of Tarsus," and we read in Acts 7, 8 and 9 that he was heavily involved in persecuting the Church in the area of Judea. To the degree that he was present, and apparently complicit, in the stoning death of Stephen. (Acts 7:58-60) Yet, with all the things he did to persecute Christians, he thought he was doing what God would want him to do. He told the High Priest and council that he had "lived in all good conscience before God..." (Acts 23:1) In other words - his intentions were good.

Question for you here: Did his good intentions justify his actions? No, they did not because we can see in Acts 9 that Jesus told him that, by his actions, in effect, he was "persecuting" Christ. We're not told how many Christians suffered at the hands of Paul but, here again, one is too many. How many souls will suffer at the Day of Judgment because of the "good intentions" of false teachers?

Our other Biblical example will be that great hero of Israel, David, many times described as being a "man after God's own heart." (See Acts 13:22) But, David had a problem that all of us have - he was a human being. A mere mortal and as such, subject to making mistakes even though not intending to. Let's look at one such event in his life where he set out to do something with "all good intentions" only to cause the death of Uzzah.

Briefly setting the scene, the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines in a battle with Israel. After a period of seven months of suffering by the Philistines because they had the Ark, they decided to send it back to Israel, which they did. It eventually wound up being stored at the house of Abinadab where it stayed for the next 20 years. (1 Samuel 6 & 7)

Then we turn to 2 Sam. 6 and find that Saul is now dead and David is King. He takes a bunch of his "chosen men of Israel" and proceeds to the house of Abinadab, located in the town of Kiriath-jearim, to fetch the Ark of God. They placed the Ark on a brand new cart and planned to bring it back home accompanied by a lot of fan-fare. You'll read in that chapter that this had all the appearance of being a great religious event with musicians leading the parade. (1Chron. 13:8)

There was just one minor flaw with David's great religious production here. That wasn't the manner that God had prescribed for moving the Ark. It was to be covered in a prescribed way and carried by a certain group of Levites using staves through the rings of the Ark and were not to touch the Ark "lest they die." (Num. 4:15)

Well, the cart shook when the oxen pulling it stumbled and poor old Uzzah put his hand on the Ark to steady it. The account says that "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and He smote him.....and he died before God." (2Chron. 13:10) At first, David was upset over Uzzah's death, but then had an epiphany. And that was, that he should have done it the way God said to begin with and there wouldn't have been any trouble. The proof of his realization of his error is seen in 1Chron. 15:13 "....because we did not seek Him according to the rule." (ESV)

Paul opposed Christ with "all good intentions" and a clear conscience. David had all the best intentions of doing a great, religious thing for God only he didn't follow God's specific directions in the matter and it cost a man his life. What I'm pointing out here, and what is very clearly seen is, that God's "rules" trumps good intentions. Or, as Samuel told Saul when he thought his way was just as good as God's - "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice..." (1Sam. 15:22)

The lesson in a nut-shell: When it comes to pleasing God, our good intentions are worth absolutely nothing if they're not in accord with His Word.

Ron Covey