WHAT ARE FALSE TEACHERS?
The Scriptures warn us about False Teachers and False Teaching.
Let us begin with a working definition. What are False Teachers and what is False Teaching? False Teaching in the Assemblies is anything that serves as a Disinformation Network regarding Church Doctrine, Church History, terms, or interpretation of Scripture. False Teachers are those that teach this Disinformation as "Truth" for their own ends or the ends of a religious organization or even "denomination". Some are willing to sacrifice Truth to "keep the peace". Others may be playing "follow the leader" and just polly-parroting whatever their "leaders" tell them without any critical examination or checking the facts. They just "go along".
In some organizations, those that are best at this Disinformation are rewarded with promotion as "authorities on the Bible". Those that are also engaged in this Disinformation may join with them, promote, use, or add to the False Teachings to split off into other organizations or "denominations".
In order for False Teaching to succeed it must be based on a dedicated Disinformation Campaign. There has to be a misinterpretation of terms or a twisting or distortion of the facts to cause persons to believe a lie.
False Teachers are active in spreading lies. They may be little lies or big lies. A "Big Lie" is better than a little one to some of these persons.
WHAT "THE WORLD" DOES
"The world" is under the Civil Arm. Civil Law. In "the world" (let us take business for example), persons who pronounce false things can be subject to Civil Law. This can be termed "False Advertising" or "Bait and Switch". The Buyer is told one thing, but after the purchase, discovers that what was sold to him/her is not in fact what he/she was led to believe. The Buyer may have recourse in the Courts for Fraud. Civil penalties can be assessed by a Judge.
ONE HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE
Suppose a person wanted to buy a car. They read in the newspaper that an individual has a car for sale. They arrive at a vacant lot to purchase said "car". In fact, the Seller has a papier-mache car with no engine or transmission inside, but it is made to look just like a real car. It is a good-lookinhg fraud. The Buyer pays for the "car" without checking, but soon discovers that they have been "ripped off". The Seller is now nowhere to be found. What do they do in "the world"? They would call the Civil authorites most likely. They would show the authorities the ad in the paper, give an account of what happened, etc. and try to get their money back!
WHAT ABOUT IN THE ASSEMBLIES?
What are we supposed to do about False Teaching in The Church? We are Commanded to identify those who teach false things. The Scripture says, "mark them", and "avoid them". Hopefully, they will Repent. But what about if they do not Repent, but continue to teach false things? We are not speaking of unintentional errors, but those that continue in deliberate falsification of Church history, giving false meanings to terms, twisting Biblical interpretation and rejection of Church Councils. Continuing to teach false things that is, after they have been informed of the Truth.
What about if they go on the offensive against the Truth? Here we have the origin of a Church Council. In the early Church, they called a Council. See Acts Chapter 15 and Chapter 21 for the Jerusalem Council. Those that continued in defiance against the Council were summarily Excommunicated from the Assemblies. Why was that? To protect the flock from being deceived or misled.
In particularly serious cases of defiance, there were Spiritual Powers which were used. The Assemblies continue to possess the same Spiritual Powers.[1]
THE FRUIT OF FALSE TEACHING
The fruit of false teaching is separation. Those that teach false things are avoided by those that have been taught the Real Truth, and so the false teachers depart further from the Truth and separate, continuing in their False teaching. We see this happened in I John Chapter 2. Those ones would most likely have formed their own "denomination".
They may attempt to lure others away from the Truth, continuing to teach distortions of historicasl facts or terms, false doctrines, misinterpret Scripture and rejecting True Church Councils.
They may tell their followers that "those Councils were for way back then, we know a lot more today", or "the Apostle Paul was only speaking to certain persons in the 1st Century, not to us". Or, they may reject wholesale the teachings of an authority in the early Church because they disagree with his presentation or twist and distort his words to make them appear false. We must remember that the Saints who have gone before were not "infallible". We need to look at the Councils that decided certain issues because they represented the Whole Church and not just one person.
On the other hand, we must understand that if the writings of an early Church authority were widely recognized as the true teaching, and there was consensus among the Churches, no Council needed to be called at all. There was a unique consensus in the early Churches as they was One at that time. We are speaking of the First 5 and the early 6th Century A.D.; long before there was a Roman Catholic Church.[2] Councils or Synods were only called if there was radical disagreement within the Churches or false teachings surfaced which were drawing people away from the True Teachings.
[1
[2
There were no major authorities, scholars or theologians in Rome. The True Theologians of the Church were found in Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Constantinople and Carthage, not Rome. The bishop of Rome had a voice in the Whole Church, but nowhere is it recorded that his pronouncements were given any serious consideration as authoritative, let alone that he was any "pope" over all the Churches. In fact, the bishops of Rome historically either submitted nothing at all, or if they did, it was not accepted as binding.
There simply were no great theologians or scholars found in Rome through the First 5 and early 6th Centuries A.D., therefore no "Roman pope" over the Churches recognized in any way by the whole Church as some may falsely claim.
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. Saint Louis Missouri. Prince Press. 1999.
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