Do you evaluate and assess lifestyles, life views, or do you just accept everything? Do you check out values which people press on you? Are you aware there are forces planning to corrupt you, that there are different views of life? There is the Bible view: this world will exist for just so long. We are cut off from God but he has a plan of salvation, and you need faith to receive it. There is another perfect realm after this. Today people say either you have the Bible view, or you have the rational scientific view. One requires faith, the other does not, and we do not want to live by faith. Oh but you need faith for any worldview. Certainly, you need faith to believe in God, but not as much as you need blind faith to trust that random physical forces can produce complexity, order, beauty, and life. No we don’t, says the materialist, science has proven this world has come about by chance. No, science can tell you so much, but it cannot explain the origin of life, increase in information; it cannot answer the question – why? The question is not, is God there, but who is your God? Do you believe in the God who is transcendent over the universe, or are you your own God? You need religious faith for any view. Don’t be naïvely swept along by any idea that is put to you. You must know about God’s character; you must know about man’s fallen nature; you must know about accountability to God.
If you only know of the atheistic worldview you cannot do any distinguishing. This is essential because error will not always be obvious. There is a disguise often, which borrows our terms, and may seem meek and reasonable like a sheep. But he wants something for himself. Today there are churches with teachers who are just greedy for gain. Other false teachers want to replace gospel or destroy it. In the UK we have had some fine denominations, and then came false prophets. In the Baptist community they said, we believe the same as you, but you cannot take all the Bible seriously. The subtlety is accepted, and then it went a stage further and liberalism got control of the training colleges. Many urged the churches to expel these people. But sadly others said, ‘No, things are not as bad as you say and anyway we who are orthodox are still in the majority.’ During the time of the Downgrade controversy the Baptist Union said, ‘No we don’t want any machinery brought into our constitution to expel anyone.’ Now in that denomination there are only a few left who love the truth and stand for the Lord. How can the false be successfully identified? Not by pure suspicion which is only destructive and ends up not being able to trust anyone. Suspicion is a crude weapon in this fight and cannot distinguish between friend and foe. Safety comes through testing every message by the word of God, by what he has already said.
One of the greatest issues for the church is its protection. An essential part of the work of any faithful minister is to warn. Vigilance on the part of the whole church is required. To infiltrate churches with false teaching is always Satan’s method. Persecution is intermittent; infiltration, twisted false teaching, is constantly being used. They will enter if not watched. A false teacher is anyone claiming to teach on God’s behalf, but he is teaching falsehood. Vital that every church has a membership roll; that is implied here. How can you keep the false out, when there is no church membership to come into? Churches must include only those examined and received in. This is not the Old Testament congregation where saints and sinners mixed together. The prophets predicted – particularly Jeremiah – that a new arrangement would come in with the gospel age. Also you must have the means to expel false teachers, else they grow.
Alongside doctrinal requirements must be a demand for holiness. Many charismatics are good dear Christians, but some are false teachers: immoral, greedy, even illegal. Inwardly they are ravening wolves, grasping, hungry. They are calculating, and don’t care what damage they do. How well ravening fits them!