Wednesday, February 16, 2011TRAITS OF FALSE PROPHETS/TEACHERS
In our last devotion, we learned that false teachers/prophets are very
dangerous in the church. Today I would like to share with you the
traits of the false teachers/prophets as presented in the general
epistle of Jude,
a) They creep into the church secretly. False teachers are not called
by God. They are self styled professionals who offer themselves to
teach in the church. In the first place they are not genuine believers
and do not believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore, they do not belong to
the church. But they join it for the benefit and opportunities it
brings them. The worst part of their existence is that they accept the
teachings of Christ, believe that He was a great religious leader, but
they deny His deity.
b) They are ungodly. False teachers don’t emulate God who is perfect,
moral, pure just and loving. They are deceptive, leading people away
from the love and purity of God. They refuse to teach the truth of
God’s love and purity demonstrated in Christ.
c) They are licentious. They misrepresent the grace of God which they
turn into immorality, filthiness, shamelessness without restraint.
They can do anything against the will of God. These men are horrible;
Paul described the in Romans 1:27 “In the same way the men also
abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for
one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received
in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
d) They deny the only Lord God, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. If
anybody denies Jesus Christ, he or she is a false prophet/teacher. At
His baptism, God the father and the holy Spirit confirmed Him as the
true son of God.
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that
moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is
my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
The Spirit of God will enable us only to confess the truth. Other than
the truth is a lie from the devil.
e) These false teachers are filthy dreamers, sometimes they claim to
have visions and dreams from the Lord that are not from Him. They do
this to secure their positions and trust from people. This is what
Jesus said in Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil
thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander.”
f) They reject authority by stressing rights, freedom and liberty.
These false teachers hate to be controlled in any way. They want to do
their own things. For this reason they will always oppose church
leadership and if they can they want to be leaders themselves. They
hate self denial which is a requirement for a true disciple.
g) They scoff at the idea of angels and spiritual beings. Their main
aim is to ensure that believers disregard the presence of Satan and
his demons. The other reason is that a believe in spiritual beings
will influence the believers to accept the doctrine of Christ that he
came from heaven and became man. By despising the spiritual beings,
they contravene the teachings on Jude verse 8-10
h) “In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these
ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap
abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he
was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself
dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet
these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very
things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will
destroy them.”
Finally, Jude instructs that we should reject these false teachers and
that they are destined to judgment.