Saturday, December 24, 2022

False Teachers and Deadly Doctrines

Tim Challies once provided the following chart when writing about false teachers and deadly doctrines, accompanied by these words:

True doctrine (content) originates with God (origin), comes from the Bible (authority), and agrees with the whole of Scripture (consistency). Because such doctrine is sound (quality), it is healthy (benefit), and profitable (value) for us, and we are responsible for holding it (responsibility).

False doctrine (content) originates with man (origin), does not come from the Bible (authority), and contradicts portions of Scripture (consistency). Because such doctrine is unsound (quality), it is unhealthy (benefit) and unprofitable (value) for us, and we are responsible for rejecting it (responsibility).

The problem is, who determines whether the content originates with God or with man? The bigger problem is that every denomination has engaged in and engages in proof text methodology. Because they do not have a first-century model, they read their own assumptions and opinions back into Scripture. They search Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, grab a bunch of random isolated verses, rip them out of their immediate context, and jam them together to create their doctrines. None of the epistles were written as theological treatises, least of those written by fishermen.

The epistles were written to congregations and believers. They were written for specific reasons, and unless you understand the historical-cultural background that led to their writing, you will necessarily and inevitably misinterpret them, just as Tim Challies does with 1 Timothy 3 (among other passages). Tim Challies and others impose upon this passage based upon reading their experience, assumptions, and opinions into it. It does not mean what they think it means, which they would know if they bothered to have a first-century model so that they could correctly understand the New Testament.

So while Tim Challies' chart is not wrong in and of itself, his assumptions surrounding the chart are wrong. He assumes that everything he believes meets the first category, despite several of his beliefs being labeled as heresy by the first three centuries of Christians. Tim Challies would do well to study the writings of the believers from the first three centuries. He would learn that God is more concerned with your fruit than your particular theological dogma.

Let us start living out our faith like we actually believe it (lending a hand to widows, orphans, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned), and doing good to our enemies. So many of these preachers and people with their own ministries ought not to have one because they have never been broken, they do not know how to lose, they do not know how to die to self, and they have never lived in biblical community long enough to develop actual character, integrity, and honour. With one hand they think they are serving the Kingdom, and with the other they hurt God's people because their egos got bruised. That is not how they learned Christ; but then again, they never learned Christ—they just learned a bunch of theological teachings (whether right or wrong) about Christ.