False Prophets & Destructive Heresies

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” (2 Peter 2:1-3 NASB1995)

Who or what is a false prophet? This is a person who masquerades as a servant of God and of righteousness while they are working for the devil, instead. They deliberately misconstrue the teachings of the Scriptures to bend them in the direction of the flesh, or they speak words supposedly from God to be delivered to the people as prophetic utterance while they are opposing what God’s Word teaches us. The Scriptures may refer to them as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Or another term for them is “charlatans.”

2 Peter 2:1-22 describes for us these false prophets and teachers:

• They secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
• Many people follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
• In their greed they will exploit you with false words.
• Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones.
• They are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant.
• They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.
• They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children.
• Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray.
• They have followed the way of Balaam, who loved gain from wrongdoing.
• They speak loud boasts of folly. They entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
• They promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption.
• For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
• “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

What is a heresy? It is a deviation, a departure from the truth of what the Scriptures teach in the correct biblical context. And these are deliberate, not accidental, although some departures from truth can be accidental when people have been taught lies unknowingly and/or when they share what they believed was the truth but was something they learned wrongly. So you are not a false prophet for sharing what you were taught wrongly if you are unaware that it is false. But if you are shown, and ignore, that’s different.

For this is about people who knowingly and deliberately teach deviations from what the Scriptures literally teach in the correct biblical context. I have known many pastors who have deliberately refused to acknowledge the Scriptures which speak of true biblical repentance and obedience to our Lord’s commands as part of what constitutes saving faith. They deny the very words of Jesus Christ and of his New Testament apostles in order to tickle itching ears and to appease human flesh and to attract the ungodly.

So, the false teachers teach that all we have to do is to make a profession of Christ as Lord and to believe in his death and resurrection and so we are saved and on our way to heaven. But that is taken out of context. The gospel that Jesus and his apostles taught was one of denying self and dying to sin daily, by the Spirit. They taught we must now live (in practice) in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in the power of God, if we are to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God.

But it isn’t just the gospel message that they lie about. They lie about the Lord’s true servants and messengers who are bringing us the truth of the gospel, and they are accusing them of teaching “works salvation.” Are any of us saved by our own fleshly works? No! We are only saved by the grace of God which is training us to renounce ungodliness and to live holy lives. But we who believe in Jesus are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.

See: Titus 2:11-14 and Ephesians 2:8-10 (don’t leave out verse 10)

But that is not all they lie to us about. They lie about who the physical (political) nation of Israel is, in truth, and they try to get us to bow down to and worship, in a real sense, this godless political nation of people who the vast majority of do not believe in Jesus Christ. For the Scriptures teach us that they are the antichrist (1 John 2:22). And in the USA they try to get us to vow our fidelity to our government with hand over heart, but our vow of fidelity is to be to God alone (and to our spouses if we are married).

Verses about who true Israel is/is not: [Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; Matthew 21:43; John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 9:4-8,25-28; Romans 11:1-36; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:1-6; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:22; Jude 1:5; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]

The point here is that we, the people of the earth, and definitely we the people of the USA, have been lied to by those in positions of authority over us probably all of our lives. And we have to now wake up to the reality of that and to face those lies head on with all honesty and sincerity in a desire to know and to believe the truth about everything of a critical nature, but most especially about the gospel. For all who live in sin and do not obey God, in practice, will not be saved from sin nor inherit eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

The Battle for Truth

Based off Malachi 1-4
An Original Work / May 18, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love