How to Spot a False Teacher – Part 1

In the last year or so, a spotlight has been shone on corruption among some charismatic/New Apostolic Reformation leaders. The man behind the light is Mike Winger, the featured teacher of BibleThinker, an influential ministry primarily focused on exegetical Bible teaching. In the last year, he released over ten in-depth reports on significant charismatic leaders, revealing hidden sins ranging from false prophecies (using information “mined” from people’s Facebook pages) to chronic lying to physical, spiritual, and sexual abuse.

The reports are supported by multiple witnesses. For the most part, Winger is simply gathering and publishing the data, leveraging his platform to call for accountability. His reports indict well-known leaders like Benny Hinn, Todd White, Mike Bickle, and Michael Brown, and lesser-known leaders like Shawn Bolz, Chris Reed, and Steve Koko. These people claim to be God’s prophets, but their lives are despicable.

Though this happened “outside our camp,” it is tragic to hear what has been done in the name of Christ. There are many things we can and should learn from situations like this, but one in particular stuck in my mind. The way to discern a false teacher is not just by his theology; it’s also by his life.

Around the time I was listening through these videos, we studied the book of Jude in our adult Sunday School. It struck me that when Jude warned the church about apostate believers, he pointed, not to their doctrine, but to their lives as the primary test. The “ungodly men” he wrote about are those who “turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (v4). They “have given themselves over to sexual immorality” (v7) and “reject authority” (v8). In short, we can test whether someone’s faith is authentic by looking at their lives, not just their words.

Jesus taught the same thing in Matthew 7:15-20. He said:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

These fruits are described in many other places in the New Testament. I found over 30 places where false teaching is described or warned against. The bad fruits described in these passages can be summarized as follows. Someone is a false teacher if he is…

• Sensual, enslaved to his desires
• Ascetic, rejecting God’s good gifts
• Hypocritical, obeying God’s commands to be respected by others rather than to glorify God
• Abusive, taking advantage of people rather than serving them
• Illegitimate, falsely claiming to act with Christ’s authority
• Heretical, teaching false doctrine and leading people away from Christ.

If any of these are present, we have a legitimate biblical basis to question whether the person is truly representing Christ.

The falsehood of a false teacher is not limited to false doctrine (though it includes that). When Jesus said that “false prophets” can be known “by their fruits,” He indicated that falsehood includes one’s life, not just his words. It’s worth noting that almost all of the qualifications for a pastor focus on his character, not his abilities. Apparently, God thinks it is important that those who lead his church be able to do more than talk about Jesus. They should look like, love like, and live like Him.

Beware of False Teachers

Before we work through the signs of a false teacher, I’d like to draw your attention to your responsibility to call them out if and when they are present in the church. God wants every Christian to be on guard against false teachers and their corruption. The New Testament contains at least eight relevant commands:

1. “Beware of false prophets.” – Matthew 7:15
2. “Note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.” – Romans 16:17
3. “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” – Ephesians 5:6
4. “Do not be partakers with them.” – Ephesians 5:7
5. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” – Ephesians 5:11
6. “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit.” Colossians 2:8
7. “From such people turn away!” – 2 Timothy 3:5
8. “Contend earnestly for the faith…for certain men have crept in unnoticed…who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Jude 3-4

With the exception of 2 Timothy 3:5, these are addressed to the church corporately — not just to church leaders. And they are all imperatives, requiring something of us as followers of Christ. These are not optional; obedience requires heeding these warnings.

I do not want to start witch-hunts. Many of our leaders love God and love their people and are doing their best to serve them. We must not slap on labels carelessly. Instead, we should think carefully and biblically, and with a good dose of prayer. Nonetheless, we each need to be aware of our duty to identify false teachers when we encounter them.

First Sign: Sensual

Someone is a false teacher if he is sensual, enslaved to his desires. In Romans, Paul describes them as those who “do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly” (Rom. 16:18a). They serve their own appetites, living according to what feels good rather than by what leads people to Christ. Jude, similarly, says that they “defile the flesh” (v8) and walk “according to their own lusts” (v16). And Peter warns that “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality…” (2 Pet. 2:1-3, ESV). These “scoffers” walk “according to their own lusts” (2 Pet. 3:3).

What we see in all of these is that false teachers don’t do what they do in order to glorify Christ. Instead, they seek positions of influence in order to serve themselves. In the broadest sense, sensuality includes all kinds of pleasures: sexual (from pornography to inappropriate touch, adultery, and homosexuality), relational (power, prestige, and respect), and material (money, possessions, comfort, and convenience). For these false teachers, feeling good is ultimate, and they pursue this throughout all of their so-called “ministry” and “service.”

We should remember that it is not a sin to want to feel good. There’s a proper enjoyment of food, a proper place for sex, and a proper desire to be comfortable. But pleasure becomes sin when we pursue it ahead of or instead of Christ. These teachers do not love Christ; they love themselves. They worship pleasure.

As I said above, Scripture describes three kinds of sensuality: sexual, relational, and material. Regarding the first, Paul talks about “those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts” (2 Tim. 3:6). Jude compares some false teachers to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who gave themselves over to “sexual immorality” and went after “strange flesh” (Jude 7).

Sexual immorality has many forms. Some are personal and private: secret indulgence in pornography, masturbation, and even sinful acts with a married partner like marital rape. Some involve someone outside the marriage: having sex with a prostitute or committing adultery. And some involve sexual distortions: homosexuality, bestiality, or polyamory. Whatever the form, someone is a false teacher if he is living in sexual sin while claiming to represent Christ.

Relational sensuality is pursuing the feelings that come with wielding power or gaining respect. These people love to be loved, and they are adept at saying and doing whatever it takes to be admired. They use “smooth words and flattering speech” to “deceive the hearts of the simple” (Rom. 16:18b), “flattering people to gain advantage” (Jude 16). And what advantage are they after? Power, respect, influence, and notoriety. They want to be seen. They want to be noticed. They want to be appreciated. They “receive honor” from others and “do not seek the honor that comes from the only God” (John 5:44).

Material sensuality is pursuing the feelings that come with enjoying possessions, comfort, food, and convenience — and loving the money that can buy them. The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day were clean on the outside, but “inside they [were] full of extortion and self-indulgence” (Matt. 23:25). They appeared to be humble and spiritual, but they lived for money and comfort, even being willing to “extort” others to get what they wanted. They did not care for their people. Instead, as Jesus warned, they were “ravenous wolves” who devoured the sheep to feed their own appetites.

Second Sign: Ascetic

In contrast to sensual false teachers, some are ascetic, rejecting God’s good gifts. For these teachers, following Christ means denying earthly pleasures. Paul says, “In latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:1-3). In these two issues — marriage and foods — these apostates go beyond God’s commands by requiring abstinence from things which God created for us to enjoy. Marriage, including the sexual act, was created by God for the blessing and pleasure of both husband and wife. But these ascetics insist that physical pleasure is sin, so they deny marriage in the name of the gospel.

Likewise, they command others to abstain from certain foods. These are probably those foods which were forbidden under the Mosaic Law, including pork, shrimp, shellfish, and rabbits (cf. Leviticus 11). Though these foods were forbidden for Israel in the Old Covenant, Jesus expressly says that what we eat cannot defile us (Mark 7:18-19). Similarly, Paul says that “every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim. 4:4). Instead, these false teachers control the diets of their followers, imposing extra-biblical restrictions and forbidding them from using and enjoying creatures which God permits us to eat.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul says that this kind of religion seems impressive, but in reality it is worthless.

If you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations — “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using — according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

— Colossians 2:20-23

Isn’t it interesting that the gospel can go off the rails in both directions? Some false teachers claim to know Christ but live for themselves. They pursue their own pleasures — sex, power, and comfort. But other false teachers reject God’s good gifts. The sensual person denies God’s supremacy by elevating good things above their Creator; the ascetic denies God’s goodness by rejecting the good things He created for us to enjoy. Both distort God’s intentions in designing a good world and creating us with the capacities to enjoy it. Every good thing comes from Him (James 1:17) and should be enjoyed as a gift from Him. He is “the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). We should worship God by enjoying the good things He has given us. They remind us of His goodness.

Ascetics misunderstand the nature of the gospel, turning it into something we do (or don’t do) rather than someone we enjoy (namely, God). This is, in Paul’s words, a departure from the truth (1 Tim. 4:1) and is therefore another sign of a false teacher.