Going to the Mountains: Mount Ararat

by David Chadwick

The fall season always offers a chance to see God’s multi-colored glory like no other time during the year. How? By going to the mountains.

If you do so this year, always remember that mountains in the Bible are called “the high places.” They are places where you can experience God like nowhere else.

This autumn, make sure you visit the biblical mountains that will enhance your life in Jesus.

For example, visit Mount Ararat.

As the rain ceased and the flood waters abated, the ark that carried Noah, his family, and all the animals landed on Mount Ararat (Genesis 6-9). It was from there that they descended to dry land and the human race had a new beginning.

Mount Ararat can mean the same for you in your spiritual journey. In Jesus, your sins are forever forgiven and you can begin anew. Start over. Have a new beginning. The old, your past, has passed away. The new, your present and future, begins today (2 Corinthians 5:17).

No sin is beyond God’s grace. Nothing in your past is beyond God’s goodness.

Make sure you visit Mount Ararat. It’s a place of new beginnings.

And new hope.

False Teachers: Desiring Personal Gain

by David Chadwick

The final characteristic of false teachers is found in Jude 1:12,13, which says they are “hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear; shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

These are serious warnings. False teachers don’t feed God’s sheep. They fleece God’s sheep for their own benefit.

They are “waterless clouds.” Have you ever seen a cloud that looks like rain, but never rains? So is a false teacher. Promising rain that never comes. Promising things that never happen. It could look something like this, “If you give to me financially, you will get rich.” This is a false teaching! You lose your hard-earned money and they get rich!

They are “wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame.” If you have ever been at the beach after a wild storm, you have most likely seen the debris, logs, seaweed, and yucky foam that gets left on the shore. So it is with false teachers. They leave a mess in the aftermath of their leadership and shepherding. Their falsehoods destroy people and divide churches.

They are “wandering stars.” But you’re probably thinking, stars shouldn’t wander! You’re right! They are supposed to be fixed in orbit. Not false teachers! They make a huge splash like a meteor or comet, but then go dark. They don’t last over the long haul. Not to mention, they don’t point people to Jesus, the only North Star of objective truth! He is the only truth and the only way for people to follow.

Jesus and his fixed truths will bring us home to the Father. A true shepherd will always point to Jesus and Jesus alone!

I pray that the church at large will grow in our ability to rightly discern truth from error and that we will know how to correctly spot a false teacher in an upside down world where truth is harder and harder to find.

False Teachers: Pursuing Works, Money and Ambition

by David Chadwick

Wheat and tares are growing up side by side and will continue to do so until Jesus’s return (see Matthew 13). It is not our job to determine who is wheat and who is a tare regarding the eternal destiny of people’s souls. However, we are called to examine fruit. We are to be shrewd as serpents, while remaining innocent as doves.

The fourth characteristic of a false teacher is that they emulate characteristics of biblical figures who walked in extreme error. Jude 1:11 describes false teachers by saying they “walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.” What does this mean exactly? Let’s briefly take a look at each story.

God made it very clear that forgiveness only came through the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). Abel obeyed and came with a shed blood sacrifice from his herd, but Cain offered a sacrifice by his works from the ground and God did not accept it. False teachers preach a false gospel that we are saved by works. They deny the sufficiency of the cross and preach a message that should be accursed according to Galatians 1:8.

Balaam, in Numbers 22-25 and Numbers 31, was encouraging the corruption of the Israelites into all sorts of evil practices for his own profit. The love of money and sin of covetousness overtook him and caused him to do wicked things. False teachers get wealthy by asking people to give them money and promising financial blessings in return. They are motivated by personal prestige, privilege, and personal gain. False teachers want to fleece God’s sheep, not feed them.

Finally, in Numbers 16, Korah led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron because of personal selfish ambition (James 3:16). This is another characteristic of a false teacher. This is an individual who intentionally comes in to lure the people unto himself with evil, selfish ambition and vain conceit. He wants to build his own personal platform at the expense of the one leading, often creating factions and divisions.

In conclusion, preaching salvation through works, preaching because of a love of money, and preaching with personal ambition intended to divide are earmarks of false teachers.

Be alert and aware!