False Teachers: Creeping in Unnoticed

by David Chadwick

Our church has been doing a verse by verse study through the book of Jude. The book of Jude is all about contending for the “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). It also gives the church very serious warnings of the dangers of false teaching.

Over the next week, I want to lay out five warning signs of false teachers. More specifically, I want to help you learn to rightly discern false teachers from pure ministers of the gospel. I hope these specific indicators will help you grow in wisdom and discernment.

Every book in the New Testament, except Philemon, warns of false teachers. It must be very important to God or he would not have persistently warned us of their danger.

The first warning sign of a false teacher is this: they creep into your church unnoticed (Jude 1:4). They are like hidden reefs that live underwater in the unseen ocean, but end up sinking countless ships (Jude 1:12). They come in with bells and whistles and are often very attractive to the body with their speech and demeanor, but they have an agenda. After drawing men and women unto themselves, they begin to teach wrong things.

Every church, leadership and members alike, should be aware of the wicked agenda of false teachers. In order to do so, it is imperative to have a right understanding of the Bible and sound doctrine.

With that said, don’t be quick to throw stones and deem other ministers of the gospel as false teachers unless it is overtly and inextricably understood to what has been clearly outlined through the Bible and throughout church history. We must be so careful that we do not hastily call all disagreements about the non-essential tensions of the Christian faith as being heretical. There are mysteries in the Christian faith that must be humbly wrestled out until Jesus’s return, believing that love and unity are God’s greatest desire for the children of God.

However, in the essentials of the faith, there is no wiggle room for error. Whether it is with a congregant or a pastor in the pulpit, there are some things where right is right and wrong is wrong!

Don’t let false teaching get a foothold in your church. It can be both divisive, dangerous, and destructive.