Doctrinal Deviations and Deviants
20 years ago Hank Hanegraaff of the Christian Research Institute wrote a book to expose some of the excesses happening under the umbrella of Christianity. His book was one of many being written to warn believers of the dangers of departing from the historic faith “once delivered to the saints.” His work, among others, was clearly in the pathway of the Apostle Jude’s warnings in the first century.
In our evening services we have embarked upon a study of the Book of Jude. We are attempting to see what Jude had to say to his culture, and how this small book speaks to our culture. Error and apostasy are still the same animal. The basics of Satan’s attacks haven’t changed since the Garden of Eden. Satan will seek to cause doubt in the minds of people as to the truthfulness of God’s Word. If that tactic doesn’t work, he will try a direct denial of God’s Word. If that doesn’t work, he will seek to detour folks into something else to believe. In each case, whether hundreds of years ago or today, Satan’s goal is to bring people to a rejection of God and HIs Word.
If your spiritual antennas are not up when you listen to or read the works of a teacher, they should be. You and I must be discerning people as to truth. Error can be easily made to sound true simply by redefining the words or presenting a half-truth as a whole-truth. Many well know “preachers” of God’s Word today fall into that category. Sunday evening we spent some time pointing out these false teachers.
Recently Dr. John MacArthur organized a gathering of Bible-centered preachers to expose the gross errors within the “Word-Faith” movement. He called his meetings, “Strange Fire.” From that meeting a book has been written to get the information to more and more people. I would recommend the reading of Hank Hanegraaff’s book and John MacArthur’s book as primers into these false teachers and teachings.
May each of us keep our hearts and heads in tune with the God of Truth.
If you would like to read either of these books, just click on the image. It will take you to Amazon.