FALSE TEACHERS BRING RUIN
Satan’s most potent weapon is not fear, it’s not calamity, it’s not poverty, and it’s most definitely not sickness or disease. His most lethal instrument of mass destruction is deception. Deception is Lucifer’s most effective strategy. Gaslighting is Satan’s invention.
John 8:44
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
From the very beginning, deception was Satan’s strategy to bring ruin to the beautiful world the LORD had created. It was chicanery that the Devil used to lure Adam and Eve to rebel against their Maker which, consequently, ushered sin, sickness, disease, and death into our world.
If you thought Satan is done away with cunningness, you are grossly mistaken. On the contrary, the intensity of his mendacity is increasing exponentially. Like never before, the world is drowning in the deluge of satanic lies and prevarication. With the advent of nontraditional means of communication, and the ever-increasing ease of dissemination of information via social media, humanity is awash in misinformation and disinformation.
Sadly, the epicenter of Satan’s infowar is the House of God. The ground zero of the warfare between God’s Truth and Satan’s lies is the Church. Nowhere else is the raging battle against Satan’s lies fiercest than inside the Fellowship of Believers. The dogs of war, i.e., the destruction and carnage of satanic deception, are most severe inside the Church.
2 Peter 2:1
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as 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.”
Just as false prophets plagued the people of Israel in the Old Testament, so also is the House of God infested with false teachers. Manifest heretics now hold sway in the assemblies of Believers, lording it over the people of God. From their bully pulpits, these sons of Satan spread their poison upon the laity. With their weaponized megaphones they pollute the hearts and minds of those who are genuinely seeking God.
In 2 Peter 2:1, Peter wanted the Church to whom he wrote to understand that the false teachers are coming; it was not a matter of if, but when. The old sage, who at this time was nearing the end of his life on earth, wanted the people of God to be on the alert and prepared for the coming deluge of the emissaries of the Lawless One.
In the above text, Peter revealed an important tactic Satan and his cronies use to effectively propagate their deception. And the tactic is guile. Subterfuge is the ploy false teachers employ to disguise their falsehood. When heretics deploy their destructive heresies, they do so by dressing them up with ample samples of truth.
Because false teachers bury their bitter poison deep within a kernel of truth, the line between error and truth is often imperceptible. And because a mountain of truth is layered on top of their falsehood, it makes false teachings indiscernible. This is the reason false teachers are able to embed themselves within the Church undetected. And it is why their false teachings easily mushroom and spread far like wildfire.
The interesting thing about false teachers is that many of them are so far gone down into the rabbit hole of Satan’s deception that they don’t even realize they are false teachers and so they themselves are victims of their own false teachings.
Peter described the teachings of false teachers as “destructive heresies” in 2 Peter 2:1. Destructive in this verse, in the original Greek, means something that brings damnation. This is what makes imbibing false teachings a deadly thing. Those who consume heretic teachings put their soul in jeopardy. A Christian who, for whatever reason, makes a habit and virtue out of the toleration of unscriptural teachings and ideas, is a Christian walking the path that leads to damnation.
Unsurprisingly, false teachers parade themselves as General Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Evangelists and Teachers. They claim they are winning souls for Christ and leading people to Heaven. In reality, though, they are ensnaring souls for Satan and leading hordes to eternal damnation.
False teachers claim they hear directly from God. You often hear them make all sorts of prophetic declarations and apostolic proclamations. Yet, these are wolves in sheep’s clothing who deny the Master who bought them by refusing to submit themselves to the true teachings of Christ but instead are teaching what they ought not.
There’s no wickedness greater than for someone to claim to speak for God to the salvation of souls when in reality he speaks for Satan to the damnation of souls (Credit: MacArthur Bible). So, it is with false teachers. These are wicked souls whose destruction is not asleep.
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