Recently I watched a documentary about a woman who claimed to be a survivor of the September 11th attacks. She told people that she had worked for Merrill Lynch, was about to be married to a man named David (who also worked there and who had died in the attacks), how she was rescued by “the man in the red bandana” (a well-known rescuer who died in the building), and many other things. This woman became involved in some survivor organizations, eventually even becoming the president of one of the largest ones. However, not only was the story false, but also the woman was not even in this country on September 11, 2001. My initial line of thinking was, “How could this have happened? How did no one vet her story?” Then, one of the true survivors who was interviewed for the documentary said that at that time, in those first few years after the attack, it was considered rude and heartless to ask such questions of other survivors. Because of this prevailing attitude, people simply accepted what it was that this woman said, despite suspicions that they harbored.
I think that we see this same attitude throughout the church today, particularly when it comes to teaching. We live in an era when it is incredibly easy for any self-styled teacher to promulgate their ideas via any number of outlets: YouTube, Facebook, blogs, websites, and even self-published books. On the one hand, these outlets can be and, indeed, have been used to proclaim the Gospel in a broad manner that our grandparents could not have comprehended. On the other hand, though, false teachers with a measure of charisma can just as easily tap into social media and develop strong followings, even among those in the church. Perhaps you have had the same questions as I had when watching that documentary (and what I’ve had every time I see another link to a video by a false teacher from a brother or sister): “How could this have happened? How did no one vet this information?” I think the answer is the same: we have bought into the lie that it is rude, heartless, and judgmental to evaluate a person’s teaching against the standard of Scripture. Nothing could be farther from the truth! No matter who the teacher is, we need to be sure to test everything that they teach, holding fast to what it true (cf. I Thessalonians 5:21). In fact, one sure fire sign of a false teacher is an unwillingness to submit their teaching to such biblical assessment.
Solid, biblical teaching is critical in our development into mature believers. False teaching is deadly; it should be no surprise that those who spread such teachings are described in Scripture as “fierce wolves” (Acts 20:29). Therefore, let’s be sure to be spending time in the Word of God ourselves, so that when a popular Bible teacher says something that doesn’t quite sound right, we’ll know exactly how to respond. Just something to think about… ~Pastor Roy
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