Twenty Characteristics of False Teachers Embraced By The False Church

© Brannon S. Howse, 2013

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2 Corinthians 2:17:

For we are not as so many peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the

sight of God in Christ.

1. False teachers are insincere and use God’s word for personal gain.

2. False teachers appeal to the flesh and sin nature of people in order to build their

following.

2 Peter 2:18: For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through

the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those

who live in error.

Acts 20: 30: Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw

away disciples after them.

3. False teachers deliberately take Scripture out of context to attract a following.

Acts: 20:30: Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw

away the disciples after themselves.

4. False teachers have a form of godliness but deny God.

2 Timothy 3:5: having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn

away!

5. False teachers openly reject truth.

2 Timothy 4:4: and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

6. False teachers willingly embrace unbiblical philosophies.

2 Timothy 4:4: and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Colossians 2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according

to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to

Christ

7. False teachers are arrogant and self-righteous.

2 Timothy 3:2-5: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient

to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of

good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

8. False teachers embrace mysticism.

Colossians 2:18: Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has

not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

9. False teachers sound educated and speak with persuasive words but they speak error.

Colossians 2:4: Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

Colossians 2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to

the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

10. False teachers are flippant in their attitude and dealings with demons.

2 Peter 2:9-12: then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise

authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed.

They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and

might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

Jude 8: Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of

dignitaries

11. False teachers promise liberty or freedom from spiritual bondage but they are themselves in bondage as children and servants of Satan.

2 Peter 2:19: While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is

brought into bondage.

12. False teachers have heard the gospel but reject it.

2 Peter 2:20-21: For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world

through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them

and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning

13. False teachers embrace moralizing.

2 Peter 2:20-22: For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world

(moralizing) through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled

in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has

happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the

mire.”

14. False teachers rise from within the church and others seek to infiltrate the true church.

2 Peter 2:1: But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the

Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

Jude 4: For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the

grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God[a] and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts: 20:30: Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw

away the disciples after themselves.

15. False teachers cause personal and doctrinal division within the church.

Jude 19: These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

16. False teachers preach a different Jesus and demons can take on the form of their false god.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4: But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his

craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes

preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not

received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

I Corinthians 10:20: Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to

demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

17. Some false teachers preform signs and wonders through demonic power.

Matthew 24:24: For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and

wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Exodus 7:10-11: So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the

wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their

enchantments.

18. False teachers are part of God’s judgment on a people and nation.

I Kings 22:21-23: Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I

will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a

lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also

prevail.

Go out and do so.’ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these

prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”

2 Thessalonians 2:11: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of

Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among

those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.

19. False teachers can be a test from God to our faithfulness and to reveal true and false

converts.

Deuteronomy 13:3: you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of

dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with

all your heart and with all your soul.

20. False teachers deny the deity of Jesus Christ.

I John 4:2-4: By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and

every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And

this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the

world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is

greater than he who is in the world.

Arianism: The Belief That Jesus Was Not God

Benny Hinn:

“The new creation is created after God in righteousness and true holiness. The new man is

after God, like God, godlike, complete in Christ Jesus. The new creation is just like God. May I say it like

this. ‘You are a little god on earth running around’?”

Benny Hinn:

“When Jesus was on earth, the Bible says that first He disrobed Himself of the divine form. He,

the limitless God, became man, that we men, may become as He is.”

Kenneth Hagin:

“If we ever wake up and realize who we are, we’ll start doing the work that we’re supposed to do.

Because the church hasn’t realized yet that they are Christ. That’s who they are. They are Christ.”

Kenneth Copeland:

“Why didn’t Jesus openly proclaim Himself as God during his 33 years on earth? For one single

reason. He hadn’t come to earth as God, He’d come as a man.”