False Teaching

by Micky Galloway

During the day of Jeremiah, the wickedness of the people could not be blamed on any shortage of preachers for they had plenty. The problems existed because they had too many of the wrong kind of preachers, men who were preaching the wrong message. In Jeremiah chapters 5 and 6 we learn that both prophet and priest had failed, and the spiritual strength of the nation was dissipated. The people had relied on those who told them lies. God through Jeremiah's writing, tells us plainly what the manner of false teaching was and its effect upon the hearers.

The false assurance of the prophets resulted in vain hope. In Jeremiah 23:16 we read, “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity...” There is no substitute for truth. All the eloquence in the world, all the emotion, all the pleasant platitudes can never do what truth will do. Jesus taught, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Nothing else can make us free. Some say, “It really doesn’t make any difference, as long as you are sincere.” However, Paul was sincerely mistaken. In Acts 23:1 he said before the Jewish council, “Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.” As he continued his defense before Agrippa he said, “I verily though with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth...” (Acts 26:9ff). Sincerity does not make that which is false any more truthful. The sincere person who drives on the wrong side of the highway will be killed just as dead as if he were a hypocrite. In matters of physical or spiritual life, only the truth can save. When the prophets of Jeremiah's day said to the people, “Ye shall have peace... no evil shall come upon you” (Jeremiah 23:16), their words instilled a vain hope. God has made many promises to us, and “He is faithful that promised” (Hebrews 10:23), but we must make sure that we are trusting in what God has promised, and not in what man has told us that God promised. We must have the hope that is truly the “anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19). That hope is rooted in the word of God, not in what men say.

The prophets of Jeremiah's day preached their own ideas and opinions. Jeremiah said, “They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah” (Jeremiah 23:16). Perhaps these felt that what they told was right, but that is subjective faith; one from within one's own heart and mind. Yet, ours must be an objective faith, from outside ourselves delivered from God. Paul said, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Too many are guided by their own feelings. Often what we feel is the result of what we have been taught to feel. If the teaching is wrong, the feelings will also be wrong. The only way to be sure that your feeling about spiritual matters is reliable is if it is based on what God said in His inspired word (Cf. James 1:21).

The prophets of Jeremiah's day preached themselves not the Lord. Jeremiah said, “I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied” (Jeremiah 23:21). These false prophets were not listening to God, yet they were telling the people, “The Lord hath said...” (verse 17). Paul later wrote of Satan “blinding the minds of the unbelieving.” What better way to do this than to convince the people they are following the Lord when in fact they are not? Instead of preaching myself, or my own ideas, I must preach as Paul did. When he wrote to the church in Corinth he said, “And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God, For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (I Corinthians 2:1-5). Paul repeatedly warned about following men. “Wherefore, let no man glory in men...” (I Corinthians 3:21). “This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech” (Colossians 2:4).

Whatever the motive, the false prophets turned people from God. Jeremiah said these false prophets “cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal” (Jeremiah 23:27). Indeed, God warned that there would be false teachers in every generation (II Peter 2:1; I Timothy 4;1-2; II Timothy 4:3-4; Acts 20:30). Does the intention of those who teach falsely really change the results of their false teaching? Whether or not it was the intention of the false prophet to lead people away from God, that was certainly the result.

The call of Jeremiah went forth to all Judah: “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein” (Jeremiah 6:16). The call went unheeded because the people followed the false prophets.