“3For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

Throughout First and Second Timothy false teachers and false teaching is a constantly reoccurring issue. Paul urged Timothy to Ephesus to command certain men not to teach false doctrines (I Timothy 1:3) men who desired to teach the law but lacked understanding (I Timothy 1:7). Paul warns Timothy of Hymenaeus and Alexander whom Paul handed over to Satan (I Timothy 1:19-20). Similar to the passage above Paul warns, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” (I Timothy 4:1-2). False teachers know nothing (I Timothy 6:3-5). Paul exhorts, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith” (I Timothy 6:20-21). False teachings spread quickly like gangrene and cancer (II Timothy 2:17). Paul warns of Hymenaeus and Philetus who have abandoned the Truth (II Timothy 2:17-18). False teachers perform the will of Satan (II Timothy 2:26). Paul warns that in the last days false teachers will arise and oppose the truth (II Timothy 3:1-9). False teachers and teachings will only increase and become worse over time (II Timothy 3:13). This all builds into Paul’s final exhortation of Timothy and this passage records Paul’s final warning of false teachers and teachings.

v.3 Paul does not specifically say that these false teachers arose within the church, however, speaking of a coming time “when people will not endure” means that at one point they did endure sound teaching, which means Paul is speaking of apostate church members. These individuals represent the seed, which landed on the rocky places and sprang up quickly but eventually died (Matthew 13:1-23). Paul is warning Timothy of a coming time when people will not endure, or tolerate, sound teaching. Because of this, “they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” This bears a striking resemblance to Hosea 4:8-9 where the priests are like the people and they are all insatiably seeking sin. They are just like the Athenians who waste all of their time hearing and teaching new things (Acts 17:21). Men are surrounding themselves with, and surrounding, false teachers who teach new and increasingly sensual teachings that promote their sinful desires.

v.4 They have willingly abandoned the truth, which causes them to turn aside to lies. This is the exact same sequence of events spoken of in Romans 1:18-25. When you abandon the truth the only thing left to hold is a lie; that is what Paul is describing by their actively choosing to abandon truth and their passively being turned aside to lies.

Here are two very simple ways to easily recognize false teaching. First, if it is new then it is false, Paul commanded Timothy saying, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II timothy 2:2). There has and continues to be a long line of faithful men who have contended for the Truth and entrusted it to other faithful men. Second, if it suits man’s desires then it is false, man loves evil and not the Truth (John 3:19). Biblical teaching should stand in direct conflict with everything sinful man desires. False teaching is spreading like cancer throughout the modern church and nominal Christians are embracing these lies as Truth as they accumulate false teachers to promote their evil lusts. Those outside the church have never tolerated the Truth and the church itself is becoming increasingly intolerant of the Truth.

“15Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

21″Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

I really wanted to run quickly through these four passages and go directly to the present reality of the monoculture however I feel it will be more beneficial to take a detailed look at these four passages before looking at the current world situation (please read “A Biblical Response to the Ecumenical Monoculture” for more information).

v.15 Christ warns the multitude to be alert, on their guard, always looking for those who would falsely claim to speak for God. By sheep’s clothing Christ is not speaking of one who sneaks into the flock dressed as a sheep; He is speaking of a false shepherd. Shepherds often wore wool clothing made from their sheep’s wool. This is also consistent with His calling them false prophets; prophets were not mere members of the Church, they are leaders who spoke for God. Christ is warning the multitudes of being led astray by false leadership who would seek to destroy them as a ravenous wolves would tear a sheep, which strayed from the flock, to pieces.

v.16 We can know who the false teachers are; this is so important that in verse 20 He reminds/encourages the multitudes that they can know who the false teachers are. Proponents of ecumenism would quote Matthew 7:1 saying, “We cannot call others out as false prophets because we are forbidden to judge” this; however, is an incorrect interpretation, Matthew 7:1 only forbids hypocritical judgment. We can know who false teachers are and we will know them by their fruits, the practical effects of their teachings and doctrines.

v.17-18 The previous verse dealt specifically with the fruits of ones teachings and doctrines these verses deal more specifically with the tree, which is the teachings and doctrines themselves. In the same way that good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit; the teaching of sound doctrine produces lives that are lived according to Scripture. It is important to note the Christ is concerned with both the teaching and its result. Supporters of the seeker and emergent church movements justify teaching unbiblical doctrines because of the results of their ministry; however, the tree must be good if it is to yield good fruit. This is precisely why Paul tells Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (I Timothy 4:16).

v.19 This verse is self-explanatory; the mark of a real Christian is good fruit and failure to produce fruit results in damnation.

v.21-23 This is a continuation of the thought in verse 19 and focuses on the result of false prophets and their own self-deception. Teaching, prophesying, and casting out demons in God’s name are not qualifiers to enter the kingdom of heaven. This reemphasizes the false prophets of verse 15 who outwardly appear to be true prophets. The one who enters the kingdom of heaven is the one who does God’s will. Those who promote ecumenism and use their own cleverness and ingenuity to build the church are in rebellion against God. God has set fourth in His Word specific methodologies and doctrines that must be followed if Christ is to build His church through what is taught (I Corinthians 3:7). Scripture alone must be the foundation for everything you do a foundation of anything else is outside of God’s will and subsequently false. Pastors, teachers, prophets, etcetera who’s methodologies and doctrines are not founded upon Scripture are false; regardless of what element of truth there may be in their teaching. The church must defend itself against these false shepherds, wherever they are found.

In my previous post, I established that God and His word must be the root source of everything we as Christians do. Even actions as mundane and commonplace as eating and drinking should be done to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31).

For quite some time I have been annoyed with the large amounts of reverends, bishops, priests, and Christians who still write our local newspaper and claim that Intelligent Design promotes a religious belief while evolution is a religiously autonomous truth. There are no religiously autonomous truths; its root source is either God and His Word or it is something else.

Evolution presupposes the scientific process as both preceding and validating all truth. This is a religious claim because it presupposes something other than God as ultimate. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36). All truth is from God; truth cannot exist apart from God. God created every truth. To presuppose something other than God as the root source for anything is idolatrous and evolution is just that.

I promise that this post is far more useful than its title. I have spent the past several days reading Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, which I hope to do a book review on soon, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on recent happenings as I filter them through my thoughts from this book.

One of the points that she raises is, “If you press any set of ideas back far enough, eventually you reach some starting point. Something has to be taken as self-existent—the ultimate reality and source of everything else. There’s not reason for it to exist; it just ‘is.’” This self-existent ultimate reality is the presupposition from which everything else derives its meaning. Take evolution, for example; the presupposition of evolution is the scientific process; it both precedes and validates all truth.

As a Christians God is our presupposition for all things (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, 9:10, 15:33, Romans 11:36); God simply is (Exodus 3:14). To illustrate this I want to look at Psalm 138:2.

“I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

God has exalted His Word and His Name above everything. This is seen through the fact that apart from the name of Christ no one can be saved (Acts 4:12) and apart from God’s Word no one can be saved (Romans 10:17). Some translations translate this verse as saying, “for you have exalted your Word above your name.” Which is also valid in that apart from the Word of God His name has no meaning; we can only know God through His word. God and His word should presuppose everything the Christian does; everything should flow out of and tested by God through His Word. In order to properly assess our motives and our actions we must determine their ultimate cause, which is either God and His Word or something else.

I just heard this story today and was so disgusted and appalled by the ludicrous actions of the Judge Edward Cashman, of Vermont, that I had to inform you of this story. Cashman sentenced Mark Huelett to 60 days in jail for molesting a girl for a period of four years beginning when she was six. I cannot even express how absurdly ludicrous this is. How can 60 days in prison be a proportionate punishment for four years of child molestation?

“During the sentencing, Cashman said the best way to ensure public safety was to get Hulett out of prison so he could receive sex offender treatment.” How in the world can letting a self-confessing child molester loose be in the best interest of public safety? This is most assuredly a result of postmodern thought and ecumenism.

For more information you can read the whole story here Vermont asks judge to rethink sex offender’s 60-day sentence. Thankfully, the judge has been under extreme criticism after this ridiculous mockery of justice and last Thursday he increased the prison sentence to three to ten years. Even at that, this is absurd and should hardly be considered as justice. The story covering the sentence increase can be read here Judge, under fire, increases sentence for sex offender.