DANGER ZONE

 

Danger, danger Will Robinson! That exclamation may bring the same picture to the forefront of your mind as it does mine. This urgent warning was often given to young Will Robinson by his friend, The Robot, in the imminent face of danger.

Do you remember those visions you had in your mind when you were young of the dangers of kidnapping? Mine were horrific. Yet I lived in a time and a place where, as a five-year old, my parents entrusted me to walk a quarter of a mile from the school where I went to kindergarten to my grandmother’s house. Maybe I was severely warned against the stranger who might stop his car beside me asking for directions or offering me candy. Maybe it was just my personality to zone in on danger; but whatever the case, I was always on the watch for these threats. To think I was “street smart” at five years old causes me to laugh out loud! Maybe Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood did prepare me for the ‘hood’ life in prison after all! (To get the joke, you would need to know that the range I was assigned to in prison was affectionately called ‘the hood’, and women repeatedly told me I did not belong there!)

There is danger all around us…dangers that cannot be seen by many, certainly not by those who are Lost on Earth! And make no mistake about it, the kidnapper is crafty and subtle and has a whole bag of tricks and schemes that appeal to our flesh. He lures his victims with sweet words offering satisfaction for all sorts of fleshly appetites and then holds them hostage in their own comfort zones. And they have no idea that they have been kidnapped!

False teachers are dangerous because those who buy into their teaching believe their kidnappers do everything for their good. Like that ultimate counterfeiter, Satan, false teachers give a false gospel by the mouths of false ministers that produce false Christians. But Scripture gives us a very clear picture of both the true and the false. Peter, in his first and second epistles, gives us a long hard look at both. 1 Peter gives us a look at the true, and 2 Peter gives us a look at the false. Interestingly, 2 Peter 1:3 says that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. We have no excuse, Beloved, not to test the spirits. Is candy worth your eternal soul?

1 Peter – True                                                            2 Peter – False

The source of true teaching is The Word of God.		They will exploit with false words. They invent stories and make up their own message.
They preach Jesus Christ.		They secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them. Jesus is not essential to their message.
Preaches the eternal inheritance of the saints. Preaches true freedom only found in Christ.		Out of the emptiness of their own hearts, they promise freedom in this life focusing through fleshly means. Focus is on the temporal. Enslaved, they enslave others.
Preaches pursuit of diligence, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.		Despising authority, they are daring, self-willed, reviling, reveling in their deception, greedy, adulterous, arrogant, etc.
Appeal to Scripture		Appeal to the flesh
Fruitful		Like springs without water
End is eternal life.		End is swift destruction

I had a friend in prison who was recently saved. Her appetite for fellowship was insatiable! There were many services provided through Chapel that were purportedly “Christian”. Since we weren’t able to have the time together as she would have liked, she begged me to go to different services repeatedly. Each time, I politely refused. One day she told me about a Baptist preacher who she had heard before and thought I would enjoy. I thought, “Okay. How bad could it be?” I finally agreed to go for her sake, not mine. I listened to the very end of the painful message while saying nothing. On our way out of the chapel, she was so excited to find out what I thought. I said, “What I can tell you right now is I won’t be going back.” She whined, “Why???? I don’t understand!” I told her I would give her a detailed list of reasons why. I went back to my cube and wrote her several pages of notes that I handed to her the next day. We worked in Chapel together and studied Scripture together there. She came out of an occult background and had so many questions, it refreshed my soul to be able to dig into the Scriptures alongside her. In off-work hours, I would be working out in the gym, and here comes my friend bringing her friends to me to answer their questions! She was released from prison earlier than I was and had promised to attend a solid church my friends had found for her through researching good churches in her area. I found out after I was released that her new pastor had been a Facebook friend of mine for a long time, even though I don’t know him. Shortly after I got out, I received a letter from her stating that, “She got it!” After having sat under solid teaching for several months, she finally could see a clear difference between fluff and solid teaching.

What was wrong with the teaching from the Baptist preacher we had listened to? He gave a false gospel with no mention of sin or the judgment to come. The message he preached only appealed to the flesh. It was light and fluffy with no substance whatsoever. The old Baptist preacher seemed like a very lovely man, and these women were drawn to him. Unfortunately, he was leading them to hell. They were walking out of there believing they were headed to heaven because they vehemently agreed with everything this man was teaching. They were deceived! One of the reasons I didn’t sample the “Christian” fare through the Chapel services is that I didn’t want anyone associating me with this false teaching. Listen, as a true believer, you may have asked yourself this question before: What’s the danger of associating myself with teaching that could be questionable? You are sitting there and others who are lost or are buying the teaching hook, line, and sinker, look at you and say, “Well she’s here, it must be good! She says she is going to heaven, I must be, too!” You don’t want to be that stumbling block to others.

Quite truthfully, with all the religions around me in prison, those who wore the masks or disguises of “Christianity” bothered me more than all the others. Cultish religions that never mention the name of Christ are far easier for someone to see through once they encounter the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who stand behind Christ as their leader but don’t give an accurate view of who He is or the gospel are the most dangerous of all!

Mark 13:22-23 tells us that in the end false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 1 Timothy 4:1 – But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.

People in the last days will be drawn to false teachers because of their own characters. 2 Timothy 3:1-6 says: But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses. Can you see how the character of the false teachers matches the character of people today? 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

My mom told me something once she had read somewhere. I’ve never forgotten it. She said rat poison is 90 percent nutritious, but it is the 10 percent that is poisonous that will kill you. False teaching can sound right because it is almost right. It isn’t blatant because it is purposefully disguised to deceive.

How do we discern? We are told repeatedly to watch doctrine, but to also watch the lives of false teachers. (Matthew 7:15-20; Luke 6:43-44) So how do you know when you click on the television, the internet, or open a book that has high reviews? You, undoubtedly, have no idea what that teacher’s life looks like. A tree doesn’t bear its fruit overnight. Time will always tell. But you need to know now! The answer is the local church. You saw the blatant absence of the church in my earlier testimony. What church is this teacher affiliated with? What does it teach? There should be accountability in the church. The local church is the greatest source of protection over the believer’s life. If you are in a sound biblical church, you are being taught the truth, and you are learning to recognize the truth. Do your homework. Ask the leaders of your church.